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I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting tired of training and just want to get on with the real hike! After a weekend layoff (had to go into work for a day and also played golf with Dan last weekend) I was back in the mountains today. The weather outlook wasn’t so good as it has been lately, with thunderstorms predicted for early afternoon, so I made it a more sensible hike than the last 20ish miler.
The McDonalds in Catlett got my day off to a great start (is there a smiley for sarcasm?) when they charged me .50 for my coffee. How old do you have to be to qualify for the senior rate? I don’t want to know! It’s been happening at McDonalds since about the time I turned 40. And just 10 years before that I was getting carded for beer. Those must have been 10 tough years! But it’s always happened when I’m wearing a suit, and not dressed for the mountains. And it usually happens with a 19-something cashier. Today the woman definitely had a lot of years on me and it looked like her odometer was on it’s second pass.
First thing going up the hill I met a couple coming the other way with the obligatory cheerful warning that they’d just seen a bear around the previous bend and I should be careful. It’s starting to seem like people just make that up to annoy other hikers who really WANT to see a bear. There’s probably a story going around the Shenandoah forest that if you see a guy who looks like he qualifies for McDonalds senior coffee, tell him you just saw a bear! (do I sound bitter?) :7)
Other than that it was pretty uneventful. Hardly anyone in the mountains today…probably the bad weather forecast. No raspberry cliff shots…instead, 2 apples, a power bar, and lots of water. It rained and thundered some, but the forest canopy kept pretty much everything off the ground. Did about 11 miles. Stopped for a swim in the usual place.
I think I might do one more hike before Africa, but that’s about it. Will do more biking, weights, and try to lose another half dozen pounds. Anything I don’t have to carry up the mountain will be a real savings. I think that past a certain level of fitness, and good boots/feet, it comes down to acclimatization and a little luck that you’re not having a bad air day.
Anybody hear anything from Sara and Patrick (the UK couple)?
Tomorrow is shot day…
Pretty good day yesterday. Took a different approach to Old Rag and combined it with one of the best hikes in the area; White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run Canyon.
Was away from the house by 7:15 on Saturday on another great morning. There are a few good things about this drought we’ve been having. This time I went south on 29, past Culpeper and through some little towns oozing with local character…Banco, Crigglersville, and finally Syria. Not a Starbucks within 50 miles. At the end of this little road is a small parking area and a fire road that takes you to the back of the Old Rag Mountain trail. Did that, went back past the parking area, down a steep road and caught the start of the White Oak Canyon trail. It’s well known for the best waterfalls in the area and interestingly it still had a fair amount of water. At this point I have 10 miles and about 2750 feet under my belt. After most of the WO climb, you take a left and ford the little stream, and take a fire road that keeps climbing and deposits you at Skyline Drive. A little trail parallels Skyline and although you can’t see the road you can hear it. Now I have another 2500 feet. The day’s cuisine really sucks…three packets of Cytomax, an apple, two Powerbars, and a raspberry Cliff Shot (yuk). The two liters of good water are all gone and are replaced by three more of stream water, with a healthy dose of micropur.
Finally, time to wander zombie-like down Cedar Run trail trying not to trip on the roots and rocks. Pulled off halfway down into one of the great little swimming holes and cooled down. Treated myself to the last cliff shot (what was I thinking buying raspberry slime??) and stumbled back down to the bottom. One last hill…on the way up a young lady was sitting on the fence warning me they’d just seen a bear cross the road around the bend. Of course she’d sent her boyfriend up to get their car, so I went on up making my hiking sticks make as much noise as possible. Didn’t see it, unfortunately. This is the second near-bear sighting right here. With this last few hundred feet of climb I’m definitely over a mile elevation gain up for the day and about 20 miles.
The only casualty was a blister on the end of one toe, and that should toughen up in time for Africa. Didn’t feel too bad this morning, so things are looking up.    
I’ve been doing pretty well on the conditioning for Kili…running, swimming, and a lot of bike riding, which is my favorite. It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago I hadn’t been doing any HIKING. It also occurred to me that there were only 9 weekends left until we leave, so I pulled out my backpack and Virginia maps and went up to Old Rag Mountain which is a 2500 foot vertical climb, the largest within a couple hour drive from here. It was a good wakeup call, the next day, with knees and calf muscles making themselves known. Fantastic, uncharacteristically cool and dry day for late June in Virginia.
The next weekend Rachel, Steve and Jane came along on a shorter hike up Bull Run mountain. Not really much exercise but great views and a fun time. A few beers, some hot wings, and a plate of nachos afterwards pretty much canceled out any gain but we had a great afternoon.
Just made my seat reservations today. I’m on KLM from Washington DC to Amsterdam 1 Sept and then Amsterdam to JRO. They only let you choose seats 90 days in advance and that was four days ago. I tried for a couple of consecutive days on the website but it didn’t give me a link to be able to choose seats. Called Northwest Sunday, they tried, and said the link to KLM was down. Tried online again today, didn’t see the link, called Northwest, and they again said the link was down. That was starting to sound fishy so I called the UK number and got a seat. Flying into JRO the mountain is on the left and so I got a seat on the left side of the plane. Is it dark that time of year when we fly in? Oh well, it might not matter. There weren’t many remaining on the aisle or window on that side so you might want to get a seat if you don’t have one already. Hope you’ll have better luck with NWA than I did. Jon
Hi Jon:
Since it appears you and I will be travelling on our own it’s likely we’ll be tent mates. I too plan on leaving September 1, flying to JRO from Denver via Amsterdam.
The climb is much on my mind, and I’m making a major effort to hike and bike as part of my conditioning program. One advantage of living in Colorado is that, once the snow melts on the high country there will be lots of opportunities to spend time at altitude. In the meantime, the canyons closer to home will do nicely.
Cordially,
Rick Brown
Denali Farm
Kiowa, Colorado
rbbrown@hotmail.com
(303)648-3214
Thanks for taking the initiative with your web site.
Woke up, took Dan’s car to the shop, and decided to take the day off to take care of a long list of things. This is the last week I’ll have that luxury as we’ll either have won or not won a very large project which I’ll be running, or will be figuring out what my next assignment is.
Decided against ignoring the financial solvency requirement for the visa, called the Tanzanian embassy, and she said to just include a copy of the invoice from the safari, trek, etc. That’s easy enough. BTW there is a newer visa application form on the Tanzania website that’s slightly different from the one that Kiliwarriors included.
http://www.tanzaniaembassy-us.org/visa/visa_form_04.pdf This link doesn’t seem to work in the blog, so just paste it in the browser or google on Tanzania visa
I also called the Kenyan embassy and the guy confirmed that if you don’t pass through customs, which I won’t, you don’t need any kind of immigration paperwork.
OK, now for shots. I’m pretty good friends with my doctor, and he trusts me, and that’s both good and bad. After all, HE’s the doctor and I’m the engineer. Before we want to Peru I did the research, went in with some internet printouts, and walked out with prescriptions for diamox (Rachel) and dex (me-allergic to sulfa) as well as plans for a course of shots. We didn’t use any of the altitude medicine. He threw in a prescription for cipro as his contribution to our well-being and that worked out well. We’ll do that again.
This time, like usual, there’s conflicting information. The books say to get yellow fever and have an international health certificate in addition to hep A&B. The Tanzania visa application says yellow fever isn’t required but they recommend cholera. CDC says to get yellow fever and typhoid vaccines and A&B. mdtravelhealth.com agrees with CDC. Everybody says to take anti-malaria pills. I’m going with Malarone. I think I’m going with the CDC too.
I’m taking diamox this time, having taken progressively larger doses of the leftover pills since coming back from Peru to convince myself I’m not allergic to them.
Anybody have any other thoughts?
Ticked another box tonight; got the visa applications all packed into the envelopes. Was all set to do it a couple of months ago and then all of a sudden I couldn’t find my passport. I’d had it in the study and used it to fill out the visa form and then it disappeared into thin air. Searched all the usual places four or five times. So that one simmered on the back burner for six weeks until one weekend Rachel came in and asked me if I knew why my passport was in the attic. It was on the floor wedged between a couple of boxes. Now that’s a puzzle. We have an old turn of the previous century house with a walk up attic full of all kinds of stuff, a lot of which we packed up before the move to England and haven’t unpacked since we moved back here in 1999. I’m just glad to have the passport back….lots of good memories in all the stamps.
Now I don’t really feel good about putting my passport in an envelope and mailing it off, but I don’t feel like driving into DC either so off it goes. They want the money order (easy), proof of airplane tickets (easy) and proof that I have money to sustain myself (wtf?) or something like that. Did anybody do anything about that? I’m planning on ignoring it.
I’m meeting up with Rachel and we’re going on a short safari and spending a few days in Zanzibar after the trek. On the way back we fly from Dar to Nairobi and then Amsterdam and the US. A couple of sources said you have to buy some kind of stopover or transit visa but that makes no sense and I’ve never had to worry about landing in an intermediate country if you just take off again.
Kilimanjaro..I leave 1Sept. That’s only 3 months away…can’t wait! Exchanged emails with Carol at Kiliwarriors yesterday and asked her what she knew about the rest of the group. Said there are six of us; I don’t know if that’s just so far or the total number. She pointed me to a family website put up by Tricia and George Bugg (Texas) and it seemed like we might like to exchange a few thoughts or questions before the trip…like who’s bringing the Margaritas. So I threw this together as an experiment tonight. It’s pretty basic right now but I’ll figure out how to put pictures etc. up here later.
Just click the register link at the lower right, then you can post and comment. So hi, Tricia and George, Richard, Sara and Patrick. Looking forward to hearing from and climbing with you. Jon
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