Date: 2010-01-02
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Had a very pleasant hike today at my favorite county park, Point Mountain, today. I have put in two new trails at the park, one leading directly up to the summit (well not direct, that would be a disaster, it's got switchbacks and the like, but it's the "most direct" trail to the overlook). The second trail is on the newly opened north section of the park, a huge area that was never opened because it had no trail access. Well, now it does, and I'll admit it, I still haven't explored it fully. The point is, Point Mountain is not only the most interesting hiking location in the area, but crews that I have worked with, and crews friends of mine have worked on have done a lot in the past five years to expand and maintain the park. Ice was an issue on the climb up, but what's life without a little excitement?I also got out two weeks ago for a hike at the Musconetcong Gorge (my second favorite hiking location in the area). It had snowed the previous day, so we had about eight inches of snow to contend with. The Gorge has some pretty rough terrain, and it's made rougher when you can't exactly see the details of your footing. Sure enough, I took a few spills, no thanks to the fact that I have taken to carry a full pack even for day hikes, just for the thrill of lugging some extra weight around. I also had a delightful encounter with a high stream crossing. Nevertheless, it was a good hike.So, what sort of valuable knowledge did I learn from these two excursions, or relearn more accurately?Wear gloves when it's cold. I'm not certain how I was dumb enough to forget that twice, but boy do your hands get cold, especially if you dunk them into the snow a few times on the course of your hike. Gloves are definitely on the packing list for my thru, they had been before I took these two hikes while I was home, but my forgetfulness certainly did well to remind me of their importance. The second lesson, wet feet are not good. Wet feet in sub-freezing weather, are downright bad. Yes, this too I knew. In fact, anyone hiker or non-hiker would agree with that statement, no scientific trial and error testing is really necessary. And while I had a full pack on, it was filled mostly with useless items, tons of water (for weight since I wasn't carrying food), odd clothes items, actual weights, but not a single pair of spare socks. Thankfully this mishap occurred near the end of the hike, and so it wasn't a huge deal.I know, the above paragraph may make me sound like an idiot, so here is my saving grace, I enjoyed my hikes regardless of these setbacks. I've done some hiking, and so neither of these things came as news to me, but I don't claim to be any sort of pro-hiker. Mistakes are just mistakes unless you stop enjoying yourself because of them. Then a mistake becomes a problem.On another note; big gear update. I am now the proud owner of a Canon SD 1200 IS ELPH. That's a camera for those who don't know much about cameras. I'm one of those people. I've never owned a camera, but I figure a trip of this sort of probably worth documenting. Now I just need to train myself to remember that I own and sort of know how to use a camera, and actually remember to take it out and take pictures. This gives me the potential to make this little blog a bit more interesting, real color photos are now a distinct and likely possibility.I promised a rough itinerary/ list of mail drops, too. Well, here's the deal. I keep putting it off. Not cause I'm lazy, but because I don't much like the idea of mail drops. Seems like a lot of hassle and it also puts me on a schedule, which is contrary to the whole idea of spending six months in the woods. So, here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to set up a few mail drop points, probably five, because yes, I do need to know whether I am ahead or behind schedule. Also, I know a few people may want to mail me something, and I would greatly appreciate that as well (of course no one is obligated to do anything). So, I'll set a few points and post them soon, but I won't be planning to mail myself anything. If it becomes necessary I really need something I can't get on the trail, I can always give someone a weeks heads up and arrange to get it sent in time.And for those interested, I'm still without a place to live for the fall semester after the hike. I'm headed back down to school for a month long winter session tomorrow afternoon, so the search for a place to call my own will continue very shortly.