westbranch
Well-known member
Hard to beat a good climb, this trail is 1,900 ft in 2 miles. Trailhead only 1/2 mile from home. And easy to combine with a lot of other loops.
Hunt Talker 2023 Fitness Goals
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BackofBeyond
Well-known member
Canfield Mtn.
44hunter45
Well-known member
This.
I am doing about 6.5 miles on a State School section near me. 6.5 mile distance is walk from home, loop the perimeter, and back home.
The section has a decent ridge running north-south through it. On my best days I will forego the perimeter and zig zag back and forth over the ridge until its time to start for home.
A real plus is that there is logging slash and ruts from logging machinery all over it. I like the focus this puts on my ankles and finding my footing. When the footing gets weird you have to hop around and that's aerobic. I specifically stopped using my trekking poles because I want to focus on balance and agility under weight.
7 weeks to wheels up for POW and I am focusing on things that will keep me on my feet and not rolling down the old grown.
westbranch
Well-known member
Might blow up somebody's honey hole, but I have been surprised to see mule deer does/fawns there in the April most years. Largest group was about 8 in 2022. Saw 4-5 a couple times this spring.
honestly, when it comes to living on the colorado front range in denver or north and you work a full time job with a family, you might as well live in kansas if you want to do real hill climbs on an every day type basis. it's just not time feasible.
colorado is a real catfish in that regards.
or i'm just jaded and overly jealous that @GrantK lives in the one of the single best little pockets of paradise that exists in this state.
colorado is a real catfish in that regards.
or i'm just jaded and overly jealous that @GrantK lives in the one of the single best little pockets of paradise that exists in this state.
DouglasR
Well-known member
People who move to Denver and think they’re gonna ski every weekend.
“but it’s only an hour to brek!”
DouglasR
Well-known member
14hrs of i70 gridlock later, you’ve killed 2 truck drivers for not chaining up and chit yourself .People who move to Denver and think they’re gonna ski every weekend.
“but it’s only an hour to brek!”
see but it kinda was when i was in middle school and high school. it got congested. but not like it does now.
that's why like 75% of the people i've ever met that moved here have since left. denver metro ain't what people think it's gonne be. people think flying into DIA is gonna be like landing in the aspen valley, it's literally like landing in kansas.
both couples that live across the street from us will be back in their home states in under three years i bet. one of them is already in the process.
ironically, i bet we'll be back in/right near our home town in a few years. the pull of family is strong for everyone, even if its only an hour away.
GrantK
Well-known member
I have to pinch myself every morning when I roll out of bed and can get in as many miles and as much vert as I want to endure before work... on the other side it's 40 minutes to a real grocery store...
Front range is a tease, everyone wants to say they live in the mountains but practically you cant really enjoy them unless you are retired...
I'd go with the box step ups all day over a stairmaster, you can cheat on a stairmaster more than you realize because all you really have to do is weight the step, you don't actually have to move your own weight uphill nearly as much.
it is, workwise, feasible for us to move to a few mountain towns, i could work for my org out of Granby/Grand Lake and my wife is 100% remote. but it's the family that "messes" everything up. especially for my wife, spending lots of time with family is extremely important to her (and me too). while our parents are still alive and we're starting family it's hugely important and it's already annoying enough that they're an hour away.
if it wasn't for that i think we'd be living in Fraser or Granby right now. sure it ain't no montrose/ouray/telluride but it's 1000x better than the front range
Irrelevant
Well-known member
too many @s to reply to. We're all different.
The worse I've ever felt in the mountains was just after track season, when I was at peak CV and max vo2, didn't matter that I was 2nd at nationals, lifting twice a day, pounding protein and creatine, it was just a completely different set of muscles. When are your feet ever flat in the mountains?
The best I felt was after a summer of hiking in the mountains with a pack (which I did every summer through college).
The worse I've ever felt in the mountains was just after track season, when I was at peak CV and max vo2, didn't matter that I was 2nd at nationals, lifting twice a day, pounding protein and creatine, it was just a completely different set of muscles. When are your feet ever flat in the mountains?
The best I felt was after a summer of hiking in the mountains with a pack (which I did every summer through college).
BackofBeyond
Well-known member
I’ll bet you $100 @BAKPAKR or his brother have killed something within 600 yards of that spot.
Which is something you could basically say about anywhere in ID.
GrantK
Well-known member
I should be clear that anytime I refer to running it is on steep trails, I would totally agree that track running does little other than build a base for mountain fitness, I think a lot of the difference with people who move really well in the mountains is that a lot of time is spent on the skills part, having all the little stabilizer muscles firing and being in balance is huge, the more track/road running that is done the more those things get suppressed because they aren't needed, I suspect that road rucking would have a similar result, you would get really fit for road rucking and as soon as you got to steep, off camber trails you would get trashed because all the stabilizers were essentially untrained...
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Sure, but I still log a lot of trail runs, and I don't find that powering my 155 frame up a "steep" trail is applicable to packing out elk quarters. IMO those stabilizers just don't get the same kind of workout during an impact/explosion that takes <1/2 sec vs with a ruck step that might be twice that duration, not mention the extra weight making you top heavy and increasing the effort required for those stabilizers. I simply never found any workout that has any real cross over to anything else in my life. Cardio is almost never my weak link, it's the strength endurance on the micro muscles that only get use on that specific thing. I attribute it to a very low baseline strength.
I've had to spent a bunch of time deliberately trying to get better at packing out elk quarters because, once I finally started killing elk and being in on others elk kills, I found that nothing I'd ever done in my life, despite being very "fit", ever got me ready for that specific activity. I mean, it's not ever just the uphill, but often taking that step down, under control, with a 100 lbs on your back, it's the stepping over logs, the losing your balance and not tumbling down the mountain, over and over and over. Train running ain't even close to that movement.
DouglasR
Well-known member
I think you’re describing CrossFit
DouglasR
Well-known member
As a bow hunter, the thing I have the hardest time training for is the fuggin heat
i'd put it about 100x more like it than road running though. that is if you trail run real single track that even mountain bikes would struggle to get up and down.
and if you don't ruck off trail rucking ain't that much like it either.
like you said, people have some unique genetics. but i really believe that high cardio endurance and general leg strength accomplish 90% of what it takes to help you pack out heavy stuff.
obviously, the best way to get good at something is to do the exact thing itself over and over. i think when we all think back to when mountain movement and heavy packs was the easiest in our lives we are all thinking back to some commonalities: we did intense shit every day for months on end.
whether it was my road bike racing days, or the summer i was a backpacking guide, or your days of endless mountain summers. the true commonality is high endurance, leg strength necessary activities for every day for months on end.
and of course, i'd also never been faster in the mountains than the summers i worked at a camp guiding high schoolers on multi day backcountry excursions every week all summer long. but i bet i could be even faster now doing nothing but running the local hill if i really put my time in every single day.
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