Iceland 2023 Day 6: Emstrur – Básar (hike day 4)

September 20, 2023 / Robin Grapa / Leave a comment

I know as a backpacker/hiker, when I see photos like this that other people share, I get a strange feeling in my belly that makes me want to be on whatever trail it is that I’m looking at. And it’s a fun feeling. So I hope this photo has that fun effect on you, too. #TrailPorn

Day 6 / Sunday, July 30, 2023

After my shower last night Kevin beat me at cribbage, playing on his super-tiny backpacking cribbage board and we stayed up a bit and chatted with our bunk mates. There was a group of three guys from Israel, and I have to admit, there was one I didn’t mind looking at. He was very handsome with the most beautiful brown eyes. We were also grouped in the same hut room with the Seattle people again, but we came to realize they are all very nice with the exception of just the one grumpy girl. Why be grumpy? We’re in freakin’ Iceland! Anyway, it doesn’t matter, we were having a good time and it was nice visiting with everyone. I slept pretty good and had some crazy dreams.

I woke up at 3am to pee, missing my 1am try again. And yup, still light. I took a short stroll and enjoyed the quiet away from the hustle and bustle outside of the daytime hut life. Everyone was sleeping and it was so peaceful. Maybe that peacefulness carried over because I was so happy hiking that morning. It just felt so good to be there. We had some good climbs and great views of the canyon, some neat bridges, ridges with chains to hang on to, and a sketchy water crossing that we all did just fine on. We also found the trees! TREES people! There’s not many in Iceland so this was kind of a big deal. They were mostly short birch trees (björk means birch apparently) but they’re still trees! Also some new flowers, even some lupine. Also a bird that my Merlin app said was a Eurasian Oystercatcher, but I’m not sure if that’s actually what it was. Trees? Birds? Where even were we?

*What are these mysterious tall plants with thick stems? ;)*

I had so many laughing fits today. I would laugh so hard that I would cry – and admittedly pee a little each time. And I think I figured out that I get an overdose of dopamine and need to release it. Maybe? That’s almost what it feels like. I don’t mind when I get into one of these laughing fits because it feels good to me, but I do hope that it’s not irritating to the others. When one hits, I’ll have to stop, double over with legs crossed, laughing… and I can’t seem to control it. I guess it’s just part of me. I had these happen during my split with Adam and I assume it’s just stress or emotion taking me over. And I always just smiled because I suppose laughing fits are better than crying fits.

We stopped at Þórsmörk (to say it: Thors-murk), which wasn’t too far away from where we had our hut reservations for the night at Basar. Here’s a challenge for you, because my googling is tired – pronounce this sentence: Þórsmörk is known as the Valley of Thor and is nestled between the glaciers Eyjafjallajökull, Mýrdalsjökull, and Tindfjallajökull. I’m not gonna try to pronounce it right, but you get the idea. It’s a neat place.

*Looking over Thorsmork before our descent.*

I know that doesn’t do much for ya unless you’re there, but I will just say… it’s pretty. It’s also busy. This is a popular stop so there are a lot of tour buses and camper vans coming and going. I enjoyed watching the buses and vans just drive right through the glacial rivers. I had a mini fantasy of coming back here for a season with my passenger endorsement on my CDL to drive one of the tour buses with their ginormous tires. I think I could be pretty good at that!

This was a nice little break before heading to our hut down the road a little ways, but when we first arrived I felt instantly overwhelmed. There were people everywhere, coming and going with suitcases and backpacks and there were buses and vans and just so much activity. I wanted to run off into the empty landscape up in the hills. It reminded me of when I’d get off the PCT for resupply and Adam would have to practically tell me what to do until I settled into being in town again. Kevin did that for me by pointing towards one of the buildings and saying, “go get a beer.” So I did. And it’s just what I needed. This was also the end of the Laugavegur trail. Many hikers stop here. I don’t understand why. If you continue on you hike the famous Fimmvörðuháls Trail (to say it: Fimm-Vor-Duh-Halls) for 15.5 miles. I will get to that in the next blog entry, and it is… A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. We haven’t seen anything yet, my friends! A preview in one word: waterfalls.

*A sneak peak from our last day (tomorrow in blog life). Back to our regularly scheduled blog entry:*

We left Þórsmörk and head across the wide river valley. There were a couple of temporary bridges we crossed, and it was nice to have them and not get wet feet or have to take the time to wade across. They were pretty neat because they were on wheels. I would like to see how they move these around with how the river changes. So after crossing the bridges we hit a short road walk to our hut.

*Temporary bridges on our way to Basar from Thorsmork.*

We had a really great hut at Basar, which included a whole bunk room to ourselves. Amber pointed out that our bunk room is larger than our whole hut from last night. So we spread out and made ourselves at home! We hung out and waited until 5pm when the “bar” opened. We heard there might be food, too, so I was happy because I was a meal behind and this would catch me back up. They DID have food and it was an interesting experience. We ordered grilled ham and cheese and had to ask the guy working the counter to get it for us. And then we had to put it into a sandwich grill press thing to cook it ourselves. It was okay, things are sometimes different in a new country, so we just rolled with it and enjoyed our meal. We ended up having a couple of drinks, too, and a Mexican soup. It wasn’t a mind-blowing meal, but it was food in our bellies.

*The “bars” on the trail in Iceland aren’t quite the same as in Wisconsin, USA, but there’s drinks and food, so we certainly weren’t complaining!*

After dinner we made our way back to the hut. I had a shirt that lost a button (not a crucial button, but one that held up my sleeves, so I wanted it fixed). Amie had a sewing needle and dental floss I could borrow, so I now have a really nice, minty button on my blue hiking shirt.

*Sometimes fixing the little things on the trail is the most fun. Always remember: dental floss is the best thread.*

A lot of people crawled into sleeping bags to try to sleep, but then Claudie and I found a book. We stayed up for quite a bit trying to translate it. It was called Vaskir Menn. We picked out past mates and created stories based on pictures and a few sentences Google translate clearly messed up and we laughed until our guts hurt. There was also this note tucked into the book and we identified it as a long lost love note.

*Someone please translate this for us. We came up with some pretty crazy translations via translation apps. No way this had something to do with uteruses.*

Okay, I hear it’s time for a photo dump. Enjoy the short blog and a few photos. Tomorrow’s might get a little obnoxious. My goal will be for you to be sick of waterfalls.

Dump:

*Breakfast at Emstrur Hut before heading out for the day.*

*This is always a favorite view for me.*

*When the trail gets fun: metal stairs and rungs to climb up on the trail.*

*I took this photo because these flowers were tiny and perfect and pretty and I’m happy to share their little life with you in this exact moment.*

*Beautiful, mysterious, open landscape.*

*Flowers growing heartily out of a rocky cliff side, black volcanic sand, and Amie, backpacker, enjoying the environment.*

*A bridge over a really deep, narrow river canyon and those weird trees again. ;)*

*This is what a typical river crossing looks like in Iceland.*

*One of three signs. I loved all the different trial signs.*

*Two of three cool signs from this day.*

*Heading towards the Fimmvorduhals Trail.*

*My favorite photo from the day. When nature just throws itself in your face in perfect composition, you just go with it. Thank you little worms, I love you.*

Iceland 2023 Day 5: Álftavatn – Emstrur (hike day 3)

August 23, 2023August 24, 2023 / Robin Grapa / Leave a comment

Please take a second and find me in this photo – I’m in blue. This is the Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon. We are but tiny specks. And this canyon is tiny in comparison to the glacier that created it. Moments like these are humbling and make me feel so grateful to be alive and able to be a part of all of this that surrounds us.

Day 5 / Saturday, July 29, 2023

Day 5 in Iceland, but Day 3 of the hike, which totaled about 10 miles. It was probably 9.5 miles from hut to hut, but we threw in some bonus mileage hiking to a canyon. An amazing. Huge. Beautiful. Powerful. Canyon. I left a piece of me there because it was incredible. I’m getting ahead of myself.

I don’t usually wake up during the night to pee, but I think part of my internal clock was off, first of all, and second, back in the recesses of my brain I knew that if the northern lights were to pop out, I’d be most likely to see them overnight. Those damn illusive northern lights! So I woke up at 3am to go pee, and it was already light out. I’m thinking I’ll have try for a 1 or 2am pee tomorrow. That’s got to be when it’s the darkest out. If it’s dark at all.

Our goal for the day was the Emstrur hut. First we’d hike past the Hvanngil hut, which was a short distance from the Álftavatn hut we stayed in last night. So when we got there, a few of us stopped to use the bathroom, since we could, and we pretty much hiked through. I fell towards the back of our group because there were HORSES! If you haven’t heard, Icelandic horses are of the purest breeds in the world. They are all purebred, and if a horse leaves the country it can never come back, and no other horses are welcome in. And they are BEAUTIFUL.

Also, fun fact, there is a website that exists where you can have an Icelandic horse write your out of office email for you while you’re away. He walks across a giant keyboard to type it, and yes, it’s complete gibberish, but I did it and it made me very happy. Check out the site and watch some of the videos. It’s a really creative idea that it just so fun. Here’s the link to OutHorse Your Email.

Back to the Hvanngil Hut that we passed by. I saw a couple packing up their camping gear, but they each had a mountain bike, and one had a trailer behind it. I had to ask. They were from Switzerland and were traveling 600km (approximately 373 miles) on what they called the “F Road.” Where they were staying, our paths crossed. They had been riding for three weeks already! A little ways down the trail I watched them pedal past us with hearts in my eyes. Now that I’ve gotten into biking a whole new world has opened up in front of me. My heart will always be strongest with my backpack on my back, but I love that I have more options to see more of the world in different ways. I have so many ideas that I can’t even keep them straight in my head.

*A scene before the Hvanngil Hut where the horses were. I can’t get over these rivulets of neon green moss.*

*We didn’t stay here, but we did use their bathrooms.*

The day started chilly and misty. It was misty enough that I wore my rain shell and chilly enough that I used my liner gloves. I was a little surprised, but hiking in my skirt has been very comfortable, temperature-wise. I brought a pair of thin merino wool tights that I could slip on if I got cold, but I didn’t need to for the entire hike (with the exception of our last day in Iceland, but not part of this hike and a whole other story for later!) Today my legs did feel a little chilled, but it was only towards the start and tolerable. It wasn’t cold enough that it felt worth stopping for. I love hiking in my skirt. I use a Purple Rain skirt. It’s made of a light material that dries quickly, it has side pockets that can hold my phone, a map and a snack or three, and (sorry if this is too TMI, but you know me by now, right?) I go commando. It’s comfortable (no undies riding up my butt or chafing or whatnot) and it’s SO easy to pee. I can pee discreetly if necessary (no pulling my pants down and baring my entire ass to the world), and with a little practice, peeing standing up is even better. I do carry one pair of short undie-like tights that I can slip on if I want to sit sprawled out while I eat lunch, go for a swim, or if I want to slip on my rain pants. It’s a system I’ve used for a long time and I love it.

*Misty day, but comfy with the right gear!*

We had a couple of stream crossings, and one was clearly coming directly from the ginormous Mýrdalsjökull (how to say it: meer dolls yuh kootle) glacier that has been haunting us around every corner. I touch a little more on that later in this entry. That water was so cold it made our toes numb and tingle. Those mountain bikers I’d met earlier were there crossing, too. They said they’ve done about 10 crossings already and this was the coldest. They have to go across several times. Together they carry one bike (they are loaded with paniers, so it takes two to gracefully carry each of them across), then back for the other, then back for the trailer. They had to cross that river six times. I was satisfied and numb-toed after one. So there is your disadvantage to biking… but… it would still be worth it! Amber also made the interesting observation that near our other river crossings were several boiling fumaroles with water running into them, so maybe that hot water was mixing in making those earlier steams warmer. We all made it across okay, dried our feet, slipped socks and shoes back on and continued on our way.

*I love the challenge of river crossings, but I’m still always happy when there’s a bridge!*

The terrain was otherworldly. It felt like we were walking through a martian landscape. It was very dark ashy sand with scattered volcanic rocks and small flowers and grasses randomly spaced around. In contrast, off in the distance were beautiful green mountain peaks, and beyond those, snow covered peaks and glaciers. Black sand, green mountains, white glaciers and sky. No trees. Maybe we WERE on another planet!

*The hike was fairly easy through here. A few roller hills and rocky, but otherwise wide open.*

*Martian landscape. Still fascinating when you imagine how it was formed from a volcanic eruption at some point waaaay back in time.*

We crossed over a couple of cool bridges (and we were so thankful for them after the last cold crossing!). There was one really large river that had a bridge that even cars were driving over (we were also at a junction with a backcountry rough road here), and after the river flowed under the bridge it dropped into a very powerful waterfall. We all stopped here and took a break for lunch. There was a huge boulder, maybe 6-7 feet tall that was sitting on the edge of the pool of water where the waterfall dumped into, and I immediately started to scramble up its side, seeking that fun vertigo feeling of looking far down into an abyss below. I used some of my bouldering skills I learned many, many years ago, and it was fun trying to find handholds and get grip with my hiking shoes. The rock was sticky as sticky can be because it was scratchy, rough and volcanic, so that helped. I was careful not to slip, too, because one small slip would really tear up your skin. It was a successful and fun little scramble.

*View from atop the big boulder I scrambled up on to.*

Overall, the hike was actually pretty easy with only a couple of hills. I do recall the awe we felt after hiking miles and miles of flat, black-ashed volcanic dirt trails and approached the edge of a large hill that we’d be descending into the Emstrur hut. As you got close to the edge, the valley below opened up and it was another whole entire new world to explore. The trail wound sideways down the hill pretty steeply into where the hut was. We once again got ourselves settled in and a few of us made our way out for a side trip. This was another one of those side trips that left me without words. But as always, I will try.

*After a long stretch of flattish black, rocky terrain – BOOM! This. A whole new playground we get to explore by foot.*

This sidetrip we took was to the Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon (to say it: mark are flots gull fur). It was formed when the Katla volcano erupted some 2000 years ago and melted the Mýrdalsjökull glacier quickly (again, how to say it, because seriously, Icelandic is tricky for us Americans: meer dolls yuh kootle). And lemme tell you, that’s a BIG glacier. Looking around as you stand peering over the edge of that canyon and imagining that event occurring makes your hair stand up a little bit. is The whole area is just absolutely stunning. I am still in awe just thinking about what it was like to stand on its edge. It’s inexplicable.

*That tiny black line to the bottom-left of the 3 is the canyon. And that white, the glacier. Katla is marked on there, too. Fun fact: it’s due to erupt again. Crazy!*

*There is an unending amount of things to see here. Color, texture, layers. And if you’re standing there, smells, air, breeze, sounds. Overwhelming good.*

Along this trek I was starting to feel moments, like this one, of almost being paralyzed in the air. Like, was I really there? In that moment? It felt like it was getting difficult to be in the moment because it was too much to take in at once. I think what happened is I was getting full. Like my soul got full. And then I saw that canyon and I tried to stuff it all in and I overflowed. That’s the only way I can try to convey the busting feelings I was having in some of these places. And that’s the best problem I can imagine having.

*Jo, Claudie and Amie feeling all the feelings on the edge!*

So after the canyon trip, we made our way back to the hut and I was starving. I had been so hungry during the hike, it was causing flashbacks of hiker hunger from my PCT hike in 2013. It felt just like that. I was actually concerned I would run out of food, so any time someone asked the question, “Wanna try…” I put my hand out before they could finish their sentence. I even helped some guys from Israel finish up their rice and lentils they made too much of for dinner. And that was after I ate my Mexican quinoa dinner, which was tasty. I gobbled down the whole 2-serving package, forgetting that I had planned to save one serving for breakfast. This ended up leaving me a meal short later in the trip, but it all worked out.

I also made a stop at the warden’s hut and bought a beer. For my shower. Because when in Iceland? Have a shower beer! I was kind of excited for my shower, but it turns out that it wasn’t relaxing at all. It was timed after dropping 5 100-krona coins in the coin slot and it took me way too long to figure out the hot water knob. Well, I don’t think I ever did actually figure it out. The water only got slightly warm, but I was able to wash my hair and scrub up my bits and feel cleaner than when I started, so I suppose that’s a success in the backcountry. It’s not often I get a chance to shower mid-hiking trip, so this was a treat to start. Then it was bedtime once again.

Photo dump time!

*Interesting section of trail. Cooled lava flows that have cracked.*

*Me, Claudie and Amber enjoying the scenery that surrounds us! Or maybe we’re smiling because there’s a bridge to cross. ;)*

*Those little cottongrass pops of white!*

*Another bridge – this one cars could drive over. It was a pretty powerful river. Thankful that bridge was there!*

*Across a sea of black sand and rock for miles these were scattered randomly around and gave the terrain a little color.*

*I might need to put together an album of just signs.*

*A freakin’ ANIMAL! It’s a snow bunting!*

*It would be a cool experience to camp next time. Probably a damp experience, but still would be fun.*

*Amber and Claudie crossing the ice cold river.*

*Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon: A place that will forever be a part of me.*

Iceland 2023 Day 4: Hrafntinnusker – Álftavatn (hike day 2)

August 15, 2023August 15, 2023 / Robin Grapa / 6 Comments

*Eh, Iceland is okay… it’s sort of pretty… I guess ;)*

Day 4 / Friday, July 28, 2023

Day 4 in Iceland, but Day 2 of the hike. We read before coming to Iceland that if you want to get a little solitude on the Laugavegur Trail, you should wake up early and hit the trail around 5 or 6am. This isn’t a problem because it’s bright out at 4am already. So we woke up early, planning for just that. Alarms were going off at about 4:15 and we all started to very quietly pack up as to not bother any of our other bunkmates not in our group. As soon as someone had their stuff pretty much packed away, they’d slip out the door into the center room just outside the kitchen. We whispered as much as we could and tried to continue to be quiet as we sipped coffee and spooned hot oatmeal into our faces.

Amie and Mary joined us outside on the porch after their night in their tents, and as we looked over the landscape we were about to head into for the day… through the thick fog that rolled in overnight… Amie and Mary talked about how wet their tents got. They were literally dripping on them and the black sand from the ground was everywhere. So that was definitely something to consider if we decided to tent at any point for the rest of the hike – that the weather can change from dry and warm to damp to wet to dripping overnight.

*A very foggy Hrafntinnusker Hut just before we head out for the day.*

When we first woke up it was so foggy we couldn’t see past our hut! As we started walking the fog lifted slowly. This crazy thing was happening with the fog and sun as we began to hike. If you looked toward your shadow from the sun through the fog, there was this really cool cloud/fog bow. And inside that, when looking at all of our shadows in a line, just YOUR head would have another rainbow halo around it. It’s really hard to explain, but I’ll post a photo that, I believe Sheila took of me, that shows the cloud halo. Not sure what that phenomenon is called but it’s neat. Anyone know?

*Besides the dumb look on my face… Inside the large halo, look at our shadows. You can see a smaller halo around the photographer’s head, but not mine.* *(Thanks for the photo, Sheila!)*

*Here you can kind of see the smaller halo around just my head. This kept us entertained until the fog lifted.*

There was so much great scenery during this 6.8-mile stretch. There were A LOT of steep up and down climbs in and out of glaciated river valleys for most of the day. Some were so steep we nearly had to butt-scoot down them because the volcanic sand/dirt would be loose under our feet and we’d pretty much skid straight downward. The uphills on the other side of the valleys were a test in keeping our heart rates and breathing steady. And to add to the challenges, each time we dipped down into a valley there’d be snow, and since it was summer and this snow was beginning to recede, there were snow bridges. Snow bridges make me nervous because they can collapse under you, and down you’d go, sometimes into a river if there was moving water underneath. Thankfully they were all still strong enough and none of us fell through. We continued to encounter more patches of mesmerizing rolling fog, more steam coming out of the ground from fumaroles, boiling water, more snow fields, and streams and small waterfalls and it didn’t stop. It was an overwhelming amount of pretty.

*A few of our crew waiting for the rest of us to cross a snow field and up the next steep climb. This kept repeating throughout the morning.*

Oh, it’s SO much steeper than it looks here. You’re probably wondering why we aren’t using that switchback – because believe it or not, we had more grip on the trail that went straight down because we could kick our shoes into deeper, loose dirt. And if you fell, you’d fall right into where the snow is receding at the land and slip under the snow. So we had to be super-careful.

And my goodness, the COLOR we saw! We had more lime green moss against orange rock, black dirt, blue sky, and white snow. And the cool part was that at the start it was in pastel due to being muted by the fog. Then the fog would lift and the colors started to pop against the blue sky. We were walking through a fantasy land. We had some dramatic ridge walks, too, and then picked our way over a big mountain that led us down into an expansive valley where we could see our next hut and Lake Álftavatn – only it was still about three miles away. The descent was pretty sketchy with loose rock and dirt, but we all made it down. Matt did slip onto his butt once but wasn’t hurt.

*The colors were seriously that vibrant! Isn’t it amazing?*

*More color, and it changed depending on where, how and if the sun was shining.*

*Textures, too! I have so many, I’ll share more at the end of this entry.*

As I’d mentioned, we could see Álftavatn Lake and the hut for a long while, so after a long descent, we all sort of marched through the wide open valley while dreaming of taking a rest. We had one fun river that had a rope stretched across to aid in the crossing. Most of us stopped and switched into our river shoes and the crossing was actually pretty easy and not too terribly cold. The water was about knee deep. I switched to my Luna sandals for the crossing and stayed in them for the last couple miles until the hut and realized how out of “sandal hiking” shape my feet were. It made me sad, I love hiking in sandals! I guess I’m officially a shoe girl again. It was still nice to switch it up a little and let my toes feel the fresh air and get a little dirty.

*Amber and Mary make their way across the river crossing, aided by the rope.*

*That’s Álftavatn Lake in the distance, and you can soooorta make out the huts to the left of the lake – they look like itty bitty little white specks from up high.*

This was the valley before arriving at the hut and it felt like it went on forever. Probably because I had to poop. I kept looking around desperately not wanting to have to dig a cathole. First, the ground looked fragile, and second I had zero coverage and everyone would’ve gotten a show. (I ended up making it, thank goodness!)

Finally we arrived and checked in to our hut and all collapsed into a fabulous nap for a couple of hours. This hut had showers, so most of the group scooped up some 100 krona coins and made their way to the shower hut. I opted out because there was a lake. Kevin and I walked down to it and I’d like to say I jumped in, but we were told it was shallow and boy was it ever! I waded and waded and waded until I finally gave up and just sat back into the thigh-deep water. It was super cold, but I took two good refreshing dunks. I’d hoped it would’ve cleaned me off some, but it’s hard to feel clean when the first thing you see when you get to the shore line is a human poo. (PSA moment. Don’t be a dick and poop in the water of a lake. Whoever that was needs a serious lecture about LNT!) I know you think I’m crazy to have gotten in at all, but I felt satisfied about the space I gave between me and the turd and was upwind from where the water was pushing it. Okay, I can’t make it not sound gross, but I’m trying. It was refreshing, and I don’t regret it. Also, lake swimming… it did also fill every crevice with sand that would later dry and fall onto the floor near my bed in the hut, and then I had to sweep it up, and it was a whole thing. I know I’m not a good salesperson for swimming in Álftavatn Lake, but l felt good knowing I got at least one “swim” in while I was in Iceland. I’m so glad I went in. Poop and sand and cold and all.

*The lake where I swam. The poo is likely way to the right of this photo. It was a big lake and I gave it its space.*

We remembered to ask about beer, and sure enough they sold some, so we imbibed. The beer they had was called Viking and in my opinion was pretty nasty. It was cold, but tasted like warm Bud Light. However, they had this gin drink called Gin & Grape and it was freaking awesome. It was like a really crisp, refreshing, flavorful seltzer drink with gin and grapefruit. In fact, pretty much everyone in our group ended up going back to the “bar” for one or two as the afternoon wore on. A bunch of us bought souvenir Buffs they had for sale, and while we sat at a picnic table outside the hut, we all tried to follow the list of different ways you can wear a buff that was printed on the package. We laughed until our bellies hurt.

*Hanging out at the picnic table outside our hut and enjoying the G&G (I mean, look at all of them! So good!)*

This hut had a tiny “restaurant and bar.” Now before you go imagining this beautiful restaurant in Iceland’s backcountry, remember that most of the stuff out here is hauled in on horseback or a long, rough trip via some vehicle with giant tires. It’s not an easy task for them to supply these huts with human comforts. In fact, at some you had to pay to use the bathroom or fill your water bottle, and most had no trash, so we were always prepared to carry everything out (even the cans from the drink we purchased there). So this “restaurant” was another tiny hut and inside was basically two long picnic tables to sit at. We all splurged and pre-purchased a meal here so we did gather for a yummy bowl of fancy chili (it really was nice). There was also a small “bar” that held about five boozes to select from (including a couple of Icelandic liqueurs, one of which Kevin and I tried after dinner). After we finished dinner we all walked down to the lake and back, sat outside a little and watched other hikers mill around setting up their tents, then went to bed. I was actually pretty tired after such a good day.

*A stroll down by the lake after dinner.*

I didn’t know if I’d want to write about this or not, but it was a part of the trip and might be interesting for future hut-goers to read about. We had a little drama occur with another group from the hut we stayed at the night before. This one particular girl (who was from Seattle of all places) was all pissy about one of our group members’ snoring, approaching a bunch of us individually, pointing out how she had to move to a different room. We defended our snoring friend, as it’s common in a hut situation where many are sharing bunkbeds, for someone to snore, or fart, or move around a bunch. It’s expected, so you must come prepared. We all knew to bring ear plugs, headphones, or ear buds. People can’t help it if they snore. She approached our group as we were eating our dinner about this, and continued on complain about us about leaving too early and making noise that morning. We did break a quiet hour rule, I guess, but we were following advice we’d read before we came on the trip so we could have a quiet morning on the trail (which we did and it was so nice!). Looking back, I imagine that advice probably applied to those that stayed in tents. So if you plan to do this hike and stay in the huts, be aware of quiet hours that are usually between midnight and 7am. We sincerely apologized for that mistake and did our best to stick to the quiet hours after that. I honestly don’t get riled by much but this girl hit a nerve in me when she made a comment something like, “if you snore, maybe you should sleep in a tent.” Uhhh. No. I replied something like “if you come into a group sleeping situation and don’t like to be bothered by snoring or wearing ear plugs, then yes – it’s better if YOU tent it.” Grr. Anyway, we all moved on, but ended up seeing the same group a few times since we were pretty much on the same track. We saw her in the hut kitchens for dinner and visiting and we were all okay, but I believe she did end up sleeping in a tent in the evenings.

The Álftavatn hut sleeping arrangement: all of us in a row, but fairly spacious.

And as I wrote notes for this entry, I was lying in my hut bed as two or three folks snored around me. So I put in my ear buds and probably added more harmony to the chorus. Ready for more photos from the day? Me, too!

Kevin and I tried the Björk, which translates to “Birch.” There aren’t many trees – AT ALL – in Iceland (like literally only 2% of the country has any tree cover), and the small shrubby forest we hiked through later in the trip had a lot of birch trees. This bottle of liqueur had a small birch branch in it.

*More pretty foggy hiking. I’ve always loved fog, it makes everything such a soft kind of pastel-pretty.*

*An example of an ice bridge forming from the receding snow line that you would not want to slide down the hill into, or even worse, break through the snow and fall into. Oh, and cool shadows.*

*If there’s a backpack on my back, I assure you I am a #HappyToots – especially when I’m in such good company!*

*Photos never do the terrain the justice it deserves. Beautiful and so challenging. I loved this so much!*

*More fog burning away as the sun slowly rose.*

*Another dramatic landscape shot. See the hiker?*

*In yet another unsuccessful effort to capture the expansive and dramatic landscape that is Iceland, I give you this. There’s 5 hikers in this shot. Can you spot them?*

The land of fire and ice. That steam is coming from boiling fumaroles, holes in the earth’s surface with vents leading to the firey core of our planet — and beyond that, a giant glacier. And again, look at how little we are (I see two of us in this shot).

*Such clear water! Iceland is so clean.*

Get ready for foliage. Those that have followed me anywhere know I love getting close to the little guys, too. I rarely know what I’m taking a photo of, but if it’s pretty and/or unique, I’m happy to inspect it, then take a picture and share it with you all!

*Tiny moss flowers. Almost every flower picture is of a tiny flower. Not many got much bigger than a thumbnail.*

*Surprisingly a lot of buttercups. These were one of the bigger flowers you’d see.*

*This was one of my favorites, especially when they framed themselves in purple grass. So pretty.*

*Cottongrass. These so prettily dotted grassy areas with bright pops of white.*

*Almost done, just a few more I need to show you.*

*One of the bigger flowers, but still not very big. ;)*

*I took a lot here because that expansive meadow had so many wildflowers. The tiny ones like this one were always my favorite.*

*I also got excited if I saw an animal of any sort because there just aren’t many. We believe these were swans. Álftavatn Lake translates to “Swan Lake.”*

*A wonderful group photo of all the “Rabid Puffins,” aka “Independent Puffins,” before descending to Álftavatn Lake seen in the distance.*

Iceland 2023 Day 3: Landmannalaugar – Hrafntinnusker (hike day 1)

August 10, 2023August 15, 2023 / Robin Grapa / 2 Comments

I got pretty emotional on this side trip, and somehow my camera propped up on a rock took the perfect selfie shot on the first try. This was so early on in the trip, and I felt overwhelmed to tears with everything around me, the people and the experience of being in Iceland. And I carried that feeling the rest of time I was there, and hope I never let that feeling out of my heart. This is the stuff of life.

Day 3 / Thursday, July 27, 2023

Day three in Iceland was all about getting to Lanmannalaugar and starting our hike of the Laugavegur Trail, and we planned to stay in a hut at Hrafntinnusker (to say it: raft-in-noose-ker). By the way, some of these pronunciations are guesses and as close as I can get.

We woke up 5am and got ready to go, which didn’t really involve too much since we got mostly packed up the night before. Sunna Guesthouse has a room downstairs where they allow guests to store luggage, so we dropped our extra stuff in there and head outside. Before we knew it, it was just us and our backpacks. My favorite way to be! Then we set off walking towards the bus station, with a quick detour to the big church to grab a group photo in the morning light. A fellow on a scooter offered to take our photo and took all kinds of crazy angles. I thought for sure we had a pro on our hands, but when I later looked at the photos, just a couple turned out okay. It actually made me laugh because of the lengths he seemed to go through to get us some interesting shots.

*On our way to catch our 4-hour bus ride to start our hike.*

*I was happy we had the chance to catch the church in morning light, also before it became flooded with tourists.*

I realized as we were packing that I forgot the rain cover for my pack at home. And I was in Iceland, notorious for sketchy weather. Well, I suppose I had to forget something, right? Right before we arrived at the bus station I swung in at a convenience store, and the clerk was very nice and gave me two pretty large clear garbage bags. I figured I could use them as an inside shell in my pack should it rain. I felt like such a mess for some reason, and I figured maybe I was just overtired and jet lagged… but everybody else probably was too, and they all seemed fine, so not really sure I can use that as an excuse. Either way, I was just laughing at myself, dropping things, all while trying to stuff my backpack into a garbage bag (they recommend having your luggage that is stored under the bus in a waterproof sack because the buses drive right through rivers (!) and sometimes the water gets into the storage space). Eventually I was able to forcefully shove my pack into one last space with everyone else’s stuff and was on the bus, and we started out on our four-hour bus ride toward Landmannalaugar.

*Pretty rough bus ride the last couple of hours, but thrilling! This was taken early on, before the gravel road. There’s no way those folks were sleeping for the last part of the ride.*

On the bus I continued to entertain myself and likely cause the folks around me wonder what the heck was wrong with me. The velcro on the back of my shoes that my gaiters attach to had come off at some point, so I was rigging them up with a knife and some paracord… on a moving bus. I was sitting next to Kevin and I got into one of my laughing fits, tears and all, and couldn’t stop (like I do sometimes) and he certainly must’ve thought I’d lost my mind! But I was sure having a good time entertaining myself! Hah! Then my knife slipped trying to poke a hole through the material of my gaiters and Kevin’s eyes got real big. No worries, though, just a scratch. I finally was able to get my gaiters attached to my shoes. It wouldn’t be super easy getting them on and off, but figured it would keep the sand out, and that was the ultimate goal. I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out a way to make it work with what I had.

My Topo hiking shoes have gaiter loops for Topo-brand gaiters, so I looped the paracord through those and then punched a hole through the velcro of my Dirty Girl gaiters and rigged up a semi-permanent gaiter situation. I had to leave them attached, so getting my feet in and out took a bit of finesse, but it did the trick and lasted the whole trip!

The bus ride was nice to start, just watching the countryside go by, knowing that soon we’d be up close and personal with Iceland, traveling by foot. And then we made a turn onto a gravel road. While the countryside going by was still stunning, the ride got pretty rough. That gravel road lasted roughly an hour and a half of rocking, tilting, swaying, and there were a few river crossings. Every once in a while the bus would wobble slowly from side to side and I swore it was gonna tip over. We all just nervously laughed and leaned back and forth together with the bus and put our faith in our intrepid driver. The water crossings seemed lower than what I saw in videos before coming to Iceland, and I was thankful – first of all, our gear probably stayed dry, and second, we didn’t get stranded in a raging high river. I don’t know if it was because it was later in the season or just a lower water levels. Either way, it was a really fun ride. We saw many sheep, but that was about it for animal life.

We finally arrived at Landmannalauger and took a few minutes while a couple of people sat still and calmed their churning tummies. I was actually surprised more people didn’t get sick. I don’t get motion or car sick, but I was even feeling the smallest twinge of nausea. We made our way over to the hut and used the restroom and shuffled gear around and pulled out trekking poles. We were ready to go. There’s a really cool sign at the start of the trail that we took full advantage of and got a couple of great group photos to start us off. We had roughly 6.4 miles to hike to the Hrafntinnusker Hut where we had reservations for the first night. It was nice to have a shorter day since we had a later start and were suddenly immersed into the scenery – there were photo opportunities every step, so we were stopping a lot. It was nice to not feel rushed.

*Excited smiles!! Our favorite thing! Here we GOOOOO!* (L-R: Jo, Mary, Matt, Sheila, Kevin, Amie, Amber, Claudie, me)

But before we went anywhere, we needed to get lost in the parking lot. We decided kind of last minute to start at a side trail that would take us up and over a pretty tall mountain and then meet back up with our original trail. We were struggling to find the start of it, so without communication we split into different directions and walked in circles, staring at our phones, then up, then phones, then up. Finally one of the folks that works at the hut told us that it was a pretty sketchy trail straight up on loose scree, so we decided to start off easy and just hit the original start of the Laugavegur like we initially intended. But still… WOW. The scenery instantly got amazing.

The first thing I will say, especially this being the start of the trail and a pretty major point for buses and vehicles to come and go, it was a busy trail full of people to start. But everyone was really nice, and from all different places in the world, so it was actually a neat experience to share a beautiful trail with such a wide variety of folks.

The scenery was everything. We had rainbow colored mountains, geo-thermal activity with bubbling puddles of water, steam and the strong smell of sulfur in the air. We crossed snow fields, more steaming and bubbling mud pots, and saw a few sheep. Then there was this amazing fluorescently bright green moss that grew right up against solid black volcanic sand. The contrast was stunning. We hiked through fields of smooth, shiny, black (can I come up with a few more descriptive words? Sure!), mirrored volcanic obsidian that sparkled like diamonds in the sunshine. None of us could capture this in a photo, so instead we’ve burned it into our memories and now I’m trying to covey it in many descriptive words… without success. It was neat, please take my word for it.

One beautiful chunk of obsidian. See how it reflects the sunshine? Now image a million of these in a huge field almost as far as the eye can see, and you’re walking through it, and the reflecting light keeps changing. It was like sparkling black diamonds.

We had some pretty steep climbs with loose dirt, but they all led to amazing, expansive views that made every heavy breath and every step worth it. OH! And we lucked out and enjoyed some absolutely beautiful weather. The sky was blue, there were a few clouds, temps in the 50sf (F), breezy, all bundled up under some warm sunshine. I was expecting thick fog, rain and wind… every day. I was already feeling like we won the lottery, and getting the blue sky with the colorful hills and lime moss and black sand… and… and… it was just beautiful. All of it.

*Any painters out there? It seems like these hills would be so fun to paint. So much color, even more vibrant when you’re standing in it.*

We hiked about 6.5 miles to our hut, which had bunk rooms. Claudie booked us bunks in huts for this trip, but we had a few tents between us to share in case we did get caught out in weather and couldn’t make it to one of our intended hut destinations. This way we’d have shelter – we wanted to be sure we were prepared. And since this area is notorious for crazy weather, and videos we’ve seen look absolutely MISERABLE for camping when the weather IS bad, we were all pretty grateful to have a roof and four walls to keep us comfy. Each hut was a little different. This first hut had single bunks on top and double bunks on bottom, so Sheila and I shared a double lower bunk. No shoes are allowed inside, so there’s a room when you first enter with racks to store your dirty shoes on. There’s a shared kitchen with a giant pot of hot, boiling water on the stove at all times, which I thought was just the coolest thing ever. We didn’t have to boil water for our dinners, hot cocoa, or coffee in the morning. So convenient! Outside was a building with toilets (these were pit toilets and were really smelly, like plug-your-nose-as-you-go smelly, but better than nothing!). There was a small warden hut that sold beer, but we didn’t know that until the next day. We were sure to check each night after that!

*The shoe room. Strangely it was seriously SO hot in here. You’d walk in, quickly kick off your shoes and jump through the door. Anytime later in the trip I felt cold, I dreamed about this shoe room.*

There were a couple of side trails you could hike in the area, so Kevin and I climbed Söðull (I can’t find how to say this, but I believe “ð” is kind of a “th” sound, so good luck). This was a peak just next to the hut (or saddle, which I think Söðull might literally translate to), and it was about a 30 minute round trip. After that fun little climb we joined the others inside the bunk room and shared some snacks, and I had a pretty tasty red bean chili for dinner. Amie and Mary couldn’t resist the adorable rock walls built to be wind blocks for tents outside, so they both set their tent up, choosing to stay outside for the night. It was also about 8,000 degrees in the hut when we first arrived, so I can’t say I blame them.

*Tent city as Hrafntinnusker. See the cool rock walls? And seriously… that view!!*

*Hanging out in our bunkroom of the hut.*

After dinner I still had energy, and it was going to be light outside for quite a long time, so I decided to hike to a collapsed ice cave that was roughly a 3-mile round trip. I ended up going alone because nobody else was really up for it. I’m glad I went. I had a pretty good solo moment overlooking that ice cave and the surrounding terrain all by myself. I’m a goofball and joke around a lot, but I still try to find my peaceful moments to take in the world around me. This was a great opportunity to do just that and I soaked in everything I could on the small side trip. Down in the expansive lush, green valley below were big puffs of steam coming from the boiling pots and it felt like the golden hour lasted for four. The sun hung over hazy mountains in the distance, and the clouds were deep and colorful and beautiful. The ice cave had collapsed, but it was still so impressive. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was definitely MUCH larger than what I imagined. It was basically the entire side of a mountain! Massive! You could see the different layers of snow that had built up over time where the snow had cracked off and fallen. I sat there and wondered how old some of that snow must be. It could easily be hundreds of years old.

*Lush valley with stream melt-off from the collapsed ice cave (behind me as I took this photo).*

*Geo-thermal stuff – the ground was literally boiling. Behind is a portion of the huge ice cave.*

*Inside the ice cave. I did not crawl in there, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted. I was already dangerously close to this massive beast. I did not want it to eat me.*

I crawled down into the river valley and all around to get a better view of the cave, and it was actually quite a bit sketchy. I was taking a few dumb chances where I was crawling around, grabbing on to loose dirt with my hands as my feet slid out from under me, but dang was is FUN. I took a cool selfie up there, and got the perfect shot on the first take, and I’m so happy with it. It’s the first photo in this blog entry. Just an absolutely gorgeous scene that I sat and stared at for quite some time, trying to really soak it all in.

On my walk back towards the hut, a cloud and some wind rolled in really quickly and I lost quite a bit of visibility for a stretch. NOW I felt like I was in crazy Iceland! I even said out loud, “Oh, there she is!” I only had about 12% battery left on my phone, but figured it was enough to use my Gaia app to get back if I needed it. But I was able to navigate the trail and cairns without issue, but it was a reality check. It could be pretty easy to get turned around and lost in that giant field of lava rock if that fog had gotten any thicker.

*When the fog/cloud first started to roll in – you can see how quickly I’m losing visibility up ahead.*

I got back to the bunks at about 9pm and got ready for bed. I edited some photos, wrote a few notes for this blog, and looked at the time. It was 10:17pm and still full daylight out. It’s just so strange. I wasn’t sure I’d get used to that! Overnight got pretty hot inside the hut, so I slept with my body hanging outside my sleeping bag, and there was all kinds of different snoring patterns going on, and a couple of larger loud groups were making dinner in the kitchen and having fun (before quiet hours kicked in), so I just put on my earbuds, listened to my chill Spotify playlist and wore my eye mask. I fell asleep without a problem. What a day!

*I got up to pee at about midnight. This was the view. Still very light out!*

*Our first few steps on the Laugevagur Trail.*

One of the views early in on the hike. That lake would be tempting to swim in, except that the air around us smelled like a huge cloud of sulfur… we kind of figured that little lake wasn’t any different.

*There wasn’t a ton of vegetation besides moss, but aren’t these just the cutest little things?*

*Well, there were quite a few buttercups.*

*The earth is boiling. I continually thought to myself, “the earth is angry, maybe we should treat her better.”*

*There are so many photos to share, but I need to stop here or I’ll never get these blog entries up! Get ready for another!*

Iceland 2023: Intro and days 1-2

August 9, 2023 / Robin Grapa / 5 Comments

*A very, very happy Toots. This photo was taken at the end of the backpacking portion of my Iceland trip at the beautiful Skógafoss Waterfall in Skógar, Iceland.*

Well, what better way to get back into blogging than to write about one of the biggest trips I’ve ever taken. I went to Iceland! Claudie, a friend from my local backpacking group (Fox Cities Backpackers), wanted to visit Iceland and put out an ask well over a year ago if there was anyone in the group with interest in joining her. I was freshly separated in my marriage with Adam (I will eventually touch more on this in later blog entries) when she asked, so I eagerly raised my hand. I wanted to travel more, so the timing couldn’t have been better.

Claudie rounded up nine of us total (including her), and she did most of the logistical planning and most of us just threw money at her through PayPal to pay for reservations (buses, huts, lodging, etc). I, along with others in the group, were so grateful for all her hard work putting everything together. It was pretty easy for us. So the final group was Claudie, myself, Kevin, Matt, Mary, Amber, Amie, Mary and Sheila. I’d been on a local backpacking trip with all of these people at some point or another with the exception of Amber, but even after just the couple of zoom meetings I immediately knew I’d get along with her just fine. The Fox Cities Backpackers group is truly a gem. I have met so many life-long friends through them. It’s nice to have such a large group of like-minded individuals that can jump on trips, trusting that we’ll mostly all get along.

*Our fun, silly group (this photo was taken just before heading out on our last day hiking). From L-R: Kevin, Amie, Mary, Jo, Sheila, Matt, Claudie, Amber and me.*

I’ll give you the quick rundown of our itinerary: Days 1-2 was getting our butts to Iceland, rounding everyone together at the same place, and preparing for a backpacking trip. Days 3-7 we backpacked 50 miles of the Laugevagur (to say it: Loo-ga-vay-gur) and Fimmvörðuháls (to say it: Fim-voor-duh-hulls) Trails, which was the main reason we all went to Iceland. But we all tacked on extra days before and/or after to experience the country a little more since we were already there. Day 8 we took a tour bus back to Reykjavik. Day 9-11 we visited the Faroe Islands (Denmark), and Day 12 we attempted to see the newly erupting volcano and flew home.

So let’s dive in, Tootses blog-style. Because wow. What a great trip.

Day 1 / Tuesday, July 25, 2023
I worked until 3pm, since our flights didn’t leave Chicago until 10:15 pm. Amie picked me up from my apartment and we head to Matt’s house where we met him and Mary. We tossed our luggage in the back of Matt’s Subaru and he drove us all to Chicago. We parked at Blue Sky and caught their shuttle to O’Hare.

We each checked a bag and all got through TSA just fine. I had a hard-sided rolling suitcase that I checked, and I used my backpack (packed lightly) as a carry-on. We walked a long ways to find our gate for our flight with Icelandair hoping there would be a spot to grab a burger and beer, but unfortunatley many places were already starting to close, so we backtracked and were lucky to get one of the last tables at a small restaurant. But we were happy. We were able to get a drink and some food in our bellies.

*At O’Hare waiting to get on our flight. Kevin and Amber flew out a couple days earlier, as did Jo to travel with her sister, and Sheila was meeting us after a coast-to-coast hike in England.*

Our flight boarded right on time, about 9:40pm. I chose a window seat, and there was nobody seated next to me (again! I have been so lucky with neighbors – or lack thereof – flying lately!) And next to the empty seat was Matt.

All of us had been up all day, so we were pretty tired, and ready to get some sleep on the flight. The flight was only about 6 hours, but when we arrived in Reykjavik it would be morning, so we were going to try to hit and and get it right away, meaning we had to get some sleep. I didn’t have any trouble, actually. I fell asleep pretty hard shortly after we got into the air and after a satisfactory amount of time gluing my face to the window to see all the lights on the ground below. I just LOVE flying.

*Chicago down below right after we took off. The flight was only 6ish hours from ORD to KEF.*

*Cozy with my little airline pillow and blanket.*

Unfortunately, having fallen asleep so hard (I also had earbuds in), I missed an announcement from the pilot a couple of hours into the flight that the northern lights were appearing out the windows on the other side of the plane. I wouldn’t have even known it happened, but Claudie happened to have a window seat on that side and was awake to get some photos. Apparently the pilot even tilted the plane a bit so they could get a better view of them. We were all SO jealous. (Note: If you ever fly to Iceland, be sure to get a window seat that faces the north! And maybe butter up a flight attendant to WAKE YOU UP if they appear!) As it turns out, that was our only shot at viewing the northern lights on the trip, it just didn’t get dark enough while we were there! I did, however, wake up to catch us flying over Greenland, which has somehow really captured my imagination with it being 80% covered in ice and just SO desolate and peaceful-looking. So now I want to visit there in a really desperate way.

*Claudie’s photo of the northern lights from the plane window.*

*Greenland from the plane window. So pristine! Don’t you wanna just make some footsteps in that snow!?*

Day 2 / Wednesday, July 26, 2023
We arrived at the Keflavik International airport outside of Reykjavik at 9:40am local time.

Amber and Kevin had arrived a couple days prior and had a rental car that needed to be returned the next day, so Amber drove to the airport and grabbed me, Matt and Mary (Claudie and Amie took a bus because we couldn’t all fit in the rental car) and we all met back up at the Sunna Guesthouse, where we had reservations for the night, to drop off luggage (our rooms wouldn’t be ready until 3pm).

We spent that time exploring Reykjavik walking around town, and our first stop, of all places, was the Penis museum! There is a legit museum called the Icelandic Phallological Museum in town with a display of all sorts of animal penises and even some mythological penises (like a troll penis, for example). There’s also a super-fun gift shop and a café with penis shaped waffles, which of COURSE we ordered. I didn’t actually pay to tour the museum, as I felt I got my penis-fix just with the statues, figurines and paintings we encountered between the door and the cafe/gift shop. But Kevin DID take the tour and shared some photos with us (that troll penis became an ongoing joke throughout the trip, which was pretty fun).

*Penis waffles! And they were delicious, too!*

*We are adults and take these things very seriously. ;) The group at the Icelandic Phallological Museum.*

We continued to shop, check out town, stand on the infamous rainbow road, and finally got checked into our rooms and quickly settled in. Then we head right back out and visited Hallgrímskirkja (how to say it: hall-creams-kirk-yuh), the huge church that is pretty much the focal point of town. We paid the small fee to take the elevator up eight floors, and then a few flights of stairs to stand in the bell tower for an amazing view of all of Reykjavik down below. We then all went out for a fish n chips dinner, and stopped at a grocery store to purchase some food for the backpacking portion of our trip. That was fun. I bought a bunch of weird stuff that was in Icelandic. It was actually pretty fun looking at all the things and sort of guessing what you were buying (like salami, for example… you can pretty much tell it’s salami, but you can’t read the ingredients to know for sure). I’m honestly still not sure what sauce I got. It was mayo based, I think. After shopping we went back to the Sunna Guesthouse and all tucked away in our rooms and packed up our backpacks. We were two to a room, so I shared a room with Sheila, so after we got our stuff ready to go, we decided to head out to a bar with Kevin. We head back to one of the bars we visited after dinner – an actual library with a bar in it! Only this time there was a fun live band playing. I will tell you, there’s nothing like hearing a band perform a cover of John Denver in an Icelandic accent. (We also swear the Nirvana song they were playing when we first got there was actually being sung in Icelandic, and we all wished they’d have continued that because it was AWESOME). So on the walk home, at 10:30 pm, we noticed it was still very much light out, and what’s cool about that, is things don’t close down as quick as they do by us when it’s dark-dark at 10:30. So we found ice cream. At 10:30pm! It was amazing! As soon as we got back to our rooms, though, it was lights out, blackout curtains pulled, eye masks on, and sleep! We were scheduled to catch an early 4-hour bus ride to Landmannalauger (how to say it: Land-man-a-log-ur) to begin our amazing trek!

*The famous Rainbow Road in Reykjavik. Such a beautiful, fun city! Even the houses and shops were colorful and fun.*

*Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran church and is the largest church in Iceland. At 244 feet tall, it is also the largest structure in the country.*

*The view of Reykjavik from the bell tower of Hallgrímskirkja.*

*The library that had a bar and live music. We had to be up early so sadly had to make our way back to our rooms, but it was fun to get a small taste of the night life.*

*I love this city. We got hand-scooped ice cream at 10:30pm because it was still daylight out and because Reykjavik is awesome.*

*This was taken at 10pm. It never really got super dark and people were out and about as if it were 6pm. And the sunsets lasted a long time, which is so cool!*

As always, I will be posting more photos on my Instagram and Facebook feeds, so find me there if you wanna see more photos from the trip. Next up, the HIKE!

A big change!

August 8, 2021 / Robin Grapa / 9 Comments

I’ll always be a truck driver, but for now, we’re gonna try a little something different.

So! I think my last post was in November of 2020 or something insanely too long ago like that. Why? A lot has been going on. I will certainly wade through all the weeds about that as we go along in this post, even getting into some pretty personal stuff, but if you’ve read any of my stuff, I’m not super-shy. But for now. The big change is that I accepted a new position with Midwest Carriers as a Marketer/Recruiter and I’m currently transitioning from Venus (my semi truck) to OFFICE life! Say WHAT!?

The decision: The decision to “get out of the truck” didn’t start with just wanting to not be over the road any more. In fact, I didn’t really want to get out of the truck. I love OTR (over the road trucking). It was a process that actually took a few months, and a lot happened to scoot me along into this decision. A super-brief prequel to the decision is this (I’m lying, it’s a long explanation, but this is the platform for me to do that, so bear with me!): Right when Covid starting locking stuff down in 2020, Adam had plans to start looking for full-time work after taking some off for his mental health. But not many places were hiring, in fact most places were laying people off and everything was unsteady and messy. I don’t need to remind you what that was like! Anyway, he decided to jump in the truck with me as a team driver again, because, well, trucking wasn’t going to be slowing down. We had to keep those tires rolling, especially since Midwest Carriers hauls a lot of reefer, aka refrigerated, freight – think food at your local grocery store. Nope, that couldn’t slow down and wasn’t going anywhere! So through the entire pandemic, it was business as usual (with the addition to masks, gallons of sanitizer, laser beams on our foreheads and more no-contact-with-people at shippers and receivers, which actually made things smoother in some cases!). But we rolled on. We teamed back up in the truck. And that went alright. For a while.

Then Adam had a mental breakthrough while we were out on the road. I think this happened sometime in January of 2021. It was an intense moment that made it clear he needed to get out of the truck. When it happened, I was sleeping in the bunk, and he woke me up and I worked on keeping him calm so he could get safely pulled over onto the shoulder. He put on his 4-ways, pulled the brakes and we crawled into the bunk together and he just broke. I don’t know how else to describe it. I’ve never seem him cry the way he did that night. It was something primal. It was incredibly sad, but also relieving in a strange way because he was allowing himself to feel something that he’s been holding inside for way, way too long. We got ourselves together so we could safely finish out our trip, but that was it. It started with him taking some time off and getting into therapy. Once in therapy, we realized that this wasn’t going to be a quick deal, so he softly quit, and I kept rolling solo again to keep the bills paid.

He received some diagnoses at the start of his therapy sessions – Tourette’s syndrome (just light tics like head and eye twitches – he doesn’t have Coprolalia, which is the term for folks with Tourette’s that can randomly speak in vulgar language. In fact only 10 percent of Tourette’s sufferers have Coprolalia), OCD and PTSD (in addition to past diagnoses of depression and anxiety). The PTSD that aligns more with him is actually a different version than what we’re usually used to hearing about when someone comes home from war, a major car accident, an assault, or any other very traumatic event. The type of PTSD he seems to be aligning more with is called CPTSD, or Complex PTSD. CPTSD sufferers have similar symptoms, but are caused from a prolonged exposure to trauma, like over several years.

In my own true style, this is the long story of this big change. But hang in there, I’m getting around to it.

So at this point, now Adam is at home, going to therapy (but not as much as he’d like to be going), and I’m over the road working. He’s having some okay days and some really bad days. There are days where he doesn’t get out of bed, and there are days he’s very angry and there are some days where he’s working WAY harder than most of us have to just to get through a day. And getting a list of typical day-to-day things accomplished feels near impossible. He’s broken. He’s depressed. And he’s at home. Alone. See where I’m going with this?

I got a really long text from him on one of his particularly bad days that concerned me. When I received it I just happened to be in an unusual situation at a shipper far, far away in South Carolina. I couldn’t call him right away, but as soon as I had a chance, I gave him a call to be sure he was okay and we talked for a good 45 minutes until we both felt he’d be alright. That was a rough day. And now that I think about it, that might have actually been the day that the thought of wanting to be home more got into my head. I just wanted to be there to hold him, hug him and help him. And I couldn’t. I felt like I had to just keep working, and so that’s what I was doing to help the situation. That’s all I could do to help. That’s what I had to do to help. It was necessary to make money for us both, but it didn’t exactly feel like the right kind of help. I was stuck.

Over the next month or two, I started to notice my tolerance for typical day-to-day trucker things like traffic, construction, time away from home, and long days was lowering. Little by little I found myself getting more easily frustrated and angry. This wasn’t like me. I felt like I was heading down a path I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to be the disgruntled, angry, road-ragey trucker. And normally I could apply some techniques to help me through this, but I struggled to find anything that would work. I couldn’t seem to kick myself out of this cycle. I was distracted. My mind and my heart was at home.

Time for change. Sometimes life requires things to get shook.

The decision took a hard hold one day when I was just cruising down the road, listening to a podcast. A girl was being interviewed and told a story about how her and her husband got a divorce early on in their marriage, when they were still in love. They had one of those big conversations about future goals, realized they both wanted to go in different directions and were pretty passionate about those differing directions, and decided to divorce to purse their separate dreams. She talked about how it was heartbreaking, but in the end was the best decision ever, because instead of pushing through and eventually maybe resenting each other, they separated while they still cared for each other. Now they support one another and are great friends. I think I hit pause and just stared out my window as the world flew by me at 63 miles per hour for a good long while. I thought about that girl’s story in relation to my job as an over-the-road trucker. I loved being an OTR driver. If I left the job, there were so many things I’d miss. But I could also leave it while I still loved it. And that felt… well, kind of right. I’ve always told myself if I have things to miss, it also means I have things I passionately care about and love, and that’s really a special thing. Missing something or someone can hurt, but it also means there is a deep love there. So I started to let the thought enter my head, “what if I broke up with trucking while I still love it?” I’m not gonna lie, the thought hit me in the feels hard, and I cried.

It was time. I was stressed to the max, and I was feeling those affects, even though I was being stubborn and not admitting it to anyone, even myself. When I finally let myself realize that, I started to think about life at home more and that sealed the deal. I had to make the change. But how?

I made the decision and sent a text to someone at work that I have a ton of respect for, just to let them know that I was thinking about getting out of the truck and asked what I should do. In my mind, I knew this would be hard, but I was going to find a way to make it work, and that first text message was the beginning. I made this decision and sent that text without telling Adam at first. I wanted to see what my options were and didn’t want him to get his hopes up if I simply wouldn’t be able to financially find a way to make it work. But then that first text message turned into another text message, which turned into another. I thought about driving local, or maybe doing something in the office, but when I mentioned running local I was asked to hold that thought for a minute and stop into the office for a chat. So I did.

This was when I told Adam because I was starting to feel a lot more excited at the thought of being home every night. Being able to make a dentist appointment and grocery shop any night of the week and sleep in every Saturday if I want to and maybe joining friends for a happy hour and helping to clean the bathroom and putting my shampoo and conditioner in my own shower and watch a Packer game on Sunday and listen to a record with a glass of wine on a random Tuesday and a whole lot of other little things that I hadn’t been able to do easily when I was on the road.

So I met with the Director of Safety and the President when I stopped in (both such amazing people, by the way!! I love working for a company where it feels like a conversation with a director and the president is like talking to a friend.) To my surprise they were very excited at the opportunity to have me join them in the office. So much that my thoughts of driving local was already fading out of my mind. And even more of a surprise, they brought up recruiting as a possibility. Well, that was a shocker – recruiting never crossed my mind. Ever. I think I gave them a blank stare for a few long seconds. The more we discussed it, the more they assured me they thought I had great potential in this role. I was unsure and decided I would give it some thought. And I did. As word got around, so many people kept telling me how great they thought I would be at it, that I started to let myself believe them. I oftentimes sell myself pretty short, and this time I decided to go into this with confidence. I could be good at this. Dang it, I can be good at anything when I put my mind to it. This would be something totally different for me, a huge challenge, a fun change… a whole new kind of journey. And I could totally do this.

Further conversations with the folks in the office gave me piece of mind after I decided to go for it. I’m a trucker, and I’ll have to toot my own horn here for a minute by saying that I got pretty darn good at it. In fact, I was told from several people in the office, “We’re really sorry to be losing a good driver, but glad you’re joining us in the office.” And so, on top of the ego-boost I was receiving from everyone that I’d be so good at this recruiter thing, they also said if it didn’t work out, like if I realized it just wasn’t my thing, there would always be a truck with my name on it. That’s a cool thing about truck driving, there will always be a need for good drivers, so it was kind of like a safety net. But I wasn’t planning on even keeping that card in play, because I was determined to make this new role work out. That’s what I do. And the excitement grew.

When it got really real: I was driving towards home from a run out east when I saw a notification pop on my phone that I’d received an email from work titled, “offer letter.” I had a couple of hours until I planned to stop for the night in Austintown, Ohio. I had to wait until then to read it. I was really nervous. This was the official letter asking if I’d like to accept this new position and it would outline all the details. I had a lot to ponder, and I had to be sure the offer was something I could swing for me and Adam, too. When I arrived at the truck stop and parked I felt a little bit like I was in the clouds. This felt really weird. I got out and did my post-trip, slowly got myself together and walked into the truck stop to use the bathroom. For some reason I felt like I was procrastinating.

I decided, finally, to open the email when I was sitting on the toilet. I mean, just my style, right? The offer was for the role of marketer/recruiter and would start the following Monday. It outlined all the details of the new position (including that I’d be on salary, which is a first for me!), and this happened to be the moment it all hit me. On a toilet. I mean, of course it did. This was so exciting! I was going to accept this! From a truck stop bathroom, of all places! I was going to sign this offer. And that was going to be that. I was going to be done driving.

I sat on the toilet and had a good cry… of relief, I think. It was one of those real life moments where you just feel so grateful because they don’t come around very often – when it feels like you’re just having one of the best days in your life. It just felt so right all of a sudden. I went for a long run that night (there’s a trail I run on all the time from that particular truck stop, and happened to be a favorite – how fitting!). I thought, I smiled, I ran, and when Adam called I told him it was official. I would be home for the weekend and that was it. The letter stated I would be starting the next Monday.

So that’s how it all came about. That’s how I went from an over-the-road truck driver to working in the office. As I write this I’ve been working from the office for three weeks. And I have so much to share about how that’s been going! I’ll be doing that in my next blog entry! Because guess what? I think (and hope) that I’ll have more opportunities to write now that I’ll be home more! That makes me happy, too, because this is a place I enjoy spending time. I also have a really kick-ass vacation coming up that I’m going to have to write about, so watch out for that, too!

Until next time, friends…

This was my last night in the truck. I got an ice cream cone to celebrate my change. I did have all kinds of mixed feelings in that head and heart of mine, but it was mostly excitement.

—

Tonight I love forcing myself into big challenges with gusto. It sure keeps life interesting!

In Venus’s true style, the night I decided to sign the offer letter, I got back into my truck and my fans stopped working. She knew. I had to pull her F60, but it wasn’t blown. I plugged it back in, and the fans fired up. I get it Venus. I’ll miss you, too. <3

If life were a movie…

November 18, 2020November 18, 2020 / Robin Grapa / 1 Comment

I was looking back through some old files in my note app (I oftentimes will write up an idea, story, or start a blog entry there and forget about it, as was the case here) and cleaning out some old stuff I don’t need any more when I came across a note just called “vent.” Uh-oh. I read it and thought, “eh, why not share this random, old note for funsies while I sit here, waiting, caffeinated and procrastinating because I should be doing my daily squats instead?” And here we are.

If life were a movie, this would be foreshadowing, I think. Right? It’s dated January 1, 2020. I mean, it wasn’t the end of the world kind of stuff, but a frustrating work day that I felt I needed to write down to feel better about it (I do this a lot, just to “vent,” as the write-up was titled, and then I’m able to move on easier). Anyway, I thought I’d share it because, to be honest, with the way things have gone this year it’s almost funny now. “Almost funny” because it’s still frustrating to think back on days like that, and they still happen sometimes because… well… life. But compared to the rest of 2020? Funny.

So below is something I wrote on January 1, 2020. And I’m just gonna smile and be glad today is a better day than that one, and now I’ve got that someone that loves me sleeping in the bunk about five feet behind me, and I can go cuddle with him right now if I want (I’m sitting in a dock door waiting to get unloaded). In fact…

copy, paste, post, cuddle…

______

1/1/20

So I’m venting. Don’t read it if you don’t want to be a part of my pity party. I won’t be at all offended if you don’t wanna get in on my dumps! And yeah, I know it’s dramatic and petty and dumb, and there’s much worse things I could be dealing with, but dammit, it’s January 1st – the day I’m supposed to feel fresh, and new, and invigorated, and ready to tackle good ol’ 2020. But yuck. I’m not!

Well, f*** today. I went to bed last night (New Year’s Eve), alone but not feeling social either, at 11:30pm because I had to get up in the morning to start a very scheduled-out day where everything kinda had to go right for it to all work. I woke up at midnight to fireworks (I was staying at the Pilot in Gary, IN). I don’t blame anybody for that. It was a New Year celebration and for anyone that’s stayed at this Pilot or the TA across the street, you know there’s also a fireworks shop like practically next door. But I get it. Celebrate, fine. I fell back asleep once they were done.

Morning came. I was ready to start my day. And my new year. I put a big, partially fake smile on my face and it lifted me up a bit. It was all gonna be just fine. I had my schedule all written out. Took a shower, did my pre-trip and pulled up to fuel up my reefer. The stupid pump wouldn’t work right. Here we go – I could pump a trickle to keep it going and that took foooorever – and then I had to do it twice to get it topped off because it reset halfway in. Whatever. Pain in the butt, but okay. Move on.

I drove a little over an hour to my delivery location where I was just gonna drop my loaded trailer and hook to an empty one like we do a million times at this place and move on to my next thing for the day. I pulled in at about 10:15 and was turned away because they don’t open until 4pm. This was unusual for this place, even it being New Year’s Day. Drove to a closed Sam’s Club down the road where I could park my beast of a truck out of everyone’s way in freakin’ Chicagoland while I made the phone call to our weekend dispatch and wait for instructions as to ‘what the hell now?’ I had a loaded trailer waiting for me in Fond Du Lac that needed to be live unloaded in Milwaukee at 7pm, and if I was able to stick to my schedule I so proudly came up with, I’d even make it home for the night where I could sleep in my own bed and remember I have someone waiting there for me that loves me and wants to cuddle with me. But now my pretty little schedule was out the window (as what almost always happens with schedules and plans, right?).

Thankfully on-call was great and came up with a plan. I dropped my trailer right there where a co-worker met me, took my bills and was going to drop it for me after he dropped his own trailer – after 4pm when the damn place reopened (seriously – they never close, not even holidays usually – for real). This way I could still get my Milwaukee load delivered on time. Yay. And the silver lining? Because that first place was closed, I couldn’t hook to an empty trailer and bring it to Plymouth, so that saved me some time – so it actually put me a little ahead of schedule. I bobtailed to where my pre-loaded trailer was, hooked up and all went well. Whew.

Got to my delivery location and walked up as they were unlocking their doors. Perfect timing. I was even 1-1/2 hours early for my appointment. They called me with a dock door assignment sometime after 6pm, giving me high hopes because now I was a whole hour ahead of schedule – I was going to have time for a run (that I wanted to do ALL DAY but just didn’t have a good window of time to do yet) AND I was gonna get home!

But then I sat. And sat. And sat. I watched my elog time clock tick, tick, tick down. If I got going by 9pm I miiiiiight still make it. Nope. At 9:30 I got my signed bills and could go. I had 90 minutes to drive 45 miles, fuel my reefer, clean it out, check it in, post-trip it, and drop it. Getting another 60 miles beyond that towards home wasn’t happening. So I settled.

“I’ll drop my trailer, bobtail to Walmart, park there and run the rec trail that’s there.” I was going to go for my run. Finally.

By the time I arrived at the drop location, I had 18 minutes left on my 14-hour clock. Nobody was around to check me in, so I dropped the trailer, left a message to let them know and took the hell off so I could at least get to the truck stop down the road to park for the night. By the time I rolled in and parked I had 3 minutes left of my 14 hour day. I post-tripped, changed into my jammies and crawled right into my bunk without even brushing my teeth or taking my vitamins. Or going for my run.

F*** it. Tomorrow is my New Year.

Today I love team driving. I miss some things about being solo, but… Today I also love cuddles. It’s a two-fer today. 😊

Newport State Park, Wisconsin

November 9, 2020November 11, 2020 / Robin Grapa / 4 Comments

Sunday, November 8 – Tuesday, November 10

A three-day, two-night solo trip to Newport State Park in Door County, Wisconsin.

*Newport State Park. Door County, Wisconsin.*

Sunday:

I’ve been going on quite a few shorter trips lately, and it’s felt really, really good to get back into doing these things I love so much. I’ve missed hiking into the woods with a backpack on my back. I mean, I literally, just a minute ago, stared into the pitch black sky above me and admired the thousands of twinkling stars through treetops faintly aglow from my campfire light. Yup, just did it again. I’m alone out here. The air around me is cool, and if the relentless waves of Lake Michigan weren’t softly crashing along the shoreline just thirty feet away, it would be completely silent. I keep spotting little mice scattering around looking for morsels of food they hoped I dropped. Those tiny critters and my campfire are my entertainment tonight. And it’s perfect.

*The stars were so bright I caught a few with my phone camera! That’s nuts!!*

These types of trips haven’t really been possible in the past few years – at least not without taking vacation time and planning it in around the other things that happen in life that also require the use of my precious vacation time – like family events, getaways with Adam, holiday things… and so I would rarely go through the trouble of all the planning and work it took to just take a night or two in the woods. I was burning out a little. I needed to get a little of “me” back. I needed the woods. I needed them more often.

So Adam and I changed things up at work. We were able to work out a new schedule where we team drive for two weeks, take a week off, and then repeat that three-week schedule. We’ll miss out on that week of pay every third week, so we’ll have to adjust a bit for that, but these weeks off have been allowing me to take these little mini excursions, and so far, I really like it. I mean, those stars above me right now! It’s just starting to feel like I’m slowly building something back up inside that’s been missing. It’s deep down in my bones, and I can’t describe it quite yet, but I know it’s good.

*Soaking in campfire light. Happy Toots.*

On my first week off of this new work arrangement I went to the Porkies in Upper Michigan. My second week I took a quick one-nighter in Kettle Moraine. This time, I’m at Newport State Park. It’s hard to get reservations here during peak seasons, but since it’s early November, and it’s Sunday, I was able to grab a site for two nights just a couple of days in advance. So I’m pretty happy.

My goal is to do something outdoors on each of my weeks off. It might not always be overnighters, as winter is on the way (even though I DO plan on doing some winter camping!). I’ll at least get out for some snowshoeing, day hiking, trail running, and I might even buy a pulk sled to play with (because I also dream of doing some winter ultras!). So anyway, lots of adventures are in my future. And maybe I can sprinkle in a few bigger trips once spring rolls around (like maybe the Timberline Trail? 😉).

So back to the here and now. I got here to Newport State Park about 14:00 and backpacked a mile into my site (#4) and set up my tent, trail ran the same mile back to my car, loaded a second backpack full of firewood and packed back to my site (that firewood was HEAVY, by the way!). I made a fire, ate some ramen, drank some hot cocoa, toasted a few marshmallows (the mice stole one or I’d have eaten four. Jerks) and now I’m soaking in the last waves of warmth from my dying campfire. And the stars seem to get better every time I look up.

Soon I’ll crawl into my doubled-up sleeping bags in my tiny little tent and hopefully get some restful sleep. The plan is to leave camp set up in the morning and take the whole day to hike around the park. I’ve never been here before, so I’m going to hike around and explore as much as I have daylight for. Then I’ll have one more night of camping and eating some new backpacking foods I’m excited to try, play with some mice and head home the next day, on Tuesday.

So off I go to finish my fire and go to bed. I’ll check back in tomorrow. Good night, friends. And don’t forget to look at those stars whenever you get the chance.

Monday:

I woke up just a little after light this morning. I was planning on getting up just before light so I could maybe catch the sunrise, but when my alarm went off I heard a light rain sprinkling on my tent. So I cuddled myself back into my downy sleeping bag and went back to sleep. I think I finally rolled out of the tent around 06:30. I didn’t have any more rain after that.

I made breakfast and coffee, packed my daypack and hit the trails. I hiked pretty much the whole park and peeked in on all of the campsites except for two that had people in them. They’ve all got a couple of benches, a fire ring, a metal food storage box (which I tested with a cashew and a mini marshmallow – mine, at least, is rodent-free) and there’s access to a pit toilet from each site. They’re all really nice sites, but I got lucky, I guess, because I think the one I picked is one of my favorites!

*One of the campsites in the early morning sun and misty, fall air. Pretty magical, hey?*

The trails in the park are great. They’re all well-marked with a map at each junction. Some of the trails are shared between bikers and hikers and those paths are pretty flat and wide and easy-hiking. I’ve even heard of people using carts on those trails to get gear to their campsite. Then there are some hiking-only trails, and those are more single-track trail with some more rugged terrain in spots like roots and rocks. Overall the trails here are pretty flat, with the exception of the trail along Europe Lake – for a short section there’s a few little rolling climbs, but not very tough or anything.

*All the trails in the park were very well-marked.*

I enjoyed the day. My favorite trail was the Lynd Point trail. It went right up next to the Lake Michigan shoreline, and in true Door County fashion, there were large rock outcroppings for the waves to crash up against and splash up into the air. Tree roots grew around the rocks, clinging on for life, and the water rolling in was so clear you could see the smooth white rocks underneath. Beautiful! I didn’t see much for wildlife – a bunch of squirrels and some birds. The highlight was a pileated woodpecker that fluttered through the group campsite as I sat and ate my lunch. Those guys are so cool!

*The Lake Michigan shoreline in Door County is absolutely amazing!!*

I ate things, too! I love snacks! I ate my favorite trail mix of organic, raw, unsalted cashews and organic m&ms. It’s simple, it’s clean and it tastes SO good! I tried a new organic fruit bar that was also very good. For lunch I mixed an avocado with some tuna, drizzled some olive oil over it and sprinkled some pink salt and everything bagel seasoning on top. Super-gourmet trail food! Also on the menu for the day was a new protein bar made from sprouted watermelon seeds (lemon flavored and pretty good for a protein bar!), string cheese, coffee, and a small packet of chicken soup.

Dinner will be interesting. I ran out of fuel for my stove while trying to make up an appetizer of decaf coffee with heavy whipping cream powder, so I had to heat the water on the fire in my small cooking cup. It works, just takes a little patience. So I plan to make a Wild Zora backpacking dinner (just add hot water) that my friend Charisse recommended (thanks, Charisse!!) and a hot cocoa for dessert. But my fire’s nice and hot and I have lots of wood to burn, so I’ll be just fine. Speaking of which… I’ll shout at ya tomorrow. Gotta stoke the fire and enjoy the rest of night! Sleep well tonight, friends!

*These are really tasty, and have good ingredients. There’s also a grass-fed beef stew one that I’m excited to try.*

Tuesday

Last night’s dinner went just fine. My fire got really hot, so boiling water actually went quite quickly. My Wild Zora dinner was really good, although I think I’d want to bring a hot sauce or something to spice it up a little – I mean, it had lots of flavor, but I like spicy. I made a hot cocoa mixed with peppermint schnapps and peppermint marshmallows for dessert and it was almost too rich, if you can believe it! Yum! I roasted a few marshmallows, watched my fire die down, then crawled into my tent for bed.

*Marshmallows!! They don’t weigh much – always bring marshmallows!*

I didn’t sleep great again. I’m not sure if it’s just that I’m getting old or what, but I need to figure out what’s going on with my back at night when I’m sleeping in my tent. My middle back seems to get sore, so I toss and turn a lot through the night. I’m actually going to try just sleeping with my simple Z-lite sleeping pad instead of the my blow-up mattress next time. I think I might actually need a harder surface. I don’t know. Guess I just need more nights in the woods to find out.

It rained early morning again just like the previous morning, so my fire was cold with no hot coals left in it, and since I was out of fuel for my stove, I mixed up a cold coffee and ate a protein cookie for breakfast. The protein cookie was a brand called “Munk Pack” and doesn’t have chicory root fiber or inulin in it (which makes you poop yourself), and it made a really good, quick breakfast. I packed up camp and hiked the mile back out to my car.

I didn’t want to be done yet, though. It was rainy outside, but I didn’t care. I put on my rain jacket, drove to parking lot 1 by the entrance and hiked two more small trail loops that I didn’t get to yesterday. The first one, the Monarch Trail, was just what you’d expect with a name like the Monarch Trail. It wound through some wide, open meadows and a few short jaunts in some forest. After that I crossed the road and jumped on the lollipop-shaped trail called the Upland Trail. The highlight of that trail was an old root cellar still intact, and there’s a little peeping window in the door so you can look inside. Very cool spot to check out! I will have to come back and trail run on this loop because the trail itself was very nice – single track with lots of big rocks to navigate, it was kind of twisty and winding through some beautiful forested landscape. And with the rain and all the leaves fallen onto the forest floor, it was almost glowing.

Then I got back to my car, grabbed my bag of warm, dry clothes and changed in the warm bathroom of the entrance building (it was closed, but they left the bathrooms open – so nice!). I head towards home, stopped at Brew Coffeehouse in Ellison Bay and the gentleman there made me a delicious breve cappuccino, and I was on my way home.

That was a really nice time in the woods. I highly recommend checking out the park if you get the chance, just make sure you make reservations well in advance if you’re going on a weekend or during a peak season. And mind the direction of the wind forecast when picking your campsite. I can’t wait to go back in the winter to see how different it looks!

Until next time… until the next little adventure… stay happy, friends, and get outside for some fresh air!

*Just another boring view from the trail in Newport State Park. No big thing. ;)*

___

Tonight I love Dandies marshmallows. I’m not vegan, but these vegan marshmallows are THE BEST. Skip the cheap Jet-Puffs and spend the extra cash on these. They toast up SO nice – crunchy and brown on the outside, creamy and gooey on the inside. Seriously. They are so good.

As always, here’s a few more pics (you can always see more on my Instagram feed if you’re interested: @_toots_magoots_ )

I found this mylar balloon on the beach at one of the campsites. Let’s stop buying these, right? They always seem to end up in the wilderness somewhere. I admit I enjoyed it for a minute before puncturing it and stuffing it into my garbage bag.

*Boiling water over the campfire when your fuel runs out. Oops.*

*I never get enough of the upside-down forests you can find in water droplets.*

Mines of Spain, 2019: My 100-Mile Race Report

October 15, 2020October 24, 2020 / Robin Grapa / 5 Comments

This is from 2019, not the current year, 2020. Just wanted to make that clear right from the start. I really hoped to have this done a week or two before this year’s Mines of Spain race, but I wasn’t able to make it happen. So I’m posting it right around the same time as others might be posting their 2020 race reports, and I apologize if that confuses anyone. I wanted to avoid that. But maybe it’ll be kind of cool because you can compare one year to another. I dunno. Anyway, it’s long as hell, so if you’re here and plan on reading the whole thing, get a cup of coffee, sit back and relax.

I really regret not doing this right away because I know I’ve forgotten so much already. I like writing these up when the lingering pains are still present and the tearful joy of accomplishment is still right at the surface, coming out in random, unpredictable bursts. But honestly, I think I was just plain burned out afterward, and so I put it off. And then I jumped right into a pretty intense brand new work situation and before I knew it… it was now… October of 2020. Dammit, if one good thing comes out of this year, maybe it’ll be my finishing this thing – finally! (I need to have this to read when I’m 80 and can’t believe that it actually happened! I really did run 100 miles!)

This photo is a spoiler – I finished. (I will also note right away, that when you see a photo posted in this blog entry with that Mines of Spain logo in the corner, the photography was courtesy of Mile 90 Photography. Please check them out, they do AMAZING work, as you will see!!)

Race Info:

Mines of Spain 100 – click here to go to the race site!

October 18-19, 2019

Mines of Spain Recreation Area – Dubuque, IA

There are two distances: 100k and 100 Miles

I participated in the 100 Mile race – this was my first time running a 100-miler, and the farthest I’ve ever run in one go.

The 100-mile race consists of 5 20-mile “loops.” The loops included some short out and backs, but essentially was a loop, starting and finishing at the actual Start/Finish line. This was also where “Crew-ville” was located, which was a large grassy area for crew to set up tents and hang out while waiting for their runners to come through after each 20-mile loop. More about that later, because it was one of the reasons I chose this race for my first 100-miler.

My stats:

Total miles: 104 (according to my GPS watch)

Total time: 31 hours, 23 minutes, 43 seconds

Overall pace: 18:06/mile

Elevation gain: 13,819 ft.

Overall rank: 42/54 (37 men and 17 women finished. There were 22 DNFs)

Gender rank: 12/17

Age group rank: 5/15

Calories burned: 9,407

A video I put together from race day:

Training:

The most challenging aspect of my entire 100-mile race experience wasn’t my sore feet at mile 75, or that I felt like I had to poop for the entire last 20 miles, or that it felt like every inch of my skin hurt at mile 90 — it was the training leading up to race day. I feel as though I’ve mentioned my training in previous blogs ad nauseam… because it’s hard to hold to any sort of routine, or to really find time AND places to run while driving as an over-the-road truck driver. So anyway, I won’t go into great detail, breaking down runs or anything. I promise I’ll try to keep it simple.

*Getting unloaded? Go run. Getting loaded? Go run. 10-hour break? Go run. 30-minute break? Go run. Pretty much the routine leading up to the race.*

I’ve been training for ultras as a trucker for over a year now, and it’s mostly become part of my regular trip-planning and daily focus. Where will I be able to run? When will I be able to run? Do I need to split it into two runs? Where can I park my truck and run safely? It’s exhausting. In fact, a lot of the time, the logistics behind running over the road is more tiring than the running itself – seriously. I actually enjoy the break from the planning more than I do the running after a race!

It really helped to have a run streak going. I started one back in March just to step up my motivation. I was getting down and not doing much, so I decided to do a “one mile a day” challenge. I called it my “no excuses” challenge. No matter what the weather was doing, no matter how little time I had, no matter how tired I was, I could do one mile. If that was walking laps around my truck, fine. I can do one mile. And I did that for March, and then just kept going (I broke it 2 days after my 100-mile race and am currently looking at doing some other type of streak, but not sure what yet.). So that streak kept me going every single day, and really was a HUGE help in getting as many miles as I could so I would at least feel a little prepared for this beast. Then there was my “peak training” weeks. I’ve heard this term used by other runners, and I honestly don’t really know what it means, or if it’s really got a specific meaning, but for me it just meant run. As much as possible. And I did. Every spare moment I had, I ran. On a 10-hour break (required by law as a truck driver), I would shut down at night, change, go out and run. Then I’d sleep 5-6 hours, wake up, change, and go out and run again. A lot of the time it was dark outside. Sometimes it was running around a truck stop parking lot. Sometimes it was a busy frontage road in the pouring rain. But I donned my reflective vest, blinky lights and headlamp and did it anyway. In addition to all the “regular” daily running, I tried to get in one long run on my one day off each week. I got in a few 20-milers, a couple of 30’s and a 40 once I got closer to race month. Thankfully I had the support of my husband, Adam, who took care of a lot of my weekly chores (laundry, grocery shopping, food prep) that I also needed to get done for each week of work on the road. It was nuts for a few weeks there, I won’t lie.

*Hard work. But big, rewarding payoffs. All worth it. All of it.*

So that’s pretty much how I got myself ready. And I still feel like I could’ve – and should’ve – done so much more. If there’s ever a next time I run 100 miles (which I’d really like to think there will be, because it was awesome), I’ll hope to be working a different sort of job that will allow me to do some more regular and focused training. Until then, I will try to stay in shape so that I can jump in on some shorter ultras. (Hah. Shorter. Like 50k or 50 miles. Look what’s happened to me! Since when is 50 miles short!? I’ve lost my mind!)

Race-day nutrition:

During my races and training sessions leading up to this one, I learned that my guts handle softer foods better than harder ones. For example, pureed avocados go through my digestive tract way smoother than say, a Clif bar. So I started making my own race “gels.” I live a generally low-carb lifestyle (except when I feel like drinking beer and eating pizza, or having a fresh-baked scone with my coffee, but I try my best to keep these for special occasions or as an occasional treat), so an added bonus to making my own race food was that I controlled the amount of sugar that went into it (which after 10’s of hours of running, large amounts of sugar also seems to turn down my appetite for the much-needed fuel my body needs to keep moving). In addition to the ease of digestion and lower sugar content, I was able to put all-narural ingredients into it. I figured this was all good stuff, and after some experimentation during the lead-up to this big mutha-hundred, I had a few tried-and-true flavors ready to go (the pureed egg with mayo and pickle juice was one that didn’t make the cut).

I call them my “squishies.” I bought some Gu-brand reusable gel containers and some other cute ones (meant for baby food) from Amazon, and a couple days before the race I went to work. I had 23 squishies queued up and ready to squeeze right down my throat for quick energy (but they do actually taste pretty awesome, too). These were the flavors I made:

Coconut milk base with cinnamon, vanilla and chia seeds

Coconut milk base with cocoa powder, vanilla and chia seeds

Avocado base with avocado oil, cinnamon, honey and cayenne (my fave!)

Sweet potato base with MCT oil and maple syrup

Sweet potato base with olive oil, salt, pepper and turmeric

Almond butter base with MCT oil and strawberries (my 2nd fave! PB&J in squeeze form!)

Then during the race I was going to try to wait to add aid station food as long as I could, and then just grab whatever my belly was in the mood for (olives and pumpkin pie were two things I wasn’t able to pass up early on). Caffeine was also going be added in when I first felt like I really needed it, and then I’d slowly continue on with it after that. I stuck pretty close to that plan, and I fared pretty well, until sometime before my last loop when my appetite started to dwindle and I constantly felt like I had to poop (my most common problem.) I still don’t have this stuff completely figured out, but I’ve come a long way. And I think my stomach problems may be partially linked to the amount of pain I’m in. But that needs more observation to confirm. Basically, I better sign up for more races soon so I can figure this mystery out. Right?

Gear and drop bags:

I like to keep stuff as simple as possible. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy summer running – less layers and bundling up needed – shorts, shirt, sandals, go. Anyway, for clothing I did keep it simple. Ink n Burn capris, Ink n Burn tech shirt, cheap Target sports bra, 1/2 buff around my wrist to wipe sweat with, a pink Adidas visor (I need a new option here for a cool visor – suggestions appreciated!) cheapo Walmart Bluetooth earbuds, Garmin Fenix 3 watch, Bedrock sandals (I wore my Lunas for one loop but changed back to the Bedrocks – my feet slide around in the Lunas when they get wet. And as you will see, the water. There was lots of it.)

I carried a Patagonia Houdini Jacket, which I wore at the start and towards the end of the race because it was chilly out, and that was a pretty nice little piece of gear that I’m glad I sold an arm to afford – they just seem so pricey for how little there is to them – but there’s a reason for it! So incredibly light, packs down to almost nothing, and kept me warm when I was chilled (it also keeps off a little rain, but if it’s actually raining, you’re just gonna get wet no matter what you wear, so…).

My vest is the Nathan VaporHowe. I’ve tried quite a few different vests, and this one was the most comfy for me and seemed to have enough room for all the things I wanted to carry. I did get one chafe spot in the middle of my back where the pack must slightly rub on my sports bra band, but I’m not sure which is at fault here – the vest or the bra – probably both teaming up, jerks. Anyway, I knew this was an issue going in, so my lovely mom got the job of lubing that particular spot every time I came around from a loop (thanks, Mom!), and it did very well.

I carried my phone for contacting my crew and to use for pictures and video. Along with technology comes chargers and things. I had a small charger with a cord for my phone and the special docking charge cord for my watch (even though there’s a cord hanging from it, you can wear it while it charges – kind of a cool design). My headlamp is my trusty Black Diamond Spot, which is what I’ve used for years of backpacking and running.

I also carried my Black Diamond Z-pole trekking poles and used them on, I think the last two loops? Maybe the last three? See, this is why I need to write these race reports right away! Grrr… They were very helpful after I got tired and sloppy-footed, and there was some mud at the very end I vaguely remember in my late-race fog-brain that was downhill and very slick.

For my drop bags, I decided again, to keep it simple. We were allowed to have drop bags at all four of the aid stations, but I chose to just have one at Aid Station #1, Sauk & Fox. On each 20-mile loop I was able to access it 4.2 miles in and then again 8.1 miles later, or 13.3 miles into the loop. This worked great for me, and I actually rarely needed anything from it. I pretty much only accessed it to swap out an empty squishy homemade food for a full one, a Pickle Power, and maybe a salt tab or two. I liked that I only had one bag to get ready (less decisions pre-race) and I *loved* that I only had one bag to choose from during the race (the best time to have the least amount of decisions to make!). It was also easier because I didn’t have to remember what I had in what bag and what I used last time and was there any left of this item in that bag, etc. It was one bag.

In that bag I had these things:

Buff, Injinji socks (I’ll wear them if my feet get unbearably cold OR if I have some bad chafing that KT tape won’t help), KT tape and small scissors, Pickle Power shots, salt tabs, extra Tums, Pepto, and an Immodium, extra headlamp batteries, squirrels nut butter, 2Toms sport shield wipes, wet ones, extra squishy homemade food thingies, emergency Hammer gel, spare mini charger, heavier rain jacket, a small towel in case I had to dry my feet off to tape them, duct tape, and liner gloves.

Weather, terrain and trail conditions:

So, the weather, as I remember it a year later, was pretty typical for fall in the Midwest. I remember feeling a little shivery and cold in the early morning at the start, and by the time the race began, I couldn’t feel my toes. It took probably a mile to get them feeling comfy again, but I don’t remember them being cold after that (even after the water crossings), but they usually stay pretty warm when I’m moving. (Winter is a different story – I will wear wool Injinji socks if it’s below freezing. Yup, socks and sandals. Nope, don’t care.)

I remember seeing that other racers had changed into shorts after the first loop when the day warmed up a bit, and I kinda wish I’d have done the same – I was actually comfortable temperature-wise in my capris, but just the change of clothes once or twice would’ve been refreshing. I wore the same thing for the whole race, only adding my Houdini jacket at the beginning and end to ward off the chill.

The temperatures ranged between about 40° and 60°F and for the most part was great for fall running. One thing I’m not 100% clear on is if there was any rain. I remember zero rain, but I also remember the trail being muddy at the end (like mile 90 or something really late like that) because I was being very careful not to end up in a mud-glissade on my butt down a switchback hill, because my body felt so wrecked I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to get back up again. Did it rain? Forecast history says no, I remember no… Fellow 2019 racers? Do you remember? I really don’t think it did.

The terrain in this race had everything, which was the best. It had meadows (that smelled so strongly like cotton candy that I was sure an aid station was making some, and I thought it such a brilliant freaking idea, because, I mean, sugar, and I hoped they had blue and pink swirl, which of course they would because they are standard cotton candy colors… Unfortunately nobody had cotton candy. It was just the meadows), there was single-track through the forest under canopies of fall-colored leaves, bluffs with a view, road (yeah, there was some road at the beginning/end of the loop and one short section that was detoured around a section of closed trail), stairs (lots of them, but I remember feeling glad for the change in muscle-usage and looked forward to those sections), river crossings, rocks, roots, grass. I mean, all the things. I absolutely loved the variety, although I could deal with less road if I’m being picky.

There was really only one tiny negative nitpick I have from this race, but I would 100% not let this deter you from running in it. Right near the start/finish is a section of road and bike path that basically connects the start/finish area (which is in a park) to the Mines of Spain Recreational area. Along that short section of road is a sewage treatment plant. I actually don’t remember ever smelling it on the way out on each loop, but I remember always smelling it toward the end of each loop on the way back. But I also remember I was always eating something, probably to get in planned calories I failed to consume earlier during the loop, and since I was going to soon be seeing my crew and resupplying, I was downing what I could. Anyway, it was a smelly few minutes each time around. Just plan your eating better than I did, and you might not even notice it.

The biggest news of the race was the flooding. I believe it was Catfish Creek – a short section of trail was completely flooded to thigh-deep. They had a rope to guide you where the trail was, and if you strayed too far away from it, the river bank dropped off and you’d really be in deep. Like needing to swim, deep. But it wasn’t difficult to follow the rope, even on the last loops when I was foggy and unstable. We just needed to be careful of our footing because the ground was squishy and muddy underwater. They did have kayakers floating along that section in case racers had trouble, which I thought was so cool. At night there were two people in a canoe (instead of the kayakers) and they had a small fire burning in the middle of the canoe on some sort of little grill, maybe, for warmth, I assume. Or wait. Was that a hallucination? No, I’m pretty certain that was real (I never did get to a point of hallucinating. Sigh… some day!)

It was chilly going through the water, I mean it’s always a bit shocking getting in to water in October, but I actually found it refreshing (and fun!). As soon as you got out of the water and up to the road there was a giant fire built to warm up by, but I never felt the need for it, so I always said hi to the volunteers and ran on, keeping myself plenty warm that way. I found the water sections to be exciting, and another fun way to break up the course.

Crew and Pacer:

First of all, Crew-Ville! One of the reasons I chose to run the Mines of Spain as my first 100 (I have to admit it was my 2nd choice next to the Superior 100, which I did not get picked for in the lottery), was the Crew-Ville setup. Crew-Ville is at the Start/Finish and the only place where crew can be. Well, there was one other aid station they could access, but it wasn’t far from the end of each loop anyway, and so we just kept it simple and decided they could stay in one spot. This was so much more convenient than chasing me around in a car, hoping they’d get there in time, not get a flat tire, worry about forgetting to grab ice, or whatever else. And they were able to get sleep in between seeing me, play cards, crack a beer and not have to drive anywhere… it just seemed perfect. There’s a huge grassy lawn at the start/finish/crew-ville area, and there are big squares marked off where you can set up a tent. My crew set up a 3-walled tent with tables and chairs and bins and coolers and all kinds of things, and that’s where I’d head to every 20 miles to resupply my gear, food and encouragement to keep going. There was also a big pavilion, kind of race headquarters, where all kinds of food was available for racers and crew that had a special food bracelet. I believe the registration comes with a bracelet for the racer and one crew member, but you can purchase extras, so that’s what I did. It was a really cool set-up.

My crew was the best. I had Adam (my husband), my mom and dad (Patty and Keith), and I even had two surprise crew members! Dick and Joanne (friends of our family) showed up and surprised me the night before the race! On top of this amazing crew, I had a pacer for the first time ever, Jessica.

These people helped make this first 100-mile race an amazing experience for me, and I’m so glad they were all part of it. I simply don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to explain my gratitude, love and appreciation for the people that support me when it comes to these nutso things I love to do. And they just keep showing up! Who’s crazier!?

So my husband, Adam, is basically my crew chief. He takes his job pretty seriously and keeps stuff moving along. He’s kind of like the “Toots Wrangler.” I can be quite a lollygagger and he’s really good at reminding me to focus with a perfectly balanced regimented gentleness, if that makes sense. He keeps me doing what I need to do and makes sure I keep my butt moving, but the whole time with a sweet, caring concern in his eyes – and before I go I get a big hug and kiss and encouragement. He’s also crazy-good at all the math. As I’m stuffing food into my mouth and race vest at the same time, he’ll be telling me how fast I ran the last section and how fast I need to run the next section to reach my goals. And he’s good at keeping it simple enough that I have the basic knowledge of what I need to do when I hit the trail again. He’s not a runner, but he’s a natural at this part – he gets it.

*I didn’t actually nap at all. But I did lie down for like one minute to stretch a little and it felt way too good!*

Along with Adam, my mom, dad, Dick and Joanne were all stellar cheerleaders, go-getters and helpers. They were always in a good mood, smiling, laughing, joking and keeping things upbeat, even though they were tired, too. One thing was for sure – they were going to do everything they could to keep me thinking positively, which wasn’t too tough because they’re all just fun people, anyway. And I was just so happy to be there. They all pitched in to help me find things in my race bins, grab food, hot coffee, hold up blankets while my mom lubed up my back and I lubed my butt cheeks, fill water bottles, point me to the bathrooms – whatever big or little thing I needed, they were all on it before I could finish a sentence. None of us have done this very many times (and I believe it was Dick and Joanne’s first ultramarathon crewing gig) but it felt like when I came into our crew station, we were a well-oiled machine.

And what a pacer! Jessica came to pace me for my last 20-mile loop. I met Jessica at the Frozen Otter race, which is a winter ultra – if you’ve followed my blog, you’ve read my race reports from those races. They’re a whole different kind of crazy! Anyway, Jessica has run in the Frozen Otter races, and we connected through that and were friends on social media. When I reached out through Facebook to see if anyone would be able and willing to run a 20-mile loop with me, Jessica said she would do it! She didn’t live too far from the race, and was curious about the course but couldn’t commit to racing it, so it was perfect for both of us! I felt kind of like a real ultrarunner having a friend there with a bib that read “PACER” on it. It’s sometimes weird little things that help it sink in. (Pacers are also sometimes called “safety runners” and they can help with all sorts of things, depending on the race and need of the runner. They can do math if you’re chasing cutoffs and you’re too tired to think, they can keep you from falling asleep and off of a cliff (literally in some mountain races), they can remind you to drink or eat, they can keep you entertained with stories or song, be a distraction from the monotony of running for 100 miles, or just simply be good company.)

Jessica was a pro. I didn’t know much at all about pacing or being a pacer, but I’m pretty sure she’s done this before – she kept JUST far enough in front of me that I constantly felt like I had to keep up, but never so far that I felt I was struggling. It’s like she knew exactly what I had in me and pulled me right along. I could’ve easily talked myself into just walking the whole last 20 miles without her, as I was hurting pretty much in every single place on my body. My feet were achy and knotted, I was so tired, so very-very tired, and every step made my skin hurt. Like, all of it. But Jessica kept the conversations going, and I honestly can’t remember hardly anything we talked about, but I know she kept me thinking about things other than the painful physical sensations that were trying to take my mind over. I do know at one point, with her positivity and encouragement, I just started running again. I wanted to be at that finish line. My feet hurt and my skin hurt and my stomach was all kinds of weird, making me feel like I constantly had to poop, and at one point I just decided to pretend I was fresh and nothing hurt. I faked better posture, starting moving my feet faster and we even passed a few people towards the end of the loop. I didn’t care at all what place I ended up in, and I certainly wasn’t out to pass people – I simply wanted to finish before the final cutoff time, and that was it. But the fact that I was able to turn my mind somewhere else and do that felt pretty cool. So thank you, Jessica, for helping me finish strong!!

And thank you, Adam, mom, dad, Dick and Joanne. I love you all so much!

Stick around after this already way-too-long race report for a couple more stories about my crew (one involving a horse and the other some unknowingly inappropriate signs) and a specific poop-related story with my pacer (it was me that was doing the pooping).

Recovery:

First things first – taking in calories without having to worry about the consequences of running with it in my belly! When I got done with the race I was trying to decide what I was hungry for, so I munched on a little bit of pizza and a couple things from the food station at the pavilion, but what I ended up really wanting was my gigantic celebration can of Corona.

After we got everything packed up my crew took me out for a delicious, gigantic post-race Mexican dinner and it was amazing. I definitely did not have a suppressed appetite like I hear some racers do, and I was thankful because that smothered burrito and margarita was so delicious! It was also really nice to just sit down and catch up with the crew and hear about their experiences while I was out there running. It sounds like they had a good time too, and that made me happy.

From what I remember the physical recovery process went fairly smooth, especially considering how much everything hurt in those last miles. I know it was kind of hard getting around the next day, as my feet and legs were pretty sore as expected, but I did go for a mile and a half walk in the morning, and I think that helped. That was also my 233rd day of a “mile-a-day” streak I was on, and that’s where it ended. I did go for a slow 2-3 mile run a couple of days later, and I felt pretty good! Nothing was too out of whack, and I was going to be back to complete normalcy in no time. Except that I dove right into a brand new situation at work (first time training another driver!), so there wasn’t a lot of my regular running happening, even though I felt ready for it. And honestly, the forced physical break was probably a good one. The girl I was training is actually a friend of mine, and also a PCT hiker, so we did get out for some walks, and we had *so* much fun. But it was certainly a little more mental work than what I was used to, so I might’ve missed out on a little of that sort of wind-down. I’m thankful she was a great driver, a super-easy trainee, and a fun person to spend time with!

*Post-race epsom salt bath and bath beer.*

Gonna back up for a minute to share a fun post-race experience I had. On our way home, Adam and I drove over to Chicago and visited the Ten Junk Miles crew for one of the “gang show” podcasts. They fed us dinner and we grabbed beers and head into Scotty’s basement office to record. Looking back, it’s all such a blur, which is kind of funny. I’m pretty sure I was suffering from some sort of post-100-mile brain fog. And I had some pretty nice cankles goin’ on that I think the crew admired. But it was a really fun experience to spend some time with these awesome people and talk about my race and running and whatever else we talked about that I can’t remember! Check out Gang Show 118 here, and fall into the rabbit hole and listen to many more if you haven’t already, because their podcast is the best. I listen to a lot being an OTR trucker and they are my #1 choice.

*Hanging out with Adam, Holly and Scotty in the Ten Junk Miles studio!*

Fun stuff! Extra stories from the race:

First, overall I’m happy with how my first 100 went. I was definitely towards the back of the pack but I didn’t care. I just wanted to finish before the final cutoff, which I did, and on top of that, I never felt at any point like time was going to hold me back, as long as I just kept going. No chasing cutoffs!

Before the race I did some visualization exercises, which I really think help me, and when I thought about how each loop would go, I was pretty close. Loop one was super-fun, nothing really hurt, I ran strong, and everything was new and interesting. Loop two was a little tougher than I’d expected mentally, and I think that’s because I knew that I had so much more race to go! Loop three was dark and I slowed way down. My feet were hurting pretty bad already and I was starting to get tired. Loop four was painful physically, but I knew if I got it done, I’d pick up Jessica to pace me for the final loop and that would be that. And loop five? Victory lap. If I head out on loop five I figured I’d know I’d be finishing.

*What I actually wrote out in my journal before the race. Pretty darn close!*

Here’s a funny one. As I mentioned earlier, my crew also made very good cheerleaders. Each time I came around a loop my mom would be holding up a giant sign that they had made out of a piece of cardboard. The first one read, “RUN JACK SLEEP” and when I saw it I couldn’t help but crack up immediately. They tried pulling a joke from the Ten Junk Miles podcast because they know how much I love it and thought I would get a kick out if it. I sure did. You see, Adam has heard bits and pieces of the show while I listen to it in the truck, and has also had to listen to me go on and on about one funny thing or another. Well, a popular guest on the show, and famous pacer for Scott Jurek (in the past), Dusty Olson, was on a show and came up with the proper order in which to do things: Run, whack, nap. And it means what you think it means. So the sign the crew came up with that my mom was holding up meant the same thing, but missed the mark a bit. So funny!

*This crew seriously kept me smiling, laughing and I’m glad to see they had fun, too!*

The next loop she held a new sign, “RUN WHACK NAP” – so they fixed it! And they got another big laugh out of me.

The third sign… well, it confused me. At this point I was tired and my brain wasn’t quite functioning right, so when I read, “RUN RABBIT RUN,” my first thought was, “why are they holding a sign for a different race?” Because Run Rabbit Run is another popular ultra race in Colorado – and I know my crew didn’t know that. Or did they? What the heck? And why? Well, as it turns out, the sign was actually meant to be the girl’s version of “Run Whack Nap.” Yeah, it was just one of those hilarious, ongoing things that just really stood out as a fun memory from the day. Each time I came in from a loop the first thing my crew did was crack me up, and that’s why I love them.

“The reason you’re able to run 100 miles is because you have horse blood,” Dick said. Dick and Joanne are friends of our family from where I grew up in Phillips, Wisconsin. In 2006 my mom and I backpacked across the country on the American Discovery Trail to raise awareness and research funds for Aplastic Anemia (which I was treated for in 1998 and recovered from), and Dick met us for a long stretch with his pickup truck camper to support us on the trail. I mean, the guy fed us, trailed us and looked out for us, gave us a sheltered bed to sleep in each night in his camper, chased down the Schwann’s guy so he could bring us ice cream in the middle of nowhere, Kansas on a 100-degree day. He was a trail angel extraordinaire. So I suppose when he found out I was doing another crazy thing, he thought he’d come and support me, so he and his wife Joanne did just that. It was a really nice surprise! So where does this horse thing come in? Well, when I was treated for my Aplastic Anemia, I received a treatment called ATG (I won’t go into much detail here – you can find the whole story here if you’re interested), but the jist of it is that there are two versions of ATG – horse and rabbit. I received the horse version – it’s a serum they get from horse blood to treat the illness I had. So Dick and Joanne found this toy horse and brought it along as a sort of “mascot” for the day. And we all found it pretty perfect. Now if I can just embrace the thought that I can run because I have horse blood… maybe I can get faster! Haha! Yeah, right! I’m okay being slow.

*Dick and Joanne with the horse mascot.*

As I mentioned, this was my first time having a pacer, and Jessica was great. She was always super-cheery and kept the conversation going the whole time we ran that last 20-mile loop, and even helped me poop. Well, let’s tell this story because that doesn’t sound right. Towards the end of the race my stomach started to be weird, which showed up as feeling like I constantly had to poop. I finally got to a point I had to try because I was getting pretty uncomfortable. I started scoping out a spot, and was coming around to probably the last good place for a while (towards the start of a long meadow section where I’d be in the wide open). I spotted a big tree up around a bend and decided that was a spot, and then? Voices. A man and his little boy came walking out of the tall grass right ahead of us on the trail dressed in camouflage. They were hunters, but man, I had to poop. So Jessica told me to go up ahead and poop and she’d distract them while I did my business. So I darted up the trail and into the woods just far enough off the trail to be leave no trace and started my business. I could hear her, basically right on the other side of the tree I was near – she started up a conversation with this hunter to keep him from heading down the trail toward me and my bare ass. I could hear them kind of wrapping up the conversation and then she started talking to the kid. I was almost laughing as I was finishing up – she was trying so hard to keep them from continuing down the trail! Then I heard them start heading my way, and I was just standing up and heading back toward the trail. They 100% knew what I was doing, but at least they caught me towards the end. What a pacer, hey!? She even covered me while I pooped. Haha! Thanks, Jessica!!

I really had a fun race. When this year’s race rolled around, I looked on with envy. I really wish I could’ve run it again, and hope to maybe run it again one day. This year was crazy with all the Covid crap going on, so in a way I was glad to just keep my distance (being a truck driver, I’ve been trying to stay away just because I’m going all over and who knows when and or where I might contract the stupid virus), but I still watched as some of the friends I met in last year’s race participated this year. It looked like they took all the safety precautions and ran a safe race. And there was no flood this year, so I got to see pictures of the actual trail in some section we had thigh-high water! Anyway, congrats to all this year’s runners!! It’s such an exciting time, and such a high to complete something so insanely enormous and difficult. And for some reason, even though it was some of the most intense, consistent pain I felt for a long stretch of time, that’s all faded and I want to do it again. And I will. But I also have many more things in my sights, and hopefully you’ll be reading about those soon.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

*Those feet deserved that 100-mile finisher belt buckle!!*

___

Tonight I love ultrarunning. I’m a backpacker at heart, but ultrarunning has really helped scratch the backpacking itch while it’s been difficult to find the time for it. I really did find a special love for ultras. And I plan to keep up my fitness so I can stay active in the community, at least a little bit. These people are amazing, just like the backpacking community. We talk about a lot of the same stuff – chafing, pooping, food… They’re my kind of people and I love them all.

More photos.

My mom helping me paint my toenails the night before the race.

Coming around the Julien Dubuque monument.

*Crew activities while waiting for me to run a loop.*

*The look on my dad’s face… love this so much.*

*Someone was letting racers pet their dog at one of the aid stations, and it was honestly a really nice boost. Such a sweetie!!*

*The race director, Josh Sun, greeted all the finishers. What a great race he puts on!*

*A good day. And so glad to be done running.*

The Derpy Dragon Tour

October 4, 2020 / Robin Grapa / Leave a comment

Adam and I explore the Keweenaw Peninsula in Upper Michigan (and we thought its shape looked like a Derpy Dragon, so thus the title)

Tuesday, September 29 – Thursday, October 1

After I got out of the woods from my 3-day backpacking trip in the Porcupine Mountains, Adam picked me up at the Summit Peak Scenic Area and took me to the very interesting “hotel” that he’d booked. Most hotels were either full or super-expensive, and when he called this place he was told the window of dates he wanted were perfect as someone was just leaving the day we were to arrive and we’d be leaving the day before their next arrival, and as it turns out, it’s and Air B&B place, but we didn’t realize it. We ended up getting a nice deal from the owner – I think he was pretty happy to have it filled.

The place is called the Oak Street Inn and it’s in Calumet, MI, right in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula – a perfect location for our plans. It’s an old general store converted into a… uh… hotel? It was just right for us because it was just so weird. So it’s an old general store. See, Calumet, MI is protected as a National Historic Place or something, and I think the owner told us you can’t really build new buildings, but converting old ones is okay, so there we were. Sleeping in an old general store. It was decorated with all kinds of cool antique signs, full of books from the early 1900’s, donned some pretty old-looking furniture and the walls were decorated with old photos. There was even a calendar from 1960 hanging on the wall. The strangest thing was the setup. There was basically two rooms to our private room. We had a full kitchen with stove, sink table, and dishes. Off of that was a small bathroom with just a shower (but a big one!) and a toilet and the tiniest sink. Just outside the bathroom on the other side of the bathroom door was a larger bathroom sink, so pretty much also in the kitchen. On the other end of the kitchen was a wall with a large-screen TV on it, surrounded by old black and white photos. Next to that? A bed. In the kitchen. Sort of. Then in the next room – the bedroom, I guess – was 3 more beds – double beds. Just outside our room was a large rec room. It had an old pool table (that we could use if we wanted), and there was even a Spa Room off of that, but it wasn’t open – maybe because of Covid. It had a very large hot tub in it. I think this place is probably popular for larger family gatherings. I believe there’s more than just our “room” there, so LOTS of beds and places for people to sleep with the large room with the pool table and spa to hang out.

Whatever. It was perfect. We only used one bed, even though we could’ve slept in a different one each night. The shower was huge, so I was able to get myself clean after my hike (well, except for my feet. I didn’t have my pumice, so they were dirt-tattooed, just how I like ’em). After my shower we walked downtown to the Michigan House, which is a bar with tap beers. It was a little disappointing, as the taps were down to two beers and they were out of tomato juice for bloody marys. I think that Covid, again, might’ve had something to do with some of this, but who knows. We still were able to have plenty of beer to drink at the bar while playing cribbage, and we ate dinner there and the food was really good. We walked back to our room and called it a night, looking forward to getting up early the next day for our driving tour of the peninsula.

Our first stop was the Keweenaw Coffee Works coffee shop right there in Calumet. This was one of those coffee shops that I could visit every day. Adam was pretty excited about showing it to me. We got some delicious coffees (they even had heavy whipping cream! Yay!), and Adam ordered me a “Frida Haut Chocolat” in a Dia de Muertos mug. It was spicy and delicious.

Then we got into our beloved Subaru and drove north-ish. We decided to wind our way towards the north end of the peninsula where there was a brewery and a taco truck in Copper Harbor we were told we couldn’t miss, but when we arrived both were closed, so Copper Harbor was a total bust. We were bummed out, but Brockway Mountain cheered us right back up. This was another spot that every local said, “Oh, you HAVE to drive up to Brockway Mountain. You’ll be above the clouds.” So we did. We didn’t exactly get above the clouds, be we got a 360° view of the surrounding land. Which was… well… kind of amazing. We could see Lake Superior and a big rain cloud slowly creeping our way on one side, and the other, a giant drop-off into a long valley of brightly-colored autumn trees and a string of evergreens running down the center of it.

Looking out over Lake Superior from the top of Brockway Mountain.

We took a side road at one point and it turned to gravel and wound us out in the middle of nowhere to a little lake where we hopped out and peed in the grass, enjoyed a breath of fresh air, then we turned around and went back to the main road. The drive itself was one of the best we’ve had. Adam queued up some classical music and we wound through a rainbow of fall colors. I couldn’t even believe how perfect they were. US-41 had the best display – if you ever get up there, try to go in the fall. Dude. It was absolutely mind-blowing.

There’s this place called the Jam Pot off of Hwy 26. My first night backpacking, my neighboring campers were telling me I should stop there. Mary had a big, goofy smile on her face. “It’s a monastery. The monks make these really great fruit cakes.” Uh… monks? Fruit cakes? What? I was pretty sure she wasn’t kidding, and again, this was just weird enough, we had to check it out. The barista at the coffee shop also said that the monks have been known to sometimes be grumpy. I was excited to see what this place was all about, but with all the distraction of fluorescent nature and beers and fun, I’d forgotten about it! I have no idea how! Anyway, there we were, cruising along, and there it was. Jam Pot! We swung in and found the monks to be very pleasant. I guess they weren’t having a grumpy day. There was a display with their rum sourdough fruit cakes. Sure enough. They were also $50. And yes, we bought one. We were on vacation, and this seemed like one of those things, although expensive, we’d have regretted not just going for. (We tried it after we got home. It was heavy, rummy, fruity and tasted like Christmas. We’re saving the rest for then – the monk that sold it to us said it’s good for up to a year. Oh, fruit cake. You so weird.)

Then we drove to Houghton, which is south of Calumet where our hotel was. But Houghton had the Keweenaw brewery – I’ve always loved their beers, so I was pretty excited to go to their taproom. They weren’t serving flights (again, Covid – but I was thankful this entire trip that I was at least able to go places, and Michigan was really good about following safety precautions – one bar actually wouldn’t let you get up from your table without putting your mask on – even if just heading to the bathroom – and they called you out on it if you forgot. I found it refreshing.) Instead of a flight, I ordered a bunch of 1/2 pints, which is basically like drinking a flight, but probably more. Lets just say I had a fun time! Haha!

After our fun time at the Keweenaw brewery we head over to The Library for dinner. We had to wait quite a while for our food, but I didn’t care because I was able to get a flight there (more beers, yay!) and the food was SO good.

Back at the hotel we played some cribbage and hit the hay. The next morning we woke up slowly, played more cribbage (we love it so much), and I was planning on driving all the way home, so Adam had a few beers for breakfast. Again, we do what we want when on vacation! On the way home we even stopped at another really neat little bar/restaurant for lunch and so that Adam could get a bloody mary. It was a nice way to extend our time off.

The highlight of the trip was clearly the fall colors. I really don’t know that I’ve ever seen them so perfect and so full and bright. It might’ve even been just before peak because there were barely any trees with leaves missing – I love it when there’s still a bunch of green mixed in with all the reds, oranges and yellows and that was exactly what we got.

I’m glad I went on that backpacking trip. I needed that, and I’m excited to go again. I may even hit up an overnight or two this winter. And the road trip with Adam was quite the highlight, too. We love driving around together, and the Keweenaw Peninsula was just the right size to pretty much see the whole thing in a day with a bunch of little stop-offs along the way.

And that was the Derpy Dragon Tour of the Keweenaw Peninsula.