Day 2

So, Day 2 comes only 7 weeks after the last post. Well, what can I say, it's been a busy two months. Taylor and I did get to Hercule's Glades. Aaron, the naturalist, tree-hugging, frog-licking, owl-petter, went hunting with his new uncle. Yes, I am aware of the contradiction, but the kid who cried over slaughtering cows for hamburgers wanted to go try to shoot a turkey. I don't know why or how, but that's what he wanted to do.

Friday morning, the day we were to leave, was spent with Aaron getting his hunting gear and license. Then, Taylor and I went out to get what we needed. We went from hunting stores to Wal-Mart to outdoor specialty stores. In order to enjoy the next day in nature, we spent the previous day entirely in the car. One stop was made picking up my new friends:

With Aaron headed to Waynesville around 6:00pm, we loaded the car and took off at 7:00pm to make the hour drive. We ended up arriving well into the evening and setting up camp, cooking and cleaning in the dark, but it was a good experience.

We took off at 9:00am on Saturday after a good breakfast and packing everything up. I stuffed as much in my pack as I thought I could carry and set off down the trail to Long Creek. We hiked a couple of miles and stopped to explore the creek a little bit. I brought some purification tablets with us because I knew we couldn't carry as much water as we needed. So, the plan was to hike to Long Creek, grab some water from the creek, then keep hiking. Now, this wasn't my first trip to Herc, so I knew that water is pretty scarce, but there had been several days of rain preceding the trip, so I thought finding water wouldn't be a problem. Well, that's what I get for thinking... Water, needless to say, was scarce. We ended up filtering water from a puddle through Taylor's, then using the tablets.

As we ate lunch, the ominous clouds to the south made me think another long-lasting rainstorm was approaching. Normally, we would have stayed and just hiked through it. Rain is your friend on a hot Missouri day. However, I had hiked ahead and tried to find the right trail that would cut northeast and take us to the eastbound trail that lead back to the parking lot. Well, the topo map that I had bought from the Conservation department didn't, exactly, match up with what I was experiencing on the ground, so I didn't feel like taking my son bushwacking through the forest and possibly getting lost until well after dark. So, we turned around and headed back. All-in-all, we did about 6.5 miles from 9:00am to 1:00pm, the last two, with Taylor in the lead, took us 45 minutes and from 800 ft. to 1300 ft. I was doing fine through the first few miles, even thought I was doing great, but then Taylor took off up the hill and I couldn't nderstand why my legs and lungs weren't working. The trek up the hill was a reminder that I haven't walked with 40 lbs. on my back up 500 ft. in a long time.

The weeks that have passed since then have been strange and full of all the little things that keep us busy. So, today is the day. I'm headed out with a loaded pack to get some miles on my new boots and try to get these legs into some semblance of shape. I have three more weeks and am going to try and get out everyday in order to push my body to a level of fitness that will keep me going in the mountains of Colorado. So, here's to walking 'til my legs fall off!

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10 weeks

Okay, here's the story. A good friend of mine called me last week and asked me to join him and a couple of guys he knows on a hiking trip. Right now, the destination is one of three places: Pueblo, CO, Tucson, AZ, or outside Las Vegas, NV. Vegas would be fun, after killing myself physically for four days, I could kill myself financially! How great would that be?

A little background: If first started hiking when I was in high school with some guys from my church. I live in the Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri, so hiking trails are plentiful. In two years, I had racked up almot 200 miles on the trail. The longest outing was a five day trip doing a 55 mile loop of the Ozarks Highland Trail in northern Arkansas. Everything I had was either on my back or distributed throughout the five hikers. Man, good things happen on the trail. We made up several random trail songs, slept in natural structures, tents and underneath the stars the last night. We hiked seven miles one day averaging 1500 foot elevation change, 14 miles another day averaging just a few hundred feet elevation change. We saw huge rivers and dribbling creeks, bright, sunny skies and torrential downpours. It had to be the most amazing nature trip I've been on to date (excluding, of course, my honeymoon). That was all 10 years and almost 40 pounds ago.

So, in order to get in shape for this hike, my wife and boys have decided to help me. I have ten weeks. Ten weeks seems like an eternity. I should be in amazing shape in ten weeks, right? Sure, that would take discipline, though. I'm not the best at discipline. It's not my forte. We have set up a training schedule. Each week, I'll increase the mileage and weight in a backpack with the goal of 15 miles and 40-45 lbs. in the pack. My thought is that if I get up to that mileage and weight, I should be able to do less mileage at higher elevation. I'm starting small: 1 mile, no pack on Missouri roads. I'd rather not overexert myself on the first week.

Next week is Spring Break. That means, no substitue teaching jobs and time at home with the kids. This should be the perfect week to take the boys out into nature and show them how the old man does it. I hope it turns out that way. Both have been in Boy Scouts, so they should be able to help with the camp responsibilities, so we should have a great man trip. Last time didn't go so well. We tried to camp out in their grandparents' acreage. Well, we got a late start and had to set up camp in the dark and the next day, I foolishly let them go off alone while I tried to clean up the campsite (leave no trace).

This time, we're going to Hercules Glades. That's my favorite spot in southwest Mo. I've logged several miles at Herc and know a lot of the trails by heart. There's enough elevation change to get a pretty good trail workout, but a limited supply of water. We've had a lot of rain this week, so, hopefully, we'll be okay.

Man, I can't wait! It's time to get out into the woods. Why? Because it's there.

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