Date: 2015-01-26
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Miles today: 0.0

Yesterday Gary and I went hiking in Shenandoah NP. I wanted to see where my fitness level is these days (answer: not in such a great place) so I had picked a bit longer hike. 12.7 miles. The hike (Overall Run/Heiskell Hollow hike found on one of my favorite websites, hikingupward.com) promised a bit of everything: streams, ruins, views, falls, what more could you want.As it turned out, the 'bit of everything' was true, but it delivered rather more than promised when it came to streams. I hadn't read the hike directions closely enough to notice the 'about three' stream crossings' in the first 2 miles of the hike, nor the fact that you do those same 2 miles again at the end of the hike, making it 'about six' stream crossings. I am not entirely sure how you can 'about' cross a stream, but that is neither here nor there.I think there has been a lot of rain this winter, with some snow mixed in at higher elevations, and the stream was high. Oh yes, all those stream crossings? I am pretty sure they crossed the same stream, increasing the sense of futility of it all. The stream being high meant that I could not cross it without getting wet feet. Since I was hiking with my full pack, I took off shoes and socks and put on my crocs to cross (say that ten times fast. Crocs to cross crocs to cross. I digress). I have never crossed streams in january before (because I am generally a sane person) but the first one was not too horribly bad. A bit painful, but I dried off my feet with my new fleece mittens (more about those later) and as soon as I put my sock back on, my feet were fine. However, there is a cumulative effect to this. By the fourth crossing (because 'about three' was really 5 crossings in that first section), my feet were very unhappy. Fortunately, the fifth crossing was an actual rock hop. Yay!The next challenge was a sustained climb of about 2 miles. It didn't look very steep, indeed it barely look more than a false flat. And yet, it kicked my ass. Note to self: maybe I should go hiking a bit more before I start my thru-hike. On the bright side, once we came to the first falls, they were half frozen and looked very cool. And the second falls (Big Falls) were even cooler. We were now descending steeply, on slightly frozen snow/ice, (so as to not forgo the 'bit of everything' in the challenging department) followed by a level but very rocky stretch. After a steep but mercifully short incline we were back on the same trail we started on, and got to cross those five streams again.This time I did not bother with the crocs and just walked through in my hiking shoes, socks and all. I did roll up my pants. It was slightly less cold to cross this way, but it also takes longer to heat up because you are not wiping off the cold water and have to heat it with your body temperature. The accumulative effect is still there as well.This would be cool hike in summer I think, even though the falls are supposedly down to a trickle. But the stream crossing would be fun (there were five more in the center portion of the hike, but only one of those required wet feet), and there were at least two swimming holes along the way. And there is a great view from Big Falls into the valley.I have made myself 1.5 pairs of fleece mittens and wore one of one pair and one of the other. I liked the smaller pair better so will be adapting those for my hike. And they were very useful as impromptu towels, without any loss of warming functionality. I did have a quick dry towel somewhere in my pack but couldn't be bother to dig it up with the mittens conveniently available.The other take away from this hike is that I really need to up the ITB stretching regimen. I am a little sore overall, pretty much what I expected, but my ITB is quite unhappy and that's not going to make for a good start of the hike. I have been trying to keep up with the all the posts here for 2015 AT hikes, and the posting level has sky-rocketed!