365 True Things: 235/Trailwork

Saw blade and shadow

Went out with Lynn today to cut more trees on Mt. Manuel Trail. In September I wrote about another work trip up this trail, when I almost succumbed to heat exhaustion—saved in the end by a margarita-flavored Clif Shot Blok.

Today was about twenty-five degrees cooler, only 75—but that was still plenty warm.

First stop: me hard at work

Our first stop came pretty quickly: a couple of down trees at a bend in the trail, with a slender young madrone casting a minimal amount of shade. We got right to work, and five or so cuts later, the trail was clear. Satisfaction!

And on (and upward) we trudged. Lynn was setting a sturdy pace, and I was doing my best to keep up with her. After a mile or two, though, I couldn't go on: I had to stop in some meager shade, shed my pack, and lean against it sitting on the edge of the trail. Drink some water. Wait while my heartbeat slowed to what seemed a reasonable speed.

Was it happening again? Why did I have no oomph? Should I just give up this trailwork nonsense?

But then I remembered: oh right—the diet. Wherein I trick my body into believing it doesn't really care if I ever eat bread and cheese or drink wine again. 

The book we're using for the diet, The Whole 30, explains the first week's like-you've-been-hit-by-a-truck feeling (including fatigue) this way: as an energy issue. "Your old diet included lots of carbohydrates from grains, legumes, added sugar, and processed foods. That carbohydrate digests into sugar in the body, and your body then used that sugar for energy. . . . [Now] your carbohydrate (sugar) intake is naturally lower because you're eating vegetables and fruit instead of bread and cookies."

Yeah: Lynn makes the best cookies to share when she's trail boss, and I had to forgo them.

"So what happens? You run out of gas. [You do] have another excellent energy source available to you—fat! . . . The trouble is, your body doesn't know how to use it, because you've been giving it so much sugar all the time [which means] it's going to preferentially run on sugar all the time. Only in the relative absence of all that sugar will it start running efficiently on fat as fuel." And it takes a few days for it even to realize it can, apparently.

The book describes the first few days/week of the diet as creating flulike symptoms: headache, cravings, light-headedness, and "brain fog" in addition to fatigue. I've got none of those others, thank goodness. But the fatigue sure got me today.

After my rest, I powered back up and carried on, and it turned out I was just a bend or two away from the trees that were our goal. Once I was in one spot and not hiking in the heat, I was okay. Especially when I got to sit down for our two-person cuts with the five-foot crosscut saw, "The Boss." (Which, it turns out, is a girl saw. Don't ask me.) And soon it was lunchtime, when I got to fill up on . . . veggies, fruit, and chicken! (But no Mississippi mud cookies, alas.)

I didn't count the number of trees we removed from the trail, or cuts we made, but we did a pretty good amount of work. Not as much as if I'd had some oomph. But hopefully next time we go out, I'll have a bit more pep.

Here is Lynn with the last tree of the day. We cut it below where it's dug into the dirt—and then again, because it turned out there was a second branch hidden under the first one—then used our feet to push it off the trail.

 

And here is Lynn as we head down the trail—which has really greened up what with the few good rains we've had recently. The three-and-a-half-foot saw called "Bucky" (a boy saw—like I said, don't ask) is sticking out of her pack; she's carrying The Boss by a sling over her shoulder. I carried a shovel and the saw kit (wedges of various sizes and materials: today we used the aluminum ones exclusively, but she also has larger plastic ones; also some oil).

 

As we walked we talked about Mutiny on the Bounty (the book), the difference between ISIS and Al-Qaeda,  Oliver Cromwell, Norse mythology, inheritance, Christmas presents, her cousins, and of course my diet. It's always an interesting day spent with Lynn.

As for the lack of oomph, I'm sure hoping it was just my body trying to figure out where to find the energy. Time will tell—next trailwork trip or next SAR callout, if not sooner.