The Final Trainer

We have been increasing our mileage to be ready to do those long days.  Today, we did our last training before we hit the trail.

We went out in the morning for 10 miles, then had lunch back at home, and then did the same route in reverse for another 10 miles in the afternoon.

Using our Runkeeper app, we can track all kinds of stats about our practice hikes.  The most important at this point are the distance and the pace.

The map above shows the route we took through the Port Ludlow Trails.  The people here that work on the community trails have done wonderful work to connect neighborhoods with Olympic Resource Management Trails, and Dept of Natural Resources trails.  I works quite nicely and we spend very little time on paved paths or roads.

We also made sure that while we did this last training hike that we carried a fully supplied pack.  Our packs were 36 lb and 30 lb. for the entire distance.  There are some pretty good places where the route goes up steep hills, which we handled well by just leaning into them and keeping a slightly slower, but steady pace.

Above is what we’ll pretty much look like out on the PCT although we will be wearing lighter clothing for the warm desert sections of the trail.  Also, I have decided to go with a lighter sleeping pad than the one attached to my pack above.