Busy Month

Jan '010 has had more blog posts than any other one month in T42 history. Let's keep it going!

JMT Dates Set

Dates and itinerary set for the JMT. It may be tweaked in the future but not much. The trip will take place Wed Aug 11th to Sun Aug 29th.

Tentative Trip Itinerary
Day: 1 Leave Cheyenne

2 Mammoth Lakes

3 Yosemite National Park

4-17 Hike the JMT

18-19 Travel Back to Cheyenne
_________________________________________________________________________________________1
Hiking Itinerary

Website Updates

I'm still working on the blog. I don't like the way that it integrates with the website. I've tried all sorts of things and the problem I'm having right now is that Google Sites does not support FTP. I'm working on a workaround to that, because I really do not want to use a different program for the site, since I have already put a bunch of time into the google sites version. Basically I want to set it up so people don't have to go back and forth between the blog and the site; that the blog just becomes part of the site.

I'm going to add some kind of recognitions page to the site. The highlight will be the TEAM42 Member of the Year, and I would also like to set up some other recognitions. My ideas include:

42 in 2 Club (for people that hike 42 miles in two days)

100 Club (for expeditions over 100 miles)

200 Club

500 Club

1,000 Club

42 Half Below Club (for sleeping outside when the temps get to half of 42 degrees below zero or less)

42 Below Club

Thoughts?

Ozarks '010

Day Three

When I woke up, I had just enough time to eat breakfast before it started raining. I packed up my gear and hit the trail.

Shortly into the hike, the rain picked up and I put on my rain jacket and rain pants. I came to a couple of river crossings that made me miss the bridges of the Superior Hiking Trail. Fortunately there were enough rocks across each of the river crossings that I was able to make it without incident.

As the day went on, the rain started to pick up. The air temperature went down as the humidity rose. I opened up the pit zips on my jacket and took off the legs of my zip offs that I was wearing under my rain pants.

Six miles in and still before noon I came to my third river crossing. The spot on the river that the trail came to was not passable. I walked down the river a little ways and found a spot that look difficult, but doable.

I didn't capture it in the above picture, but there was a fallen tree just to the right of the image. The tree was about 2/3 of the way across.

I was able to get myself across the rocks to the tree. Once I arrived at the tree, I realized that the tree wouldn't be of any assistance. It was wet and slippery from the rain, so I couldn't walk across it, and I couldn't crawl across it with my pack on. I stood there on a rock and surveyed my options. I immediately ruled out just walking across the river. It was getting colder and the river current was very strong. I didn't need to get any wetter than I already was. I considered turning around, but I had already made it 2/3 of the way across the river.

I backtracked some and started on a new route across the river. I lifted my leg to move up to the next rock, when my other foot slipped. I slammed the pole in my left hand into the ground to catch my balance when SNAP it split in two. The pole went flying behind me...I started to fall back...and...CRACK...the back of my head landed on a rock.

I laid on the floor of the river bed with the rapids flowing over me. All of my body was submerged in the river other than my head and shoulders that were propped up by the rock that I had fallen on. I realized how lucky I was to be wearing a pack, as it absorbed much of the impact.

I worked my way back up and stood on the rock that I had slipped off of. I looked around and considered my options. There was more river for me to cross if I went back then if I kept going forward, but I knew I could make it back. I didn't know if I could make forward. Plus, this was a there-and-back trip, so if I did make it across, I would have to attempt this crossing again at some point.

I turned around and made it safely back to the place where I had started.

I was soaking wet, freezing cold, and had a pounding headache.

There was a place to camp right by the river. My first concern was getting dry and I had two options. I could start a fire or I could set up my bivy and get in my sleeping bag. The rain was coming down harder now, and I knew a fire would be no easy chore. Still, I thought it would be a safer route to go, because I was afraid that I might have a concussion from when I hit my head on the rock, and lying in my bivy would surely lead to falling asleep.

I did my best to gather up some tinder, but everything was so wet, I didn't know if I would have any luck. I tore out some paper from my journal and used that as well.

I was able to get the tinder lit, but wasn't able to get it going enough to lite my wet kindling. Between the rain, the headache, and now shivering, I knew this was a lost cause. Then I had an idea, I could use my stove fuel.

I looked at the canister and I realized I couldn't just dump fuel on my fire. Damn, so much for that. Then I thought I could use the stove as a torch. So I stuck my stove into the burning tinder and HOLY SHIT! The stove was engulfed in flames. My instinct was to drop the stove, but I knew I couldn't because nothing would stop the flames. I quickly reached into the flames with my other hand and turned it off.

I set the stove down and assessed again. I knew that the stove idea wouldn't work, but I did it anyway. Why?

I started running through the hypothermia symptoms in my head. I was suffering from shivering and now confusion. I reflected on the ideal conditions for hypothermia: being wet when the temps are in the 40s. It was a little too familiar. I needed to get in my sleeping bag and worry about staying awake once I was warm and dry.

I threw up my bivy and put my sleeping bag inside of it. Fortunately, both were stored in waterproof bags so they were dry. I grabbed some snacks out of my pack (I was getting hungry) and threw up a rope for the bear bag. Fortunately, my rope got up in the tree on the first try. I hoisted up my food and stuffed my wet pack under some rocks.

I got inside my bivy and took all of my clothes off. I was wet, but at least I wasn't getting wetter anymore. My hope was that I dried out before my down sleeping bag got too wet to keep me warm.

My watch had gotten water logged and no longer worked. I had no idea what time it was. I took a picture with my camera and looked at the display to find out the time. I remembered buying the camera last summer, after the Pow-Wow expedition with Chad, so I had to subtract an hour. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. Just over three hours since I first came upon the river crossing.

I still had a pounding headache, and while I was tired, I knew that I couldn't fall asleep until my headache was gone. I had brought along a lightweight radio so that I would be able to listen to the Vikings play in the NFC Championship game later in the trip. I turned the radio on and found the Arkansas-Kentucky college basketball game to listen to.

Kentucky was up by 30 at the half (I really wished there had been a better game for me to listen to to stay awake). After the game, I thought about getting up, but it was now dark, still raining and my clothes were no more dry than they were before. I played some games on my cell phone and wrote in my journal. I wanted to cal my wife, but I didn't have any service.

I tried to stay awake as long as I could, but eventually I fell asleep.

I awoke in the middle of the night taking long breaths. I could barely breathe. I opened up my bivy and gasped for fresh air. It was raining so hard and there was so much condensation inside my bivy that I was breathing in the same air that I had been breathing out all night.

I wasn't sure what time it was. It could have been eight at night or four in the morning. I had to pee, but wasn't going outside. Eventually I compromised and stood in the entry to my bivy and peed out the door.

I left the bivy door open so I would have fresh air to breath, but the wind kept blowing the rain into my face. Eventually I closed it again.

I once again woke up during the night and repeated the breathing, gasping, peeing routine. By now the inside of my bivy was as wet as it was outside. Maybe it was from the bivy leaking, maybe it was from all of the condensation it didn't matter. The exterior of my sleeping bag was wet, thankfully it was still dry on the inside.

Day 4

The next time I woke up the rain had stopped and it was just before dawn. After what I figured to be about 16 hours in my sleeping bag, I put on my wet clothes and emerged from my bivy to figure out what I was going to do next.

(5 of 5) 4, so wherever I am then is where I'll stop for the night.

(4 of 5) I'm going to take a quick pit stop here on the mountain, eat some food and duece before heading back out on the trail. I'm going to hike until around

(3 of 5) creature that was curious about my campsite in the predawn hours. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see any of that wildlife so far this morning.

(2 of 5) dense fog doesn't let me see anything other than what's right in front of me. I heard LOTS of wildlife last night, including what sounded like a large

(1 of 5) Hiked 8 miles to the summit of white rock mountain. Went up the entire time. I'm sure the view from up here is awesome, but I wouldn't know as the

Ozark Packing & Twitter

I decided to go with my lightest bag.  It keeps me comfortable as long as the temps are above freezing.  It's 13.8oz lighter than my 15 degree bag.  To help compensate, I'm bringing a pair of long johns to sleep in that weigh 5.0 oz.

I'll be hiking in zip offs, underwear, socks, a bandanna and a long sleeve t-shirt.  The clothes in my pack will include a hat, gloves, long johns, underwear, socks and a fleece; weighing in at 22.2 oz.

I decided to go with my bivy and my four season Thermarest (even though it weighs twice my other Thermarest. I've also got my "essentials", trowl, camera, poles, and cook set.

I'll be updating from my trip periodically from my twitter account.  www.twitter.com/davidwherry

Ozark Planning Update

I've had to change the trip around yet again, as I have a new commitment for Thursday.  The commitment will keep me off the trail on Thursday, but will not keep me from leaving Wednesday (if that makes any sense).

I'm leaving at 5am Wednesday morning, which should make me early for morning rush hour in the Twin Cities and early for evening rush hour in Kansas City.  Those are the only two areas I was really concerned with.  I'll arrive in Little Rock Arkansas sometime around 7:00pm.  I'm going to find some cheap hotel off the Interstate to crash at.  Thursday I'm going to the Clinton library and have this commitment thing to do.  Then Thursday evening I'll head out to the trailhead.

The trailhead has a campground at it that I will stay at the first night.  From there I've budgeted out around 15 miles a day, three days in and three days back out.  There are a couple of different spur trails that I'll be taking to mix it up a bit on the way back.  My last day hiking (Wednesday) is a full day, so I will either stay at the campground again or come part of the way home.

I just finished up my food, I've got six lunches and suppers and seven breakfasts.  My food weight (including food sack) comes in at 144.8 oz, or a little more than two pounds a day.  That's pretty typical for me when backpacking.

The weather forecast has changed a bit since I last looked and it's looking good.

Thurs 67/43 20% chance of rain
Fri 65/45
Sat 63/45 50% chance of rain
Sun 59/35
Mon highs in the upper 40s

The last few days of my trip aren't forecasted yet, but I'm loving what I see!  I'm struggling now with what I'm bringing gear wise, because if the posted temps stay I can go pretty light, but if that cold frot coming in on Monday keeps getting colder, I may want some warmer gear...

Ozarks '010

I've modified my trip a little bit.  I cut a day out because I want to go see the William Jefferson Presidential Library in Little Rock.  My trip will be closer to 80 miles than 100 now.

I'm working on getting my truck running.  Once that is done I'll get my food and pack the rest of my gear.  I'll post updates throughout the day.

Ozark Trip Initial Planning

I've got my route finalized, and it's a good one.  Just shy of 100 miles, so on one of my shorter days I'm going to take a spur so I can get to 100.

I went through food that I have left over from the last years hiking season, and I'll use up everything I have left and only have to buy a few odds and ends.  That's great news!  I'm going to go with a similar meal format as I did with the Turkey Day '09 trip (with the exception of a huge Turkey Day Meal!).  For dinner's I'm going to have Mtn House two nights and Lipton Pasta & Sauce the other five nights.  Breakfast will be a couple of packs of oatmeal and lunch will be bars, jerky and trail mix.

I'm packing now and this is where I'm in trouble.  I'm debating if I want to go with my tent, bivy or fast fly tent.  My first instinct was to go with the fast fly, but after doing some research, it turns out that there are SIX venomous snakes found in the area I'm hiking in.  Yep, six.  The snakes are not active this time of the year, but with the warmer weather (it's in the 50s/60s right now) they might be out.  So I've got to decide between Bivy and Tent, and I'll probably sacrifice comfort and go with the bivy on this one.

Clothing and sleeping bags is where I'm really struggling.  The guide book that I have says that January lows are in the 20s and 30s, and sometimes get as cold as 0.  The forecast online only goes until Sunday, and the lowest it gets is the upper 20s.  The highs go anywhere from 60 to the mid 40s.  My fear is that the temps are going down throughout the forecast, and I'm not sure if they will keep going down after Sunday or go back up.  So I have to make some choices with which sleeping bag to bring and what I'm bringing for clothing.

Ozark Highlands Trail

I'm going on an expedition!  If everything goes to plan I'm leaving for the Ozark Highlands Trail on Wednesday of this week and will return a week from Thursday.

I'm hiking 12 - 16 miles a day, with a total of about 100 miles.  Sunrise will be at 7:15, and sunset will be at 5:30, so I'll have plenty of time to get my mileage in.  I'll be doing a modified "there and back" trip.  I'll hike three days in and four days back out.  Some of the way back will be on the same trail, and some of it will be split on two different trails.

The temps are in the 50s & 60s, so it'll be perfect hiking weather.  I'll have seven full days on the trail, which I am pumped about.

Now I've got to get to work, since I'm going from the initial planning of this trip, to leaving on it, in only two days.

Meeting Recap

Cory Weight Loss Ideas

• Remove one lung.  Although hiking may be difficult with one lung, Cory could survive with only one.
• Cory could remove his appendix, tonsils, one eye and one ball.
• Have all teeth removed and buy a blender.
• Remove 42% of his intestines.
• Shave off all body hair.
• As a last resort, Cory could eat less and workout more.

Website

Bios are needed from Chad, Dave and Cory.  Dave is going to continue to improve the website.

Winter Expedition

3/5-3/9.  We will depart early morning and be back by three on the 9^th.  2/18 is an alternate date.

JMT

Jimmy is going on a JMT trip the first part of August.  Contact him if interested.

Fridge

Zach’s beer was keeping the fridge open, this issue was addressed immediately.

Chad’s Hike

Chad is going on a solo thruhike of the Superior Hiking Trail in May.

Presentation

Zach did not have his presentation prepared.

Logo

Jim’s logo has been adapted as the official logo of TEAM42.

TEAM42 Member of the Year

Each year the member’s of TEAM42 will select a Member of the Year according to this process.

1.  Each TEAM member will submit a ballet by the 31^st of January.
2. The voter will put the names of two active TEAM42 members on the ballet.
3. The ballot must be typed.
4. The ballot will be placed in a blank sealed security envelope.
5. That envelope will be placed in an envelope addressed to Mary Wherry.
6. Mary will check off who the ballets are from according to the return address.
7. Mary will discard the envelope with the return address.
8. Mary will give the blank security envelope, unopened, to Joe Wherry.
9. Joe will tally the votes.  The top two vote getters will become the finalists.
10. If there is a tie, a one week runoff will be held.
11. Joe will e-mail the candidates for the runoff to the TEAM.
12. If one person has a majority and there is a tie for second place, the person in the lead will become a finalist and there will be a runoff vote for the second finalist.
13. If two people are tied for first, they will become the finalist.
14. If there is any other type of time, a runoff will be held and the top two vote getters will become the finalist.
15. The run off vote will be conducted in the same manner as the initial vote, except that everyone will get only one vote and the votes are due February 6^th.
16. Once the finalists are determined, Joe will e-mail the group with the names of the two finalists.
17. The voting procedure will be the same as before, only each TEAM member will vote for only one of the finalists.
18. The due date for the final vote will be February 15^th.
19. Joe will write the results on a piece of paper and will sign the paper.
20. Joe will place the results into a sealed security envelope.
21. Joe will sign the seal on the sealed security envelope.
22. Joe will give the results to at least two members of TEAM42.
23. The envelope will be opened on the last night of the annual winter trip.
24. The winner will receive the traveling bandana.  The previous year’s winner will be responsible for embroidering the name of the TEAM42 member of the year on the bandana.
25. Chad will be responsible for embroidering the name on the bandana for the 1^st recipient.

Membership

To retain membership in TEAM42, members must attend a minimum of two, two night backpacking backcountry trips in a calendar year.

If a member does not attend the minimum number of trips, they will become an inactive member.

If the inactive member attends two trips in the following year, they will regain their active status as soon as the second trip is completed.  If they do not attend the minimum number of trips, they will no longer be a member of TEAM42.

Inactive Membership

An inactive member will have their bio removed from the TEAM42 website and will lose all rights and privileges of TEAM42 membership.

New Members

After a person goes on two, two night backcountry backpacking trips, they may be nominated for membership in TEAM42 by an active member of TEAM42.

The nominator will nominate the person via a Facebook e-mail to all active members of TEAM42.

The members of TEAM42 will have one month to vote on the membership of the nominated person.

In order for the person to be elected, they must receive a majority of votes from all members as well as a majority of votes from “the ELDERS”.

“the ELDERS”

“the ELDERS” will always be written with small letters for “the” and caps for “ELDERS”.  “the ELDERS” will always be in quotes.

A member of “the ELDERS” will lose their “ELDERship” if they lose membership in TEAM42.  If an “ELDER” becomes an inactive member, they will no longer be an “ELDER”, but will retain the rights to their “ELDERness” should they become an active member again before their inactive status expires. 

If an “ELDER” loses their “ELDERship” and their inactive status, the “ELDERship” will become vacant.

A vacant “EDLERship” will be filled by the most senior member of TEAM42, provided they have a minimum of 4.2 years of TEAM42 membership.  If there are multiple members, that are eligible, that have seniority dates in the same calendar year, “the ELDERS” will vote on who the “the ELDER” should be.

If no one meets the time requirements, the position with “the ELDERS” will remain vacant until the person that vacated “the ELDER” position resumes membership in TEAM42 or another member of TEAM42 meets the time requirement.

There will be a maximum of five “ELDERS”.

Triangle of Communication

Dave is continuing to work on the triangle of communication.

Official Name

The official name of TEAM42 will be printed in all caps with no spaces.  TEAM42.

Topics for Next Meeting

Plan the winter trip.

Create a mission and vision statement.

Create a TEAM42 Bill of Rights.

Discuss the proposal for the TEAM42 Nautical Division.

Vote on Sarge as being the TEAM42 mascot.

Discuss plans for a “Rocky Mountain” division of TEAM42.

Updates

Please forgive the changes to the site, and any site downtime that may occur.  I am working on making the blog integrate with the website better.  I'll be posting minutes soon.

Meetting Details?

I request a detailed copy of the meetting minutes and discussions. Pantygram optional.

Meeting adjourned!

Official name: TEAM42

"The ELDERS" defined

Rules for joining T42 established! Big news!

Big discussion on req for joining T42

Inactive member rules created.

T42 membership retainment rules voted on.

T42 member of the year finalized.

Jims logo voted as the official logo.

ZF does not have presentation ready.

Chad on the phone with Bort. GB1 making a liqour run.

Discussed out of state trip possibilities for may. ZF wants to do some backpacking in May.

Chad going on solo thruhike 5/28 of the SHT

Zach reorganizing fridge. His beer keeps the door open.

I'm putting together the hiking itinerary right now

Reviewed JMT trip. Talk to Jim if interested

Alt dates: 3/18 - 3/23

Winter trip 3/5 - 3/9 bwcaw

Update website. Bios needed and timeline update. Add photos.

Meet location

Where's the meeting actually happening?

Reviewed ways for cory to lose weight

Live blog updates through meeting. Dehydrating bananas. Yum!

Website Timeline

Dave-
Could you please add me to the Boundary Waters '01 trip and the Tahoe '05 trip? Thanks!

...

I figured out your meeting location

The below maps show the geographic mean center of TEAM 42 members in MN. It is not equal distance. It is an averageing of distances between all member locations.


Or removing the St. Cloud point


Hope this helps

What Will '010 Bring T42?

What will '010 bring T42, as a group and as individuals? I guess this could be New Years resolutions, or just an e-listing of things you want T42 (or yourself) to accomplish in the first year of this new and exciting decade.

I have already told one member of T42 my personal goal - to lose 100 lbs in a week, however, it is not looking likely. My plan was to remove my arms and legs to achieve this quickly, but have recently rethought the process. Maybe I will just monitor what I eat...

EDIT: I CHANGED MY BLOG

Anyways, one tool I will be using to help me achieve this goal is my new blog, http://coryschultz42.blogspot.com/.