Hiking

[Catrin]

Just beautiful! It would be difficult to find a more beautiful place to hike in the fall, I'm sure. Pity you didn't have your poles but you still did it!

[emily_in_nc]

Crankin, I am sure I would have suffered more had we not already been at elevation for weeks before -- in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, among other areas. We had a good long time to acclimate. So really, the elevation was not that big a deal. I noticed it more during bike rides, since those really get your heart pounding and respiration going! I am quite sure I would have suffered mightily if we had flown there. I have never gotten a headache from high elevation, but I definitely pant more than in the lowlands on any sort of climbs, even minor ones.

[emily_in_nc]

One more from a couple of weeks ago:

http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...mountain-trail

[Crankin]

It was beautiful today, but wind gusting to 35, so no riding here. I had the day off, so we did a 3 mile hike in Spring Hill conservation land in Acton, which is the first time in 10 years we have done it, without our friend leading. The one time we did, we ended up up getting lost, it was getting dark, and we ended up walking almost 7 miles out, through housing developments, and on busy roads, with no lights, to get back to where our car was at the trailhead! It is quite confusing, and most of the time we are there snowshoeing, and it just looks different with no leaves on the trees. But, we now have an All Trails subscription, so we downloaded the basic route. We did about 3 miles, not the usual 5, we have done, but it was fine. No fall color in there, at all. Then, we came home, showered, and went into Harvard/Porter Square and walked another 3 miles, which included a stop for wine and cheese.

[Crankin]

So, I work on Friday mornings, now; still leaves plenty of time to hike or ride. When I got home, DH was there, and I suggested a hike in Estabrook Woods, including the big climb. He was thinking more of a walk into town. It was cool out, but gorgeous, a bit windy. I relented, kind of being grumpy. I just put my sneakers on, with my regulaar clothes. When we got to the village, there was some commotion, with 3 fire trucks, police, so we stood around for a bit, but never figured out what. Then, we headed back. We always do a loop of the center, and head back to Main St. a different way. We cut through a playground, and then as we were heading up that street, we saw a trail! One we have never seen. There was a trail map, and it did end up in the direction we needed to go, albeit, in a longer way. Off we went. There was a fork in the trail (we knew it was coming) and we took the fork that the map had shown with lots of elevation markings. So, I got my climb in, and actually felt like I exercised. The trail was pristine, with no roots or rocks, and the climb was good. And I walked down a street that I have only ridden or driven on.
I guess we walked about 5 miles, more than I had planned on.

[Pax]

That sounds so fun, Crankin!

Emily, I can't wait to get back out West again, so much gorgeous scenery just waiting to be discovered.

Catrin, we are getting our new truck all set up to get back to camping!! Having a topper put on in the next month and I'm going to try to fab a couple of hangers to hold our poles along the sides... so we're ready to go, wherever we are.

[Catrin]

Crankin, that sounds like fun, glad you enjoyed!

Pax, that sounds like fun as well. I love that you're able to set your truck up like that, it makes life much easier that way - looking forward to seeing what it looks like next year!

[Catrin]

Today was my birthday hike, and I....may have, ahem, over done things a bit

I've never been in Morgan Monroe State Forest before, and a friend and I had decided some time ago to do one of the 10-mile "loops". Loops SHOULD end where they stop, shouldn't they" Otherwise we should call them....I don't know...Horseshoe trails? Almost-loop trails?

First of all, the trails were great! Wide variety of terrain, LOTS of "up and down", many switchbacks, and thankfully very little of that one trail feature that I can't do. The ONE place where that existed required some creativity from me but I made it. I've pictures that I will post tomorrow, I am just too tired to play with the photos tonight.

11.3 miles in total with over 37K steps. The trails were beautiful, but the maps were awful, the trail-head initially hard to find and while we were never actually lost, we were sweating the possibility of losing the daylight in the woods. None of the signs had the actual trail names, and we had no connection to online mapping services. I will go back, but I will have some other mapping system on my phone or some other device.

Beautiful day for a hike! Afterwards, I started getting terrible ramps in feet, shins, and even thighs. After my hiking partner dropped me back at my car I spent an agonizing 30 minute drive home in my manual transmission car with terrible feet/shin cramps. I've seen this before, but never on the way home. I'm sure it will wake me up tonight - when I normally experience it. I was taking salt-stick capsules throughout the hike, drank over a liter, munched on my favorite trail mix during, and had a good dinner. It could be dehydration, or just plain over-doing things. I've never done THAT before...

Pictures tomorrow, I've a couple beautiful ones!