My weekend hike - another personal best
So, it's mountain climbing season once again! Last year I climbed two big mountains. Those peaks were still higher than the one I did this weekend, however the actual DISTANCE I hiked myself was the highest this time around. We parked the car at a lower altitude and had more climbing to do to get to the top!
That's me at the beginning, all geared up in my hiking gear - my own hiking boots, and a sport shirt, courtesy of one of Hannes' clients (they had their logo printed on the Tshirt).
I carried the backpack at least half of the way through the gulch - which was not only a good way to get additional exercise (I figure the thing weighed around 10% of my own body weight, good for strength) but ALSO it was a cool feeling once I gave the backpack to Hannes - I felt light as a feather and practically pranced the rest of the way up!
The first part of the trip was through the gulch, which means seeing a lot of WATER - waterfalls, streams, stuff like this:
Hehe I know I am so silly!
It was the PERFECT day because the weather was sunny but not too hot, and it had just rained recently so there was plenty of water for the waterfalls!
It took us an hour to get to the beginning of the gulch, and an hour and a half to hike through it (at a leisurely enough pace to stop and take pics). We then "refueled" at the cabin at the top of the gulch, setting our eyes on our next destination:
And in less than two hours we were there:
We then hiked only partway down, about an hour and a half or maybe less, where we met Hannes' parents and went for dinner at a restaurant, after which they drove us to the car.
All-in-all I hiked 1200 meters up and 500 down - in total about 5,500 feet in altitude. That was for sure my longest hike ever, and I'm glad to say I only started to complain when we were almost at the top! Hannes told me that's HUGE progress - he remembers the first time I went on a big hike with him, I started complaining much sooner and he thought "Ok, this will be a long hike..." LOL Losing weight and doing this fitness is paying off! The only element I'm missing is endurance, which, for doing hours and hours long hikes, can only be attained through more application. Hell, Hannes has been hiking in the mountiains since a wee boy, but I'm only getting started. So his muscles are used to it, mine aren't. That considering, not bad for me! AND I didn't even feel any soreness the next day, another good sign!
To see all the pictures in the album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2834977&id=6810535&l=354f2187af
And THIS you HAVE to check out - on the way down we saw two "mountain goats" (the real name for them is Alpine ibex) fighting! Just a few feet from us! Hannes tried to snap some pictures before I reminded him that we have a video function on the digicam, so we caught some footage!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QODpD8DAONs
Nature is cool :)