Dott I would love to!!! That might be more feasible once we move to Colorado so that it's not on the complete opposite side of the country What's next for you?
What's your weight training plan, if you've even thought of it yet? I had to giggle when I read that...I had the same thoughts after getting back from our trip. I seriously reduced my cardio and have been going hard on the weights for the past few weeks. It's been a nice change. Hopefully it will help both of us be even better on the trail!
No big trips planned, though I have been talked into a hammock camping trip sometime this summer. The rainfly of our backpacking tent broke in Colorado so it will be out of service for 6-8 weeks while it gets repaired. I have nothing against hammocks, per say, just don't like the particular hammocks my bf has. Too suffocating lol But I will suck it up and borrow one. I think we will do a one-nighter and I'll pack only my daypack. It will be really nice to not carry much! Probably something local on the AT or Mason Dixon trail.
In 2004, I was 50 y.o. and started to ride a bike to lose 30 kg. I fell in love with riding so much that I started road racing in 2008. In 2010 I went to Austria to compete in the World Masters Road Championships. I arrive one month before the event, so I can train on the race circuit. I rode about 600+ km per week.
When I was not testing myself on the circuit, I took it easy, and rode all around the various roads around the mountains. Several times I rode about 150 km just to visit certain towns, or landscapes, for the day. It was a photographers paradise.
The roads were very safe to ride on. All the vehicle drivers were cyclist conscious and very courteous. I was in cycling heaven.
My boyfriend and I went on our first backpacking trip since Colorado. The hiking itself was probably more difficult than Colorado, though I was really happy that my pack was no where near as heavy this time! I still really need to cut back on my gear. I’m putting together a list of everything I brought with notes on what I thought were unnecessary. I’ll post if anyone is interested. I'll probably add my food list later, too.
We hiked part of the Mason-Dixon Trail in Pennsylvania, which runs along much of the Susquehanna River. I attached a few of my crummy iPhone pictures - I'll have some better ones of me once my bf goes through his pics!
Friday Night:
My boyfriend’s dad dropped us off at our starting point. We hiked about 1.5 miles in the dark to our campsite. Set-up was really quick with the hammocks! I usually set up the tent while the boyfriend starts the fire, and he ends up doing the cooking. I was able to start dinner while he worked on the fire. I slept very well considering it was only my second time sleeping in a hammock.
Saturday:
We got up around 7 Saturday morning. Breaking down camp was just as easy as setting up – I am totally sold on hammock camping just for this reason! We made breakfast, cleaned up, filtered 3 liters of water each, and hit the trail. The first 1.5 miles we had to backtrack the way we came the night before, but since we got there at night, it was all new to me. Unfortunately, the first 3 miles were road, but there were awesome views of the beautiful rolling farmland.
We ate snacks and lunch as we went, taking as few breaks as possible because it was almost a 14 mile day. About 5 miles in, we hit a campground that sold ice cream, so we each got a small (it was a huge small!) and then got back on the trail. It was nice knowing it was coming (my bf has done this particular hike before), to have it to look forward to, and the sugar boost was nice.
There were SO MANY spider webs in the trail along the way. You could tell the trail hasn’t been used much lately and we didn’t see another hiker the whole day, just a few people at the campground and at some road crossings. It was warmer than I expected and very muggy, so the mid-70s felt like the upper 80s.
About 2/3 through the hike, I slipped on a drainage pipe in the trail and pulled a muscle in my upper thigh. It wasn’t bad at first, but by the end of the day I was in excruciating pain every time I took a step. We made it to camp with a few hours of sunlight left, but we was so exhausted that we were in bed by 8pm. Before falling asleep, we managed to make dinner (somehow salvaging the tortellini that I spilled on the ground), and I rinsed a few things in the creek to hang on a line. I hardly slept at all that night. I couldn’t get comfortable in the hammock with my thigh being sore.
Sunday:
I felt a lot better in the morning than I expected to. Even though I didn’t sleep much, I felt well-rested. I knew we had a difficult day ahead, so it was a relief to be feeling better. The mileage was about 3/5 of the day before, but the elevation was the same. We had lots of steep climbs up and down, a few sections of rock scrambles, some downed trees that had to be climbed over, and more spider webs. But the views along the way were more than worth it. The trail followed the Susquehanna River very closely, so we saw a lot of it. It was another hot day, in the 80s, and even more humid than the day before. I think what slowed me down the most was wiping the sweat off of my face and trying to keep my glasses clean of fog. The humidity also greatly affects my breathing, so I really struggled at times.
About halfway through we took a nice long break at an overlook. I was trying to not take breaks at the bottom of a hill, but in the valley after our lunch break was the most beautiful swimming hole so we went for a dip. Best decision ever! Of course, about a mile after swimming and getting cleaned up, I went under a very low tree and when my pack hit the bark, I got absolutely covered in dirt. It was all in my hair, down my shirt, everywhere. So I got cleaned up for nothing!
The rest of the day was exhausting. The last leg had the most difficult ups and downs of the whole trip, and at that point I was just out of energy. We made it through and got to the car around 3:30. Cleaned up a bit and went straight to our favorite restaurant in Lancaster. A nice way to end a long hike.
Summary:
We hiked 21.7 miles between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, with a total ascent of almost 5,000 feet. I was so sore today I could hardly get out of bed. My shoulders and neck are the worst, which really makes me think I need to greatly reduce my pack weight (I think it was about 35-40 pounds with 3 liters of water) and/or get a better pack. My thighs also struggled to lift my body weight with the pack, which I noticed the most on steeper sections of the trail. I had cut back on leg presses at the gym because of a minor injury, but hopefully now I can get back to it. I think strengthening those muscles will help a lot. Maybe working more on my shoulder muscles will help with the pack, too.
Last edited by nonameslob; 09-22-2014 at 11:39 AM.
Here is my list of food from the trip if anyone is interested...
Friday Night
Chorizo sausage links (raw, frozen), instant potatoes and onion gravy (weirdo combo but the bf loves this strange version of bangers and mash)
Saturday
Breakfast: Eggs (carefully transported eggs!) with Starbucks Via instant coffee, powdered sugar and creamer
Lunch: Cheese, salami and Triscuits
Dinner: Dried cheese tortellini, dried pesto and canned chicken (I dropped some of the tortellini but this was more than enough food so it turned out fine)
Snacks: Dehydrated fruit strips and trail mix
Sunday
Breakfast: Hungry Jack dehydrated hash browns (these were kind of a pain because you had to fry them after rehydrating them but they were really tasty – just wish I had paired some protein with it, but I wasn't originally planning on making them Sunday) and Starbucks Via instant coffee with powdered sugar and creamer
Lunch: Cheese, salami and triscuits
Snacks: Luna protein bars (first time I’ve had them, they were SUPER good), trail mix and fruit & nut bars
I thought I had packed too much food, but oh my goodness. I’ve never been so hungry while hiking before! It was just enough food, we ate every last morsel that we brought with us and I still could have had more. Plus the ice cream we had on Saturday… I will definitely be doing the dried tortellini again. That was a great find. We didn’t go lightweight with the food, but now that I know that my pack weight is still an issue, I’ll be a little more stringent about that next time. It would be so much easier if I had a dehydrator. I really don’t tend to like the store-bought dehydrated stuff.
Thanks for sharing noname! Looks like a beautiful trail. If your pack is bothering you, it might be where its sitting on you. Have you tried adjusting it so it sits more on your hips? That's the only way I can wear mine! And 35-40 does seem like a lot for a short trip....probably the food. I really liked seeing your hammock set up! I've never slept in a hammock.
Sounds like you had a great time and I'm totally jealous!
I've adjusted the torso of my pack so many times, I think I finally have it at the best spot. But it's an Eastern Mountain Sports pack (you probably don't have those stores out west, I would guess based on the name!), it's not super high quality. Not a ton of padding on the shoulders. I think I just need to upgrade when I get the spare cash. I also know some of the weight was because I had to bring my zero degree sleeping bag. I only have that and a summer bag, nothing inbetween. And it is unfortunately heavier than I needed this weekend. Probably didn't need the thermarest because of that but the bf insisted I would be cold...hammocks are colder than tents because of the airflow underneath. But it was only in the 40s at night.
Hammocks are awesome, I got such a more comfortable sleep than in a tent! No pack pain, no bruising.
Edit: This is embarrassing, but it seems I may lose two toenails (temporarily) because of this trip! Weird because my feet felt great in my boots but I noticed the second toe on each foot felt weird. Took off my toenail polish today and noticed they had partially separated from the toe after some googling, it seems pretty common if you don't lace your boots up correctly. Never had a problem, in these boots or others, and they felt fine at the time! Sigh. Now to google proper lacing techniques to prevent it from happening again...
Last edited by nonameslob; 09-22-2014 at 04:21 PM.
Just jumping in to say since I've started running at the gym I've lost several toenails. Freaked me out at first but my podiatrist assured me it was normal. Funny how it doesn't even hurt when they finally fall off.
Whoa, I have been so impatient to be able to post in this thread again! It has been way too long since we've had any seriously fun hikes or trips. We went to the Shenandoah National Park in VA this weekend, almost exact one year from our list trip there. Last year, we hiked Old Rag Mountain which boasts probably the best views south of New York. I only made it about halfway up as we were with friends who had a baby with them, and there were some difficult rock scrambles at the top. So, while fun, I was disappointed I didn't actually summit.
This year, I was excited. I knew my body could handle it this year and I didn't have any doubts in myself. We made it up to the spot I stopped last year in no time. And then the fun began! The last mile up is a Class 3 scramble. I couldn't believe how much fun it was! We got to the top an hour before the rest of our friends and just enjoyed the view. It was also snowing a little bit (in April!)
We also got to see a proposal! A couple asked us to take their picture and then on the second picture he got down on one knee and proposed! It was so cute.
The way down was rather boring as it's a fire road most of the way, and it was sleeting and then raining, so we went down as fast as possible.
I am so beat, though. My body is so sore, my lips are chapped, my face is dry. I guess that's the price of these things. But it makes me so much more excited for our move, where hopefully we won't have to travel nearly as far to do hikes like this.
Total was about 10 miles and 2,300' elevation gain.
My pictures aren't great, but they're all I've got.
Last edited by nonameslob; 08-11-2015 at 02:37 PM.
I am overdue for a post here. We moved to Denver just over three weeks ago and have already done 3 hikes - one day hike, one while camping ("dispersed camping", but it was around a lot of people), and one was a backpacking trip. It's just so easy to get to the mountains here, but hey, that was the whole point of moving!
The first hike was at Mount Falcon Park, just a half hour out of the city - since we had just moved, we look the easiest, shortest loop. It was only about a 4 mile hike, but it was HARD! Elevation, man! But we were rewarded with beautiful views of the mountains and of the Denver skyline.
The next trip was to Pike National Forest. In the national forests around here, you can essentially camp wherever you want, for free. We drove around and thought we had found a great site. Got set up, were in the middle of cooking dinner, and a park ranger and comes up and informs us we were illegally camped. Turns out we missed a bunch of signs that said the area was closed to construction. She directed us to a road with a lot of dispersed sites. There were so many people there! But it was still more spread out that going to a campground. We found a place, set up again, watched a glorious sunset, and turned in for the night.
The next day we found a trail not too far away. We hiked about two and a half miles up to a gorgeous clearing, and then it started to storm so we had to head right back down. In total it was about 5 miles and 1000' of ascent. We were definitely feeling better about the altitude, but everything still felt SO much more difficult.
So last weekend we did a one night backpacking trip. Went up to the same spot as the previous weekend, but took a different trail, the Shelf Lake Trail. The trail is about 3.5 miles up to a lake - we did about 2 miles and set up camp then finished the trail the next day, did a little exploring up some hills, and came back down. I have no idea how we managed to do that climb with our packs - it felt like a never ending climb. That trip ended up being about 8 miles total and 3500' of ascent! Holy cow! but it was SO worth it. It also got super cold that night. I definitely regretted not bringing the warmer sleeping bag. We also got to play around on some snow at the lake
Probably planning another trip for this weekend. We've gotta enjoy the summer while it lasts. Soon it will start snowing, and that's going to take us a while to get used to. Lots of gear to buy and we'll have to start practicing with snow shoes!
What's next for you?
after some googling, it seems pretty common if you don't lace your boots up correctly. Never had a problem, in these boots or others, and they felt fine at the time! Sigh. Now to google proper lacing techniques to prevent it from happening again...
