East Dix – South Dix – June 2008

I spent the past weekend hiking in the Adirondacks and visited two peaks I had climbed last fall (East Dix and South Dix). A recent microburst and the unmarked and unmaintained herd trails made the trek more challenging. On Friday afternoon four cars headed south from Ottawa and rendezvous in Keene Valley at the Rock and River lodge. On the way down we stopped at Price Chopper to buy lunches for the Saturday and Sunday hikes. I replenished my stock of fig newtons. Our group stayed in one of the largest chalets which was a converted barn and had a climbing wall on the back side of the fireplace.

On Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast we headed 20 km south to the East Dix trailhead. I fired up the GPS and punched in the coordinates for the East Dix summit. At the critical point on the trail we forded the Bouquet River learning from our mistake from last year. As we meandered along the river the GPS “distance to final” fell very slowly. At times we were slowed down due to downed trees but soldiered on. Our OHOC group (12) broke up into three smaller groups and the distance between them grew. Every half-hour we would regroup. Brian and I were the first to reach the East Dix slide after a three hour hike. There is a well defined path to the west side of the slide which takes you about halfway up at which point you have to cross to the east side. One had to be aware of your colors. A black or brown colored rock is slippery while a gray will give a firm purchase. With the GPS running I could watch the feet to the summit ever so slowly decrease. It was slow going up the slide. Our goal was to climb toward a cliff that looked like a hammerhead. There is a path along the edge of the cliff that leads to the summit. It was a big relief when we reached the summit. We took a couple of pictures and started our one mile trek to the summit of South Dix. We made the hike with a certain amount of urgency as there were looming dark clouds overhead. Once again the GPS allowed us to keep our bearing. As we were taking pictures on the cliffs of South Dix it started to rain. I fished out my rain jacket and Brian and I headed back over to East Dix. Midway along the trail the rain stopped but we continued to wear our jackets as the forest was wet. Once back on East Dix the sun came out and quickly dried off the rock face. It was mid-afternoon by this point and I ate my sub quietly and pushed back some fig newtons and diet coke. We would spend the next 40 minutes climbing very slowly down East Dix and in some cases walking on all fours. With a little luck I found the trail that runs down the east side of the slide and eventually leads to the campsite. Once off the slide I sighed with relief as we were out of harms way. The journey back along the trail was more brisk than I would have liked. By this point I had consumed three liters of water and only had one more to spare. The forest was warm and muggy. We bumped into the other group midway along the trail which was a relief for me as we as there was no longer a need to travel at a breakneck speed. We learned that the other groups had made it halfway up the slide but missed the cairn that tells you to cross over to the other face. They turned back as it was raining and thundering overhead. Once back at the car I headed down to the Bouquet River and stood in the cold river for 15 minutes to cool myself down. It felt awesome. As we were driving back to the lodge the skies opened and it pelted with rain.

Once back at the lodge I had a blistering hot shower and washed the caked mud from my legs. We had a group pasta dinner. After supper I bedded down really early as I bushed.

On Sunday morning I awoke really early and headed over to the lodge for a hearty breakfast with the rest of the crew. The goal for the day was a short four hour hike up Pitchoff Mountain. It was a good day hike as long as you kept moving. Our turnaround point was “the ridge” which had a great view of Cascade Mountain. At is at this point that we experienced our first bugs of the trip. The black flies were out but they were not in a bitten mood and were more of an irritation.

http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/June2008_Adirondacks_EDix_SDix

Apple – WWDC – iPhone coming to Canada

On Monday, I received some much expected news from the Apple WWDC conference. Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 3G would go on sale in Canada on Friday July 11. This was exciting news. During the day I had been infrequently been following his keynote speech through posting on macworld.com blog. Jason and I talked about the WWDC but it would take until the evening before I had a chance to listen to the keynote speech. I was stoked when I found out that my cellular phone carrier will be selling the iPhone. I am hoping that they will release the contract details in a couple of days. There is one thing I am eager to explore and that is, the GPS capabilities of the iPhone which was only very briefly demonstrated during the speech. It would be sweet to be able to use it when geocaching.

One of the applications that they featured is me.com that is described as “Microsoft Exchange for everyone else.” It is a subscription-based website that allows you to keep your mail, contacts, pictures and documents in sync not matter what device you are using. I have read the web pages describing the product but still not sure if I would ever need the functionality that it offers. I’m curious what others think of the product.

Hmm, only 30 more days before the iPhone arrives…

Retirements and meeting the CEO

This is a sort of work-related blog, something I usually don’t write about. I work for a large organization that has about 5,000 employees and I receive about 1.3 email messages per week announcing that someone is retiring. In the past week, one of the head honchos retired with much fanfare. He has been with the organization for 51 years and 23 years as its CEO. Around the office this was a really big deal. They organized a lottery to select employees that could informally meet him and wish him greetings for his retirement. I was selected to informally join 700 other employees to meet him. This came as a big surprise to me. My first concern was what to where, a tie, a jacket, a tie and jacket or my normal work garb. In the end, I opted to wear my usual work stuff and not to get to puffy about the gathering. I joined the reception line in our cafeteria and very slowly marched along towards the CEO. In the background, they were playing very sad and somber baroque classical music almost as if I was attending a state funeral. In hushed tones were told that we had only 15 seconds with the CEO. I can’t remember what I said to him but his reply what that we were all colleagues together. Tom, one of the guys I work with, took my picture with the CEO. In the afternoon they had live streaming of the formal retirement ceremony delivered to all employees’ desktops. I’ll talk about a couple of nuggets from the ceremony. The CEO mentioned the whole exercise was like eavesdropping on his own funeral. The new CEO was eager to know what the outgoing CEO’s wife put in his cheese sandwich to promote longevity. The last nugget is sort of weird. One of the vice-presidents gave a testimonial of the CEO and didn’t have a chance to proofread his speech. I think that he had intended to say that the CEO had been a pillar of the organization but due to translation he said that CEO had been a boat anchor to the organization.

Off to the Adirondacks soon…

In just over a week, I’ll be heading down to the Lake Placid area for my second hiking trip of the year. The plan is to climb East Dix (4012 feet) and South Dix (4060 feet). Last year, Chris Mc, Kevin and I camped at the base of what we thought was East Dix and later confirmed once we were at the summit. This year we are taking a different approach and staying at a hostel overnight in Keene Valley and to summit both Dixs peaks as part of a long day hike. Now that we have the GPS coordinates we can start at the car and just follow the GPS arrow as it counts down the kilometers/miles to go. Chris Mc and I are leading a group of OHOC hikers this time round. There is still one unsolved mystery and that is, will there be bugs and how fierce/intense they might be as this is the earliest in the spring that I have been hiking in the Adirondacks.

Another 31 second improvement…WooHoo!

2008 May 25
292/8368
1:33:42.7 chip
4:29 pace

2007
377/7005
1:34:13 chip

The ING Ottawa half-marathon is one of the three half-marathon races that I train for each year. I usually start off the year by doing the Phoenix, Arizona, PF Chang RnR half-marathon in January and close off the season with the Baltimore half-marathon in October. This year’s Ottawa race allowed me to better my time by 31 seconds but a few hours before the start even running the race was uncertain. After an 11 km tempo run on Wednesday night I developed a severe cold which affected my lungs and throat. For three days I was without a voice. I decided the best thing I could do was rest and hope that I could nix the cold. By late Saturday, my lungs were clear and throat was still coarse. Using the old running adage that it is okay to run as long as the cold as above your throat, I decided wait and see how I felt on Sunday morning.

I got up on Sunday to find my legs feeling fresh, energetic and ready to go. I ate four bowls of Vector cereal and drank some strong tea before heading over to the start line. At this point my first challenge arose as I was 300 folks behind the 1:40 pace bunny who I could see off in the distance. It would take about 1.5 miles of hard and fast running for me to surge by the bunny and his entourage. The pace I was running at was fast but very comfortable. I asked myself do I want to slow down or speed up. I sped up and surged by a hoard of people. The course was very familiar to me so I was able complete the Gatineau loop quickly. I surged each hill and glided down the backside. As we were heading across the over of the Ottawa River I went into a “zone” and worked hard climbing the three hills before descending along the Rideau Canal. At this point, I saw my folks who cheered me from the sidelines. The remainder of the race would be on familiar territory, the bike paths and roads that run parallel to the Rideau Canal. My journey down to Bank Street went quickly as we were racing in ideal conditions a cool and crisp 8C/46F. At this point I had a bit of fun as there was a jazz band playing in a nearby tent. They were playing swing with a fast tempo. I decided to do a 400 meter wind sprint and have my legs keep in sync with the beat of the music. It was fun to do. I eased back on the pace once out of earshot. At the Bronson Bridge, we crossed over the Rideau Canal and started our northward trek. I threw a couple of cups of cold water over me and sponged down at the water stop. I ingested a Powergel with 35mg of caffeine when I was 5km away from the finish. As I was heading up the canal I heard the jazz band playing a fast tune from the other side of the canal, time for another surge. For the next three km I pressed myself to try and shave at least one second off the next km. This strategy worked well under the final kilometer when I stitched slightly but the energy of the crowd pulled me through. I was really pleased by the race as the 31 second improvement was unexpected.

The Spitting Goose

Today, I decided to have lunch down near the Ottawa River along the bike path. As I was walking along the path I was approached by a spitting Canada goose which is a sign that it was upset. I moved along a little further and it started to follow. I opened up a 200 yard gap and sat down to eat my Ruffles. A short while later along comes the waddling goose. It started to spit at me again so I walked a little further along the path. At this point the goose backed off and it was happy to munch on dandelions. Is this normal goose behavior sort of, as this is the peak season for mating and reproducing. The goose wanted to guard its turf against invaders even if they are six feet tall and it is a mere two feet tall.

Close to where I live there is a railway bridge that runs across the river a goose has setup camp underneath one of the abutments. It has built a nest and laid a couple of eggs. I pass by the spot a couple of times a day and notice the progress. I’ll try to get down there with the camera to capture some of the sights. As I meandered back to the office I kept a safe distance from the goose who was keeping a watchful over me.

11 days before half-marathon

Tonight, I did my final interval workout before my half-marathon race next weekend. The workout was brutal, 6x1km on 30s rest. It was over quickly but a painful experience as you are only able to take a couple of breaths before you start sprinting again. My intervals times are better than last year but I am still not sure about my fitness level so I will use the outcome of the race to act as a judge.

I am looking forward to the race as I have been training for it for the past couple of months. The race really be special this year as my folks are coming to town to watch me run.