The Traveling Widower

Category: hiking

  • MacGyver, Forest Gump and hiking – Huh?

    This is going to be one of those very strange posts….just a heads up. I need to vent about something which is marginally related to travel. Strap in, here goes. It will all make sense at the end.

    Dictionary

    Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

    verbINFORMAL•US

    verb: MacGyver; 3rd person present: MacGyvers; past tense: MacGyvered; past participle: MacGyvered; gerund or present participle: MacGyvering; verb: McGyver; 3rd person present: McGyvers; past tense: McGyvered; past participle: McGyvered; gerund or present participle: McGyvering

    1. make or repair (an object) in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are at hand.
      “he MacGyvered a makeshift jack with a log”


    When my wife and I first moved into our house in Gold River, it had a 25 year old heat pump. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of owning one of these wonderful HVAC units, a heat pump is basically an A/C unit that also blows out slightly warm air in the winter. Sort of like having a large hair dryer heating your house. But I digress as usual. The compressor unit vibrated violently when running, and you could hear it from a few blocks away. We were given one of those useless home warranty deals when we bought the house and after reporting the problem, the company sent out one of their technicians who spent hours trying to balance the fan. No matter what he tried, the unit continued to vibrate. So he had a great idea. He pulled up one of the large landscape rocks in my yard and placed it on top of the unit. A miracle – it stopped vibrating. For about an hour or two, when the rock vibrated off the unit. He said he would talk to the managers once he got back to the office. Then I received notice that the case was closed – problem solved! 

    Problem Solved!

    This is what my wife called a MacGyver solution (I never watched that TV show). Sort of like fixing a broken muffler or a leaking pipe with Duct Tape. It’s ugly, but works for a while. 

    So what’s this got to do with anything related to my travels? Earlier this summer, I decided to try and do something about an annoying medical issue – drop foot. Walking is a complex mechanical process, with a lot of moving parts. As you step forward, a small muscle in the shin keep the foot pointing up so that you step onto your heel first, and roll forward on to the ball of your foot. If the nerve controlling that muscle is not firing correctly, your foot flops forward, making a loud slapping noise on the ground. Aside from the sound, this is also a potential tripping problem for walking on uneven surfaces – hiking for example. Something I like to do on my trips.  

    After a couple of years living with this, I finally went for help, and wound up with an appointment with the UC Davis Neurology Department. This did not go well:

    1. They put me through an EMG test, where they stick acupuncture needles, hooked up to monitors, into the leg and shock you with a small cattle prod. Results confirmed that I had distal neuropathy. No kidding. I already knew that from prior tests.  
    2. Then they ordered all kinds of obscure blood tests to see if there were any underlying issues. Oops. One test was way out of bounds and was an indicator of multiple myeloma – blood cancer. Kind of ruined this summer.
    3. Next I was referred to another department, Hematology, to deal with what was likely myeloma. I was not overly thrilled about having to visit the UC Davis Cancer Center again. That was where my wife was treated for 11 months. No thanks.
    4. Fortunately the blood test was a lab mistake – I had them take another sample and it came out normal. Phew! Bad news for whoever they mixed up the test results with.

    So the end result of this exciting sequence of events was that I still have drop foot, which is what I wanted to solve in the first place. The neurologists had kicked the can down the road, and I have to wait a few more months to meet with another doctor to talk about the neuropathy and drop foot. Grrrrrrr.

    Now for the MacGyver solution. I had done some research (Google of course) on this condition, and found references to a brace designed specifically for drop foot. I spoke to my primary care physician who scheduled a reference to the orthotics department. I now have a carbon-graphite contraption that fits in my shoe, wraps almost comfortably on my calf, and keeps my foot from flopping. MacGyver rules! It would be perfect if it used Duct Tape to stick to my leg. This hopefully will not be a long term solution, but for now I can take long walks, workout on a treadmill without that annoying slapping sound, and hike (already tried it out) without worrying about tripping. Maybe I’ll use it as an excuse for early boarding on flights….you poor old man. Nah. Not my style. 

    And who cares if I look like Forest Gump wearing a leg brace. 

    Bring on the Manitou Incline!! 2700 steps, here I come. See, I told you I would tie this all together.

  • Return to Donner Tunnels: 6 miles and lots of street art

    Photo from the Donner Pass railroad tunnels

    Friday’s seem to be my peak boredom day for some reason – once again, I wanted to get out of the house. I was considering heading back to the Donner Tunnels to complete the full hike next week, but it was supposed to be a beautiful day, so Donner Pass beckoned once again.

    Other than completing the full six mile round-trip hike, my goal was to focus on photographing the street art. And whatever else seemed interesting. I had lured a friend interested in photography to come along, so off we went in the morning, with camera gear and lots of flashlights (some with new batteries this time). I did forget one important thing – the 250G SD card for my Sony A7. Fortunately, the camera has two cards, and the second was still in the camera. Near disaster for sure.

    The Donner Tunnels are not just the rock tunnels blasted out by the Chinese immigrants hired to build this segment of the Transcontinental Railroad, the trail also includes long segments of very large, concrete snow sheds. Many of these connect directly to the rock tunnels. So when you are hiking this trail, you spend a great deal of time either in very dark, cave-like rock tunnels, or in the dimly lit snow sheds. Flashlites are a must since the trail is covered with large gravel, with occasional larger chunks of rock scattered about. I would not recommend falling on this trail.

    On my first hike, I covered tunnels 6-8, which included the long, dark tunnel at the head of the trail, and one very long snow shed. The remainder of the trail covers tunnels 9-11, which includes another long section of snow shed, and 2 moderate sized rock tunnels attached to snow sheds. All told, it’s about 3 miles from the parking lot to the end of the last tunnel. Nice, easy walking on rough gravel, with pools of water, and dimly lit trip rocks.

    Since this was a photo-hike, I’ll dispense with my usual endless chatter, and just show a bunch of photos (with captions), starting with some of the exterior photos.

    Tunnel Photo’s

    Wet end to #11
    Big gap between 8 & 9
    Donner Lake, from the end
    The long shed
    Wet tunnel…walk to the light

    And now for the street art. There are some amazing murals throughout the tunnels, almost all painted in the snow sheds. There is a lot of graffiti in the tunnels, but most are just scrawls on the dimly lit, rough rock walls. I was amazed at how high up some of the art and graffiti was upon the concrete walls – a very large ladder would have been necessary to reach that high. Some of the murals must have taken a day or two complete – some had a base color painted across large sections of the walls. The artists clearly had a plan, and must have brought a lot of paint and equipment along, not just a few cans of spray paint. It’s a shame that so much of this work has been covered over with graffiti. You can see that on most of the photos below.

    Street Art Photo’s

    Some simple graffiti
    Example of over-painting

    Most hikers turn back after emerging from the last snow shed – after 3 miles of walking on that rough gravel trail. staring at the ground in front of your feet in the dark to avoid tripping on rocks, and going blind going in and out of dark tunnels to bright sunlight, I had little enthusiasm for wandering down a dusty trail or hiking up higher. I was hoping there would be a couple of big rocks to sit on while taking in the view of Donner Lake, but there was not place to rest other than going back into the tunnel entrance. You’d think someone would have built a few benches! At least there was a path heading into some trees if you needed a bio break. 

    Walking back 3 miles through all the tunnels and sheds was not quite as exciting as exploring them on the way out. I had ditched the GoPro (into my pack) and did not make too many photo stops. I began to fantasize on finding a Dairy Queen close by to where we were parked. I had to settle for an It’s-it from a peculiar grocery store in Soda Springs on the way back to I-80. That hit the spot. 

    Hiking Past Tunnel 11

    FYI – The old railroad grade does continue on for miles, and eventually joins up with the active railroad line which runs through some of the old snow sheds and remaining tunnels (12-15). If you look on Google Maps/Earth, you can find tunnels 1-5 on the active rail line. I would not recommend walking through any of those. Aside from the fact that it is probably illegal, it’s scaring as hell if you are inside and the train goes by. I’ve had the experience in my rock climbing days in Colorado….trust me. Don’t do it.

    One other interesting point about this trail, noted by my friend, was the almost complete lack of trash along the entire three miles. I think I saw maybe two bottles the entire way. Either some group is coming by every now and then to pick up trash, or this hike seems to attract eco-friendly visitors. I even witnessed someone picking up and bagging their dogs poop. Amazing.

    References

    There are lots of YouTube videos and Web sites with information about the hike, including AllTrails. This is a good starting point https://tahoetrailguide.com/hiking-the-historic-donner-pass-train-tunnels-in-truckee-ca/