Hike number 1 - the test

Date: Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Hiking Partner: Brent

Start time - just after 9.00am
End time - somewhere around 1.51pm
Amount of hiking clocked - 4hours 5mins and 22secs
Distance - unknown
Timing method - stop watch, controlled by Brent (and it was paused when we would stop to discuss route information - so the timing is pretty much in sync with our actual hiking)

Shoes - nothing fancy. Just my thinsulate boots.

Pack contents - my fluffed up sleeping bag and a water bottle. :o) And if you want to count it - my rain cover on my bag (to shelter from winter elements). I was not interested so much in weight today, as I was with an engulfed backpack. Weight will come with time.

Welcome to test day one. I have dubbed it the "hike that did me in".

Although we started an hour later than expected, it was a lovely day. It was snowing (lightly-ish) off and on through the hike.

Obstacle number one was the whole idea of hiking Bayview Avenue. Just south of Moore Avenue, it doned on me - there really isn't a sidewalk on the Bayview Avenue extension. This is a street with a 70km/hr speed limit - and in all honesty, most drivers range between 85-95kms/hr on this stretch. In the summer, I would hike it - as there is a fair sized shoulder along the entire road. But in the winter, with another walking partner, it just isn't worth the risk. The shoulder has become a hilly pile of snow, sand, salt and ice.

So, I have since decided to focus more on time, rather than distance. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to log the distance I walk on side trails, so I'm at a loss. If i follow streets on mapquest, I can log how many miles I might be up against.

Anyway.

So the initial plan was aborted near the beginning, and we decided to trail off onto some paths along the Don River instead. Quite frankly - this is a better option for me - as these are the types of trails that i will be tramping in NZ (at least the idea of 'off road' - not so much walking along pavement).

It was a nice day. Not too cold - cold enough to be winter - but i was layered for it. Which was probably the first thing i did not enjoy with my backpack. The bunching of a thick winter coat. I have to try hiking with my Gore-tex coat and layers from now on I think - to see how this coat will sit with the bag.

First thing I learned - is that it is almost impossible to carry more than your pack on your body while you are trecking. The idea of something else hanging from your neck or on your side, tends to interfere with the way the bag sits on you - or in my case, made it uncomfortable or simply annoying.

The beauty associated with the rain cover - it fits tight to your pack - so you can easily just slip something between your pack and cover and keep on trecking. I wouldn't advise it for long term tramps - but for easy output it works.

So - basically we hiked straight through and my first mistake was not removing my pack to rest my body at any one point. Maybe not the worst thing - but around hour 3 I started feeling pain in my back. By hour 3.5, my shoulders were restless. Holding the shoulder straps relieved any pain, but on an 8-9 hour treck, this type of restlessness is not good. I had random spurts of knee pains throughout the hike, as well as pain in my left hip joint.

Knee and hip problems are my biggest concern - as they are ongoing life problems. The way they are affected by hiking is something I want to discover with these hikes. Unfortunately, we went skating the day before (my first time since high school?) - so i don't know exactly what muscle pain was associated with something from the night before's rink adventures - and what was directly related to the hiking conditions.

Upon our return - we ate a hearty lunch of gardenay soup, and pizza style grilled cheese a la sandwhich maker, along with tall glasses of Tropicana Apple Juice (a staple in my fridge).

The Aftermath of my first hike.

I was feeling pretty good after the hike. I really enjoyed being on the trails. It kind of sucked when we hit the pavement again - because realizing you still have to walk through a cement city to get back home, when you just spent 3 hours in the forest is discouraging. When i go through NZ, every day's hiking has purpose to attain your destination - a new hut, a new location. There is not much back-tracking.

After lunch, I heated up a magic bag to relieve tension in my shoulders and my lower back. And then I fell asleep. I guess i was wiped. Maybe because I only had like a bite out of a banana before the hike. Don't ask me why I ate so little, cause I don't really know. And also cause, it was my first time tredging through trails for that long (walking for hours through the city is different then breaking through icy snow layers on trails).

When I woke up, I had the worst headache and vertigo attack that i've had in a long time. My body was very unappreciative of it's condition. I was nauseous. I barely made it from my bed to my dresser to grab an advil, before collapsing on my side. It took about an hour for my body to settle down enough to let me lie down once again to try and sleep it off. Which i did, until about midnight that night.

Why was it so bad this time? Well, my vertigo has been medically described as how my body reacts to a migraine. Severe migraines seem to run genetically in my family. Generally, I don't get migraines. I react with vertigo attacks instead - ranging for several minutes to several hours in length. This wonderful vertigo attack was accompanied by a severe headache. Generally, I get one or the other - never have I had both at the same time. It was very trippy and discouraging.

Yuck much?

So - I don't really know if this is directly related to the hike or something else going on in my life right now - but this first hike did not bode well for me physically. I won't know too much about how my knees and hips are reacting to the hiking until I get more time in. Also, I might purchase my trecking poles this coming weekend to try them out - in order to relieve any unnecessary pressure from my joints.

Backpack review after hike one.

Can't say for sure just yet. Sadly, finding a pack to fit my body turned out to be a bigger task than originally expected. I am petite to a fault it would seem. The women's belts and straps are made for more curvaceous people. And the smallest men's belt/straps i could try on - were also too large. They would shift the hip belt enough to make it very difficult for my body and quite possibly damaging in the long run.

The MEC Brio bag, which is the pack I am currently working with, sits well in the belt/hips (even with the thinnest cotton tshirt on). Unfortunately, I seem to be having a problem with the way the second shoulder brace is working. Basically, I'm at the maximum of every level of strap. To fit me properly, my hip belt, when i'm not wearing a coat, is at it's maximum provision of minimizing. The back and shoulder brace are at the lowest strap on the bag possible. And the upper shoulder straps at full extension do not help to bring my upper load to the proper level. I don't know if that makes much sense to many of you out there - but logging this will help me track to see if i find progress in the way the bag performs as weight continues to be added to the pack.

So far, it's not bad. I really am curious about how the upper shoulder straps will assist me in the future. Also, I want to see how my body reacts to the pack if i were to remove it for minimum of 5 minutes, every hour.

We'll find out next Saturday I guess. :p

P.S. - if you look at my picture close enough, you can see my poor man's black eye over my right eye. I can't even bruise properly. There is no chance for war wounds on my body - I'm too tough and well healed. What a silly thing to be bothered by.