52 days

Its been a very busy week for me, but productive. I moved from Santa Cruz to Carmel and have been cleaning and moving stuff, including my poor cat Bill, who is terrified of car rides. I got my first smart phone yesterday and I have very little idea how to use it. I need it for my hike, but for fuck's sake, why is there so much security? I had to make like 3 new passwords and a thumb print. I dunno... I also bought a life-proof case because I'm pretty clumsy and I anticipate that I'll somehow manage to either get my phone eaten by a bear or drop it in a privy. I'm testing it now, with this very blog post (Note: the post was horrendous before I edited the typos). It's confusing to say the least, and I'm not much of a texter, so typing on this little screen is a nightmare. I'm gonna probably get a small and lightweight blue-tooth keyboard for blogging purposes; otherwise, I shudder to think of the daily struggle of posting quality journal entries with this dainty little smart box.

I have to adjust my training here in Carmel, because there are much fewer options for longer distance trail running here than in Santa Cruz. The hiking is also different, which is fine, but the trails in the Ventana Wilderness have more elevation loss/gain, and are much less maintained. They are also a further drive, but all is OK. I love the Ventana Wilderness, and I hope to hike in to the south of Big Sur in the Silver Peak Wilderness if I have time.

Coming soon: Gear inventory with pics.

Training Fail

I got my first overuse injury and I'm still nearly two months away from Go-Day.

I've been running myself too hard. Fourteen days straight of trail running and hiking, but the last two days put me out a bit. On Saturday I biked 12 miles to a trail head in Big Basin, then hiked 12 miles to the summit of a very steep peak with sweeping vistas of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The views were amazing, and I felt good, although the tranquility was somewhat disturbed by a loud, obnoxious group of neon sunglasses-wearing hipsters from a nearby campground. They were scared of cougars, they said, so they were yelling in all directions. Hipsters...

I hiked another 7 miles in to loop back to my bike just before darkness fell. My problem is that I don't take any breaks, and I hike like I'm being chased by the 5-O; Super fast, usually 4 mph, and while it has gotten me in good shape, I'd like to be able to slow down a bit. I did, however, stop to take pictures of a newt and a banana slug.

The next morning, (today) I hiked a 15 mile loop at Nicene Marks SP, and my ankle immediately felt very sore. "Maybe my shoe is too tight?" I thought, but I just charged uphill for 8 miles, ignoring the pain. When I reached the top of the mountain, the pain became overwhelming. Had I been backpacking, I would have crashed right there and rested, but my truck was 7 miles away. To say the way back felt long would be an understatement. My foot, and now my entire leg, was numb with shooting pain. I thought about resting, but knew that if I sat down, I would not be getting back up so easy, and this turned out to be true because I made it to my car and drove home, but when I got out of the car my ankle was completely stiff. I winced trying to walk on it.

All I can think about is that if this happens to my ankle on back-to-back 15+ mile days, whats happens on the PCT when I try multiple 20+ mile days? Well, I think I'll be OK there if I just take care of myself with regular breaks, and try not to hike like a meth-rattled power walker. I can't imagine how much it would suck to injure myself while training for the PCT and not be able to thru-hike because of it. So I guess I'll ease up a bit. Plus, other hikers think I'm a weirdo and wonder where I'm off to in such a rush. I secretly just want to be their friend, but I can never let them know that...
Moving this week!