3:45pm @ Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Busy out here on the trail, and I don't mean swarms of day or section hikers. The days are in fact full with many concerns and obligations. Setting up / breaking down camp. Cooking dinner. Even making a lunch sandwich takes time.
I imagined there would be a great deal of down time in the evenings and mornings, but there is not.
I try to be asleep by 7pm and back on the trail by 7am. To be honest, I am sleeping most of that time! Walking 8 hours a day with 30lbs on your back up and down mountains is exhausting apparently.
One other misconception I had about the trail was "what will I think about when walking?"
The answer is: Where to put your next foot step! Honest. On the two days I have gone 15+ miles, there was not time for any other thought!
I looked a the AT map on the wall here at the cabin. Saw where I started.....and just how much further Katadhin is. Shit piss fuck man. the 100mi I have walked is NOTHING.
There isn't much sense in worrying about it. Currently my body is the limiting factor on the number of miles I can pull. 10-12 seems to be the max. I don't know if lightening my pack any more will help much. Base weight is 15lbs.
I keep thinking about how fast the NOBOs are. Were they that much more fit than me when starting the trail? Were they always pulling 20mi days?!
The trail is beautiful. I am lucky to be out here at all. It is a small miracle my back is holding up. The idea of completing the trail is on my mind. I need to decide what walking all 2,100miles will mean to me. What NOT walking it will mean also.
I wish my heels didn't hurt. If the leg pains would just complete, I would be able to find something else to be insecure about already!
I am a hot trail mess. Guess this is part of the reason for being out here. To be pushed out of the old comfort zone. But, now it is dinner time. We made it to the shelter in record time 8:15am -> 2:30pm, 10.4mi in 6.2 hours.
I am getting faster....but is the improvement fast enough?
No comments:
Post a Comment