AT Training Hike- Day Four

Our last day was about 11 miles hiking out of the park, mostly downhill. We were tired and very dusty and itchy by the time we got to our rental car. Of course, our flights were delayed out fo knoxville and my mom didn't get in until 2 AM.

We had a great time though- the smokies were beautiful, the company was great, and I did learn some skillz.



One last "smokey" vista!

AT Training Hike- Day Three

Today we did a little over six miles, and hit our three highest peaks. Our last night we stayed at the TriCorner Nob shelter. It was a nice shelter with a great stream nearby. We also made tea out of yellow birch stems. It tasted like peppermint. Or spearmint. Or wintergreen. I'm bad with my mints.
It stormed like crazy all night, which made me quite thankful to be in the shelter.... no such luck for the JMT!

AT Training Hike- Day Two

Today we hiked a little over eight miles from Icewater Springs Shelter to Peck's Corner Shelter. You can see in the picture above why they call the smoky mountains smoky!

We hiked to Charlie's Bunion, a beautiful look out point on the AT (below).





My mom and I are below- just little tiny figures!



Peck's was a great shelter- we saw a huge bear! The day was great overall- I am really happy with my shoes and pack, no blisters thus far.

AT Training Hike- Day One

Our first day in Tennessee, after a VERY early morning flight from Chicago to Knoxville, we hit the trail! We started the day late (after 3 pm)- so we did an easy three miles to our first shelter (Icewater Spring Shelter).



I definitely realized I need a pack cover. A garbage bag doesn't really work with the way my pack fits on my back- the garbage bag falls off.



We got to the shelter after the three mile, 1000 foot climb. It was pouring rain at the shelter! But that did make for some beautiful rainbows after the rain:

Training for Elevation Change

As our trail date looms just over a month away, training is kicking into high gear. Our training schedule has us doing longer hikes on Sundays, carrying backpacks weighing 40-100% of our planned trail weight, and doing anywhere from 30-70% of our per-day average distance and elevation change. So, for instance, we'd do a Sunday hike of six miles with a 20-pound pack that had an average elevation change of 1800 feet.

This sounds like a reasonable way to train, except that we're training in Chicago. The highest point in Illinois is Charles Mound at 1235 feet. I've never been to the Mound, but I am imagining a large (1235-foot to be exact) pile of ground surrounded by prairie. There are certainly no hills in Chicago to speak of.

But in my effort to find a moderately hilly area around the city, some internet research turned up a running club's website with elevation charts and routes.

The chart is pretty funny if you know Chicago a little. The river that runs east-west on the Google map above runs right through the center of downtown Chicago. Skyscrapers everywhere. Anyway, the only way that I can think to explain the impressive changes in elevation on this chart is that the GPS tracker that created the elevation chart was turned on at the top of the runner's condo or office building, at which point they took the elevator down and started running. Would it count on our Sunday hikes if we started at the top of the Sears Tower? After all, it's taller than Charles Mound.

Getting ready for Tennessee!

So, my mom and I are taking an REI "backpacking basics" class in the Smokey Mountains this weekend (Thurs-Sun). While I have some backpacking experience, it's been a while, and since I have now lived in large urban areas for almost ten years- my Oregon roots need to be refreshed. It should be a good training weekend for the JMT. Obviously, we won't be doing crazy big climbs at crazy high elevations, but it will give me four days and three nights with my new pack and new shoes!

This is the picture they advertise with the class:

If it looks anything like this, I'm sold!

I'm also looking forward to this hike because my mom is quite the expert outdoorswoman, so I will be trying to soak up as much of her knowledge as I can. She also has mad guitar hero skills!

Things I'm (a little) sad about

Missing three weeks of Project Runway while on the trail.



I'm okay with trading it for these views though.

Six Weeks!

Okay, so six weeks until the trail. We haven't been doing as good of a job at training lately- with finals and trying to wrap things up at work, we've been insanely busy. BUT- Matt's done with finals starting Tuesday, and I'm done with work starting July 2nd. Then the real fun begins!

I did get shoes- I went with the Vasque ones after trying them both on at REI. They feel pretty stiff to me, but hopefully I'll break them in before my Smokey Mountains training hike (June 26th-29th).

I've been really excited about the trip for the last couple months, but lately I've been having pangs of doubt regarding how much time we are going to be out on the trail. Really, what do people think about all the time out there? Maybe it's just difficult to conceptualize while I am working like crazy and trying to spend as much time with my friends as possible because of the big move coming up. Three weeks of just "walking" is starting to seem much more daunting- not necessarily the physicality- but the mental aspect.

Shoes!

Trying to decide between these two pairs of boots, the Merrell Moab Mid and the Vasque Iron XCR Mid. The Merrell's are cuter, but, well, cute probably shouldn't be my priority. The reviewers seem relatively happy with both on REI's website... the Vasque seem to have more reviews. Hmmm. Should probably just make the trek up to the burbs to try them on... but I really hate going all the way out there! Of course, it has to be right when we are moving (Sept 09) that the Lincoln Park REI is opening.

Starting trail prep...

It's exactly eight weeks until we start our hike, so I thought we should start this to make sure a) we get our ass kicked into gear as far as training, and b) that we had a way to document our preparation for our hike.

We are trying to follow this training guide from backpacker magazine... we'll see if we are able to stick to it! It's pretty hard to train in Chicago because it is so so flat.

Anyway, did our first long "official" training hike today. Went okay! I'm excited to get started, figure out all of the details of our hike, and have some adventures to write about.


Miles: 6.1
Time: 2 hrs, 25 min