What Not To Wear!
Today we had a hike down on the peninsula. The hike was to start at 8am, so all of us that lived in SF had to meet up around 6:30am in order to make it to the hiking location on time. We got there in plenty of time to chat with some people prior to the start of the session. Once everyone arrived.....we were given a tutorial of what clothing we needed for cross country skiing and what not to wear. I thought that I would be pretty well equipped with attire, seeing as I snowboard. I learned I was WRONG! All of the gear that I have now is way too heavy. I need to have light weight attire on...stuff that is easy to remove when we need stripping on the trail. Everything that we will be wearing needs to be able to fit in our camelback (a small backpack that has water and a straw coming out of it for us to drink without holding anything). The information that was given to us was very informative. I would have been out on our first day of cross country skiing with the wrong clothes on, making it difficult for me to move around. I made a mental note to go shopping after our hike today.
As we were standing there looking at examples of what would be good to wear, I was making a mental list of everything that I have in my closet and dresser. I was only able to think of 2 items that I currently own that might work. The coaches are pretty adamant that we steer clear of cotton....when it is wet it is cold, it gets heavy, and it can chafe. At this point I was trying to keep track of all the mental notes I had made!
After the tutorial lesson on clothing, we started our hike. This weeks hike was only to be 4.6miles. There were several spots where one could cut the hike shorter if they needed too. We were told there was a 20% + grade to climb and several close to it. I was thinking, "No problem!" I thought I had this hike in the bag. I had taken care of my blisters the week prior and I am in pretty good shape....No problem climbing that hill. The hike began and we had a few little mishaps....people going the wrong way etc. More than half way into the hike we start descending on one of the steepest hills I have ever hiked on. I was in a small group of people hiking down. As we were hiking down we were passing people that were beat red in the face and huffing and puffing like you wouldn't believe. Talk about having a minor panic attack! We got to the bottom and had to turn around to climb back up the hill. And let me tell you that hill didn't seem like a hill....it was a freakin mountain. All I could think about the whole way up was that my Pa purposely would cycle up and down grades like this for fun.....That is when I realized that my Pa had to have been insane. Who would do this for fun? :)
The long and short of it is that we made it. It took just about 2.5 hours to finish the hike that day for all of us....give or take 20 minutes. I have to say, as hard as that hike was, it was one of the best feelings to get to the finishing point and knowing that we did it. No one got stretchered off the mountain, no one got airlifted....we all did it. Go Team!
As we were standing there looking at examples of what would be good to wear, I was making a mental list of everything that I have in my closet and dresser. I was only able to think of 2 items that I currently own that might work. The coaches are pretty adamant that we steer clear of cotton....when it is wet it is cold, it gets heavy, and it can chafe. At this point I was trying to keep track of all the mental notes I had made!
After the tutorial lesson on clothing, we started our hike. This weeks hike was only to be 4.6miles. There were several spots where one could cut the hike shorter if they needed too. We were told there was a 20% + grade to climb and several close to it. I was thinking, "No problem!" I thought I had this hike in the bag. I had taken care of my blisters the week prior and I am in pretty good shape....No problem climbing that hill. The hike began and we had a few little mishaps....people going the wrong way etc. More than half way into the hike we start descending on one of the steepest hills I have ever hiked on. I was in a small group of people hiking down. As we were hiking down we were passing people that were beat red in the face and huffing and puffing like you wouldn't believe. Talk about having a minor panic attack! We got to the bottom and had to turn around to climb back up the hill. And let me tell you that hill didn't seem like a hill....it was a freakin mountain. All I could think about the whole way up was that my Pa purposely would cycle up and down grades like this for fun.....That is when I realized that my Pa had to have been insane. Who would do this for fun? :)
The long and short of it is that we made it. It took just about 2.5 hours to finish the hike that day for all of us....give or take 20 minutes. I have to say, as hard as that hike was, it was one of the best feelings to get to the finishing point and knowing that we did it. No one got stretchered off the mountain, no one got airlifted....we all did it. Go Team!
posted by Patty at
9:44 PM
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