Hiking!
Yesterday Alex and I headed out to Mt. Monadnock with kerigan and rovanda for our first hike of the year. We were a little bit worried because it started sprinkling a bit when we were almost there, and we knew that there was a chance of showers later in the day. But it ended up being fine, it was very lightly sprinkling on the way up the mountain but it was actually kind of nice. Then it stopped and the sun came out before kerigan and I got to the top, and stayed that way for the rest of the day. As usual kerigan and I took off and made it up and down the mountain at a faster pace than Alex and rovanda did, but they weren't that far behind us this time, which was really pretty cool. We're also quite proud of ourselves because we made it up and down without stopping for anything more than maybe a minute-long breather. We kept up a steady pace for the duration of the hike. Everyone except Alex was wearing new hiking shoes, this was my first opportunity to wear the new L.L. Bean shoes that I bought in Freeport. My feet held up better than I thought they would. No blisters, though I thought I might get one it didn't happen. The only problem that I had was with the back of the shoe hitting my ankle. It's a little too stiff still (I had the same problem with my other pair of hiking boots), so especially coming back down the back of my boot was hitting my ankle, which has resulted in some soreness in that area. I'm a little bit achey today as well, but nothing too bad at all.
I had two problems yesterday that I'm going to try to remedy by the time we go hiking again (hopefully in a couple of weeks). One was that apparently I have a leak in my camelback/bladder thingie. It's at the top of the bag near the seal, and I have a feeling that it was always like that and it's why when we went for that long bike ride last year I had issues with it. It doesn't really happen if I don't fill up the bladder all the way but obviously if I'm going on a longer hike I kind of have to, so I will have to either get a new bladder or a whole new bag I guess. Which is sad because I really like the backpack I have now, it's great for day hikes and I discovered yesterday that it was also great for carrying around the stuff that I was going to be using when we weren't hiking, because Alex and I took the train into Alewife and met kerigan and rovanda there, which meant that I wanted to bring things like a book and my iPod with me to keep me occupied on the train. So if I can I want to keep my backpack and just try to get a replacement. I may look for something today, I don't know yet.
The other thing that I need to remember is that next time I should pack a pair of flipflops or other easily transported shoe, and just deal with carrying my hiking boots around after the hike. We headed into Harvard Square after hiking for dinner (Alex treated us all to b.good), and I think my feet probably would have survived a lot better if I wasn't still wearing my hiking boots. So next time I'm going to bring another pair of shoes. AT least I remembered to pack an extra pair of socks, which I was incredibly grateful about!
Last night after we had finally gotten home I cracked open my hiking in New England guide book and started getting all excited about all the different neat-sounding trails there are out there. Some of them are probably too far away for us to do, which is too bad because of course those are the ones that I am most interested in. A lot of them are in the White Mountains, of course, though some are in Maine and Vermont as well (I've always wanted to go to Acadia for example). But it sounds like there are some very nice ones around here as well. According to the guide book, Monadnock is rated at a 6 (out of 10) for toughness, so I'm looking for trails that are around a 5-7 for now. Something challenging but not too much so. I think that Alex and I need to get another car that can actually go the distance, because I think that some of the trails that I found would be fine to get to if kerigan and rovanda didn't have to come out and pick us up. It's on Alex's list of things he wants to do so it might just happen, if he can get financing (we're hoping). We'll see what happens I guess.
The other thing that I decided is that I think I would like to try to work up to someday doing a multiple-day hike. There are a bunch of 2-day hikes listed in the book that sound really pretty cool. I'm not ready for something like that yet, but maybe it could be an eventual goal. Of course, what would be the ultimate in goals would be to hike the Appalacian Trail, even just through the New England states, but I'm not sure that I'll ever be up to that or even really want to do it. I figure I'll see if I can maybe get to the 2-day hike first, which will require building up from a 3-hour hike to longer hikes, and also getting a little more experience in camping. Also I'd want to take a first-aid course before doing anything like that. I'd love to have more experience in wilderness lore in general, my girl scouting days only get me so far I guess.
Today it's all about cleaning the bathroom! Yay!