Death Hike, Part Two

I returned to the Big Basin Redwoods state park for another try at the 11 mile hike yesterday, July 14. I wanted to see if my conditioning has improved since my hike on July 9.

Because of an interview phone call, I started the hike late, and I didn't start into the trail until 3:30PM. However, unlike the last time when I took about 7 hours to finish the hike, this time I finished the hike in about four and a quarter hours - I exited the trails at about 7:45PM. I think that if I were to do this again, I can complete the hike in under 4 hours.

I hiked the same basic trail as I did on July 9, but for variety, I went around the looping trail in the opposite direction. On July 9, I started the hike from the park HQ, labeled #1 on the trail map, then followed the trail for 1.3 miles to the Sunset-to-Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail connector trail. I then continued on the Sunset trail to the Berry Falls Trail, and returned via the Skyline-to-the-Seas Trail. This time around, I took the Sunset-to-Skyline-to-the-Sea connector trail, and took the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail to Berry Falls instead, then back up the waterfall cascades, and back toward the park HQ on Sunset.

One thing that I realized as I hiked the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail was that I had the topology working against me on July 9. That is, while the hike was started from the park HQ where the elevation was about 1000 ft above sea level, in the midpoint of the hike, Berry Falls dropped down to 400 ft of elevation.

So on July 9, my hike went as follows

1. Park HQ (#1 on map, 1000 ft elevation) to Sunset-to-Skyline-to-the-Sea connector trail connector (#2, 1200 ft elevation).
2. Sunset trail (#2, 1200 ft elevation, to #5, 800 ft elevation)
3. Sunset to Berry Falls( #5, 800 ft elevation to #3, 400 ft elevation)
4. Skyline-to-the-Sea back to Sunset (400 ft elevation to 1200 ft elevation)
5. Sunset back to park HQ.

What I realized was that once I got to Berry falls last time, I was already somewhat tired, then I had 3 miles of hiking that climbed from 400 ft of elevation to 1200 ft of elevation. It made sense then that I started to hit a wall, as the hike just got harder and harder. This time around, when I went in the opposite direction, the skyline-to-the-sea trail was mostly downhill, so I was fairly fresh when I got to Berry falls. Then I had to climb the 400 ft of elevation from Berry Falls to reach Sunset. When I got to Sunset, I was a bit tired, but the walk back to the park HQ for the last 4 miles wasn't as hard, since I only had to climb 400 ft of elevation.

Of course, I'm more than certain that my improved conditioning had a lot to do with it as well, but it made sense now why I started to hit a wall on the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail last time, going back to the park HQ.

This is a picture of the Silver Falls. I didn't get a very good picture of it last time.


One thing I noticed in Big Basin was that I didn't see too many creatures running around, but I did see that at the bottom of the Silver Falls, there are some Salamander-looking creatures swimming around. I think those are California Newts. The flash from the camera really made them stand out from the background here.



When I got to the Sunset trail, I took a detour to the Sunset camp, which is located 0.1 miles from the Sunset trail, but it was located at a higher elevation, perhaps 50~100 ft of elevation. I went to see what was located at the trail camp. From what I could see, there were 12 camp sites, more or less just a flat clearing in the woods where you can pitch your tent. There's an outhouse where you can do your business without having to find a spot in the woods. There's a place to put your trash, but aside from that, it's just a spot where you can pitch your tent. There's no water here.

The hike went much better than the last time. I was merely tired at the end of the hike, instead of deathly tired. I am also feeling much better right now. As I wrote above, I started the hike with my legs still ever-s0-slightly sore from the hike on July 9, and that's with 4 full rest days. Now, as I write this, less than a day after I finished the hike on July 14, I am not feeling much different than from before I started the hike on July 14. It feels like that my body has adjusted rapidly, and I can perhaps hike the 11 miles everyday now....

Based on the previous experience, I only brought 1.5L of water for the hike. Since I only consumed about 1L of water, plus about 1.5 lbs of grapes last time. However, July 14 was warmer than July 9, and this time around, I felt more thirst. So I actually ran out of water this time around. I had nearly consumed 1L of water by the time I got to Berry Falls, and I realized that I was going to run out of water, so I started to ration the water a bit. Still, I had no more than 100 mL of water left when I got to the Sunset-to-Skyline-to-the-Seas Connector Trail. Then I finished the water when I got back to the final trail back to Park HQ, at the 0.9 miles marker. However, I knew that the final 0.9 miles of hiking was mostly downhill, and I was still feeling pretty good. Then, once I got back to my car, I drank half of bottle of water, since I did at least have the foresight to stash two bottles of water in the car as reserves. That being said, I'll definitely bring that fourth bottle of water the next time.

One thing that worked pretty well was that I had frozen one of the bottles of water in the freezer for this hike. So as I carried it in my daypack, the water in the bottle melted slowly, and kept the other bottle(s) cool. Then as I got to that last bottle, the water was only 1/3 melted, and I had ice-cold water to drink for the last leg of the hike. I think I'll freeze two bottles the next time around.

Day Hike at the Big Basin Redwoods National Park

Due to my present state of unemployed-ness, I decided to try to get healthy. So I'm trying to work out two to three times a week. Then, I decided that it would be a good idea to go hiking. After some quick searches, I found that Big Basin Redwoods National Park is only about 30 miles away, and I can go for a Day Hike. So that's what I did - drove down the narrow route 236 and hiked the strenuous Sunset trail.

I started from my apartment at around noon, and reached the park entrance in about an hour.

http://www.bigbasin.org/ (This is the Big Basin Redwood national park's web site)


Here's a map of a small park of the trail. The park has camps and many trails - enough for multiple days of hikes, but since I was only going for a day hike, I decided to try the most strenuous hike - the Sunset-to-Berry-Creek-Falls trail. The round trip is about 10~11 miles, and there's a lot of hills to climb up and down. It was quite tiring.

The map shows a few things.

1. start from the Park HQ. Although access to the park is "free", the park has to raise revenue somehow, so they sell the trail maps for $3 each, and parking for the day is $7.
2. The Sunset trail - a lot of climbing up and down.
3. A series of waterfall at the Golden Cascades Falls and the Silver Falls.
4. The Berry Creek Falls
5. I returned via the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail. The Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail splits into a main Trail and an Alternate Trail here. I took the Alternate Trail - more on this later.
6. I took the short connector from the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail back to the Sunset Trail, and took the Sunset Trail back to the Park HQ.


This picture was taken near the start of the hike. Although, I had to turn back, since the first segment of the Sky-line-to-the-Sea Trail was closed due to storm damage.



Here's a picture nearing the start of the hike. Note that there's some slope here, but this is considered as moderate slope, there are steeper slopes to climb.



Other parts of the trail are relatively flat and not much harder than simple street-level strolls. Note that there's a stream running next to the trail.


This is just about the mid-way of the 11 mile round trip, at the Golden Falls. In the map above, I've labeled it as #3.



This is another part of the series of waterfalls. I think this is the Silver Falls.



This is the pay-off waterfall, the Berry Creek Waterfall. It's a nice little waterall with a pool at the bottom. This is labeled as #4 on the map above.

I decided to take the Skyline-to-the-Seas Trail, this is a trail sign where the trail splits into a main trail and an alternate trail. Due to sheer bravado, I decided to take the trail less taken and went on the alternate trail. This point is labeled as #5 on the map above. It was on the alternate trail that I ran out of energy and my body started to complain. My legs started to cramp and tighten up. I could have sworn that the "alternate" part of the trail was much longer than it shows on the map.



The last 2~3 miles of the hike was rather hellish, as I slowly waddled toward the finish line. I resorted to counting my footsteps to try to estimate how much longer I had to walk. I had to stop every couple of hundred yards to rest, although I could never rest too long, as mosquitoes would swarm when I'm not moving. I don't know if they bite, but I didn't want to stop for long and find out. All the bravado and energy had left me, as I had to fight to finish the hike. I saw a trail marker that was 1.3 miles from the HQ, but I was too tired to take the camera out of my bag and take a picture. When I came across this marker that was "only" 0.9 miles from the park HQ, I mustered some energy to take the camera out and take this picture.

Finally, when I emerged from the trail, I got on the gravel-covered parking lot and I could see my car was only a couple of hundred yards away - that didn't give me any more energy, just relief, as I shuffled the last couple of hundred yards and collapsed in my car. I sat in there for about 10 minutes, trying to recover, but I was just too tired to recover from. So I had to struggle to drive home. The first 30 minutes driving was quite adventurous, as I really had to concentrate to drive. However, after about 30 minutes, I realized that my body had indeed recovered enough to the point where I was merely tired instead of feeling so tired that I felt like throwing up.

Anyways, the 11 mile roundtrip hike was perhaps too much. I should have perhaps started with the less strenuous 5~6 mile hike. But now that the hike is done, I guess I'll have to do the 11 mile hike next time to see if my physical conditioning has improved. I brought 1.5 liters of water, although I had 500 mL of water left, since I also brought roughly a pound of grapes. Although, I started hitting the wall after I ate the grapes. So maybe I'll not do that next time.


Next time, I think I'll stay with the 1.5L of water, but bring trail mix and energy bars instead. I also brought extra clothing, since I wasn't sure what kind of weather I was going to run into. However, despite the fact that 90% of the trail was completely under the canopy of the forest, I was never too hot or too cold, so I didn't need the extra clothing. So I'll leave that behind the next time. I also didn't have a proper backpack or hiking boots, although that didn't seem to matter too much. I almost twisted my ankle a couple of times in my running shoes, but recovered each time. However, if I go and purchase a new pair of hiking boots the provide better support for my ankles, I will have to deal with the extra weight of the boots - I'll have to think about the trade-offs.