Well, the thesis has been successfully defended and the document completed. I am so happy that it is all over. I just have to tie up some loose ends and finish up one class and I’ll be *really* done. With the completion of my thesis, my excitement level for hiking has substantially increased. It will be nice to start come July…but I’m looking forward to some stuff I have planned before hand, such as an Alaskan Cruise with my family and visiting with my girlfriend for around a week and a half, which will include a backpacking trip to the Pictured Rocks National Lake shore located on Lake Superior in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I’m starting to slowly get the ball rolling on packing and moving, since I need to have everything all set before my parents arrive in Seattle on the 9th of June. They’ll spend two days in Seattle with me before we leave on the 12th for the cruise. I’m looking forward to spending a solid week with my family…it’s been a long time since we’ve gone on a family vacation together.
I also wanted to briefly talk about how I’ve been physically preparing for the hike, which I think is of highest importance and also the portion of preparing I’ve put in the most time and effort. I believe (and hope) that the better in shape I am at the start the more I’ll enjoy the trail at the start and the greater the chance will be of completing the trail. I think the physical conditioning also is very important since New England is regarded as the toughest terrain on the trail, which on a Southbound hike is experienced first. Northbound hikers have the advantage of being conditioned before they hit New England, Southbound hikers from the sound of it are just thrown into the fire.
What I’ve been doing for the past 2 years essentially is to just exercise more. Briefly, this involves walking everywhere I need to go. Since I don’t have a car, and I stopped bike commuting back in December, I guess this is more of just what I have to do if I want to get anywhere. On average, from walking to school/ grocery store/ other places/ I’ll walk anywhere between 2-5 miles per day. I usually carry a heavy backpack that weighs around 15 pounds which includes books and my laptop, which is around the base-weight of my pack.
In addition to walking everywhere, I also started running about 6 months ago. I’ll usually run 4 days on and take a day off. My runs range anywhere from 5-10 miles. Additional exercise comes from periodic cycling rides where I’ll cycle anywhere from 20-40 miles (pre December 2010, all I did was cycle but have since put it on the back burner for awhile). I’ve also been going on long walks (10-12 miles) around the city, which I’ll do maybe once or twice a week. And of course, when I can, go hiking (which isn’t that often due to my lack of mobility).
With what I’ve been doing to prepare, I’ve gained a lot of strength in my legs and have also increased my endurance to levels I never thought possible for myself.Even though the exercise I’ve been doing isn’t actual backpacking, and the only way to get into great backpacking shape is to actually go out and backpack, I think I’ll start the trail with a good base physical level which will make it easier and quicker for me to get into trail shape. Whether my theory will work or not I’m not sure, but I’ve enjoyed getting into shape and maintaining a fitness level that makes me feel good about myself.
This will probably be the last entry before my hike, check back in 6 weeks!