Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Epic Hike, Part 4

Please see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Do you want to know how tired I was when I got to the car at 7 PM? This is how tired (no, I didn't know my picture was being taken):

I was also filthy, largely because the sunscreen I wore made dirt stick to me all over, but partly from the gallons of Off Skintastic I'd sprayed all over. (Speaking of bugspray, I promised Mosch that I would point out that most of these photos came at the cost of his getting bitten by more mosquitoes. Oh, the sacrifices we make for art!) Mosch was supposed to drive us home, but I needed more of a break than riding in the car, so we stopped at a local Alco store and I washed up, and then we ate Mexican food at a restaurant in Winter Park and then we drove home.

I was sore and zombie-like all day Sunday, barely able to walk. I called in sick to work on Monday. Today is the first day I haven't had any effects from the hike.

The map says it was 8 miles, and you can see there was quite a bit of uphill and downhill in there. It took us over 5 hours, with only a few short breaks. If you'd asked me if I could walk 8 miles, I'd have said definitely not, but apparently I do have it in me. I figure if I did this every week, I'd either develop enough muscles not to be crippled by it, or else develop some kind of crippling long-term injury. But I don't think I'll find out.

Thanks for reading all of this, and I hope it was at least a little bit fun.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm quite impressed that you didn't freak out, Tam. The point where you're discussing whether it's closer to 15 or 30 minutes until you reach the car is really not a good time to realize you have several more miles left to go.

Since you guys managed to get lost at a place with which you're at least somewhat familiar, and carrying both a map and GPS unit, my own regular concerns about getting lost in the woods seem more like reasonable prudence than paranoia.

I'm glad for the late sunset; this would have been a real bitch if you'd had to cover the last few miles in the dark. Being so tired would have made it easy to twist an ankle or something stumbling on a rock or tree root.

So I guess you guys didn't find that grate after all, eh?