I have been away

I have been away from publishing anything here for a long time so I started over.
To get started, as Ray's blog states, we have only another 11 days and 7 hours until we leave for Ecuador.
Am I excited? Hell yes.
Am I ready? Hell, who knows.
I do know this, I hope I am ready.

My last hike was up by Boulder where I went up Green Mountain and then Bear Peak.
These aren't big mountains by any standard, but they are good for training. I left the trailhead (5900ft) around 11:30am on Friday with about 38# in my pack. I felt strong, but with only 38#, it is hard not to. I figure when I am in Ecuador though, I won't have more than about 20# in my pack.

I don't really pay much attention to my HR while going, I just go at a pace that feels comfortable and one that I know I can maintain; that happens to be around 155bpm. Carrying 38#, this worked out to me going up at a rate of about 1400ft/hr. This put me towards the top of Green Mtn around 1:15. First 2000ft done.
I then had to come down for about 800ft before I could start going up Bear Peak. At this point, it was all new trail to me so I wasn't really sure how far it was. I estimated it to be a total day of 10mi from the trail maps, but they're hard to read and I wasn't really concerned; it didn't look that far. Famous last words.

To the top of Bear Peak was another 1200ft. This was much steeper in sections and much rockier than I had been on. If I would have been in my plastics, I probably would have turned around. Towards the summit, it got pretty rough with some pretty big, steep, and loose rocks - good times. The final summit block really shouldn't have been attempted with my backpack on. At one point, I started to fall, clawed at a boulder, caught and edge, then my breath, and moved on. I could have easily bought the farm...
Well, I arrived at the summit and this is pretty much the first time I looked at the time. It was about 3:15 and the sun is down around here at 4:45-5:00. I'm like, hey, I have something like 4-5 miles to get back, I better get going. So off the summit I go.

I am heading down at a pretty good pace and still feel pretty strong and about 15 minutes into the descent I see a trail sign. You can guess what I said, "SHIT, I am on the wrong trail."
That's right. I had planned on a shorter route for the return. This trail was going to be an extra 3 miles and I didn't have the time. Had there been another couple hours of daylight, I would have just continued, but I had to turnaround. That was about a 400ft mistake and cost me about 30 minutes. I was pissed. I decided to go around the summit off trail to cut some time off, bad idea. That's all I have to say about that. Let me say it again though, bad idea.
So, I made it back to the summit (just below the 20ft summit block scramble) and found the right trail. I was hauling the mail at this point. About 15 minutes later, I took my first real break in 2 hours and decided I needed to dump some weight so that I could pick up speed. I emptied 4L of water, ate a mothers milk bar, and headed out.

The final 4-5 miles took me about 1:45 minutes which included about 1800 ft of descending and another 4-500 ft of ascending. Luckily, I only needed the headlamp for about 20 minutes. It was pretty dark but I could see where my truck was parked because other hikers were leaving and it was about half a mile away. Problem is, the trail I was on wasn't going there and I didn't see the trail that did, so that was all bushwacking for the final half mile. What an effin trip...

All in all though, a good training hike, felt good and my legs weren't tight the next day. So, I might be ready - as long as I don't have to lead the way.

My Heart rate log: