Day 6, Aug. 31, 2014
We hiked 15 miles today. One
mile of that was not accounted for on John’s spreadsheet. So we are only 14
miles closer to Wind River Road where the next car shuffle will take place.
Thirty-four miles to it and then another 34 after that. The original plan was
to do 10 miles today.
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| Lots of large trees in the area we hiked today. |
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| A view of Sawtooth Mountain at the end of the day. |
Total hike today was in
forest. Nice forest with some really big trees, but no spectacular views like
on Mount Adams. John said it wasn’t his best hiking day; he felt like it was
“another day at work, just putting in the miles.” I would not go that far, but
it was a comedown from last week.
We crossed four roads today,
two of them paved. That makes it hard to sustain the feeling of “I’m in a vast
wilderness.” It’s nice to hear road noise when you are at the end of the day
and tired, knowing your car and hike’s end are parked along that road. But it’s
no fun when you are in the middle of the day and would like some away-in-nature
aura.
Plus tonight we are camped at
a site with all others there camping out of vehicles. Realizing that I could
have driven to my campsite always takes away from a hike for me since what I am
after is something remote that can only be reached by someone willing to hike,
bike or paddle the miles to get there.
We didn’t have much choice in
what site to select at this non-National Forest camping place. We thought we
had a nice level place but then noticed the distinctive brown and white bloom
of the TP flower, which gives of an obnoxious odor apparently as nature’s way
of attracting flies. We decided to move to a site that wasn’t as level or as
roomy, but had a more neutral fragrance.
This camping place is next to
the huckleberry fields, very popular with berry pickers. The
huckleberry is also important to Native Americans, who have been coming here for hundreds (thousands?) of years to pick berries. There is an
agreement between the Forest Service and the tribes that Native Americans can
pick on one side of the road here and the rest of us can pick on this side. No
commercial harvest is allowed in this area. There are also a couple of campsites
on the other side of the road set aside for Native Americans.
John started out this second
phase of our hike with a different set of hiking poles that he wanted to
compare to the ones he carried earlier. I never saw much use in walking sticks
until last summer’s canoe trip when John P. draped a rattlesnake over his and flung
the snake out of our campsite (probably Kathy’s most vivid memory of that trip,
certainly the one she talks about the most). From then on, John P. used his
stick to poke ahead of him wherever he walked to scare away snakes. The rest of
us walked behind him. That seemed reason enough to me to have walking sticks,
and I bought a pair for last summer’s hike (even though rattlesnakes stay clear
of Western Washington, but you never know).
However, I was not convinced the poles did much to help the hiking experience. When I started hiking in the early
1970s the only people walking with sticks of any kind were Gandalf and the Good
Shepherd. Now it’s rare to see anyone on the trail without them. And when you
do, it’s usually some old geezer like me who hasn’t moved into the 21st
Century yet.
I asked John what he thought
the advantages were of having poles, and he listed four:
1.) They provide a rhythm to
his hiking,
2.) They help him with
balance,
3.) They help him get up
hills,
4.) They provide stability on
downhills.
Those are exactly the ways I
use them. As someone who trips over a rock, root, dirt clod or his own feet
every 20 steps I use them as outriggers to keep from tipping over. I palm
them on downhills so it is like coming down stairs and using a
bannister. But I find them a nuisance when walking in brush as there is nowhere
to place them each step and they get caught in the foliage. I find myself
twirling them over the tops of the brush and feel like I should be leading the
tuba player out to dot the i on Script Ohio.
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| Pacerpole handle. |
But the ones John had today
have a different handle shape and come with a different philosophy on how to
use them: Don’t reach out in front with them to pull yourself uphill; push from
behind. Use them that way on the flats as well. Keep your arm swing low, mostly
out in front of your waist and not up toward your chest. This is all
explained
on the pacerpole web site in videos starring Heather Rhodes, the designer of
the poles. She’s in the Lake District of England, which is a wonderful place
for walking as Kathy and I found out when we were there in 1982.
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| Straight up handles on my poles. |
I’ve been trying to do the
pacer routine with my poles, which have handles that keep your hands turned
straight up, and I find that keeping in the right rhythm with my legs means I
am pushing my upper body forward on the same side as the leg that is moving
forward. That seems a better form of propulsion. And the recommended arm motion
reminds me of something a high-school coach (Dennis Bishop) told me about
track: When you run, reach out like there are ropes on either side of you that
you can grab to pull yourself forward. The ropes are at your waist, so reach
straight out, not up high, and save some energy.
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| Pacerpole hand positions |
Who knew you could think so
much about walking, an activity most of us learn before we are a year old? But
when you spend so much time doing an activity, you can’t help but think about
it. Not that I wasted all this think time on walking. I thought deep thoughts
on many other subjects: Trying to come up with a scheme to pay off my credit-card
debt that did not involve larceny; what to get Kathy for a retirement gift
(she ends 38 years at The Seattle Times on Oct. 31); whether I could afford to
pay someone to clean the gutters on my house; whether I would win any money in
the Ohio State football pool this week and on and on with the deep
philosophical issues right into bedtime at 8:30 p.m.
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| Hand position on my poles. |
Trail journal URLS from today:
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