San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Facing life and death on Tahoe trail
At first glance, it looked like a hiker on the trail ahead was “taking a nap,” said Renee Casterline, who was 60 miles from completing the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail last week.
“I was coming downhill, saw something in the trail 30 or 40 feet ahead,” Casterline said. In refracted light, a mix of sun and shade, it was difficult at first to make out the object.
“At 25 feet, I saw legs across the trail,” Casterline said. “He was laying on his side, his back to me.”
Then she saw a small black dog lingering nearby and her heart started to pound.
Casterline, 44, was on her first world-class hike, going solo on the Tahoe Rim Trail. In a week, she completed 100 miles, hiking clockwise from a trailhead near Tahoe City and venturing around the Tahoe Basin past Freel Peak to little more than a mile from a trailhead at Luther Pass on Highway 89, south of South Lake Tahoe.
It was early afternoon when she passed through Freel Meadow and entered a pine forest, radiant with filtered sunlight from a cobalt sky. A light wind rustled through the trees. The trail there is a dry mix of rocks, dirt and dust that rises and falls, then curves, in a series of undulations.
“I walked up and clicked my hiking poles together to wake him up,” Casterline said. “Then I walked right up to him and put my hand on his shoulder. I shook him and there was no response. He was warm. When I walked around and saw him from the other side, it was clear he wasn’t breathing.”
The hiker turned out to be a 65-year-old man, out with his dog on a hike, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff ’s Office, which later arrived on the scene, Casterline said.
“Seeing him on the trail like that, it made me think about life and death,” she said. “He chose to hike that day, and it was the last thing he got to do. It made me think, ‘What do I want to do with my life? How do I want to spend my time? Who do I want to spend it with?’ It gave me a new lens to look through.”
Live 14 years longer
A few years ago at my annual physical, my doctor showed me a series of photos of hearts. In one series, people who took part in some form of fitness activity, like hiking or biking, three times a week or more, developed what he called “auxiliary arterial flow.” This is where physically active people can grow hundreds of tiny arteries that help carry blood and pump oxygen through their system.
“This is the natural bypass,” he said. “It is the body’s way to help out the natural constriction that occurs over time. Maybe you could write something about this. So many people I see are not doing this and putting their hearts at risk.”
For years, we’ve kept inspirational health material on a bulletin board in our garage: Get your heart going three times a week, as when you hike or bike, you can live 14 years longer (LiveScience.com). Compared to those who do not exercise, you’ll have half the disabilities, no matter what your age (Stanford). Moderately vigorous exercise resulted in lower rates of death from all causes, even when the activity started in middle or late life (New England Journal of Medicine).
Yet an ongoing trend for years is that 2 of 3 youngsters can’t even pass simple physical fitness tests, according to the California Department of Education. As adults, the average American weighs 30 pounds more than in 1960, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For those who are not fit, you can put yourself at risk when you venture to high elevations without getting acclimatized and then take part in aerobic activity. You are asking a lot from your heart, and you need to make sure it is up to the task.
Over a six-year period, according to national park statistics, the highest number of fatalities were from drowning (365), followed by falls (178). Another study echoed those numbers and put heart attacks at No. 3.
High elevation surprise
At Tahoe, when Casterline started her trip, one of the first things she noticed was the altitude. “I felt like I was pretty fit,” she said. “My biggest problem was getting acclimated to the elevation.”
From near Tahoe City, she hiked 14 miles the first day to Watson Lake at 7,760 feet. The next day, she went past Martis Peak to 9,271-foot Mount Baldy and then camped at Gray Lake.
For those not acclimatized to high elevations, even the most fit hikers can get surprise moments of dizziness, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and headaches. The answer is to start slow, keep the miles down and give your body three days to get your lungs and heart adjusted to sucking what little oxygen is available out of the thinner air.
Casterline grew up in Northern California and always has loved hiking, horseback riding and exploring, especially with her sister, Karen. Casterline is the executive director of a nonprofit land trust, and in the past few years, in preparation for the Tahoe Rim Trail, she has done a series of weeklong trips, including a 60-miler. While husband Vinnie supports her quests, “He doesn’t think hiking 165 miles is a good idea,” she said with a laugh.
The terrain of the TRT is renowned for its Lake Tahoe views, wilderness areas and alpine lakes. But many are surprised by the perpetual ups and downs that can have you praying for a few hours of flat terrain. In addition, all of your distances, campsites and trail decisions are based on water availability, and hikers will note every creek on their maps.
100 miles of trail
Casterline topped out at 10,338 feet at Relay Peak, near Mount Rose on the Nevada side of Tahoe. On the south rim of Tahoe, the trail is routed through a 9,600-foot saddle between Freel Peak (10,881 feet) and Trimmer Peak (9,915). At her camps at night, she said, the dark sky was often bursting with stars, more than she’d ever seen.
After a week and 100 miles, including a 12-hour, 20-mile day, Casterline felt strong, adjusted to the altitude, and even considered trying to complete the hike in 11 days, not the planned 12. Then she found the body.
“I called 911,” she said. With her cell phone, she guided a search-and-rescue team to the site, and it hiked the body out to a helicopter. “When they carried him out, his cell phone rang in his pocket,” Renee said. “Later, the sheriff's deputy told me that she had been out looking for him.”
For Casterline, that was it, end of trip. She helped walk the stray dog to an S&R team, and the dog ended up at home that evening.
“This experience put me so far outside my normal, rational-thinking, planning way of living,” Casterline said. “I was exposed to the life mystery. You can never know what that final moment is going to be. I need to make those choices now. I don’t want to wait. I want to make today count, this week, right now.
“Do I want to go back? I had this clear moment, ‘Yes.’ Next summer, I need to go hike this thing again, and this time, I’ll do the whole thing.
“The experience really brought it home for me,” she said. “You have to do what you love, and do it now.”
Note: A detailed account of Renee Casterline’s trek and encounter is available at Renee’s website, lifesizeadventure.com.