Wind River Range -- Part Three -- Trip Report

I was talking to my friend Dr. G the other day and he reminded me that I had somehow lost the plot when blogging about our Wind River High Route trip in 2017 and I never finished part three (and the most important part) of my three part series, the trip report! Since I actually had it in my drafts unedited but never edited or published it, I now give you, only three years late later, the grand finale! You can find posts about the trail conditions here and the logistics here. (Note this is kind of typical of COVID days; I am cleaning out my virtual closet as well as my real ones!) 

Disclaimer: This post is very long. If you are short on time, please skip to day 6, which was probably my most scary (but fun?) day. 

The Wind River High Route is approximately 66% off trail, according to the Skurka version, and when I heard about it and saw photos, I had to get a piece of this. However, I knew it would be harder than just walking the same amount of miles on a trail, so I planned accordingly, but I still underestimated how long it would take. When I decided to make the trip, I didn't know how exhausting and rewarding it would actually be.

The Road Trip: Dr. G and I drove from San Francisco to Reno on the first Friday, and stayed with a friend of mine who lives in Reno. It was nice to split it up a bit. However, this was still about five and a half hours in the car with Friday traffic. The next day we got up early and left around 4 am. Luckily the speed limit is 80 on a lot of the freeways and it was mostly smooth sailing. However, we did hit road construction in Idaho, putting us in Jackson, WY around 4 pm. We changed into the clothes we would be living in for the next week, filled up our waters, readied our packs and went for dinner. We then drove to our finish line trail head, which was called Trail Lakes, and parked our car there. We had arranged for a car to pick us up and take us to the starting trail head from there. We were picked up by Christian, who drove us to Bruce Bridges trail head and entertained us the whole way with stories of the area, people he had given rides to and trip reports from other hikers. We slept in a dispersed camping spot at Bruce Bridge that night.

Day One (21.56 miles): The first 13 or so miles were on a real trail. Even though we were not yet off trail, we still managed to miss a turn at the Deep Creek Lake cutoff, which afforded us with a nice view of a meadow and some good looking peaks. However it also caused us to detour about three extra miles and about an hour and a half. We arrived at Deep Creek Lake (10,100 ft) around 2:30 p.m. The Skurka guide and others reports stated that from this point, to get up and over Wind River Peak and back down to a place where you could camp was about 6 hours. We decided to go for it. 

This is where the accidental detour took us

From that lake, we were on a real trail for about half a mile and then we took our first detour off trail. Skurka says to orient your compass to Chimney Rock and head towards the peak that way. We oriented it but ended up having to go around a big hill to get a clear view of it. I'm not sure if that is due to our error or bad directions from Skurka (probably the former), but it seemed to take a lot of extra time. Finally started the climb up to Chimney Rock, which is at about 12,500 ft. The climb was not super technical; it was through a lot of marshy and grassy areas as well as rocky ones, but it was a steep climb. We got about halfway, we thought, and then got completely socked in with fog. It was about 5:30 pm by this time so we decided to pitch our tent on a semi flat spot and conquer the peak the next day. We were on the smallest little rocky ledge in the middle of a bunch of talus (large boulders) but if not for the fog we would have had great views! 

View from the side of the mountain

Day Two (10.6 miles): Right away, we continued back up the steep hill. This time, however, much of it was covered in snow, so we put on our microspikes and yaktrax and climbed the hill. It was very slow going and I remember going from wearing all my layers to only a couple by the time we got to Chimney Rock. Once there, we went around it to the left, as Skurka had said we had to descend a bit before climbing up to the Wind River peak and then descending down a gully. Unfortunately, first we went a bit too far South, so we ended up having to backtrack quite a bit uphill. Also, on the descent, I stepped on a wobbly rock and fell, scraping up my leg fairly badly. So we headed back uphill to what we thought went to the west gully descent. On the way there I looked down and said that this also looked like a descent down a gully. To get to Skurka's gully, we would have to go up another steep climb and then back down the gully. So we decided to take this direct route, which we figured could not be any worse. Famous last words, I guess.

Me (that tiny black dot in the middle) descending the gully

It was very steep and the rocks were all semi unstable. It was very slow going, as each step was a cautious decision of what would come next. We got down to the point where our descent met Skurka's and we picked our way down the hill. Once the rocks ended there was a long steep snowfield to descend, and then more large ralus, and then another snowfield. On the first one, I dropped my yaktrax and John went sliding for about 30 feet, which was a bit nerve-racking. It definitely was not easy or safe, but we made it down in one piece. After that we went around Lake 11185 through yet more talus, then followed a creek through willow (my nemesis! it's so scratchy!) and lots of bushwhacking before ending up at Black Joe's lake. At Black Joes, we followed the shore for a while before finally doing an up and over (through more willow) of some granite cliffs to get to the North side of the lake. From there, we joined up with the big Sandy trail (a real trail, and people!) where we had a fairy easy few miles to big Sandy Lake.

War wound

From there we went up North Creek trail not too far and found a nice camping spot by the water. Of course, now that we were out of the hills and back near the stream, it was mosquito paradise. We quickly put up the tent, filtered water, ate and went to bed.

Day Three (15.5 miles): We started up the North Creek trail again in the morning, and about four miles later we arrived at the Cirque of the Towers.

The Cirque of the Towers

I believe this is one if the most heavily trafficked places in the Wind River Range. It is definitely beautiful. It us a semi-circle of pointy mountains all surrounding a lake. We peaked at Jackass Pass, which is about 12,500 ft. and where we could not help but getting some photos with the sign (jackass!). We then dropped down into the lake area before heading up the Texas pass. At this point, we had two options of getting up and over and we decided to forgo the New York pass in the interests of time, as it now seems like we aren't going to be able to get done as much as we thought we would and it was the more difficult of the two.

After descending Texas pass, we walked along two lakes to get to Shadow Lake, where we turned north. Here we passed through a gorgeous meadow with granite boulders and peaks in the distance. It reminded me a bit of the JMT near Cathedral Peaks. Then it started to hail. It rained and hailed on us for the next few hours. We went up from Shadow Lake through the meadow, then towards Pyramid Lake before going off trail again at Skull Lake. From there we bushwhacked a bit before following a river for a while to another lake. Then it hailed some more. Then we followed another river to another lake. Then it hailed and rained. Due to the rain and the time getting a little later, we finally decided to set up camp around 5 pm at Lake 10,5xx instead of trying to climb Raid pass today. By this time our feet were soaked, but we did get a respite from the rain to eat our dinner before going into the tent for recharging and relaxing. And, I almost forgot to mention...I saw a chipmunk carrying a baby chipmunk today and got dive-bombed by a yellow throated hummingbird while filtering water. Good times!

Day Four (14.2 miles): On this day we realized that we were definitely going to have to find an early exit route, as we were not covering as many miles as we thought we would and we had to be back home by a certain time. We looked at the map and saw that there was an alternative near Europe mountain which would get us back to the car in about 20 miles. We were hopeful that we would be able to get there by the following night!

We started up our first pass of the day, Raid pass, with wet feet. I had not been looking forward to putting on my wet shoes and socks from the day before but it had to be done. The climb to the top required a lot of marsh walking, talus hopping and then crossing a snowfield before getting to the top. Then it was back down the other side, into Bonneville basin, an unnamed lake, and Boulder Creek.

Bonneville Basin (we would walk around that lake to the left)

We climbed down on large granite slabs rather than go down the steeper snowier decline. We then skirted the lake and a lot of bugs (actually we did not skirt the bugs at all!), and climbed up some grass ramps to Sentinel Pass, where we had a great view of Photo Pass.

View of Photo Pass

From there we crossed a huge snowfield (part of it very steep) to the lake below. Once we got a little lower though, you could slip slide and glissade a little to get down, which Dr. G did not want to do, but I did happily. Then it was a bushwhack-a-palooza around the lake, where there were supposedly elk use trails, but they were hard to find! Then we climbed up the side of a waterfall to get to another lake, where we then headed up photo pass. Again, we had to climb up snow to get to the top then there was a trace of a pack mule trail but it was quickly covered in snow, so we hiked down the snow instead. Actually I slid down on a garbage bag on my butt which was so fun! Dr. G was not amused.

Our tent on a rock next to a frozen lake (pre-snowstorm).

From there we had to go around another lake, follow a stream up a hill and then once we got to a lake we headed up more granite slabs to get to our camping spot. Oh, did I mention it hailed and rained on us pretty much all afternoon. That evening we camped on a granite slab next to a partially frozen lake and it was super windy and probably in the 30s! As we lay inside the tent, it began to hail. Then rain, then more hail. Very hard! I fell asleep to the sound. I woke up to a strange sliding sound, which was snow sliding off the tent. It had pooled up in the top and was causing the tent to sag. As it melted, it slid off the tent.

Day Five (13.75 miles): When we woke up, there was fresh snow on the ground. Which made for an interesting time, trying to hop from rock to rock when you can't see the rocks and the ones you can see are slippery. We first went up Europe cool, which was a smaller pass, then we crossed over to Europe peak, but to do so we had to climb up a 20 foot crevice to get to the knife edge at the top of Europe peak. It was hairy. Then it was a gradual descend over lots of snowy slippery rocks to a little lake where we crossed over snow and saw so many animal footprints. I'm not sure what they were but it looked like they had 5 toes and claws, so I would guess some sort of doglike animal. Also saw tons of small creature prints, some with five long toes, some with four feet together (jumpers?) and some little mice, etc. type prints.

Somewhere near Europe Col

After climbing a hill, we followed a stream to a tarn (small glacier lake) and then followed the tarn to it's end where we crossed over to find a fisherman's trail (very faint at times). We followed it to Golden Lake, Lake Louise and upper Golden Lake, with probably about 10 creek crossings to boot. There was one crossing where the water was so fast and was up past our thighs that we had to hold hands and slowly cross together, step by step. Then it was a long climb up to where we could see Douglas peak pass, our next climb. It was grueling on both the climb up and the one down, with lots of loose smaller talus. On the climb down it was loose gravel, loose talus, then huge talus, then more huge talus. We arrived at the lake where we set up camp on a big flat rock around 6 pm.

The Golden Lakes

Day Six (14.5 miles): when I woke up this morning, my shoes were nearly dry! Hallelujah! We got ready and the first thing we tackled was a smallish pass (11,400 ft) which took us up to a frozen lake where there were two guys camped. We went around the lake on talus, then had to climb up a class three crack to get to our next obstacle, Alpine lakes pass. The entire pass appeared to be covered with snow. And it was very steep. We strapped on traction and started up.

Dr. G climbing Alpine Pass

Dr. G chose a diagonal route across the face towards a few rocks on the east side. I chose a straight up approach, with a plan to cross over higher up where it was a narrower snow band. Dr. G chose the better option. By the time I got up to the rocks where I had to cross over snow to get to the summit, I was sweating and nervous. Plus to get up to the top of the rock pile, I had to climb several class three cracks. Then I had to cross over the steepest and highest section of snow with only yaktraks and a prayer. Obviously I made it, as I am writing this, but I had my doubts at the time. I tried not to look down as I jammed my foot into the snow as much as I could, step after step. I made it, to the first rock island, then had to do the same thing again to get to the snowy saddle of the pass. Once safely there, I called out to Dr. G that maybe that had been type two fun.

After that, we had to climb down . I can't remember details of the downhill portion. I think it is safe to say that we went on pretty gradual downhill on snow towards a glacier, which then led to a saddle, then we followed a stream, got lost, forded the stream, bushwhacked through willow and then climbed up and down another hill before fording another wide stream before heading to Blaurock. Blaurock pass was 1,200 ft. of climbing per one mile. We started by going around a huge floodplain, then began a slow crawl up the hill. I think we averaged about an hour and a half per mile. It was tundra, then a lot of talus and snow, but mostly talus, so it was slow going!

Looking back from Blaurock Pass

We got to the top (12,800+) eventually and headed back down the other side, which was a combo of gravel use trail and snow, before petering out into tundra, then another easy rock hop River crossing before joining up with the glacier Trail, which would eventually lead to the car. We went about 2 miles on the trail then set up camp on a nice soft woodsy spot with a tree cover. That night there was a fabulous thunder and lightning storm!

Day Seven (23.4 miles): Since we were now on a trail that we had not planned to go on, and with no mileage markers on the maps, we estimated our distance as the crow flies. We had thought that we would have approximately a 20 mile hike for this, our last day. We started off at our regular time, around 7 am, and we were luckily on a trail the entire time. Otherwise the going would have been a lot slower! My understanding was that the trail would be a gradual downhill, as we were starting above 10,000 feet and we're heading towards the parking lot, which sat at 7,500 feet. However, we did know that we would have one section where we would have to climb back up to above 10,000 ft. before our final descent to the parking lot.

A real trail! (on the home stretch)

The trail was soft and easy. We started off with a gradual decline from about 10,200 to 9,500 feet. So far, so good. This took us to mile 8 or 9. Then we started climbing up and got to about 10,500 before the trail levelled off. I thought this was the end of it. It was not. A few miles later the trail started slowly climbing up again. We got to about 11,000 feet before we finally started to descend. At this point we were at maybe 16 or 17 miles. I had seen switchbacks on the map toward the end portion of our hike and thought the downhill portion would be quick. However these were the longest switchbacks I'd ever seen! They were so gradual and each switchback felt like a quarter mile long! We finally got down to 9,000 feet and then the trail levelled off again which was not what we wanted. The last few miles seemed endless but finally we spotted the parking lot down below. From there it was a steep mile down to the car where we finally changed out of our 7 day old sweaty clothes and headed to town for a hamburger.

The end!

Total miles: 113.71 mi.Total elevation gain: 30,577 ft.

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Have you ever done a multi day hiking trip? What is your favorite place to hike (day or multi-day)? 

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Cleaning Up Your Nutrition For Results

Achieving fitness results the right way will require good nutrition. Although exercise is important, nutrition does play the largest role in getting fit and maintaining your health.

Eating Right is Easy

Eating right for results isn't complicated as many people believe. This line of thinking has much to do with fitness products and supplements marketed as the only way to lose weight, get fit, and increase muscle size. Wrong!

Let's put these myths aside and take a simple look at what really is required nutritionally.

Food Journals Can Help

It may be helpful to use a food journal for a short time until you have adopted how to eat right. Food journals are shown to keep you on track and enable you to repeat healthy weeks. This part may sound like a burden to start, but it really is quite simple.

Forget about charting calories, grams, weighing food, etc. for now and probably won't be necessary later. Keep your journal simple and enjoy the process of learning. As long as you're eating healthy throughout the day to support your body and physical activity is the goal.

A simple food journal may look something like this:

• Water intake for the day: 2 quarts
• Meal 1: 1 slice seeded toast, 1/4 to 1/2 avocado, 1 boiled egg
• Meal 2: large greens and fruit blended shake  
• Meal 3: large green salad topped with grilled chicken breast, balsamic vinegar
• Meal 4: sliced apple with 2 tbsp peanut butter
• Meal 5: grilled salmon with lots of veggies
• Meal 6: yogurt topped with raw nuts

Dump the Junk Food

Eating right will require cleaning out the junk food. This is difficult especially if you struggle with tossing out food. If it helps, box it all up and donate to a food kitchen or church. You can do this!

Take a day and go through your refrigerator and pantry. Remove all processed, packaged, frozen dinners, pastries, white products, etc. Unhealthy food products contain a lot of trans fats, high-sodium, and chemicals you really don't want to be ingesting. A shortlist includes:

• sugary drinks, sodas, and some sport drinks
• white bread
• refined vegetable oils (corn, soybean, cottonseed, canola)
• margarine
• pastries, cakes, cookies
• boxed crackers and chips
• low-carb meals and bars
• yogurt high in sugar and chemicals
• processed gluten-free products
• ice cream, candy, candy bars, and some protein bars
• processed meats (salami, pastrami, deli meats, hot dogs, etc)
• processed cheese (American, cheese in a can, etc)

Eat Clean for Results, Fitness, and Health

Getting fit for life requires eating cleaner which is just another way of saying you are eating healthy. You have taken the steps to remove all processed foods from your house and now ready to replace those with real whole foods. 

Let's go shopping! The best way to stay on track at the grocery store is not going when you're hungry. Eat a healthy meal first and stick to your written list of items.

Having healthy food at home will also reduce eating at restaurants and fast-food chains. This keeps you in control of your food intake and is the goal of adopting a healthy lifestyle.

We all differ in nutritional likes and that is great because there is a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods for everyone. You will want to include all the macros in your nutrition which just means eating a balance of lean proteins, nutritious carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

The following shortlist includes healthy selections from each category and also takes into consideration vegetarian/vegan preferences:

Proteins:

• B/S chicken and turkey breast
• Salmon, halibut, tilapia, albacore tuna
• Lean beef  (90% lean)
• Greek yogurt (natural, no sugar added)
• Cottage cheese
• Eggs
• Milk (2%), almond milk, coconut milk, low-fat chocolate milk
• Lentils, dried beans, navy beans, no to low-sodium canned beans
• Peanut butter (natural, no-sugar-added), almond butter
• Raw mixed nuts
• Tofu
• Edamame
• Quinoa

Carbohydrates:

• Vegetables (broccoli, peppers, squash, asparagus, etc) 
• Leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, etc)
• Fruits (apples, berries, mango, cherries, etc)
• Legumes (lentils, chickpeas, peas, and beans)
• Quinoa, Kamut, barley, buckwheat, flax meal
• Brown rice (white rice for some athletes)
• Whole wheat, whole grain bread
• Steel-cut oats
• Sweet potatoes
• White and red potatoes (baked not fried)

Fats:

• Avocados
• Chickpeas (hummus)
• Walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, pecans, etc (raw-unsalted, not roasted)
• Olive oil
• Salmon (Omega-3 fatty acids)
• Nut and seed butter (natural, no sugar added)
• Ground flaxseed or flax meal
• Chia seeds

You Can Do It!

Eating better is typically the biggest struggle with adopting a healthy lifestyle. I believe in keeping nutrition simple and fun. When eating right is enjoyable, you will repeat it for life. You can do it!

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Food is Not the Enemy

It would be easy to blame food for being overweight and unhealthy. The truth is food is not the enemy. In fact, our very survival is based on food and water for optimal body functioning.

Taking Responsibility

Let's be honest. Getting healthy is about taking responsibility and making the right daily choices to improve your fitness. This includes the food you eat on a regular basis.

We only have ourselves to blame when the grocery cart is filled with frozen pizzas, pastries, ice cream, and sodas. How your body looks and feels is your responsibility. Eating healthy food controls a large percentage of a fit lifestyle.

Portion Control

Then there are the portion sizes. We're eating way too much at one sitting. Whether the food is healthy or unhealthy, eating too many calories and not burning that energy creates an excess energy bank stored as fat.

You may also try to convince yourself eating processed foods in the appropriate caloric portions is healthy. Outwardly you may give an appearance of being an appropriate weight, but inside you're a hot mess and feeling like it. You have become a skinny fat person. Processed fake food and the damage it does to your body through inflammation and disease is alarming.

Eat Real Whole Food

Food is your friend. Turning your unhealthy food selections into quality real food will enable you to achieve a fit body. You have heard 'no-one ever got fat eating too much kale' and not that we would sit around eating kale all day, but you get the point.

If we start eating to live instead of the other way around, a huge change in the obesity epidemic would happen. A shift toward eating the right food for health would finally take place.

Resist Sabotage

We are bombarded daily with fast food commercials and peer pressure to eat unhealthily. Many people are pressured by significant others to eat off track. You can even sabotage yourself using more comfort food rewards than you should.

You do have the power to see food as your friend and control what you put in your face. The donut may look appealing but eating an apple is going to supply the best nutrients to fuel your body and push you closer to your fitness goals.

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Wind River Range -- Part Two -- Logistics

Planning a week long hiking trip is fun, if you are an excel nerd, or maybe a chemist, or an outdoor enthusiast. Okay, never mind, it is actually fun no matter what! For me, planning is part of the package that makes up the perfect gift, a trip of a lifetime. I am not going to go into that here; you will be able to read more about that in part three, the trip report. For now, I will just say that the work that goes into something, be it the planning or the hiking or the sweat and the tears, or the cold nights and long days, makes the reward all that much more sweet.

The Plan: So the first thing I had to do was figure out where I wanted to go. I had been wanting to hike the Sierra High Route (SHR), which is an off trail route in the Sierras, for some time. However, it is about 200 miles long and at my estimate, I could hike about 20 miles per day, which would put me at 10 days, or too many days to do the trip on a one week vacation. So I looked for other options and found the Wind River High Route (WRHR), which is in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, very close to Jackson, Yellowstone and the Tetons. However, I will admit, I had never heard of this section of the Rockies before. However, this route, which was also off trail, was closer to 100 miles, which I figured I could do in one week. So, I invited my ultrarunning friend Dr. G and the planning began.

The Route: We used the Andrew Skurka guide, along with CalTopo maps and the app "Offline Maps" which has USGS topo maps that you can download to use offline. Skurka gives you a few GPS way points but the route is not mapped out for you. Dr. G loaded the waypoints into the Offline Maps as well. We also had a compass and paper topographical maps.

The Big Three: Next, it was time to get my gear list together. Luckily, I have a skeleton list already made out for other trips, so that part was not too much reinventing the wheel. However, this time, I wanted to finally buy some of those elusive lightweight items that had been on my wish list for so long. The main one was a sleeping bag. They say that there is a "big three" of hiking: the sleeping bag, the sleeping pad and the tent. These items, aside from food, are generally the heaviest in your pack. I had been shopping around for a lightweight but not super expensive sleeping bag for years and had even bought one once which turned out to not be warm enough. This time I bit the bullet and spent a little more in the hopes that this time I would have the sleeping bag of my dreams (see how I did that?)

I bought the following and will likely review them at some point: Western Mountaineering Ultralite 20 degree sleeping bag (29 oz), Hyperlite 2400 Southwest Backpack (28.6 oz), and the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xlite Small size (8 oz). Dr. G carried a two man tent, which weighed about 2 lbs (32 oz). Therefore, my big three + my backpack only weighed about 4 lbs, or if you include the weight I carried to compensate for not carrying the tent, it was about 5 lbs. To put it in perspective, my old backpack, which I love and have used a lot, weighs about 5.5 lbs empty. Yes, I said empty!

The Clothing: For clothing, my plan was to wear the following: running shorts, short sleeved running shirt, underwear, bra, socks and Saucony trail running shoes (Nomad). I would carry the following: Mountain Hardware windbreaker, long sleeved running shirt, Montbell rain jacket, rain pants, beanie, buff, gloves, MH down jacket, sleeping shirt (long sleeved), NorthFace tights, extra underwear, socks & bra. All of the clothing I carried (not counting clothing worn) weighed about 39 oz or 2.5 lbs.

The Other Stuff: I also had to bring toiletries, kitchen items (pot, pan, spoon, bowl, fuel, matches etc.), first aid, dry bags, water purifier, electronics (phone, charger, headlamp, camera etc.) and other utility items (knife, rope, compass, trash bag, whistle etc.). All together these weighed about 4 lbs.

Base Pack Weight: This is all things, excluding consumables, which include food, water and fuel. My goal was to keep this weight under 20 lbs, as I estimated food would be about 1.7 lbs per day x 6 days, which would be about 10 lbs, and I wanted to keep my pack under 30 total lbs. My total base weight ended up being about 11.5 lbs!! I was very excited about this.

The Food: This was the most fun but definitely the most time consuming portion of the planning. Oh my, I just said "portion." Ha. Seriously though, the goal is to carry the most amount of calories in the least amount of weight. We planned to try to have approximately 3,000 calories per day worth of food, which would hopefully be no more than 1.7 lbs per day. This sounds easy, right? You just load up your pack with Top Ramen and PowerBars, right? Nah. My goal was to have food that: (1) is nutritious, (2) tastes good, (3) is inexpensive (no $8 Mountain House meals), (4) can just have hot water added to it to cook and that (5) has some variety.

So I did a lot of weighing and calorie counting and math and came up with this food plan: Breakfast consisted of either muesli or oatmeal with milk, nuts and freeze dried fruit. Both were about 700 calories. There would also be coffee, with powdered milk and sugar, which would be about 80 - 100 calories. Lunch and snacks would consist of various nuts, bars, jerky, and dried fruit and would consist of about 1,200 - 1,600 calories per day. Dinner would consist of a curried top ramen dish, a mashed potato with bacon dish or a rice and beans dish, each clocking in at a little over 700 calories. I also brought olive oil to supplement, which is about 100 calories per serving. All in all, the goal was about 2,600 - 3,000 calories per day.

The H2O: I brought a 1.5L bladder and a 0.5L soft flask for water. Each liter of water weighs about 2 lbs, but my plan was to try to carry the least amount possible and fill up frequently, so as to keep the pack weight down.

Total Pack Weight: My food ended up being about 1.4 lbs per day. This, plus an estimated liter of water, would bring my total starting pack weight to about 23 total lbs. HOWEVER...Dr. G carried the tent and I carried some of his food, which brought my total up by about 4.5 lbs bringing my actual starting pack weight to 27.5 lbs.

The Verdict: This is the lightest I have ever been when doing a multi day backpacking trip. I lugged over 40 lbs up Mt. Whitney for a one night trip. I will (hopefully) never have to do that again. The pack felt comfortable and even when climbing up a steep rock or going through a tight squeeze, it was not too cumbersome.

A couple of things I would probably leave behind: the olive oil (it leaked plus we never used it), the all purpose soap (I did not shower, bathe, or use soap to do dishes or clean clothes like I thought I might), my sleeping shirt (I slept in my hiking clothes, although it is nice to have a possible dry shirt if needed), sports bra (I wore one and brought a spare and ended up wearing neither in the end) and my just-in-case tank top (it was never warm enough).

A couple of things I might bring some of / more of: gauze (I had tape but no gauze and I got a pretty big scrape which could have used a bit bigger of a cover), socks (I brought one spare but having wet feet is a pain), a different water carrying system (more on that in the trip report) and a different/newer charger (my solar charger is old and ran out of juice fast, plus it was not sunny so I could not recharge it).

A couple of things I could not have lived without: this Picaridin bug lotion (NO bug bites when applied, even with mosquitoes SWARMING), Advil, Neosporin / Bandaids / Leukotape (as mentioned above, I got a scrape and it was nice to have something to clean it), earplugs (my tentmate was a snorer, plus the sleeping pads are loud) my new sleeping bag (fabulous! We spent one night in a snowstorm and I was not cold at all), maps/compass/GPS (after all, this was an off trail trek), Garmin 910ST, camera (I took about 800 photos), Yaktrax (I almost left them behind), and nuts (fat, protein and carbs all rolled into one, which keeps you feeling more full throughout the day).

In the end, I ate every speck of my food, except for the olive oil and one packet of Justin's Peanut Butter. I also used everything in my bag, except for the few things mentioned above and any emergency items (rope, knife, first aid). There was nothing that I really missed or really felt was dead weight. I felt that the packing ended up being pretty much perfect. I may try to compress a few things down a bit more with a compression sack so I can fit a little more if I am hiking for more days. I also need to figure out my water system and probably configure one extra pocket on the front of my pack (my pack has two hip pockets but no chest pocket). Otherwise, things are looking pretty good!

Have you ever planned for a long hiking or backpacking trip? Or maybe a long vacation? What is your logistical planning strategy?

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The Benefits of Cheating & How to Bounce Back After a Binge

I'm really excited to have my friend Sara back as a guest contributor! She previously wrote a fantastic article on the importance of proper meal timing.

I had approached her about writing this article, because I feel as though binging is something that everyone has fallen victim to, and there is a tremendous amount of guilt surrounding it. This article should give you peace of mind that you can still stay on track towards achieving your goals despite bumps in the road.

The Benefits of Cheating & How to Bounce Back After a Binge


People binge and eat foods that are blatantly bad for them all of the time, whether they have an excuse to do so or not. Those who work hard and eat healthy tend to turn to "cheat" meals or days to grant them a time to indulge in their favourite treats and/or shove as much food in their faces as they possibly can.

Whether you enjoy the powerful taste of something unhealthy or you sometimes want to just stop counting the calories, going into your mouth for once… it’s okay. I’m not saying it’s okay or healthy to binge eat and consume hefty amounts of salt and sugar all day, every day, or even very often. What I am saying, is that once in awhile it’s completely okay, and maybe even necessary, for you to take a break from ‘healthy’ and just enjoy yourself.

One meal or even one day of binge eating or sugary snacks will not set you back or completely throw off your progress. It can if you let it, but as long as you stay aware and in control of what you’re doing, you don’t have to crush yourself with guilt every time it happens.

The Benefits of Cheat Days

Breaking a Plateau

When I say some cheating may be necessary, I’m talking about people who are very persistent in their quest to dramatically change their body in some way or another. Those people, who eventually reach a plateau in their weight loss or gain, need something to shock their system into cooperating again.

That "shock" is a nice dose of hormones released from the body, and can be triggered by various things. The hormones insulin and leptin are a few whose release is driven by what you eat and when you eat it. They aren’t just controlled by food consumption, but that’s one of the easiest ways we can purposefully prompt that release.

Leptin and insulin are companion hormones, and the rising and falling of one can trigger the same for the other. Insulin release is triggered by the consumption of glucose, which is found in carbohydrates. Glucose is more concentrated in simpler carbs and sugars, and the shorter chains are absorbed faster, thus they have a much faster impact on blood sugar.

As insulin is released into the blood to prompt the storage of glucose, leptin is slowly released as well. Leptin is, most simply put, our feeling of fullness and hunger. As more insulin is released and more fuel is stored, leptin levels rise to tell the brain that you are satiated. Eventually leptin levels lower again when we start taking from those fuel stores, which prompts hunger and food seeking behaviour.

Leptin does not exclusively rise with insulin though, and it is heavily affected by our routines. For instance, the body suppresses your appetite while you sleep or when you get stressed out by releasing leptin, which lowers your metabolism. That way the focus can be put on your rest and recovery or a fight or flight response, instead of your hunger.

Whatever you decide to put your body through in order to get the results you’re looking for, eventually your hormones will adjust and your body will get used to your routine. These hormones are one of the main reasons that we reach plateaus, and in order to move past them, that routine needs to change. The stricter your routine and the harder you are on your body, the stronger it will fight back to adjust, and the more often you will have to throw it off course.

Strict eating habits can stress you out mentally. Having a day where you allow yourself to not worry so much about what you’re eating can be a psychological break for some people. Unfortunately, it can have the opposite effect on others. Instead, simply including a treat into their scheduled macro intake may be a bit less stressful and more rewarding, rather than breaking their normal routine measurements.

Using cheat days and meals as a reward and a source of motivation can be thin and shallow, but if you are starting up a new habit, sometimes rewards are necessary to keep you going. Shallow motivations involving rewards and punishments can be fragile, but if it keeps you going long enough to solidify that habit and find stronger self-improvement goals to motivate you, it’s better than not making any improvement at all.

If having a cheat day at the end of your week after completing several days of successful workouts is working for you, there is no point feeling guilty about it. The point of a cheat is to reduce your stress, not stress you out even more. The more control you have over the cheat day or meal, the less you are likely to stress about it or go overboard. Plan what you are going to eat, solidify your reasonings for allowing yourself that indulgence and enjoy it.

But what if something happens and you end up eating too much when you and your friends spontaneously go out to eat? Or you break your normal routine because you spotted your favourite dessert and couldn’t resist?

Regardless of whether you orchestrated a cheat or the cheat jumped you in an alleyway, if you feel like you’ve failed yourself by cheating on your carefully constructed meal plan, don’t. Dwelling on something that’s already happened is pointless, and the most best thing you can do is to focus on what you can do to recover now, and put yourself in control for next time, building a better relationship with your cheat meals.

Cheating Without Cheating

Small indulgences can be a lot easier on the body and mind to begin with, and require a lot less recovery afterwards. However, it can be difficult to change the definition of a cheat from ‘binge eating’ to simply doing something you wouldn’t normally do.

Cheating doesn’t have to be three pizzas or the whole container of ice cream–it can simply be something outside of the normal rules you hold for yourself. Have a fancy coffee with a bit higher sugar content at the end of a stressful work day. Have a drink or two at a special dinner with friends. Schedule in a day where you skip one workout to have an important bonding day with a significant other or a friend.

You can even press the definition of a cheat even further by simply adjusting your macronutrient ratio a few times a week to keep things interesting, or try a new type of exercise like swimming or sports that may not guarantee you burning the same amount of calories or using the same muscles you’re used to working. The key is to not limit yourself to just sugary and salty foods. Get creative in the ways you treat yourself, and have fun!

Although gentler and non-food/activity related cheats may not work to shock the system for those who are intent on breaking a strong plateau, they can be used as an alternative on days where you shouldn’t be cheating, but you’re craving something different. As long as you are in control and aware of what you’re doing there should be a decrease in stress, not an increase!

Recovering

If your control breaks, or your cheating sessions get really intense, it’s important to focus on your physical and mental recovery afterwards. Physically, it can be rough on your body to heavily spike sugars and hormones and mentally it can be difficult to stop the overwhelming guilt when something happens that you feel you had no control over.

Drink Water

An eating binge can be just like a drinking binge, and drinking lots of water (both during, if possible, and after) can help clear and balance the salt content in your body and combat any sort of dehydration. The best thing to do for your organs is give them a ton of fluid to flush your body. If your pee is clear, you’re doing a good job. Thirst can feel like hunger, so don’t start shoving any food in your face until you’ve had your fill of water first.

Coffee can help in a couple ways, and it’s the better option if you’re feeling stressed out and leaning towards a laxative. Don’t take a laxative. Resorting to abuse of anything that could be used for medical reasons is a terrible idea. It doesn’t matter how ‘natural’ the ingredients are. Unless it’s caffeine from normal coffee or tea, don’t play with laxatives to solve your problems.

Eat Well, Don’t Stress

Some will feel the need to overeat, because the energy from any simple, quick fuel may be long gone. Others may have little to no appetite at all. Some will be craving healthy to find balance, others will want more sugar and salt to continue feeding their cravings.

If you’re feeling like salty and sweet, stave off or have lighter versions, lightly salted nuts, fruit for sweetness. If there’s no appetite, force yourself to eat something small, and if you are able to, you can eat a bit heavier in the evening to meet your macronutrient requirements or replenish your energy stores.

Don’t overcompensate for anything you did during your cheat meal or day. You body is built to adjust, and it will return to normal on it’s own. For those who are hungry, you can rely a bit more on fats and proteins for your energy needs, but don’t cut out carbs completely. Going from a blood sugar high to a blood sugar low isn’t balance, and your goal is to restore that balance.

If you try to balance the scale yourself, you’re just creating more problems for your body to sort out, so try your best to simply return to your normal routine. It’s important to do what you need to do to mentally stabilize yourself. The less stress you make for yourself after a binge, the easier it is for your body to focus less on dealing with that stress and more on recovering.

Exercise

Though some people may be able to jump into a heavy workout the next day, others may find that impossible. The same goes for exercise as it does for food: don’t overcompensate, and let your body focus on recovering. Even if you just put on your workout clothes and do 15 minutes of exercise a light workout can be very beneficial.

Getting your body moving and your blood flowing can wake up your system and start your engine up again. It can also ease some of the mental anxiety about overeating, but again, for those who feel overly guilty, it’s important not to go overboard and exhaust yourself at the gym. Starving yourself to “burn off what I ate yesterday” will only serve to add more stress to your body and will extend the time needed to recover and find balance again. If you intend to do a full workout, ensure you are fueling yourself properly both before and after. No excuses.

Physical and mental health are important. Failing is not the end of the world. Take care, take control and enjoy yourself!




Works Cited:

1. Hall, John E., and Arthur C. Guyton. Textbook of medical physiology. Elsevier Inc., 2006.
2. Margetic, S., et al. "Leptin: a review of its peripheral actions and interactions." International Journal of Obesity & Related Metabolic Disorders 26.11 (2002).
3. Patterson, Christa M., and Martin G. Myers. "How Leptin Controls the Drive to Eat." The Korean Journal of Obesity 24.2 (2015): 69-77.
4. Van Praag, H., Fleshner, M., Schwartz, M. W., & Mattson, M. P. (2014). Exercise, energy intake, glucose homeostasis, and the brain. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(46), 15139-15149.

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Are You A Skinny Wiener? Gaining Weight On A Budget.

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't lift."

Gaining Weight On A Budget:

You wanna put on size. You want to increase your strength. You want to scare people. But, you're not about to overdraft your bank account at the risk of getting fat. I gotchu. This is my specialty. Buying food needed to gain sustainable weight is actually affordable. You will have to man up and understand that you may pony up a little more money up front than you are use to, but the food will last much longer then your usual grocery run. Trust you are making a wise investment.

First, we gotta assume that you are looking to increase by at least 15 lbs. but preferably more. Otherwise, you are wasting time. I don't write blog post that consider competitors or fighters into equation. For them a five pound increase could be the difference between 1st place and 24th place. I write for the common man. The brothers who want to look strong as fuck and be strong as fuck, for the guys who have been lifting for years but don't look like the guys who got them into weightlifting, and most importantly for the skinny wiener who has no shape and wants to get big. (the skinny wiener guys really need to be all eyes on this post). If you are cherry to weight training with a shapeless body the first order of business is to eat everything all the time. You have no dietary restrictions. I'm serious. Start cramming everything, all the time. Come at this project like a professional competitive eater. You need to jump start your body. Flood the crease and get to work in the gym. Enjoy these first few months of asshole level eating while you can because it will be the last time in your weightlifting life that will be the allowed.

Second, the amount you've been eating is obviously not cutting it. You have to make a legitimate effort to increase your caloric intake. It is difficult, definitely annoying, and your stomach is gonna hate you at first. It gets better though. Once your body adjusts to the increase you'll find that nothing seems to stop your hunger. This is a great sign and means shit is working.

Low Cost and Affordable Food:

• oatmeal. Not the packaged sugar molested shit. You get plain as fuck oats. If your a pussy and you need sweetness in your oats then put your own fruit in it. My advice is just to hike up your skirt and throw some peanut butter and cinnamon in it.
• peanut butter
• raw almonds (almonds are expensive no matter where you go. So take the hit because they are a must for between meal snacking or during those marathon lift sessions. The energy they provide is real. You can nearly feel it).
• chicken breasts
• canned tuna
• pasta (100% whole wheat or veggie infused is preferred)
• white rice
• black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans
• cottage cheese
• plain greek yogurt in a large tub
• 100% whole wheat bread
• ground beef (get as lean as you can afford)
• ground turkey
• whole milk
• un-sweetend vanilla almond milk
• avocados (expensive everywhere expect ALDI. they have em for like 50 cents each).
• bananas
• spinach
• talapia fillets
• entire pizza's
• canned chili (low sodium, reduced fat or low fat)
• canned soups (again low in sodium with reduced or low fat)
• lower sugar ice cream 

Many more options available but it all depends on starting weight, goals, and ideal end weight. Until you are advanced enough to navigate your own nutritional needs don't stray from this list. Just get it home and make it fucking work. If dudes from the 1950's can get thick there is no excuse why you cant in 2016.

Remove your spit guard and start eating.

But, but,......I...uhhhhh:

• Anything that is single serving ready will be higher in price. You are paying for the convenience. Get the big tubs and separate your portions at home like an adult.
• Buy your produce fresh. Green veggies and fruit are most nutritious fresh. Frozen veggies arent too bad but not ideal.
• Get your chicken and fish frozen. 
• Get your ground turkey and ground beef fresh if you can, otherwise buy the huge refrigerated portions, freeze them, then thaw as needed
• Everything you get needs to be as low in sugar as possible. Sugar is the enemy. 

Where can I find these items the cheapest?

• Sketchy, rundown Mexican markets forever have the best prices.
• ALDI is without a doubt ground zero for deal you will never forget. Insanely cheap, excellent quality.
• Grocery stores that poor people frequent. Use your best (or worst) judgment. The rule of thumb is the farther south or west it is, the cheaper the prices.
• Costco. It takes a heavy blow to your bank account up front but when its two weeks later and you still have 100 eggs, gallons of almond milk, and endless frozen meat you'll be stoked. If you are sloth like me when it comes to protein shakes then you need Costco;s Pure Protein individual chocolate shakes in your life time now. Best fucking protein shake in the game. Left hand promise. 3g sugar, 30g protein. No after taste. No refrigeration required. The 25 case comes out to like 1.80 per shake. That price it "TOOOO SWEET"!
• Trader Joe's: If you have never been then check it out. It looks expensive but is actually cheap. Solid business plan. Go here for all your seasonings, snacks, sauces, and random protein bars. Take your significant other with you and make them feel like them fancy rich folk. Turn it into a date. Chicks love cool guy alternative health grocery stores. Also when you go to Trader Joe's it's a 93% chance you will be the biggest, buffest, and strongest man walking the aisles. Real talk.

the photograph equivalent of weightlifter shopping at Traders Joe's

I have these things but what do I do with them?

Welcome to bowl life. I'm strong proponent of all meals eaten out of bowls. Gangbang the ingredients together in a plastic bowl and shovel it into your head. Its faster, easier, and much more realistic than that high-speed culinary pornography found in recipe ideas and fitness magazines/websites.

I can't cook, things taste plain, I don't have a large frying pan, one spatula, and a cutting knife.....

You are a man, it is 2016, These are basic tools. teach yourself a skill. I cannot think of a better skill to have then the ability to feed yourself. Get it into your head right now that the gym and the kitchen are connected. Eat and cook the same way you lift. With purpose and discipline. Get your firm glutes into the kitchen and figure it out. Don't worry my brothers. Ill get you started. These are a few of my own creations.

• Poor and Hungry:1 large can of tuna, 1 cup of whole wheat pasta shells, 1 cup veggie pasta, massive handful of raw spinach that you chop up into tiny pieces. Put it together in a bowl, add some lemon juice and reduced-fat parmesan cheese for seasoning. done.

• Bachelor Stew: 2-3 whole eggs and 6 egg whites scrambled, half pound of ground turkey sauteed in a pan, 1 can of low sodium black beans. mushrooms if you want. combine in bowl, season with salt, pepper, paprika. Or us can use an all-in-one seasoning like Lowery's or Weber Grill.

• Custom Chili:get fucking liberal on this one. Nothing is off limits.1 can kidney beans, 1 can black beans, 1 can pinto beans, 2 cans of roasted tomatoes, saute some peppers or whatever gets you off and put it all together. cook it slow and throw a bunch of wild ass seasonings in it.

• Night Cap: a bunch of natural peanut butter, 1 cup plain greek yogurt, 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 scoop of whey protein, 1/2 almond milk, a lot of cinnamon, and some honey for sweetness if you desire. miss that shit and put it in the fridge. 30 mins later you are feasting hard without the guilt of a cheat meal.

• White Privilege Tuna: 1 large can of tuna, 1 whole avocado, mustard (I prefer Trader Joe's mustard seeds), 

I don't know how else to help out the plebe gainers. I've laid out everything for you to do. I'm not gonna cook it for you. So here is the hard part ....YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT WORK. Time to get in the kitchen and crank out some meals that go the distance. All the above recipes can go the distance. lunch and dinner for one day.

get in on that new Cape Fear Program. yacht murder gains.

There is a podcast I follow called Smart Drug Smarts: Brain Optimization. Its all about the different ways to to improve cognition in the human brain. If you recall from previous posts I have stated time and time again that weightlifting is 50% mental. So to improve your mind will naturally improve your lifts. They recently released two really good episodes I recommend you check out.

The first is Episode 75 Creatine: Brains and Brawn? Here is the episode description from their website: "Creatine has long been known as a supplement-of-choice for athletes and weightlifters… but what cognitive benefits might Creatine provide"? I've always said Creatine is one of the very few must have supplements for serious lifters looking to gain weight or increase size/strength.

The second one is Episode 125 Exercise and Cognition "Brains and Brawn, long positioned as polar opposites, turn out to be anything but. In this episode, Jesse talks with fitness trainer Sal di Stefano — also the co-host and resident science geek at the MindPump podcast — about best practices to use physical exercise to enhance your cognition." This dude Sal di Stefano, who's own podcast is generally good, but the episodes are filled with entirely too much small talk that goes off  subject much too often for my patience. Sal drops some seriously awesome knowledge and calls out the entire modern fitness business model that pumps out so much garbage. Really inspiring stuff.

PREPARE TO COPY: 

Standing order is as follows......ALL TEARS WILL BE SHED AND COLLECTED AFTER DARK. If you have tears to shed save them for the night.Your pillow will listen, we will not.

Come back soon my friends. Next post is going live this week. I am in my last week of the spring semester with a 4 week break till summer classes start. Been extra motivated lately and I got a load of content to dump. 

P.S. The Black Metal Fitness merchandise store got a small update. The Sabbath-purple Deadlift shirt is up for sale. Don't spend all your money just yet though. I got a fucking gnarly tank top hitting the store next week as well as the very much sought after Ranger Panties VOL. II. The promised 15% off promo code for everyone who ordered from the first press will be sent to your email when the ranger panties and tank top go up for sale. I'm really excited for everyone to the new gear. Dominate the gym world wide in uniform. Hails!

STAY GRIM.

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