Dateline: Vista, CA (20180328)
At the end of summer in 2017, I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It typically takes a person about six months or so to prepare and plan a trip of this magnitude. It’s also important to have a body that is ready to take on the trail.
At 20 years of age, I think I could have simply ‘hit the trail’. However, having watch YouTube videos of younger hikers doing just that (Check out: The World’s Worst Backpacker on the Pacific Crest Trail (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xTOj6VwaVc) , the wisdom of having many years presented a more prudent approach to me.
After three years of living on our boat with few places to walk aboard, followed by a year and a half of working at a desk, I was in pretty bad shape for backpacking by September 2017. I may have had some ‘sea legs’, but I definitely did not have ‘trail legs’. Trail legs are earned by hiking day-after-day, with a pack on your back, over several months. Before starting to entertain the thought of working to get ‘trail legs’, I needed to get walking legs and lung capacity back.
So, I attacked it … pedestrianly (“lacking liveliness, charm, or surprise”).
I started, in order:
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- Walking – Just to get moving again
- Then, the app C25K – This was GREAT. It’s a training app to help you get off the Couch to (AKA 2 ) run a 5 Kilometer race (AKA C25K). It got the lungs and circulation working better without killing me. I used that app to act as a ‘regulator’ to ensure that, in my excitement and anxiousness, I didn’t over do it. If it said, “Stop”, I stopped! If it said, “Take the day off”, I did. In my youth I never would have done that. No need.
- Next, mountain biking – Upper thighs for climbing hills (and good for skiing too as I proved with my son Ken at Mammoth in February 2018!)
Right now I know that I still don’t have ‘trail legs’, but after a recent 18 mile test hike, I know I’m ready to start! Watch out. Here I come!
Fair winds