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gageyk
Sunday 9/17 was my 5 week anniversary of getting out of the hospital so I decided to climb a mountain. Mt Lola in the Northern Sierra. As I stated in an earlier thread I wanted to climb Mt Rose around my 6th-7th week post op so I decided to hike Mt Lola as a warm up. After completing the hike I've decided it's actually probably harder than Mt Rose.
Mt Lola is a 5 mile hike each way with 2600 feet elevation gain. I hadn't done my homework and didn't realize that Lola was quite that far but I have been walking/hiking 6 days a week post op and I felt good. Mt Rose is a 10 mile round trip with about 1800 foot elevation gain. The hike in took 2 hours and 15 minutes. I took a slightly different route back to car. I started feeling sleepy on the trail out, a feeling I've never had while hiking, tired and sore yes but sleepy, never. I stopped for a few minutes drank some water and ate some trail mix. My second wind kicked in and I was back to the car in a little under 2 hours.
To those of you who have concerns about the affects of surgery and the recovery please don't fret too much. If you're in decent shape you too can recover quickly. I know that I never expected to be able to do the things I've done so soon. I had those fears. I'm just blown away that I could complete this hike 5 1/2 weeks post op. I felt great the next day.
Unfortunately we may get some snow in the mountains this week so that may curtail any peak bagging plans for the near future.
Me at the top.
In the last third of a mile the trail climbs about 700 feet, I was going real slow here where I would normally be moving at a decent clip. I wasn't complaining I was just happy to be able to hike.
From the top, looking southeast, I could see Mt Rose, center of photo.
Looking south I could see where I spent last weekend hiking, just on the other side of these peaks. That's Castle Peak and Andesite Peak about 4 miles north of I-80 at Donner Summit.
Looking almost due east, about 27 miles as the crow flies, over the ridge is my house. I'm standing in California, on the other side of the furthest ridge is the great state of Nevada!! Those lakes in the foreground are part of our backup water supply ( our main water supply is Lake Tahoe).
Mt Lola is a 5 mile hike each way with 2600 feet elevation gain. I hadn't done my homework and didn't realize that Lola was quite that far but I have been walking/hiking 6 days a week post op and I felt good. Mt Rose is a 10 mile round trip with about 1800 foot elevation gain. The hike in took 2 hours and 15 minutes. I took a slightly different route back to car. I started feeling sleepy on the trail out, a feeling I've never had while hiking, tired and sore yes but sleepy, never. I stopped for a few minutes drank some water and ate some trail mix. My second wind kicked in and I was back to the car in a little under 2 hours.
To those of you who have concerns about the affects of surgery and the recovery please don't fret too much. If you're in decent shape you too can recover quickly. I know that I never expected to be able to do the things I've done so soon. I had those fears. I'm just blown away that I could complete this hike 5 1/2 weeks post op. I felt great the next day.
Unfortunately we may get some snow in the mountains this week so that may curtail any peak bagging plans for the near future.
Me at the top.
In the last third of a mile the trail climbs about 700 feet, I was going real slow here where I would normally be moving at a decent clip. I wasn't complaining I was just happy to be able to hike.
From the top, looking southeast, I could see Mt Rose, center of photo.
Looking south I could see where I spent last weekend hiking, just on the other side of these peaks. That's Castle Peak and Andesite Peak about 4 miles north of I-80 at Donner Summit.
Looking almost due east, about 27 miles as the crow flies, over the ridge is my house
. I'm standing in California, on the other side of the furthest ridge is the great state of Nevada!! Those lakes in the foreground are part of our backup water supply ( our main water supply is Lake Tahoe).
