Plan for the Next Hobodom Trial

I'm still struggling in the aftermath of the camping in Shasta. I'm now moving into the one-day-up-one-day-down phase: walk a mile, crap out the next day; walk again, crap out again. That's despite being careful to keep the walk to less than a mile and 90 steps/min with 15 minute break every half a mile. I'll have to be even more careful a while longer.

Or, I could go back on the road and see if that gets me out of the struggle. I'm taking this option and go to South Yuba River next week. It's going to hit 100F, so it's a good time to dip in the river too. Monday is Memorial Day though -- there'll be throngs in the water. I'll have to go on Tuesday to avoid the crowd. I'll stay there for 4 days like the last time and see if I can get myself out of this PEM funk.

I'm not going to do another 5 mile/2000 feet hike for sure, or even 4 mile/600 feet which is the limit while on the road. I'll just hike a mile down to the river in the afternoons, wade in it and return. The rest of the time I'll spend reading and working on my new video career, now that I have installed additional memory and VSDC on my laptop. (I wanted to go with Davinci Resolve, but the damn thing didn't work even after installing 16 additional GB.)

Yes, I got a new camera to get into more serious videography. I was waiting for a long time for Lumix G9 to go on a sale, but with the chip shortage and impending explosion of demand after covid19 hiatus, it wasn't likely. Lumix S5 happened to be on sale, however, so I jumped on it. Lumix full frame is not selling well, so they must've needed a kick only after 6 months on the market. It was hard to resist: it was tax-free from Adorama through Walmart and I got 5% back from Walmart. That was on the top of 15% discount.

The thing was big and heavy as expected. Not the camera by itself, but with 24-105mm lens, it could well be a grindstone around your neck. No way I'm taking it on long hiking trips again like I did on the Castle Crags hike. I'll just use it for videography and tootling around the town. It may eventually degenerate into an expensive paper weight, I'm afraid, and I may get another MFT camera like upcoming GH6. No idea why people obsess full frame. You are carrying all that weight and size all the time for 1% of the time that the size may be useful for. It's a terrible trade-off and I'm sticking with MFT.

Post-hobodom Struggle Over... NOT

 .. And just like that, the struggle seemed over. Still a little tired, but spring is back in my steps and I was even whistling while driving to the grocery store in the morning. It's just amazing how much more livable the life is when you are not sick.

My exercise tolerance still remains shrunken, however. I walked a little fast while grocery-shopping and I crapped out by the evening. The next day I was back in the dog house. I'm back in the territory where I do little something and I crap out a few days, rinse and repeat.

Alcohol tolerance was proportionally shrunken too; a beer debilitates me for the rest of the day.

I'll have to limit my walk to 90 steps per minute again. Definitely no biking for a while. But it is still a relief to be able to stay away from CFS sickness by being careful.

Aftermath of Hobodom Trial

It's been a gradual descent to post-exertional struggle over a week period. Sure, I naturally felt pretty fatigued the day after coming back on 5/14. I hiked total of 10 miles and climbed over 2000 feet after all. But I was in a good mood and it was no different than any post-exercise fatigue for a healthy person. I still had my hope up that I'd recover in a few days like a healthy person would. Instead, I started my descent when the happy chemical wore out after a few days and now only the debilitating fatigue and nasty ache remain. Night time is the worst as usual.

Just what was I thinking, doing 5 mile 2000 feet gain hike? It was the same kind of optimism that had me do 5.9 mile, 800 feet gain hike on Angel Island back in 2019 and pay the price for 2 months. Will it last another 2 months? Let's hope not. Next week I'm going on the second trial no matter what, and I'll predict that going back on the road will lift me out of this PEM struggle. That has happened many times before and this is an opportunity for experiment. We'll see.

Waterfalls Day

 This is the day 4 in this hobodom trial. 

Day 3 was spent driving out to Algoma campground to check it out and then rolling around the camp. It was a rather pleasant day, actually. It was actually cold at Castle Lake, but breezy and pleasant at the sun-drenched campsite.

I drove by here yesterday on the way to Algoma. It was over a mile on dirt road from the highway 89 to get to the Upper McCloud Fall, so I didn't bother to go in. The trail map had the hike starting from the Upper Fall, but the track from the lower to upper is in the direction of driving. It turned out that the road to Lower Fall is paved too, unlike the one to the upper one. No complaint from me.

It was a hike for the total of 4 miles. Mostly flat along the river, though there were some climbing in the middle. This is the kind of hike that is within my CFS limit of 4 miles and 600 feet gain. I was done before noon. I was hungry -- I only had serial for breakfast -- and I was going to plug in and cook. But there was no good place; the picnic tables were far away from parking. I could've used the flat rock on the roadside as the countertop, but it seemed too much trouble. I just ate leftover bread and moved on.

Burney State Park was the next on the route. You've seen pictures, it's the 8th wonder of the world according to Theodore Roosevelt. He might have exaggerated a bit. It didn't look as grand in person as it did in some pictures. A nice fall nonetheless, with cool water spray all over you as you near the fall. Some picture taking and then the loop trail good for one mile, and I was done.

A charging stop in Red Bluff and late lunch at the Asian take-out in the complex while charging. Then I was home by 4PM.

Castle Dome, Almost

 

Craggy Peaks from Vista Point

I only intended to go up the Vista Point for the total of half a mile. Then I would walk along Sacramento River, maybe for another mile. But then, I saw the craggy peaks from the Vista Point and I had to get a closer view. So I decided to go maybe as far as Pacific Coast Trail for less than half a mile, or to Indian Springs Trail for another mile if I felt up to it when I get to PCT. I was sure I'd see the crags up close and personal by then.

I don't know what got into me. By the time I got to the split between Root Creek Trail and Crags Trail, I started thinking maybe I could make it all the way to the top. That is 5.3  miles round trip to Castle Dome and 2200 feet elevation gain. Are you kidding me? I could declare I recovered if I make that. 

I passed PCT without noticing. Then Bob's Hat Trail came and went. No sign of those craggy peaks yet, but I was sure I'd see them by the time I got to Indian Spring trail. The topo map said so. And it was right. The sight opened up as I closed in on Indian Spring trail and the craggy peaks suddenly appeared, full monty. 

From there on, it was a hard climb on hard rocks. It would've been impossible without the hiking sticks. My poor feet, with only walking shoes on them, rocked and rolled and the back of my right heel quickly peeled off. I marched on, hands and feet at times. When 3:50PM rolled in, I could reach out and almost touch the Castle Dome. It always seem that way: one more turn, you'll be right there. It is an optical illusion. I looked at the map, and the direct distance was about 1000 feet. 

I had to turn around. I was completely exhausted and it could take another 30 minutes at the pace. Then I would have to take another 30 minutes rest at the top to gather enough energy and courage to get back down. It would be another 2.6 miles steep downhill to get back to the Vista Point. I could not make it back by 7PM when it gets dark in the mountains. As it was, the temperature dropped by 5PM and it was getting chilly.

Disappointment, for sure. But the memory of Telegraph Hill that put me in the bed for all winter long back in 2009 is still seared in my memory and I'm glad I turned around when I did. It was a struggle getting back down and I had to walk backward half the time once I got back down to Indian Springs trail. There is no telling what aftermath I would've faced if I pressed on to the top. It was better to live to fight another day.

Still, it was good for 5 miles and 2000 feet elevation gain, the toughest ever in 13 years of my CFS career. It's about a half of 10 miles and 3000 feet gain which I used to be able to. I am now officially at 50% recovered. If I don't get sick from it, that is.

Hobodom Trial, Day 1

I got my Instant Pot and a hot plate for cooking. The hot plate is working double duty as a heater in the morning. At night, the electric blanket keeps me warm. With an electric car and a 2000W inverter, the hobodom in 9x7 tent can turn into a life of luxury.

I gave up camping at Alabama Hill and came to Shasta-Trinity instead on 5/11. To get to Alabama Hill, I had to go over the Sierra through Lake Tahoe. It is a fine place for hobodom, but it was too far just for a trial. Mt. Shasta is about half the distance and just as good a place.

I originally planned to camp out for 4 nights at Algoma camping ground and then drive to all destinations from the camp. As I drove past Castle Crags, however, it didn't seem to make sense to drive all the way to Algoma and then drive back 40 miles to hike Castle Crags. So I decided on the fly to camp at Castle Lake campground for 2 days and then go to Algoma. 

Turned out, it still takes over 30 minutes from Castle Lake to Castle Crags. The straight distance is about 5 miles, but there is no way to get from there to there directly. You have to get on the freeway and then go around Castle Crags peaks to get to Castle Crags state park on the opposite side of the peaks. To make it worse, You have to climb up 2000 feet on a winding mountain road to get to Castle Lake. So you don't save much time -- only 6 minutes to be exact, according to the Google map --  by camping at Castle Lake instead of Algoma.

Well, Castle Lake campground was closed. Maybe it is not open till June, I don't know. But there were dispersed campsites available nearby so I set up the camp there with the view of Mt. Shasta with its top half still covered with snow. Nice view, but it was an exposed site with the sun beating down on you all day long. And the nights were as cold as the days were hot. I had my fan and spray bottle going during the day and the electric blanket at night. It would've been downright miserable without them. There were spots with shades further into the campground and I tried to get there by squeezing through the bushes. I only managed to scrape the side and the bottom of my car a few times and then turned around. Tesla S was never meant to be an overlander -- I'll need a jeep in my next life. 

Covid Vaccine, 2nd Dose

In 2010, I was standing in the post office in SF, on Sutter Street near Union Square I think, trying to mail a package of what was remaining after getting rid of everything, to my sister's house before leaving for Korea. I was so sick then that I wanted to drop everything and lie down on the floor right there. I have no idea how I survived such sickness for so long then. The severe sickness lasted till 2012 when I was back to SF. I remember telling my then fiance that "I could live with this" when one day I was finally out of a long bout of the semi-delirium.

The after-effect of the second covid shot brought back that memory. It not only brought fatigue and ache as the first shot did, it also accompanied the fever. And the fever brought on extreme weakness and dizziness that resulted in that semi-delirious feel of the early days in my CFS career. I've been describing the severe case of CFS as "feverless feverishness" and I've been right all along.

It only lasted 1.5 day though. And Naproxen brought a relief like a magic. 

How nice would it be if you could take a pill to get a relief from CFS just like that. Naproxen doesn't help because CFS sickness is not caused by acute inflammation. It is brought on by tiny bit of inflammatory signal from minor exertion that puts your brain on fire and into full blown sickness mode. Dopamine that works as fire retardant on your brain does help though. That's why novelty or mild stress that stimulates dopamine helps.