Saturday, August 27, 2011

Training Hike

Today Lisa, Ginger and I headed to Patapsco State Park to do a conditioning hike. I wanted to do at least 5 miles with as many ups and downs as I could find. I wore my new pack with all my gear, water and about two days of food. It weighed in around 30lbs. I really need to find a way to get that lower, but I will probably end up going with around 30lbs when I go.

The day was beautiful, with temps in the 80s and the humidity was a little high. We parked on Landing Rd as we usually do and started a large loop that would take us through some level forest, down some elevation along a stream, along a ridge, then back up and along some fields to complete the loop and head back to the trailhead.

The pack felt pretty good and I really enjoyed the hike. I was soaking wet when we finished and even though I had drank 32oz of water during the hike, I weighed about 5lbs lighter than I did in the morning.

The only concern I have is my heel. I guess I have some Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot and the pain was there pretty much the whole time and I'm limping around a bit now.

We covered about 6.7 miles according to the map and did the whole thing in 3 hours and 24 minutes. We rested three times where I took off the pack. The rests were nice, but they were mainly for Ginger, who gets pretty hot and still needs to lose a few pounds. She would just lay down in any creek she came upon and lap at the water a bit. When we were almost done, we stopped at a fairly large creek and she laid down in the water for a while until she felt good.

It was a good hike and I need to see what I can do tomorrow. Vitamin I will most likely be on the menu. We are lucky we did the hike today as they are closing all the State Parks around here due to Hurricane Irene.

One more month and I will be on the AT for 9 days or so.

The next morning my foot was pretty sore early, but when I actually got up, it wasn't so bad.


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