Skiing #4

Yeah, the novelty is wearing out, once again. This time I was dragging till I got on the lift. Maybe the detour to Judah lot deflated me. The Village gondola went kaput while I was on the line and I had to drive to Judah side on my boots, and then walk a quarter mile to the lift. I was grumpy enough to be swearing. Not to mention that it took a lot out of me even before the skiing began. But all was well once I got on the Judah lift and took in the view of the white hills, with cold air on my face.

It was Gerome that I was supposed be on; Judah is blue/black lift. So, right off the bat, my plan for repeating the last week was out the window. I did get a kick out of it though. It was a much more interesting blue run than Christmas Tree and a sign of things to come for the day. I went on Gerome a few times and then moved to Village side to do Nob Hill.

After Judah, Nob Hill couldn't hold me in. I did a few runs on it and then I went on Disney Express. But I still managed to reminded me of the aftermath a week before and took the second break right after that. I realized I was getting out of control and I decided to cut short and go back home via Judah after the break.

Christmas Tree was the way back to Judah. But the lift was closed and the dufus employee at Nob Hill told me I had to walk back. A mile on my boots? I was furious.  He then consulted map and said I could get back via Mt. Lincoln.

All good except that Mt. Lincoln was an advanced lift. But I had no choice but  to get on it. I actually got excited at the prospect of skiing down Mt. Lincoln after so many years. It was a long slope, just like I used ski. I get excited just thinking about it the day after.

I squeezed one more run on Gerome and then came back home.

So I hit 5 different lifts: Judah, Gerome, Nob Hill, Disney Express and Lincoln. It's as if I'm back to normal. Will I kneel over for a week the day after tomorrow when this post-exercise high wears out? We'll see.

Skiing #3

I don't know what it is about excitement. I was pretty fatigued out from hauling the 15 lbs laundry the day before, on top of the aftermath from the skiing the intermediate runs 11 times a week before. I was dragging myself all the way to the parking lot of Village condola. Then the sight of the slopes perked me up and I was no longer dragging around. I was ready to charge up the mountain.

Last time I was perked up at the sight of white capped mountains while still on the freeway. So the novelty may be slowly wearing out.

So I went on to ski on Monday as planned despite the hangover. This time I reined on in my enthusiasm a little better and stuck mostly with the bunny slopes, except for 2 runs on intermediate ones, for the total of 8 Nob Hill + 2 Christmas Tree + 4 Nob Hill. This time I didn't suffer from the aftermath. For 2 days, I was up and running and then settled back to the steady state. A soft landing without funk or crap-out. I think I have found my base that I can return for safety.

Season Begins

Actually, it began 2 weeks ago at the end of November. An early storm dumped 5 feet of snow in the mountains and Sugar Bowl opened on 11/30. I already squeezed in 2 days of skiing.

The first day went fine. I spent most of time on Nob Hill, the beginners run. It was shorter than Soda Springs' and I got quickly bored. I went on to Christmas Tree, but the run was too long and the lift was too fast. It was a double whammy: you exert more/longer and you get to rest less. I did 2 runs and then came back to Nob Hill. No PEM aftermath afterwards though. It was a typical gradual descent over 3 days: post-exercise high, funk and then crap-out. Then I recovered mostly. More than usual fatigue persisted throughout the week, but I was able to take care of ADL fine.

6 days after the first trip, I went for the second time. I was still under a bit of weather from the first time, but I went on as I planned. Been there, done that -- Nob Hill was no longer fun. By the time I took the morning break, I was tired and ready to pack up and go home. But I went to Christmas Tree after the break and then I came alive. I was having much more fun than the first day there, I ended up doing 11 runs. Then I wrapped up the day with 4 more runs on Nob Hill.

Now I'm paying price for it. The usual 3-day descent is over, but I'm still struggling during the daytime and suffering that quaking ache at night. I hope I won't end up paying the price for 2 months like I did after 6 mile hiking. I was planning to go back up to Sugar Bowl on Monday, but I may have to postpone it depending on how I feel tomorrow.  Skiing every week seems out of question for now unless I stay away from intermediate slopes.

Meanwhile, the used pair of skis that I picked up on Craigslist for $40 is working out well. I originally leased the package for the season from Clark's Snow Sports for $189. It came with a shitty pair that retailed for $100 brand-new. I returned it after the first day and applied the refund to the purchase of Nordica Cruise 70 boots, a light and super comfortable beginners boots.  Paired with old Dynastar Outland skis, they are just what I needed till I fully recover.

False Recovery When Waken from Deep Sleep, Explained

I wrote about feeling recovered sometimes when waken in the middle of night after 5 or so hours of sleep. Today, there was an article about cerebral fluid washing away metabolic waste from brain during the deep sleep phase. So I did some search, and this idea has been around for a while. In summary, the blood flow to the brain during deep sleep is reduced because neurons fire synchronously thereby reducing the energy need. That allows the wave of cerebral fluid to rush in and wash away the brain waste.

What if the fatigue is caused by the lactate buildup in the brain? The lactate buildup, along with inflammation, has been reported in CFS, TBI and aging brain. They all suffer from inordinate fatigue.  The lactate could be washed away during deep sleep cycle, and if you get waken up after that cycle, you could feel fatigue-less. The lactate then quickly builds up again in the inflamed brain and the ever-present fatigue returns.

Then there is also worsening of fatigue and ache during the sleep. The body, as well as the brain, is trying to repair itself during the sleep and waves of inflammation washes over the body. The inflammation then causes the quaking fatigue and ache while sleeping. This body washing could be happening in different phases from the brain washing, resulting in alternating fatigue and relief during the sleep.

Healthy people don't feel peaks and valleys of fatigue/ache while sleeping. For CFS folks who are hypersensitive though, the highs and lows are exaggerated.

Happy Days Are Here Again

It's been a struggle of almost 2 months since I hiked Angel Island on 9/3. A mile walk or 3 mile bike ride has been crapping me out the next day. Now I can walk 2 miles and still can take care of ADL the next day. I am back in the steady state.

It wasn't just the 6 mile hiking on 9/3. I tend to do worse in the Fall anyway. When I was suffering from bouts of overtraining syndrome in 2004-2007, the episodes were clustered between September and December. Now with CFS, my exercise ability usually dips in the Fall. And then the flushot in October weakened me further.

The flushot last year did not have an adverse effect. This year, I struggled for a few days. Not quite 2 weeks like in 2015, but still worse than last year. That could be because I was already weakened from the 6 mile hiking.

So, it's been one thing after another and the struggle stretched out for 2 months. I hope it's the blue sky from here on. I should let this be the lesson and rein on compulsion to overdo from now on.

But I'm already feeling cavalier again and bought a season ticket to Sugar Bowl. Midweek pass was on sale for $379 and I couldn't resist. But I'll do my best to stick to bunny slopes. Just in case I make progress though, Sugar Bowl will have plenty more runs than two-chair Soda Springs.

Tomorrow, I'm flying out to NJ. My sister's husband passed away from cancer after nearly 40 years of marrage and I need to keep her company for a while. I'll commute to NYC from there and walk the streets for a week or so.

Angel Island Aftermath

I seriously regret doing the Angel Island hike. It's been almost 4 weeks and I'm still struggling. The night time is the worst: I sleep in semi-delirium with quaking ache and fatigue as if suffering from an acute vial infection. Then, when I get up, it's one-day-up-one-day-down pattern. One day I vegitate and I feel a bit better the next; then I do little something, and the next day I crap out again. It's a struggle and I'm again sick and tired of being sick and tired.

It was pretty warm last Wednesday. The Indian Summer must've arrive early and the temperature went up to 100F in Sacramento. I woke up feeling shitty again, and when that feverless feverishness did not dissipate, I hopped on the car and drove to SF for the walk across the bridge. Maybe a day trip will end the struggle, like the trip to Banff did for the struggle after 5 mile hike last month, I figured.

It was uncomfortably warm 90F on the Golden Gate Bridge. So much for escaping the Sacramento heat for the cool fog.  I parked by the battery on the west side of the southern end and walked to  the middle of the bridge and then came back. I ended the day with 9000 steps.

Well, that didn't work. My delirious nights and up-and-down days continued. Maybe it takes a multi-day trip to end the struggle.

Just what was I thinking, doing 6 mile 700 ft hike when my limit is 4 mile 600 ft? During the cross-country trip in 2017, I backed off from all hikes longer than 2 miles. The memory of spending months in bed after climbing Telegraph Hill in 2009 still weighed on me then. Now that I can do 4 miles, I didn't back off from any during this year's Banff trip except for the real steep ones. The success of Banff trip -- yes, it was a success despite relatively short 8 days of struggle after I returned -- must've given me a fresh confidence and I slacked off on my vigilance.

This could've been another disaster like the Telegraph Hill. I'll have to double my discipline and stick to my limit of 4 miles/600 ft hiking or 12 miles of biking.

Angel Island

I keep going back in time. Like a comatose patient who woke up after 12 years. I wasn't in a coma; I moved around a lot. More than ever, in fact. From Santa Clara to SF, and then to Seoul, twice. Then I traveled with my new wife across the US to NYC in 2017, journeyed to Oregon last year, and then to Banff and Glacier this year. It wasn't exactly a stasis in darkness. But it's true that my life was abruptly fractured in 2008. I've been struggling to get back to where I was before since then.

Angel Island, 2008

On the other side of that fault line lies Angel Island. In july 2008, my sisters were visiting and I took them there for the best view in the whole SF Bay Area. The next day, I went back to the dojo, rolled with the boys and then I keeled over for good after that. So coming back here has been a long time goal of mine. It would be a milestone that means that I returned to the pre-illness days, at least symbolically.

The hotel price in SF plummeted for the Labor Day and I decided to take advantage. I was a bit apprehensive -- I just got out of the 8 day struggle after the trip to Banff after all. But I wanted to make it to Angel Island before weather turned wet and this was a good opportunity. I should be able to handle 4.8 miles  as long as I take it slow and easy, I figured. All those hiking I did during the trip to Banff must've boosted my confidence.

Angel Island, 2019

I got to Tiburon with 10 minutes to spare and I still had to park and then get to the ferry dock. I ran and I still was late. Luckly it was day after Labor Day and the empty ferry was in no hurry. I got up to the deck, relaxed and soaked up the view in the sun.

On the way up on Sunset Trail, I took the fire road by mistake and ended up on Northridge trail on the other side. By the time I was there, I already walked 3 miles and there was no turning back: it was Mt. Livermore or bust. The 4.8 mile hike turned into 5.9 mile in total.

And yes, it was good to be back. The sun was in and out of the fog on the way up and then the fog cleared up soon after I arrived. I was lucky: this time of the year, the fog usually doesn't burn off till 2PM. I had my bagel, soaked up the view for 30 more minutes .

I came down 2.2 miles of Northridge Trail in 75 minutes. Substract 30 minutes for 3 breaks I took, that means I must've done it at 3 mph! That's my hiking pace when I was healthy. The hiking poles took the brunt of the downhill impact, so I let the gravity do the work. Still, 3 mph was way too fast and that probably contributed to the aftermath.

Epilogue

Dishes pile up. Recyclables pile up. Things pile up and you can't do anything about it. You wait for a break and then you go grocery shopping. Next day, you are knocked out. When you get back up again, you do the laundry. You have to prioritize and take care of the most pressing needs first.

After getting away with a week long trip to Oregon last year, I was hoping that I'd get away with this one too. No such luck. But the post-trip struggle lasted only 8 days, much shorter than usual 3 weeks. A sign of improvement? After 19 days of registering more than 10,000 steps almost everyday, it has to be.

It's also a sign that I'm not out of the woods yet. Sure, I did a lot more in this trip than I did on previous ones. But it still wasn't exactly a backpacking trip; it was a moderate trip that consisted driving and easy day hikes. No healthy person would struggle with ADL for 8 days after a trip like that. No healthy person would struggle with ADL for 8 days  after any kind of trip.

Here is the tally of the hikings I did in this trip:

• 8/5, McKerricher State Park, 1.5 miles
• 8/6, Trinidad Head Trail, 3 miles
• 8/7, Upper Cascade Head Trail - 2.5 miles
• 8/8, Sol Duc Falls Nature Trail - 1.6 miles
• 8/12, Nairn Falls - 2 miles
• 8/13, Agnes Trail to Mirror Lake - 4 miles
• 8/14, Bow Falls Trail - 1.5 miles
• 8/15, Johnston Canyon Trail to Upper Falls - 4 miles
• 8/18, Mystic Falls Trail - 3 miles
• 8/19, Augur Falls Trail - 2 miles
• 8/21, Rubicon Trail - 4.2 miles

And here is how my exercise ability has collapsed, from the high of 100,000 steps a week to 22,000, after we returned from the trip on 8/22:

South Lake Tahoe

Climbing Mt. Tallac in 2004

I was in a 3 day backpacking trip with the Stanford posse over Mt. Tallac back in 2004. From the private trail head by Fallen Leaf Lake, we went straight up 3000 feet carrying 20 lbs backpack. It was one of the hardest hiking I've done.

Fast-forward 15 years and this trip is  now coming to an end. We drove 500 miles straight from Boise in this last leg of our journey. No hiking, no sightseeing; only charging stops for the first time in this trip. We made up for it the next day with Rubicon Trail.

Rubicon trail mostly follows the lake. The most scenic portion of the trail starts from Calawee Cove in D. L. Bliss Park and ends in Emerald Bay State Park for about 3.6 miles, one way. There was no shuttle back, so you either have to do the round trip of 7.2 miles, or turn around in the middle. We ended up doing 2.1 miles and turn back for the total of 4.2 miles. I knew I could get away with 4 miles and I did not want to push my luck, though another half a mile would've taken me to Farly Beach. Self discipline won the day.

View from Rubicon Trail

Boise, ID

Snake river no longer snakes by the time it reaches Idaho Falls. The water is rather green too; it's no longer crystal clear like when it left Grand Teton Mountains. It nonetheless meanders through Idaho, watering farms along the way, and we followed the river to Boise.

Snake River, Dammed in Idaho Falls

In my imagination, Idaho has been a vast farmland. Like Minnesota, only for potato rather than corn. Maybe it was shaped by my memory of Spokane that I visited  some 35 years ago. I was just out of college and the computer terminal manufacturer I was working for sent me there to troubleshoot the problem a potato processing plant was having with our terminal. I remember farm circles all over underneath as we flew in on a prop plane. Spokane is in Washington, true, but it is at the border with Idaho, it may as well be Idaho.

Snake River in Twin Falls

We were met with desert scape, not farm scape soon after we we left Idaho Falls. Large part of Idaho is covered volcanic rocks and they looked not unlike Nevada or Utah desert. In fact the Idaho desert spills into Nevada and Utah in the South and Oregon to the West. The farmlands are limited to the Snake River basins. Farmers draw water from the river and make the desert bloom with the gigantic wheeled sprinklers that rotates around. And that is the reason why the farms are circles, not rectangles.

In the north, the Rockies branches out to form the Idaho mountains. We originally planned on following the Bitterroot range to Salmon, and then switch to the Sawtooth Mountains on the way to Stanley.  That route would've gently drop us off at Boise. We had to give up on that because charging the car in the mountains was difficult. We instead followed Snake River here.

Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, our charging stop after Idaho Falls, was too enticing to pass up. Tesla station was conveniently located at the top of it right off the Rim Trail by the visitor's center. We walked the rim and the bridge while charging and then drove down to the river. We were going to kayak the river, but the murky green river was not too inviting. So I asked the lad there about hiking trail instead. He pointed us to Augur Falls Trail several miles down the dirt road.

It might have been a good trail if we had time (and I had energy). We didn't, so we were going to hike a mile to the bridge and come back. Except that we didn't find the bridge. We took a wrong trail and ended up at a pond. The sun was beating down on us and there was nowhere to hide. Rim trail toward Shoshone Falls would've been a much more pleasant hike in retrospect.

So, there you have it: Idaho is mountains in the North and volcanic lava deserts in the South, not a vast potato farmland. Snake River then drapes across Idaho desert on its way to joining Columbia. We saw Columbia emptying into the Pacific in Astoria, we saw it beginning in Yellowstone, and then we followed it all the way to Boise, all in this trip. And now I can say I understand Idaho. If nothing else, this trip has been worthwhile for it.

Somewhere between Boise and Oregon

Yellowstone

Mystic Falls, Yellowstone

The original plan was to continue south from Missoula and follow Bitterroot Mountains to Salmon. Then turn West to Stanley on the way to Boise. Charging the car was a pain through Idaho mountains though -- we had to camp out in RV parks for 3 nights in a row, or pay millions of dollars at hotels that have EV charging station. So we gave up on it and headed West to Yellowstone instead.

Things have ways of working out. The sun was as intense as the last time we were here in 2017. But the air was breezy and cooler, a perfect weather for a day hike. The change of plan also saved us 2 days and afforded us an extra day of rest in Lake Tahoe before returning home.

I no longer remember if we stopped at Biscuit Basin the last time -- I'll have to sift through the pictures we took. But we didn't do any day hiking, and that I know. This time we walked to the trail head at the far end of the basin and hiked to Mystic Falls, for about 3 miles total.

We left Yellowstone through the West entrance and then followed US 20 southward to Idaho Falls. This gave us the view of Teton Mountains from Idaho, the opposite side from where we viewed in 2017. And now we can say that we know the Grand Teton, front and back.

Grand Teton from Idaho Side

Glacier National Park

Water here is not as milky. But it still retains that turquoise tint. The mountains are more lush too: the trees along Cedar Trail was covered with lichens like in the rain forest of Olympic National Park. The western side of the mountain must be getting dumped as the air rises to go over the 10,000 ft peaks. West Glacier gets 30 inches of rainfall annually while St. Mary on the eastern side gets measley a couple.

As we traveled eastward to Calgary, the landscape quickly turned flat as if the Rockies never happened.  Series of farms turned into ranches as we approach Calgary, a town known for cattle drive and stampede in its glory days. The mountain meanwhile ran away from us in southeastern direction and became invisible by the time we got to Calgary. The Rockies became visible once again past Fort McCleod as we travel south from Calgary. By the time we got to Cardston, we could see the peaks in the distance.

We got to St Mary, the launching point for Going-to-the-Sun Road, in the afternoon. We meant to leave Canmore before 7AM so that we would arrive at St. Mary by noon, but the hotel didn't serve breakfast till 7AM, so we were already an hour behind schedule when we left. We didn't spend much time in Calgary other than a quick charging stop. It was pouring and there wasn't much to look other than Bow riverfront anyway. But the stop for the Tesla charger and a bad Chinese take-out in Ft. Mcleod took an hour.

Luckly, Going-to-the-Sun road wasn't too long. It is only 85 miles, or 5 hours of drive including stops at a dozen points of interest.  We still had daylight left when we got to Moose Creek RV Resort past West Glacier, where we camped for the night.

I can't think of any scenic drive that matches this Going-to-the-Sun road. And there are scenic ones that we've driven through: Yosemite Valley drive, Zion National, From Prescott to Sedona, Grand Canyon Rim drive, etc. But the views from the harrowing Logan's Pass was more visceral. Maybe the cool temperature and lushness may have something to do with it.

We could've easily set up a base camp at Moose Creek and spent another day exploring and hiking Glacier national. Some dufus on the Net said that Banff is incomparably better than Glacier National, and I only scheduled 1 day in Glacier based on that misinformed opinion. I'll have to come back here, camp out and hike. Perhaps even backpack through the wilderness if I ever recover fully.

Banff, Canmore

Rundle Mountains

You know how you imagine things would look and then it turns out completely different when you actually get there. Canmore was one of them. I dismissed it as a no-where lodging town, much like Mariposa for Yosemite. Sitting across Rundle Mountains however, Canmore turned out to be a scenic resort town in its own right.

By the time we got to Golden BC, I was dog-tired; the 400 mile drive  from Seattle to Kamloops the day before, including stops in Vancouver and hiking Nairns Fall trail, took a toll.  Sitting down for lunch in Kicking Horse Chinese restaurant in Golden, I was thinking that we should stay in Golden for the night and then tackle Lake Louise in the morning. It's about the same distance to Lake Louise from Canmore anyway. But I already made reservation for 4 nights for whopping $750 and there was no cancelling it. So we marched on to Lake Louise and then to Canmore.

Lake Louise

Mirror Lake

Things have ways of working out. The sight of Lake Louise perked me up when we got there, and we charged up Agnes Trail to Mirror lake. It was harder hike than I imagined. It was 4 miles from where we parked, but the total elevation gain turned out to be 1000 feet. It was a real hike, in other words. I survived it with some help from my wife: she occasionally pushed me up on the way up and I leaned on her on the way down.  And now we had 2 full days, instead of 1, in Banff proper.

The next day we went into the town of Banff and hiked the trail to Bow Fall, the main tourist attraction in the park. It was only 1km long. After Agnes trail the day before, that was enough. Then we took Sulfer  Mountain Goldola and lounged at the top for an hour soaking in the view and the sun, and recovering from the hard hike the day before.

On day 3 I struck out on my own. After an easy day (yeah, now I'm calling 2km hike and a gondola ride an easy day), I felt I could tackle whatever's left. That's Moraine Lake trail, Johnston Canyon and Tunnel Mountain trail. That's total of 8 miles and it would've been impossible, of course. But that's how well I felt.

Moraine Lake was a bust. The parking was full, so I had to drive back to the overflow lot 6 miles away by the TC freeway. There, the line for the shuttle to the lake was 120 minutes. I turned around and headed to Johnston trail.

Johnston Creek

Johnston Canyon Trail was total of 4 miles from where I parked on the roadside. And it was about the same difficulty as the Sentinel Dome/Taft Point  hike in Yosemite, except that I did it faster in 3 hours. When finished, my legs were wobbly, but I still felt ambitious enough to go for Tunnel Mountain trail.


But the Tunnel Mountain trail was petty steep. The upper portion was only 1 mile and 800 ft in elevation, shorter and steeper than Agnes trail. The initial 0.1 mile in particular was straight up on stairs and the aftermath of Astoria Tower weighed on me. I gave up.

On the way to Tunnel Mountain trail, however, I came across Surprise Corner, the best vista point in the whole park that I didn't know about. You can climb down to the river from the top and it'll drop you right below Bow Fall. The view is just out of this world.

View from Surprise Corner

So, I hiked almost everyday since we left home. And 4 days in a row in Canada: Nairn Falls for 2 miles, Agnes trail for 4 miles, Bow Falls for 2 km and then Johnston Canyon for 4 miles. This trip has been twice as intense and twice as long so far, as the trip to Oregon last year. And I still was up and running by the time we left Banff. Should I declare that I recovered? Anybody not well versed with CFS would. But I know better. I'll probably will struggle for 3 weeks when I get back home. Then I'll settle into the steady state of 30,000 steps per week. (It would be nice to settle to 45,000 steps like in June, but the summer will be over by the time I'm done with the post-trip struggle). But you can always hope that the Spring is eternal.

Vancouver to Kamloops

What do you look like in the Summer?
A little sunnier in disposition, perhaps.
With the wet clouds gone, the blue glass boxes 
Lining your shoreline and boulevards 
Will shimmer under the sun
And your pale residents
Will come out from your belly 
And clog the trails of Stanley Park 

12 years ago, I wondered what Vancouver would look like in the summer. Now I have an answer. The picture below doesn't show it, but a lot of people were out biking and hiking in Stanley Park. Enough that a cop stopped me to point out that there were so many people on the road and I was driving too fast. Kinda embarrassing, but we had a long way to go and I was in hurry to get out of Vancouver.

Vancouver in Summer

We were skiing in Whistler back then, in the last days of 2007 just before I got sick with CFS. Now I'm here again,  hiking this time. Near Pemburton at the end of sea-to sky highway was a mile long trail to Nairn Falls along bluish grey Seton river. Since I gave up on Stawamus Chief Mountain trail in Squamish -- it was going straight up 1500 feet with lots of stairs -- I had to do this one.

Seton River near Nairns Fall

After Pemberton was the road to Kamloops that deserves a day of touring by itself. The Canadian Route 99 winds through the mountains culminating in Lilooets, a town of river and lakes surrounded by mountain cliffs. We descended on it at night with the moon, almost full, leaking its yellow light on the surrounding clouds. It was surreally beautiful and left me asking "what do you look like in daytime?"  I'm sure I'll be back for it, like I did for Vancouver.

Seattle

Kalaloch Beach

Climbing up Astoria Column was a big mistake. It's no more than 150 feet tall, nothing compared to 4 miles and 600 feet elevation hike I now am able to. But it was straight up  on spiral staircase. And it is always the sustained intensity that keels me over.  The next day I was  marooned all over again. The charging station at Kalaloch Lodge was about 300 m  away and I couldn't walk back to it after lunch. I had to send my wife to get the car despite she doesn't have a driver's license.

By the time we got to Sol Duc in the afternoon, however, I mostly recovered. In the past, such mistakes  would've costed me several days at the minimum. Now it's mostly one or two day affair. That's how far I progressed. Add the fact that I'm more exercise tolerant while I'm traveling, PEM is cut down to half a day.

Our 4500 mile trip to and from Canadian Rockies thus started.

It was  a smooth sailing till then. We left on Monday for CA coast and got to Eureka for the total of about 400 miles and millions of stops along the way for sightseeing and hiking.  More of the same the next day to Lincoln City, OR.

Somewhere North of Jenner, CA

Trinidad, CA

Cascade Head, OR

The original plan was to spend 2 nights in Lincoln city, so that I could get a full day of rest after hiking Cascade Head. Right after Cascade Head however, we went on to Aberdeen. And a smart decision that was. The Olympic Loop was just too big and it would've been impossible to make it one day from Lincoln City to Port Angeles. Starting the day from Aberdeen instead of Lincoln City allowed us to spend several hours in Sol Duc, hiking the trail to Sol Duc water fall and then dipping in the hot spring. And I tell you, alternating between hot spring and cold pool does wonders for your fatigue and ache after a long day.

Madison Fall in Elhwa Valley

View from Huricane Ridge

Entering Seattle over water via Bainbrige ferry rather than through land was yet another smart decision. For $18, we got to see the spectacular skyline from the water. And save at least one hour of travel time.

Seattle from Bainbridge Ferry

Gas Work Park in Fremont

Now here we are, perched at the Extended Stay in Bothell for 3 days. We stayed at Extended Stay millions of times during our cross-country trip in 2017, it's like coming home. And this is my opportunity to get some well deserved rest after 1,500 miles and charge up before the next leg to Banff.

I was here 12 years ago for the Whistler trip. We flew in and then rented cars to drive up North. We only had one day in Seattle. The dinner at the top of Space Needle was the highlight. (The rotating restaurant was no  longer, so we didn't go up this time.) Then we stopped there again on the way back for the New Years firework. I delegated the Seattle portion of the plan to someone else, so I don't remember the rest too well other than we hung out in the sculputure park and West Seattle.

The best way to explore a city is to divide it into neighborhoods and submerge yourself in them, one at a time. 3 days gave us enough time to do just that and we covered Fremont, Queen Anne, and Capitol Hill as well as Pioneer Square. Now I can say I have a better understanding of the city.

Despite the setback from climbing Astoria Column, I finished the week with 80,000 steps, the most ever. And, yes, the trip ended the PEM struggle after 5 mile hike prematurely by one week. In fact, it was over two days before the trip when I got busy with planning and packing.  Take a look:

Back in 2015

Yep, the 5 mile hike was a big mistake. 4500 steps yesterday, and I'm wallowing in that familiar feverless feverishness today. The gravity, about ten times as strong as it was yesterday, have me pinned down on the couch. I lay on my side -- pressing down on my iliotibial band relieves the thigh ache -- cross my ankles and have my legs stretched. Same thing with my wrists and triceps.

Yesterday was a brief respite: I did 6500 steps on Monday and paid price for 2 days. And now I'm right back in the pit. I am in about the same shape as I was in 2015 before the sudden improvement in June 2016.

5 Mile Hike And Aftermath

The Sentinel Dome - Taft Point hike in Yosemite was encouraging. I had the usual up and down for 3 days and then was right back up on my feet. No lasting PEM; I continued to register more than 40,000 steps a week. So I figured I should make the hiking a weekly event.

As usual, I got over-ambitious. I went for 5 mile hike last Saturday on Southfork American River Trail. It was the best rated trail near Sacramento on the website. Except that it wasn't. There were some distant views of the river soon after the ascent, but the trail was lined mostly with poison oak and dried up bushes the rest of the way. It was drab. But then, anything would be a drab after Sentinel/Taft.  I started at 11 and finished near 5PM, so it took me almost 6 hours for the effort.

I thought I was going to get away with it when I came out of 3 day recuperation period. But no, not this time. My exercise ability is now so shrunk, I struggle with 5000 steps a day. This week I barely registered 30,000 steps total.  An exertion would keel me over for 30 minutes, and then I'd get paralyzed for two hours, 5 hours after. The post-exercise inflammation wave is now highly pronounced and the constant need to lie down returned.

I'll have to lay low and abide my time for 2 more weeks. Except that I'm going on a 3 week trip through Western US/Canada to Banff National Park next week. It'll be 4,500 mile trip, a mini version of the cross-country trip we did in 2017. I think I'll manage alright. The novelty effect will kick in and I'll be road-worthy once I start out. If not, well, I can always turn around and come back. Just like I was prepared to do when we left for the cross-country trip.

Sentinel Dome and Taft Point

This one was worth 4 miles, and 20,000 steps total for the day. It's the most I've ever done since 2008 and it handily beat 16,000 steps I did in NYC in 2017.

I wasn't ambitious enough to the 5.5 mile loop. I was going to go as far as Roosevelt Point and back, then I realized I could do both Sentinel and Taft for the same distance. All I had to do was come back to the trail head and then head in the other direction. If I didn't feel up to it after Sentinel Dome, I could call it quit and my car would be right there too. I didn't quit. I probably could've done the loop the way I felt at the end of it.



I planned to take a 10 minute rest every 1000 steps. Going up to Sentinel Dome, I did. Then it became 10 minutes every half a mile from Sentinel Dome to Taft Point. Same thing on the way back up from Taft Point. It was getting past 6 PM and I only took only one break for the last 1 mile.

Strange thing's been happening this summer. Whenever I overdo, I have difficulty sleeping. It's similar to the sudden wakefulness that happened back in 2016, except that it is now happening after heavy exercises. It happened about 4 times and it was the same this time: I only slept 6 hours and I was ready to get up this morning. And there was no fatigue of sickness variety; only the exercise fatigue, and some dizziness, that you'd expect if you were healthy. It's as if I am recovered.

Except that I'm not. In between these exercise induced wakefulness, I fall back to the CFS state struggling with 6000 steps and then sleeping like a baby. I could play Jesus and try to walk on the water by keep over-exercising before I fall into the CFS state and wallow. I tried that, and it didn't work. My brain may be awake, but I was constantly in the exercise-recovery mode that I wasn't functioning, neither physically nor mentally. I was more like a zombie. Then, my ability tailed off after 2 long walks in 3 days, making me further useless. So I limited the over-exercise to a day or two a week.

Tomorrow I will poop out and get back to sleepy state, I'm sure. I'll rest one more day, get some work done -- I'm still working on deriving the fatigue measure from Fitbit intraday data so that I can wrap up my project -- and then go for 2 mile walk on Wednesday.

Why CFS Is Not Psychogenic

CFS was once thought of as a psychogenic disorder. The evidence that it is biological disorder is mounting and nobody is calling that anymore these days. But I thought of it when I read the NYT article on the invisible attack on US diplomats in Cuba and China. It raised a possibility that what the US diplomats experienced was a mass hysteria. The similarity to the Incline Village outbreak and subsequent labeling of CFS as middle aged women's hysteria is rather striking: they are both highly clustered, had no known cause, and they could not be replicated. No wonder people not versed with CFS thought that it was a conditioned response to initial infection or chronic stress.

And here is why CFS is not psychogenic even without any biological evidence to such. Most patients, including myself, come into CFS without knowing what Post-Exertional Malaise is. People suspect that they have CFS when they are constantly tired. But the real CFS patients struggle for months with worsening of symptoms after exertion. Then, after searching for answers for another months,  they are either diagnosed or find out themselves that it is CFS. They initially suffer from PEM without knowing what it is.

But a trained response in hysteria requires knowing and learning. The noise from the upstairs neighbor, for instance, can immediately trigger violent outburst to someone who had to put up with the annoyance for some time. It seems automatic as if you don't have control, when in reality you can retrain yourself and detach the response from the stimuli. CBT is a useful tool for that.

PEM in CFS is not immediate; it is delayed like a clockwork by 24 hours, just as buboes break out 24 hours after contacting plague. (Funny that I tell CFS people to avoid exertion like a plague). And it happens the same even when you don't know anything about it, just as buboes break out whether you know anything about plague or not. Since psychosomatic response requires the learning, PEM can't be psychosomatic. By extention, CFS can't be.

Learning about your PEM, BTW, takes long time and hard work. Many times I expected PEM but it did not happen. Even more times I wasn't expecting and then hit by the bus when 24 hours rolled in. You have to take a meticulous log of what you do every day and then eventually learn to predict  which activities trigger PEM. Even now after 11 years, I can't reliable predict. I only know that faster speed and/or fewer breaks cause PEM in general.

Cat Test for CFS Severity

It was meant to be a 3 week sentence, but I managed to extend it into 5 weeks. 2 weeks into it, I went on another biking, for 3 miles this time. It was a trip normally well tolerated, but not while in a 3 week PEM. It reset the clock and 3 weeks penalty restarted all over again.

As if the PEM sentence wasn't enough, the homeless cat we've been taking care of has developed a terrible flea problem. It was getting warm and fleas must be hatching en masse. I had to buy Frontline Plus, a vacuum cleaner and a flea comb to combat the infestation.

The cat moves around. I have to get up, chase it down and then sit again to comb it. I was effectively doing several reps of squat. My legs turned into jello after a few days of that and I still had to vacuum the house twice a day.  By last night I was getting so desperate that while lying in bed I contemplated locking the cat out.

Then, right on cue, I got better today. It's been 3 weeks since the 3 mile biking and I must be out of the jail. Life seems brighter all of sudden.

So, you could use the cat as a test for the severity of your CFS sickness. If you can take care of your cat's flea problem in a small 1 br home with hardwood floor, then you likely have a mild/moderate case. If you can't, you have a severe or moderate case. I'm right on the border. When I'm having PEM, I'm back in severe/moderate condition. When I'm out of it, I'm a mildly sick, functioning patient.

Officially speaking, of course, you are a mild patient if you can hold a job, but have to spend all your evenings and weekends recuperating. And a severe case if you are constantly home/bed-bound. Moderate is anything in between.

Getting Fit Is Dangerous to CFS

No, I didn't get to make to the skiing #3. The mountains had plenty of snow -- snow pack was 150% of the normal when the storms were done -- but the resorts jacked up the price after the storms so I gave up on skiing for the rest of the season. But I did go on a bike ride. The weather finally broke on the last day of March and temperature went up to 75F. I took advantage of it and went for the next segment of the river trail.

The trail undulated more as it approached Folsom and I had to pedal harder than usual a few times. Yet, by the time I remembered to take break, I was already 3.5 miles along. I ended up doing 7.5 mile ride with only one break. It was meant to be 6 miles to Folsom Outlet Mall, but I missed the turn and went way past on Willow Creek trail.  The way back after a long rest in the mall was pretty much the same: I took only one break when I got near Nimbus fish hatchery. In all, I did 15 miles only with 3 breaks when it should've been 12 miles with 5 breaks.

The outcome was predictable. I wallowed in the "worsening of CFS", aka PEM, for almost 3 weeks. Taking 5000 steps in a day was a struggle and then I had to lay off the next day, when as I was able to take 6000 steps several days in a row just prior to the biking. The CFS limit is still alive and well.

It must've been the skiing. I was cramping all over after I was done, and doing it that twice in a month must've put me back in a shape, enough that I could pedal on without remembering to take the break when I was supposed to.

And that is the danger of getting fit. You get fatigued quickly enough after a half a mile walk or 1-2 mile biking, that you don't forget to stop and rest when you are out of shape. If you are in shape, on the other hand, it's easy to forget and go on past your limit. It's better to be out of shape or depressed when you are a CFS patient, as that will help you and prevent you from over-doing

Strangely enough, I did not pay the same huge price after the skiing #1. It was the hardest exercise to date and I was cramping and aching all  over when I was done. But I was back on my feet after my condition bounced up and down for a few days. I think that was because skiing forces you take frequent breaks: you have to sit on the lift for 5-10 minutes to get back up the slope after skiing down for one or two minutes. As hard as the skiing was, the forced break must've prevented me from crossing my CFS limit. Biking slow on flat terrain is a much milder exercise in comparison, but I did it without enough break. So I ended up crossing my limit and pay the price.

The "ordeal" bike trip did not cause 3 weeks of struggle either.  It was also the hardest exercise to date at the time, but I took millions of breaks on that trip.

Graphically, the safe vs dangerous exercise zone for CFS patients looks like this:

You can either do high intensity exercise for a very short period of time or do a very low intensity exercise for a longer time. Skiing down a short bunny slope is the former and slow walking or biking on flat terrain is the latter. Either one should incorporate enough rest before repeating. When you get fit, you end up doing safe exercise at a higher intensity or for a longer duration, ending up in the danger zone. When you are atrophied or depressed, you do the reverse and get back in the safe zone.

So, if you have a moderate/mild CFS, it may be safer to stay out of shape. If you get fit, you must become extra vigilant and disciplined to force yourself to take frequent breaks. It's no different to the situation that serverely ill patients are in. For them, no activity is safe at any speed and therefore they have to be disciplined to pace themselves.

Curcumin Doesn't Work

It's been almost 3 weeks since I returned from the 2nd skiing trip. And I have settled into the familiar one-day-up-one-day-down pattern once again. Carry 20 lbs laundry or walking to the coffee shop craps me out the next day and I can't do much other than minimal ADL or Web surfing on my phone lying on the couch. It may be that I'm still under the weather from the last skiing. 3 weeks in the penalty box should be over in a few days, so maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

In any event, that means curcumin did not help. So I'm calling the curcumin trial a failure.

I'm still waiting for a break in the weather for my next skiing expedition. It did break last week  but no lift deal was available. So I'll have to catch the next break. The atmospheric river is running again and we'll be wet into the next week.

Skiing Aftermath, #2

There was no bouncing up and down this time. The elevation lasted 4 days and I held up remarkably steady.  After a day of rest I was on my bike pedaling 2 x 1.5 miles fast enough to slightly run out of breath at the end. Another day of rest, and I took care of 20 lbs laundry without struggling.  It sure felt like a recovery. So much so that I was imagining hiking up Angel Island and biking 20 miles.

Then the struggling followed. Walking 4 blocks to Starbucks was enough to bring about a nasty ache and fatigue the next day.  The struggle lasted for 5 days.

I will back to skiing next week  if I can find another $30 deal. This time I'll stick to 3x5 bunny runs and see if I get the elevation without the ensuing struggle. The weather may not cooperate though. The "atmospheric river" has stopped running, but they are still forecasting snow next week. This has been quite a wet season and the snow bases were over 10 feet before this storm. It must've been a delight to skiers. Me, I'm just delighted to be back on the slope.

Skiing #2

Soon after Colfax snow started to appear on the ground.  By the time I got to Kingvale, the walls on the sides of the road were 6 feet high and then turned into 10 feet in Soda Springs. The storm must've really dumped.

I woke up yesterday with ache from 2 x 50 m run I did three days before. It was the tail-end of a post-exertional malaise. But the lift ticket was already paid for, so I went on. And
my score this time: 5 bunny run; 2 x ( bunny + blue); 2 x (bunny + blue) + blue + 3 bunny run. 

It was about twice as much as I did the last time, and almost as much as I used to manage on the first day of the season when I was healthy. Yet I didn't cramp this time. And I stayed up all evening when I got back playing with the phone that arrived from a eBay dealer. Today I'm wallowing in a happy fatigue just as I should, unlike the last time when I was phlegmatic rather than wallowing. Don't know yet what coming days will bring. I think a funk will set it tomorrow when happy chemicals dissipate and then everything will be back to the routine after that. We'll see.

Curcumin Trial

I bought curcumin phytosome from Amazon and started on it a few days ago. This is the same brand used in the CFS trial for its anti-inflammatory property in reducing fatigue. The trial resulted in 15% improvement, so it's not much to write home about. I am not trying it for anti-inflammatory property though. I am more interested in microglial deactivation via TLR4 receptor inhibition and curcumin is supposed to be one of the antagonists.

This paper  claims that curcumin significantly deactivated microglia in concussion fatigue patients after in vivo injection.  Taking orally is not the same thing obviously. Curcumin is famous for low absorption rate and it's not clear how much of what's absorbed actually gets to the brain. But I figure it's worth the try. If nothing, 15% improvement is still nothing to sneeze at.

Back on My Feet Already

Well, that wasn't too bad. I struggled for only a few days, not 3 weeks. The struggle was over by 1/31, 7 days after skiing. Today I went out for a morning ride to the river and ended up pedaling fast in the shower on the way back. And that was on top of 1.5 mile walk yesterday.

Amazing that the struggle was over so quickly given that the intensity of skiing was way more than biking. I was cramping all over for crying out loud. Maybe it's got to do with the fact that skiing down the bunny slope takes less than a minute and then you get to rest for 5 minutes on the chair. It was an interval training.

So I'm going back to skiing next week after the storm is over. It is supposed to dump 8 feet of snow by the time it is done. Not that it matters since I'll be on the bunny slopes mostly. But fresh power will be nice still.

I went back to my log for the Oregon trip last August to see if I struggled long like the trip to So Cal in 2016. I didn't. I was biking 4 days after we returned and I did the "ordeal" 6 days after. And they were comparable trips.  So, I''m concluding that I am making a progress indeed.

But the cross-country trip in 2017 did result in a couple of 3 week post-trip struggles, one in NYC and another when we returned. And so did the trip to Paris. So the post-trip struggle is still alive and well; it's just that the exertion threshold went up.

Skiing Aftermanth

It's a deja vu all over again. And this post-trip struggle may go on for 3 weeks.

Day 1 - Fatigued but calm and awake.
Day 2 -  Ran errands and biked 2 miles. Crapped out in the afternoon till the next morning.
Day 3 - bounced back and free from fatigue and ache. Ran errands and then rode bike for 5 miles in the late afternoon. It felt like a recovery.
Day 4 - struggle begins..

It's as if whatever was keeping elevated lasted for another 3 days before the struggle set in, just like in Mesquite. Back then, walking up 2 flights of stairs was enough to bring about crash once the elevation faded. Now it's carrying 20 lbs laundry up one flight.

I could lay low for another 2 weeks till this post-trip struggle passes over. Or I can go on another trip, another skiing perhaps, to postpone the struggle. I still haven't figured out a way to soft-land from a hard elevation, other than relying on Sudafed or Bronkaid to temporarily prop up.

On the Slope Again, at Last

9 bunny runs, 1 blue run, 1 spill. That was my score on the first day of skiing after 11 years. I planned to stick to bunny slopes and do 3 runs in the morning and another 3 in the afternoon. But I was excited to be back on the slope and the blue run in front of my eyes beaconed; I gave in to the temptation after the first 3 bunny runs and a break.

Soda Springs, next to Sugar Mountains that I used to patronize for daytrips, only have 2 chair lifts, one for green and the other for blue. The price was equally light weight at $30. It was a perfect ski resort for a recovering CFS patient. And it was only 1.5 hours away too. I used to get up at 5AM to get to the mountains when I was living in the Bay Area. Now I can get up at 7 and still be on the slope by 10 AM. Now I am taking full advantage of being in Sacramento.

So I ended up doing three sessions instead of two I planned: 2 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. As I was coming back, I realized that is what I used to do: blue/black warmups in the morning, and then tackle the mountains before and after lunch.  Just like I used to do, only on bunny slopes. Still, I was cramping all over by the time I was done. That's how much I'm out of shape despite constantly challenging my PEM limits.

Strangely, I didn't sleep as well as I expected last night. I was tired and somewhat phlegmatic rather than knock-out tired when I returned. I took shower and went to bed early and ended up waking up several times. This morning, I'm feeling about the same: a little tired and phlegmatic when I should be sparkling and achy all over. Maybe I didn't do enough skiing. Imagine that, 10 runs not being enough after being sick for 11 years.

And that is the strangest thing about CFS, at least in this late moderate/mild phase of it. When in routine, it's as if the parking brake is on: you can't do much and you keel over when you do. Then, when novelty hits you, the brake is released and you function as if you are no longer sick. No wonder people mistook CFS for depression for years.

This false recovery has been happening often enough, it's no longer surreal like it was back in 2016 when I was suddenly able to walk twice as far for no reason. Back then, the thought of recovery after 8 years almost brought tears in my eyes. Now, it's more like, meh.