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Ep. 27: Bobby on the other side of Dead Women's pass
46 Plays2 years ago
Day 2 Inca Trail with Bobby chatting about going down the steps after hitting the summit. He talks about what he did to train and what he has learned on this adventure so far.
Do you wonder if you can do the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu? Follow this adventure to make it your own!
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Transcript
Day 2 of the Inca Trek: Ascent on Dead Woman's Pass
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi there everyone, I'm back. It's day two, Inca Trek. I'm on the backside of Dead Woman's Pass and I spent, this is Bobby by the way, I spent five hours, actually six, going straight up. Heart rate most of the time was
00:00:33
Speaker
between 130 and 150. How are you? Good, good. I have my guide coming up. You can keep going. I'm on. I'm on there. As I said, this is Inka Trail Day 2. Six hours going up. For me, I'm not in terrific shape. I play hockey once a week.
00:01:01
Speaker
We made a decision to come on this trip about a month. So I didn't have a long runway on this deal. I'd worked out every day, but just a little bit. Really didn't push myself. So I kind of cranked it up a bit. Inclined treadmill activity. Started doing stairs. I live in a spot where I've accessed stairs pretty easily.
Training and Motivation for the Trek
00:01:26
Speaker
So I would do 25 to 50 or 60 flights of stairs at a time with my backpack on, with my hiking boots, with my pants that I was hiking in. And it felt okay. I basically did heart-based training when my heart rate got up around
00:01:45
Speaker
in the anaerobic threshold phase. That was kind of my cue. I'm in my 50s. I didn't want to push it. I had nothing to prove.
00:01:58
Speaker
Well, everyone says that. I guess everyone probably says they got nothing to prove, but everybody feels though they got things to prove. But I don't want to have a cardiac event. I want to enjoy the adventure.
The Descent: Challenges and Reflections
00:02:12
Speaker
So anyways, we're on the backside of Dead Woman's Pass, and it is tough. My heart rate's low.
00:02:24
Speaker
So it's not aerobically difficult. But the steps, the steps down is absolutely brutal. I've done a lot of hike. Well, I've done some hiking. Did some hiking in Canada. Nothing too serious.
00:02:44
Speaker
day hike kind of stuff. Did four day overnight camping backcountry at Smoky Mountain National Park and Big Bend National Park and some other stuff.
Foot Care and Lessons Learned
00:02:56
Speaker
This is the hardest adventure I've been on by far.
00:03:01
Speaker
Frankly, this is the hardest day I've been on. I'm taking these, you know, I've got hiking poles, you lengthen your hiking poles to go up about chest height if you're going down as opposed to having your arm sort of at a right angle if you're going
00:03:26
Speaker
And there's some techniques of planting your poles in front of you if you're going down.
00:03:34
Speaker
But frankly, this descent is rather treacherous for the first little touch. I didn't really expect that. Or at least I did not expect it being this difficult. I'm dealing with a blister on my right foot. I bought a blister kind of care kit that is good to have.
00:04:04
Speaker
Highly suggest it. The other thing I didn't do that I read something about I should have done was in one of our trip folk are doing it is have two pairs of socks on.
Solitude and Nature's Beauty
00:04:17
Speaker
I think it's a pretty ultralight pair underneath and then a medium pair over top. I think what that does is just gives a
00:04:25
Speaker
spot of friction that's not going to be your skin. Normally I'd been carrying an extra pair of socks and underwear in my day pack and in the essence of trying to lighten the load that I was carrying today.
00:04:45
Speaker
took it out so when we stopped at about three and a half hours in my socks are pretty wet problem with wearing these great hiking boots even though they say they're breathable I'm the kind of person that
00:05:04
Speaker
You know, my socks get pretty wet. So I should have changed my socks yesterday. I didn't. I probably should have tried the whole two sock trick, which I didn't. But everything else is kind of so rough that the blister has not been a huge issue. Right now, just these
00:05:27
Speaker
decent you know you can screw your ankle up pretty good and my ankle and my knees are certainly not happy right now and I'm going slow I'm going about as slow as I've ever gone on a hike and I'm trying to be mindful you know going up I had to pause
00:05:53
Speaker
Because my heart rate would get up, so that would give me an opportunity to pause, have water, look around. And you can probably notice a difference in my breathing if you heard some of the prior episodes.
00:06:10
Speaker
But it's good to pause. You know, I'm pausing right now. I'm looking down in this green
Life's Journey and Personal Growth
00:06:14
Speaker
valley. It's mid-September here. I think they're just getting ready for the rainy season, so their major flowers are not out yet. We're still pretty high up, you know, probably high 30, 100 meters or something like that.
00:06:35
Speaker
The clouds are just meandering through the peaks of the mountains and it's just absolutely gorgeous. You can hear some birds, saw a hummingbird, just saw one now.
00:06:53
Speaker
It's amazing what happens, I think, when you slow down. The young folk, including Steffi Steff, had run ahead. So they are on sort of a different track and different adventure. But I'm on my own. And I am normally a person, I'm an extrovert,
00:07:18
Speaker
I love being around other people. I get my energy from being around other people. I love to talk and entertain. Who knows if I'm entertaining, but I love to do that. And this has been nice for me. I know I'm talking to y'all, and this is, quite frankly, this is a way of, instead of stopping and writing in a diary,
00:07:45
Speaker
I'm able to talk here But it's been instructive for me and just I always said to myself and I always said to other people One of the hardest things that I think I could ever do was be alone and I'm alone
00:08:04
Speaker
I'm not really alone. I've got a group ahead of me and many people behind me. If I left in the guide, she was running down to make sure the group in front knew where the campsite was. But it's good for me.
Mission of 'Between Two Teeth'
00:08:25
Speaker
It's good to be quiet. I struggle with that. It's good to be bored sometimes. I brought a couple little books. You know, if you take a trip, get on Amazon or go to a bookstore and try to find
00:08:41
Speaker
miniature books like two by two inches super lightweight Steph had a couple really big books that she absolutely loved but they stayed in the initial hotel just because they were so big she didn't want to carry them for the weight but a couple little books have been good
00:09:04
Speaker
I teased our group that I had a biblioteca, a French for library, that they were more than welcome to look at the books. And we've sort of read verses from the one little miniature book of verses that it's Taoism. And it talks about a journey of a thousand miles, seemed appropriate.
00:09:34
Speaker
We'll read one little quick verse as a group. So that's been pretty fun. More steps. Man, I am going to love when I finally get to a spot where things are smooth and flat.
00:10:00
Speaker
The commentary on life is that there's times you're going up the steps and it's rough as all get out. Maybe you're checking yourself to see when you got to dial it back a little bit. Maybe you're not. There's times where you're going downhill. There's times where you're at a plateau. Such is life.
00:10:31
Speaker
I think one of the great things about getting older is you've got perspective, usually.
00:10:40
Speaker
Just because you've had lots of ups and downs and I think right now a lot of people struggle with the fact that they don't really think there's a way that they'll get out of the spot they're in. Perhaps that's the great thing about doing something like this or,
00:11:05
Speaker
You know, Steph and I did the Ukrainian medical dental mission trip many months ago and to work with and interact with people who fled their
00:11:22
Speaker
fled their home country with just what they could carry. It gives you perspective. I know my oldest boy David joined us on the trip. And I think it gave him a unique perspective, quite frankly, at a critical time as he was finishing undergrad to
00:11:44
Speaker
Say, man, lots of people have lots of different pathways. And that's kind of the way the world certainly works. So, you know, I wonder what path you're on. One of the things that we are about with between two teeth is we always talk about,
00:12:15
Speaker
connect, discover, and inspire. And I think we do a fairly decent job with discovery. Royce, you know, especially Steph. Steph's pushing me to always do some pretty wild, crazy adventures. Sometimes I push her, but oftentimes she's the one that says, yeah, why not? Let's do this.
00:12:46
Speaker
We get inspired by seeing others. That gives us some ways to look at stuff and say, man, let's do that. Let's try that.
00:12:58
Speaker
They can do it. We can do something like that that fits our own deal. But one of the things I think we struggle with is connecting with others. And we're still trying to figure that out.
Listener Feedback and Motivation
00:13:13
Speaker
Now, we have had a bunch of listeners, subscribers,
00:13:19
Speaker
reach out to us and say certain episodes were meaningful or certain things we've done have really touched their hearts. It's been people helping them get through chemotherapy when they felt isolated and alone. It's people that were just kind of stuck in a spot in life.
00:13:40
Speaker
and said they were looking for something more and seeing us do things like the Italian motorcycle adventure, push them to do their own adventure. It doesn't have to be what we do. You know, frankly it shouldn't be what we do.
00:13:56
Speaker
we're us, you're you. But we'd love to hear your stories. We'd love to hear comments that, you know, we've got an Instagram, B2Teeth, we've got the YouTube channel and the podcast, you know, we're pretty basic. I don't even know if you can put comments on a
00:14:19
Speaker
podcast channel But we'd love to hear we'd love to hear your adventure That in part quite frankly encourages us. You know, I know you're not supposed to live off of external gratification, but
00:14:35
Speaker
That's the way things go a lot. But also it allows you to put yourself out there and allows you to help someone else. It allows you to help others, other people get to see what you're talking about or what your adventure is. So I would be very thankful if you would consider putting comments in there.
Growth Through Physical Challenges
00:15:01
Speaker
Well, I tell you, I think I've got about half an hour left of this descent. I'm finally at a point that I'm at a not a real steep angle. The rocks are fairly smooth. I wouldn't call them steps. I've
00:15:24
Speaker
Those steps on the other side of dead woman's past. Oh my gosh. That was, I'm used to unexpected treats. I like those. Not so much the other stuff.
00:15:39
Speaker
So I'm just looking at a really beautiful, weird, strange plant right now. It's cool when you're in a different area where you've never been before. You can see all kinds of interesting, interesting stuff. But please leave a comment.
00:15:58
Speaker
Get out there do your adventure Be okay with being alone be okay with connecting with with others Find your own journey Find your own why that's kind of my push for you You know try to live your best life. That's what I'm trying to do and You know, I don't have the answers. I just keep trying and trying and trying
00:16:27
Speaker
And some of those are successes, some of those are failures. I would say today is quite possibly one of the most brutal physical days that I've ever had.
00:16:43
Speaker
I've done about three half ironmans which is 70.3 miles. I even forget what the swim is. You swim a bunch and you do a bike 56 kilometers and then you do a half marathon at the end.
00:17:03
Speaker
And I'm not a runner. No one would look at me and say, oh, that guy's a runner. That guy's got a runner's body. Not at all. I'm a big body. I'm six, two and a half. Big frame. Hockey player. Yeah. And I was in a little bit better shape when I was doing triathlons. That was kind of when I was early 40s, now I'm 50.
00:17:30
Speaker
but maybe this is my push to say I need to crank up my workout. A year and a half ago I did a fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School and I was inspired by
00:17:47
Speaker
pretty much everybody there. A lot of the people there were leaders with the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and it was a public policy fellowship. And they do something every day. They work out every day. And one of the leaders was 70, and you get on the treadmill and just knock it out. And I was like, darn, I need to do better. I need to do something every day.
00:18:18
Speaker
And the research proofs it out as far as longevity and just anti-inflammatory and cardiac function. So every day, and I think I've missed if I had really bad illness or a couple days, but I only missed five days over a year and a half. But I also only did between 10 and 15 minutes on a lot of days.
00:18:42
Speaker
treadmill, elliptical, a little bit of bike action, but I didn't push myself. I'm regretting a little bit of that today because today pushed me. I certainly had to go at a slower pace because of my fitness level.
00:19:04
Speaker
But at the same time, if I was going a faster pace, I'd be with the big group. And I am a big fan of the saying that the universe gives you what you need. And I need to be alone. I need to be alone with my thoughts. I'm talking it out now, so that kind of helps me.
00:19:30
Speaker
verbalize things. Unfortunately I talk so I can think and that has served me well and poorly many times. But if I was in better shape I'd be with those young bucks up ahead and I wouldn't be thinking like I am and I wouldn't be talking to y'all like I am.
00:19:57
Speaker
So I'm appreciative of that. And as much as this was one of the most brutal physical experiences of my life, and quite frankly, probably one of the more dangerous experiences. And once again, I've ridden motorcycles in the Italian Alps and up on Big Sur on Highway 1 in California.
00:20:26
Speaker
This was dangerous from a fall perspective, from a cardiac event perspective. A whole lot of things are dangerous with this. My ankle feels like garbage. I'm in so much, you know, it's rough. Let's just say that. But it's good rough. And we are not meant to be comfortable all the time. I actually sat down
00:20:53
Speaker
this morning when I woke up and wrote some entries in my journal with a red headlight so I could read the page and not wake everybody up. I think I wrote down
00:21:10
Speaker
the advantages of struggling. Because I figured today would be a struggle. Today was a struggle. So I listed off a bunch of things. But then on the next page I looked at it and say, what are the bad things about being comfortable? And one of the things I actually like about motorcycling
00:21:33
Speaker
is that sometimes you're hot, you're wet, you're cold. I've had all of those. You're scared. It takes me out of my comfort zone. And I don't know about you, but I do not grow when I am comfortable. I grow when I am out of my comfort zone.
00:21:56
Speaker
And so as much as today's been a physical struggle more than any day in my life, it has been an absolute blessing from, I don't know, I don't want to call it spiritual because that turns a lot of people off. But whatever word it is to kind of
00:22:22
Speaker
Look at yourself and your place in the world and the meaning
Encouragement to Pursue New Adventures
00:22:26
Speaker
of everything, which a lot of people would call spiritual. It just kind of helped set me right in my head. And when you have a win with a struggle, it helps you for the next experience you have. And that's certainly a positive.
00:22:50
Speaker
So I'm gonna push you. I'm gonna push you to get out of your comfort zone. Maybe sit down with a piece of paper or just turn this darn podcast off after you subscribe, of course. And just think, what's something I'd really like to do? And don't let inappropriate fear hold you back.
00:23:16
Speaker
I talked on previous episodes, you know, kids, it's difficult to travel with kids. I've had my eldest chap, you know, holding him in my arms and playing, oh, sorry, sir, your plane's been canceled and he just threw up on me when she said those words and then we had a...
00:23:34
Speaker
I ended up having to take three planes to get back to Cleveland when I was a resident, surgical resident. So it can be rough, but I've also done mission trips with little kids and they just got a heck of an experience that quite frankly
00:23:53
Speaker
I couldn't have taught them some of the lessons I think that they learned and it's so different when you can have experiential learning and that's what they got. So I'm going to push you to get a piece of paper, just write down some stuff, put some ideas out there, put some crazy ideas out there and then try to make it happen.
Trek Summary and Gratitude
00:24:18
Speaker
Well, listen guys, I love that you've been able to join me on day two, Inca trail trek. I'm on the backside of dead woman's pass. I'm descending. Oh boy. And it's been a long day and I'm probably about 30 minutes from camp. So thanks for hanging with me. Check you out later. Bye.