Another 15 Mile Hike

Last Saturday we hiked the Des Plaines River Trail south from Dundee Road (68) to Higgins Road (72). Since out last hike we purchased Osprey water bladders. This time we will not run out of water as we did last time. The filled bladders were placed in the refrigerator overnight and were nice and cold when loaded in to our packs. We were surprised how cold the water kept over the five or so hours we hiked.

River Trail Nature Center

Along the way we stopped at the River Trail Nature Center for a break. We sat on a nice porch admiring the countryside taking a quick snack. The center has a bald eagle in a cage. I was rather sad the beautiful bird could not soar as an eagle should.

We were prepared for the bugs this time around and liberally used out bug spray starting the day. What a difference! We could actually stop for breaks and lunch without fear of becoming a huge insect haven.

A Road Along the River

 

This bridge is one of the few the trail went under. Versus the northern hike we took hikers found it necessary crossing the roads and highways bisecting the trail. Running with a pack across traffic is great fun.

 

Our stamina and hydration was much improved this time. Adding the water bladders increased our pack weights to between 23 - 25 pounds. I could defiantly tell the difference yet we both managed the weight well. Training with our packs has certainly been a huge help for our hikes to come.

 

Snakes on a Trail

 

Well one snake anyway. Since this trail is an urban trail and never far from interstate highways, busy suburbs and a heavily used trail, wildlife is not abundant in the sense of actually seeing any. So snakes are about it!

 

Fifteen miles is still a stretch for us. The last few miles were still difficult, but we are getting better. Next week we are off for hiking some "real" trails and will report how it goes. We are looking forward to more hiking!!

 

 







Training - Up & Down

All the hiking we do around home is essentially flat. We training for the ups and downs of the trails we are looking forward to hike, especially the AT next summer. Our thoughts are changing about when to do the Georgia, our first section, AT hike. The first thought was going in August, but watching the weather lately there seems rather warm, or a better word is hot! So our thoughts are moving back to the middle of June.

We have ten and a half months to get our legs, especially knees, strengthened for terrain that has elevation changes. We are going to join a health club for over the winter months but have found a perfect outdoor training site while the weather is good.

Our town has several overflow drainage ponds for heavy rainstorms to keep water from backing up and flooding neighborhoods. The one we discovered the other day has very steep sides.

Using our trusty GPS we determined that going down and back up equaled 0.8 of a mile. Last Saturday Michelle and I took our son and a picnic lunch to start training for elevation. We decided to make the round trip twelve times which is just short of a mile.

We did it and will continue to use pond to strengthen our knees over time. Our plan is to head over several evenings a week and keep using this as a training method.  Here is a better perspective showing Michelle coming back up.

 

 

At some point we will add our packs and keep on trucking Up & Down.