Date: 2006-08-21
To: Prep #43-Another First In The Near Future
Miles today: 0.0

It's back to my drab office this morning, but hey...at least the coffee is good right? I'm pretty stoked, because I made a reservation for a hike-inn campsite at a local state park, for a few weeks from now. That means, I'll be doing my first overnight w/all my gear. You have to hike half way around these lakes to the campsite and then hike out the next morning...no road access, so I'm really looking forward to it. Total miles I'll be covering in the 2 days is 17.5, which is absolutely perfect for my training purposes, and which I fully expect to kick my butt right now. (I'll probably come back and read this after my hike next year and laugh at this entry!)   I went back and did another 5.1 miles yesterday at my favorite trail, with my full pack.   Oh...I saw this HUGE black snake on this hike too...scared the crap out of me, because it was on an embankment that was about as high as my shoulder and it bolted through the leaves just as I was walking past it. I followed it until I lost it. It was about 4.5 ft long and black. No idea what it was. This hike seemed a bit easier this week actually.   Granted, I'm still sitting here in my office chair feeling like I needed to sleep another 5 hours, oh...but that might be due to the fact that I stayed up a bit late playing Family Feud on-line against Rachael last night (old ladies in the making). My quads are being a bit resistant this morning, however...not really wanting to move my legs in a fluid walking motion...so when I walk right now, I look more like a bad 80's break dancer trying to do one of those robotic looking moves (God..I loved the 80's!)So before I went hiking yesterday, I went to my local MooseJaw store, where Luke, an employee who did not have to work on Sunday volunteered to come in and help me. We went through my pack and he spent 3 HOURS with me!!! How awesome is that? He's an experienced backpacker, has made trips to the Smokey's, Kenya, etc. Very cool guy. Anyway, I had ordered an Osprey Ariel 65 for comparison purposes. I took my Catalyst and ALL of my gear up to the store to do a side-by-side comparison of the fit. First, I was thrilled that I could still easily get all my stuff into a 3800 cu in pack (the Catalyst is 4600 cu in). My only issue with the Catalyst is the shoulder straps not fitting quite right. The Osprey pack felt pretty good to my surprise, BUT...it weighs 2 lbs more!!! I don't know what to do honestly. I think I'll wait for Brian (from ULA) to get back from his hike in November and ask him to sew the older style straps onto my Catalyst and see if that helps. According to people in some trail forums, it has helped others in the past.As I was walking into work from my vehicle, feeling stiff, sore and tired, nursing a headache (lack of caffeine I've found...gotta kick this habit soon), and feeling the start of a sore throat, I asked myself, "are you willing and do you have the character that it takes to get up in the morning, throw a 30 lb pack on your back, and hike over mountains...feeling like this?" My answer was that if I woke up and felt like this, I'd probably choose to lay in my sleeping bag a bit longer, get up, listen to the birds, enjoy the woods, and slowly loosen my body up instead of shocking it into a hike within 30 minutes of waking up. I think that's the beauty of all of this, I can DO whatever I feel like I need to do. Too bad I can't do that right now...I'd be going home and playing more Family Feud!!