There
are significant chunks of our upcoming 500 mile pilgrimage walk across Spain that
will involve climbing and descending major mountain chains (going down is
actually tougher on your body than climbing - toes and quads get punished!) So
we figured that we need to get some vertical into our normal six to ten mile road
and pathway training walks and tackle something bigger. Like the nearby White
Mountains in New Hampshire, for instance. These include Mt. Washington, at some
6,000 feet the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi, as well as many other
peaks, most with well-established hiking trails to the top. So we drove up to
Franconia, NH to spend the weekend hiking. After getting established at the
Best Western Hotel in town and enjoying a good night’s sleep, we headed out next morning
to climb Mt. Pemigiwasset, at 2,450 feet a decent climb of over 1,000 feet from
the base. The two mile trail was ranked “intermediate” so we figured we’d have
no trouble, not with all our gym workouts and Stairmaster exercises for the
past year.
Did
I mention that last Saturday was perhaps the hottest and most humid day of the
year? Even in the mountains temperatures were in the low ‘90’s and with 100%
humidity to boot. The air was so thick you could chew it! Things were fine for
a while until we hit the vertical part.
Both
Joan & I had forgotten that hiking trails in New England are often very
rocky, covered with tree roots and usually filled with loose gravel and leaves
left by the small streams that pour off the hillsides after a rainstorm. Since
this has been an usually rainy summer, the trail was “interesting”. We quickly found that any steep section
involved climbing up and over 2 to 3 foot rocks in the trail, and
that footholds were only found between the tangle of tree roots that basically defined the path. But
we persevered and kept going, slowly and methodically, up the trail. As occasional
fellow-hikers would overtake us, we’d joke with them about our nick-name of “Team
Turtle” and how we “start slow- and taper off!” and all that. But it was tough
going, especially since I (Sam) have lousy balance because of my fused left
ankle, so I have to rely on my hiking poles much more than an agile youngster.
Joan found it hard too, since she is still working on building her cardiovascular
endurance. After about 2 hours we finally made it to the upper part of the mountain at about 2,300
feet and saw awaiting ahead of us a tangle of downed beech trees and a steep boulder-ridden
narrow trail snaking to the top.
So
we rationalized while we drank water and munched on our Cliff energy bars. These
New England trails are nothing like what we will experience in Spain. People
have been walking our Camino Frances route since the Middle Ages and millions - literally
millions - of feet have trod the path we will take. Pilgrims have crawled, pushed
carts, dragged a cross or just walked as we intend to do and we will not face boulder-ridden,
tree obstructed, root-ridden pathways like this was turning out to be. Vertical
feet to ascend-yes! Descents-sure. But not these ankle-busting trails that make
hiking in New England so difficult. So we finished out snack and headed down.
Those same boulders and roots posed an even more tricky descent for us but
surprisingly, neither of us had any real issues. The mantra we kept saying to
ourselves was: “Find a safe foot
placement; keep away from wet leaves and muck- and think about what you’re
doing before taking that big step down!”
We got to the bottom and figured we had done a “hard 1,000 feet
up and down” and that was fine for training.
But
we’ve decided that from now on until we leave on Sept 2nd, we’ll get
our vertical training by finding car roads up the mountains around here. We’ll
do Mt. Pack Monadnock in NH next Saturday and maybe tackle Mt. Washington auto
road the week after that. At least we won’t have to worry about breaking an
ankle! But the view from the top was awesome!
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