GORUCK Bataan Tough/Basic & Shorthoff Mt. Hike

Wednesday, Mar 31:

PT Test #5, with 45 PU, 73 SU, 11 SC@60, 15 PP@60, 2.5TGU@30 Left, 1:25 DH@30.

Then Fall of Baghdad March Tribe WOD with 1.5 mi ruck, 34 rounds of 1 SB cluster / 3 PU / 5 Mt Climber all with ruck, then 1.5 mi ruck.  30#, in Altra Torin Plush.

BATAAN TOUGH

This was the second time where a back-up flag ended up being used.  The first time was at the Bragg HH, where SB's US flag became the class's flag when the originally planned bringer was a no-show to the event and didn't tell anybody.  This time, the NC flag was a no-show, but fortunately, I had brought mine for a situation like this.  

SB was actually in Asheville for a vacation at the same time, so she was somewhere out there, but enjoying warmth and family time not under litters and ammo cans.  

We met at Carrier Park, which has two parking lots.  I was at one side for a while, but saw nobody, so I switched to the other side, where everyone else was.  I used bushes for a restroom.  

At the welcome party, we did a series of exercises, followed by a fast ruck out to a little building and back, a few times.

When it was time to start our movement, a newbie was the TL, but I provided suggestions on how to organize coupons, and for how to lead the team.  We put straps on all of the ammo cans, and I advised the team to not overload the litter, which is a tempting thing to do until you realize how much it starts wearing on you quickly.  More than half of the class was made up of newbies!  That's a lot, but it's awesome to see so many new people getting into GORUCK.  There was a pretty good distribution of coupons, with about 1/4 litter, 1/4 ammo can or jerry can, 1/4 sandbag, 1/4 free substitutes.  It was a good event for new people, to give them a feel for GORUCK's variety, in a supportive environment.

We walked all through Asheville.  It's fun to see the town, with restaurants and stuff like that.

At about the 5 mile mark, we stopped at Aston Park, where we actually had our eggs checked.  We had to do some burpees for each egg that we had already lost.  We went back towards the start point, and then went past it, to Hominy Creek Park at the 9 mile mark.  It was quite cold, but at least we were dry.  Fagan said that he wouldn't ask us to do anything he wouldn't do himself, which is something that I admire.  That's why we didn't go into the water during the Tough.

We went back towards the SP and went to a gazebo, where we talked a bit about Bataan.  To help us appreciate what the soldiers went through a little bit, Fagan had us remove our shoes and walk about a quarter mile around the paths there, barefoot.  The sun had risen, though, so we knew we were close to the end and could tough it out.  That was a good and memorable experience for commemorating the event.

We covered about 18 miles in 11 hours.

BATAAN BASIC

For the welcome party, we did a series of exercises followed by laps as well, although the laps were bigger this time.  I don't remember if I had this for the Tough, but I realized that I had brought hard boiled eggs to eat over the weekend trip, so I made use of that!  Fagan was a bit confused when he had an extra egg after handing them out.

We went down to Hominy Park.  People introduced themselves.  It was a good group of people who learned to work together, give what they had, and gel pretty well.  We had a good rotation going for the low-carry litter.  Different people stepped in to help for as long as they could, including newbies like Angela, who I finally got to meet after first knowing her from PATHFINDER Group 17.

As we headed back towards Carrier Park, we made a stop at a ditch for Spongebob and low crawling.  It was warmer now, at 54*, and there were no qualms about putting us in the water this time.  GORUCK windbreakers come in handy when there's a lot of splashing going on!

We went back to French Broad River Park for another barefoot walk, before heading back home.  I collected discarded whole eggs to eat later.  

We covered about 7 miles in 4 hours.

SHORTHOFF MOUNTAIN

After the event, Lindy and Andrea invited me to stay at their hotel, so that I didn't have to sleep in my car overnight.  That was really nice of them.  My plan was to go hiking the next day, so I was going to stay in town.  

We were all hungry after the events, so we had pizza.  Some other GRTs had the same idea, because they were at the next table over.

Lindy joined me for a hike up Shorthoff Mountain, starting from Wolf Pit Trailhead.  We followed the trail mostly using written directions from ashevilletrails.com.  It's pretty detailed, but at some of the intersections where it's not clear which way to go, Pokemon Go comes in clutch!  

I carried 30# plus EDC in the 25L v3 rucker.  I was breathing hard on the uphills.  I wore the Altra Lone Peak Mids.  The terrain wasn't too technical, fortunately.  It was pretty steep climbing for the first 1.5 miles.  

While going up, we had nice views of Lake James.  We went by some campsites that had people, before reaching the ridge at the top.  It wasn't clear whether there was a definitive peak which would mark our turnaround point because the trail did continue on.  We went a bit further but didn't see much, so we stopped and went off-trail to a spot that gave us nice views for a stop for lunch.  I had leftover pizza plus turkey bacon from home, and it was delicious.

I had chosen to wear my new 13-event Fagan patch that I had received that weekend.  It has the 5th group logo on it.  As we were going down, a random guy coming up asked me if I was CST.  The acronym was vaguely familiar, but I couldn't figure out what he was talking about at the time.  He asked again.  Then, he pointed out the patch that I forgot that I was wearing.  I explained that someone from 5th group had given it to me.  Turns out he was from 3rd group or something.  Pretty cool.  I wish I could be part of CST.

After we got back down to the trailhead, I added an extra 2.5 miles on the gravel road leading to the trailhead, to have 10 miles total to count towards the PATHFINDER Mountain Ruck.

10 miles in 5:02:35.  

I had also been gifted a ruck club patch from Johnson City, and a personal patch from Joe Sag, which was cool.  I had a nice haul coming home.