Training for the PCT

Sorry these haven't come up more frequently. This semester is kicking my ass. Between now and May Chris and I will be doing exclusively PCT planning posts, and then once May rolls around we'll back on hikes/trail reviews. They will NOT be PCT updates (though we'll try and do those as we hit WiFi areas) rather they'll be guest posts and backlogged hikes.

Let the madness begin!

There are two camps on training for long distance thru-hikes. The camp that trains and the camp that doesn't. The latter think that the trail will beat your ass into shape and anything you do before hand is not going to matter because the stuff that long distance hiking does to your body can't be replicated by training.

I personally find this explanation to be completely ridiculous. Sure firing a gun in combat is way different than being at a gun range, but you wouldn't want to be dropped into a combat zone not having fired a gun before. I think I've actually had that nightmare before...

Chris' Mom on one of our training hikes

So obviously, Chris and I decided that while training can't completely prepare us, some preparation is going to be better than none.

We've been getting up at godawful o'clock every morning (something I am less than thrilled to do) and walking for an hour with our packs on. We built training packs, which are basically our old backpacking packs (we'll switch to the new ones when we get them next week) loaded up with milk jugs full of water wrapped in blankets. I'm training with about 30 lbs of weight and Chris with about 35. This is about 5-10 lbs less than what we're going to be carrying on the hike.

At the Base of the "N"

We try to walk on uneven ground as much as possible since walking on asphalt doesn't allow for support muscle strengthening. We're lucky enough to have some nice opportunities for some elevation near by as well. We hike up to the above "N" in Reno (which means nothing to those of you outside the area). Every week we do a 4.5 mile hike with about 700 feet of elevation gain and once a month we're doing a 12-16 mile hike. In a few weeks we'll also do a practice run with full packs for approximately 30 miles over 2 nights.

Aside from the early mornings, I've actually been enjoying the daily exercise. I think it's definitely making me a little less crazy. Although I have to put up with Chris singing made up songs to me at a ridiculously early hour of the morning. Jaxx is also benefiting since one of our routes takes us through a dog park, so he is getting some extra ball time.

The views aren't much, but the pay off physically is great. When Chris and I recently visited and hiked around Arkansas (posts forthcoming) we felt like super heroes! Between the training and being significantly closer to sea level we basically ran up hills.

Golden Gardens to Carkeek Park Beach Hike

April 3rd, 2014
Mileage: 4 miles
Elevation Gain: 0 feet
Seattle
Not Dog Friendly (Although there are often dogs)
Difficulty: Easy

A few weeks back, Katie and I decided it would be a good idea to start doing a weekday hike once a week to stretch our legs and get in better overall shape both for our health and so we could comfortably do more strenuous hikes on the weekend.  We have mostly been doing Poo Poo Point (hehe) for our weekday hikes but decided to change it up on the 3rd and do a nice beach hike from Golden Gardens city park to Carkeek city park.  Both of these are beach parks located 2 miles away from each other on the same stretch of beach on the Puget Sound in Seattle.

You have to do this hike during low tide or you will either have to swim instead of walk or climb up to the train tracks in the picture above and walk along those, which is trespassing on railroad property, which is illegal.  Koko, our friend from Amsterdam was able to join Katie and I for the hike.

We arrived at Golden gardens about half way between low and high tide with the tide coming in.  Part of the reason we wanted to do the beach hike is because of the usually beautiful view of the Olympic mountain range on the other side of the Puget Sound.  Unfortunately, it was overcast and raining, and for most of the hike the mountains were completely obscured.  We walked along the beach and Katie and Koko helped me play the pretty stuff game which involves collecting pretty shells, rocks and glass to ad to the cool fountain Allison and I built to help us get better quality of sleep by providing some ambient noise.

By the time we got near Carkeek Park the tide had come in far enough to where we had climb over boulders instead of walk on the beach.  This did not bode well for the trip back, but we pushed onward knowing that we could always scramble up to the train tracks if we felt things were getting unsafe with the tide coming in.

We spent a minute at Carkeek Park and decided that we didn't want to scramble on the boulders a second time on the way back and decided to climb up to the train tracks.  Luckily, we only had to go a few hundred feet on the tracks to bypass the boulders and no trains came, so we didn't get in trouble!  About 15 minutes after we got off the track, a long cargo train came zooming by.  We got some cool pictures and the conductor was nice enough to humor me by blowing the whistle when I did the hand motion!  As we neared Golden Gardens, the tide had come in far enough that the beach was totally gone, so we had to walk another half mile on the train tracks and then scramble down a really steep 30 ft tall hill to get back down to the park.  Even though we had to push our luck with the railroad, the hike went well and no one besides us was privy to our trespassing!