Arriving

(written on Friday after arriving into Denver)

Here I am at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado.

Gotta get to the Greyhound Station and get my goods from the locker. Gotta get a taxi and get my things shuttled to the Hostel. Eleven dollars a night buys a bed and an inner and outer door key. Tonight is the first of 61 days.

Written Last Tuesday

Okay, so this is Tuesday. Friday morning I fly back out. This time to Colorado. This time to se a road 13 and a 1/2 miles long. This time to top out at 14, 110 feet.

New Hampshire was excellent. The people were quite friendly and the core group was very helpful. Yes, the team fostered and enabled me in a positive and creative way. Things weren't done when I left though. I'd been prodded toward a goal which just a month ago I may not have even imagined.

The New Hampshire terrain was wonderful. Madison boulder, Eco Lake, Thorn Hill Road, Town Hall Road, Hurricane Mountain Road, Glines Hill Road......... The hills, the mountains, the inclines- these provided me with the opportunity to welcome resistance.

Things went very well.

Now I am headed to Colorado. I can't expect a repeat of all the good things that occurred recently. I can't expect things to simply go extremely well. I can't even expect to succeed. But I do know that I can try. I know I can make due. I know that I can make the best possible use of the resources that will be available. There is altitude there. There is change in altitude also.

Going

I'm going to Echo Lake soon to swim, for as long as I care to.

I'm going back home soon, but not until tomorrow.

I still need to resort my things for final packing. Tim is driving me to Manchester- so that is more or less organised. We have over 24 hours to get me there.

I did a short cable tv thing this morning. I had some introspection time after that. Then social time. Then organisational time. Then I ate and read more of a book on U.S. granite domes.

Now, gee, it is already 2:47! Web log sort of updated. Time to get going.

Recovery Mode

Coach Tim and I slept at the base of the Mount Washington Auto Road last night. Assistant Coach Marc met us this morning with coffee. We started up the Auto Road at 6 AM. By 9 AM we realised that things were proceeding much too quickly and we better let the staff know that we were already half way up the road. By the time the Auto Road public relations man, Jesse, showed we were closing in on the six mile marker. Well, so much for reporters and all that! Jesse accompanied us for the last two miles- helping with photos, traffic management, and good cheer.

We were at the top before 11:30. I was able to sign the hiker's registry. Under trail name, I put Auto Road.

We were back at the bottom, across the street, and in the lodge eating lunch before 1:00.

Now I'm back in North Conway sitting at Tim's computer while he and Marc go for a climb.

Pretty much fried at the moment. Didn't sleep well last night, sort of anxious. The pads below my thumbs were quite sore at lunch. They're a lot better now. Now most of my upper body is just generally sore and I feel like napping. I'd like to get some pictures in the "Kinetics" section first, and then we shall see........

The Auto Road is about 7.6 miles long. It rises about 4700 feet. We went bottom to top in 5 hours 22 minutes.

Sitting

Sitting here on Tuesday morning, clearing cobwebs and thinking over the immediate and midrange future. As always for me, such thoughts invlove the past and it's puzzle of potential, poignance, and pattern.

Before I get too clever for forward movement and too self referential for anyone to understand:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the day decided upon for the Auto Road ascent.

Not yet sure where I'm sleeping tonight.

Not yet sure what exactly to eat today and tomorrow.

I want to wash some clothes.

I want to wash my wheelchair.

Presentation, huh?

Alright, time to drink more coffee and look off to the trees close by and the mountains in the distance. Yesterday I went back along a road that I had last done two weeks ago. I was quite pleased to find the work less difficult than I had previously. It was a good choice for final pre-climb work out. Noticing improvement boosts confidence.

In Preparation

Today is Saturday. Coach, that's Tim Martel, will be back today from a week long guiding job. I last saw Tim on Thursday the 4th. Since then I have been doing mostly long routes- some hills but the concentration has been simple endurance- keep moving for a bunch of hours, carry 6 or more pounds of water and Gatoraid with me.

I completely took the day for rest yesterday, Friday, in prepartion for Auto Road muscle readiness. The day before, Thursday, had concluded with an hour's swim in Echo Lake and then more than enough pasta (which is sort of only almost enough).

Tonight I will speak with Tim and we will work out a schedule for the actual Auto Road climb. This afternoon I plan to do an off road hike with Cliff Cabral, the kind and gentle man who has let me stay at his house in Brownfield, Maine, the past two weeks. This morning, or what's left of it, is time for more coffee, some postcards, oatmeal, and maybe even further work on a 'drawing'.

So that's the latest- resting, eating, tending to details, setting plans for the days leading up to the Mount Washington Auto Road ascent.

ADDENDUM- 4:06 PM- No off road with Cliff, no drawing work. No oatmeal yet but have done post cards. Appears to be a secondary good rest day. I did sort through many months worth of legal pad type notes and consolidate some parts, leaving other parts to consolidate later.

Still before me there are almost eight hours between now and tommorow. Time to get to North Conway and do what there is to do.

Missing

So on Monday I wanted to get to Madison by way of a dirt road called Glines Hill, I heard it is a nice hill. I missed the turn from Rte 153 to Glines (actually a straight, as 153 makes a full right angle turn). I continued down 153 and eventually became suspicious that I'd missed Glines. I took the next available right turn, and eventually covered over 23 miles instead of the planned 16. All this to make up for a missed hill climb. In the end Assistant Coach Marc Durant got me to the Madison Boulder before sunset, but using a car.

So gee, then eventually it was Wednesday and I had a route mapped out that included a warm up dirt road hill on the way to Eaton Village and the Glines Hill Road dirt road hill. Of course I got a bit lost at the top of Gulph road, the first dirt road hill, and added fourty minutes of up and down driveways and dead ends to make for a proper warm up. Then of course I eventually got to Glines Hill Road and Marc showed to check on me soon after I had found a payphone to be completely useless in attempt to contact him. Talking to Marc, I estimated my hill ascent at 30 minutes or so. A solid hour later I was entirely certain that this hill and its loose sand and gravel and pebbles and rocks was truly a hill. Another twenty minutes later I was over the top and very nearly under the weather. They say time heals all wounds, and a bucketful of minutes later I was off the down slope of Glines and approaching Boulder Road. Another bowlful, or two, of minutes gone by and introspectional activities had been conducted at the Erratic sight with all transport fueled only by things drank or eaten.

Erratic Placement

Okay, one cup of coffee down, one more chapter of nutrition book down, directions sorted, raisin bran waiting.

Today is the day for pilgrimage to the Madison Boulder. This rock was left at present locale during glacial retreat 10 or 15 thousand years ago. The Madison Boulder is the largest erratic in North America and one of the biggest on the planet. I learned of the boulder's existance by reading a book on the Geology of the North Eastern United States while preparing to return to New Hampshire.

Assistant Coach Marc Durant, who accompanied me on the last trip up Mount Washington, mapped out a route from Brownfield, ME, to Madison,NH. I should be started on my way from the one town to the other before noon.

Posting

Okay, today is Sunday- going on 11 AM.

It appears that most days lately, I get up early enough, but then start picking away at all kinds of fiddly what not that I would not address if I had slept much later. Still working at getting fully out the door at a reasonable hour.

On Friday I rolled from North Conway to Pinkham Notch. I'd like to imagine it a distance of 20 miles, but I'm pretty certain it was at least 17. I didn't start this journey until 3 PM. Instead of the 4 hours I was erroneously estimating, it took 5 and 2/3's hours. I got to the destination just after dark, and about an hour after the police stopped me to make sure I was sane. (The last 4 miles are pretty much steady incline.) The police stopped me about 15 minutes after a local gentleman in pickup with two youngsters doubled back to check on me (as he'd never seen an individual in a wheelchair cruising up the shoulder of this particular stretch of route 16). If I had left North Conway at noon, I would have made better time from Dana Place to Pinkham Notch (the incline), because I probably would not have had to explain myself if it weren't approaching and then passing sunset.

Saturday saw me on the road before noon. I think I did much more downhill that uphill. Just the same- my hands, wrists and fore arms feel ever so slightly swollen from all the breaking.

So right, today is Sunday. Is it a rest and recovery day? Is it do the off road that requires someone to pull you over big stuff and possibly carry you over bigger yet stuff? I've got body chores to do. Indecent laundry to deal with. The rug has foam rubber bits all over from cushion improv work (version 2.0 is working well). All this to consider- and I'm sat here typing- go figure!!

It is well nigh time in the day for a little teleology. Yes, time for purpose. Well... time for a more obviously identifiable outward display of purpose.

Gang Aglee

On Tuesday I found out that on Monday a posse of wheelchairers showed up at the Mt. Washington Autoroad and one of them actually reached the top. Imitation is the purest form of flattery? Now I'll be only the second one? Not a problem. Getting on with my nutrition book. Monitoring sore spot on tail bone (which was noticed early and is pretty much healed). Working on second draft of wheelchair backrest super-padding. Eating loads. Sleeping well and rising early.

Training-wise on Tuesday, I went up this crazy steep road about a mile long, maybe 800 foot rise, that takes you from the bottom of Cathedral Ledge to the top. I did it three times in a row. Could have gone again if we had more time. In conference with Coach and Assistants, it was decided we should start watching weather reports and pick a day for the Autoroad climb.

Wednesday was all about getting ahold of hydrocolloid dressings. These are basically artificial scabs for protecting healing skin. Seems I get a lot of pressure between my tailbone and the wheelchair's backrest. I've been spending loads of time with the chair facing up inclines. Pushing the wheels forward pushes the tailbone even more against the backrest. Homeowner/house-king Cliff made many pizzas. I ate many slices.

Time continues to flee through the back door of the static and ever present now. It is Thursday morning. Gotta mount the new edition back rest. Gotta mount Pinkham Notch. Gotta get a large amount of things moved forward.

Flying

Gee, but it is already Tuesday. Tempus Fugit!

Succeeding at eating more. The nutrition book I'm reading is "Optimal Muscle Performance and Recovery". It gives many practical pointers regarding ingestion of carbohydrates, proteins, electrolytes, and good old water. Seems this time around my strategy will not be simply a chunk of bread and thermos of instant coffee. Have you ever heard of a branch chain amino acid?

Addendum to Starting: 'Setting things up well' regarding post-flight transport means that I had the good fortune on the plane to be seated next to an altruistic and sociable young woman named Jessica. Her mom lives near where I was headed. Pretty much all I did was not act stoic. Coincidence and her kindness did the rest.

So much for questions of existance and meaning- I'm in the world. The sun is shining. The temperature is mild. My body is calling me, in more ways than one- and I am responding to it.

Hills, gravel, crowns, and gradients.

Hydrocolloid dressings, foam rubber cushioning, cloth athletic tape, awls and string, needles and thread.