Date: 2018-04-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

In my mind hearing 12 days is different from seeing it in type. It feels so vivid in the written form, so real and solid. Wow! On Wed I left work at 3 and hiked the entire 7 mile round trip auto road to Mount Kearsarge from the gate at Rollins State Park. Nearly 1,800' of elevation gain and an average of 8.7% grade gives me a good idea now of my hiking speed and how my body reacts to that kind of hike with a pack (minus the water bladder). My calves were tight so I wore my compression socks to bed and have been diligent about stretching. I'll do all I can to avoid Plantar Fasciitis again and I know that my calves and hamstrings need stretching often. Yoga has been a blessing and I will practice on the trail every day! I don't care how fast or slow I hike, that isn't a focus for me, but it is important to be able to judge the right locations and times for my packages to be shipped to me. I don't want to wait around in town for a package to be delivered if I arrive days before it. Being able to use this hike to gauge my current speed will help in planning for Brian, if he doesn't forget, which I hope he's only kidding about! I do tease him that he seems to use my brain a lot...when he forgets things. Sometimes I can be faster than google and he doesn't have to type! This morning was an errand run with Brian to Walmart for some last minute items. I have been using Nido in my oatmeal and other meals and I have been ordering it online but I always run out. I was delighted when Brian found it at Walmart! With the last minute items I was able to spend my last day in the kitchen cooking meals that will be dehydrated this week. The freezer is almost full. My absolute favorite meal is an Epicurious recipe for a chicken chili with white beans. I have made a few batches over the past several months and just like this time only half makes it to the dehydrator. It appears to be one of Brian's favorites too! I wonder if he will miss my cooking. I try to imagine what his days and nights will be like without me home. When I tell people that I am hiking the AT they have many questions and some have fears for me. Ironically their fears are not the same as mine. They want to know if I will be armed, if I'm afraid of the people I will meet, animals or getting lost. I'm actually not in fear of any of those things. My fear is thunderstorms. Yup. Any natural flash of light more powerful than a firefly is terrifying for me. TERRIFYING. Those close to me know how this impacts me. To even take a summer stroll when the soundless heat lightning is flickering in the distance is dramatic. To say I startle easily at distant flashes might be an understatement. With some professional help I am trying to tackle this fear and to scale it back to manageable. This past week I started reading about thunderstorms online and I will follow up by watching video and listening with the volume up so that I can retrain myself to feel differently in the situation. Of course my preference would be not to get caught out in one, but that may not always be realistic. I have the AT weather app on my phone, and this will help me in terms of avoiding some days with forecast storms but there may be days with a low chance of storms where I choose to hike, and I will need to be able to calm myself. Historically for me knowledge has given me power and I will try that power play with this also. Please pray for my success.  I will plan to hike Kearsarage at least twice more before leaving for Harper's Ferry. Getting my calves adjusted to hours of incline hiking is good. Next weekend is my overnight shakedown hike with Laura and I sure hope spring gets here before then! Ice falling from the sky today and temps in the 20's certainly has the woodland creatures and we NH humans a bit disgruntled. I'm holding out the hope that spring prevails!