Training Regiment Report

On Wednesday I hiked around my trails here for 45 minutes with 42 pounds. That is about the max weight we will each be carrying when we have full food rations and all water bottles full.

Yesterday I just did a quickie loop for Maggie with 37 pounds because then Om and I went on a bike ride- only about 8 miles, but it feels good.

Today I left home with Maggie on a leash and 45 pounds in my pack. I returned 1 hour 15 minutes later with 47.5 pounds. We walked the Scottville bypass, and I picked up 2.5 pounds of aluminum cans! So that's about 3 miles. I didn't break any speed records, but I did bend down to get all those cans. It was also pretty hot- about 80 degrees. That's good, because I always need to work myself into hiking when it's hot. It was long enough, but not so bad that I felt in pain or broken down when I got home. If I can keep up this sort of thing, I should be ready for August.

On a more artistic note, there have been some nice treats just around the house. I've found scarlet cup fungus, and yellow patches fungus for spots of color. Yesterday I found a live cicada that is somehow out of rhythm with the rest of his population. He (she?) was big and lovely with bright aqua patches where the wings met the body. I've never seen one with any color at all. I picked it up in hopes of corralling it while I got the camera, but it decided to fly away, buzzing in that odd cicada way. The wren is still hanging out trying to find a new lady love, and a cardinal is around too, nesting in the apple I think. A flicker is working hard to enlarge to hollow space that the bluebirds nested in this spring, so it won't be the right size for the bluebirds next spring. The deer and turkeys wander through the yard, and the moles and ground squirrels wander under the yard.

Got a call today from a reporter at the Grand Rapids Press. They want to do an article on my NCT hikes. The interview will be July 24th. Don't know when the article will run.

Yesterday I helped spot a hiker on the NCT at Red Bridge. So I took advantage of that opportunity to put some trail miles into my conditioning. Shamu at 37 pounds rode on my back, and Maggie at 50 pounds trotted along. We went up the big hill from Upper River Road TH to the main NCT. I believe that this is the biggest trail hill anywhere in the Manistee NF. Puff, puff. Then we hiked north for a total of 30 minutes, turned around and came back. We made it just past Pole Rd (a little over a mile of trail). So, total walking was probably under 3 miles. OK for beginnings. It didn't feel too bad, and I'm not at all sore today, but I can sure tell that to do 5 or 6 of those walks in a day I need to seriously work on this conditioning!

Hi- I don't think hardly anyone is reading this any more since I haven't posted much, but just in case, and to give me some accountability, I'm going to post a bit about preparations for the August hike.

I've managed to save enough money so that I can afford to do this. Yeah!

I'm working on the planning. This trip needs real planning because we will do the western section in the Adirondacks. This will connect our High Peaks trip (1996) hopefully all the way to Fort Stanwix at Rome, NY. I'm working on the itinerary to see if we really can do all of this. It's 150 miles.

It's been 3 years since we really did a backpacking trip so I'm getting in shape. So far I'm carrying 37 pounds for 30 minutes each day. Need to bump that up pretty rapidly, but I have a month to work on it, so I should be ok.

We (Marie and I) will get to hike a portion of the new proposed route through the Adirondacks. This includes one serious bushwack, so I'm trying to find out as much info as I can about it ahead of time. The NCTA HQ has some GPS units that they were given for volunteers to use to report trail coordinates, so I'm going to be taking one of those with the info they have pre-loaded. That should be some help... I'm a map and compass girl, but having the GPS will give me a lot of practice, and will be a nice safety net.