February 15, 2005- Earlier I alluded to physical, emotional, and mental preparations and mentioned that I would expand on that.
Really there is not too much that one can do physically to prepare for this particular hike. I have started walking regularly and am trying to get 4 to 6 miles in every day, eventually expanding to 10 to 12. I am cutting back on my eating in order to shed 10 to 15 pounds. Finally, I am climbing between 120 and 180 flights of steps a day. I think I'm wearing a groove in the flights from our basement to second floor. Actually there is little more one can do to prepare locally for life on a mountain trail. The elevations just are not around here. I remember hiking in the Jefferson County Forest a few years back and I remember the hills as being tough. Now they seem no different than level ground. Yet they pale compared to the climbs up ahead.
The mental preparations and emotional things are more difficult to deal with. In 2003, I had no second thoughts or reservations about leaving. I felt like we had a handle on things at home and that we could be on cruise control for a while. Things have changed quite a bit during that past 2 years. Now my kids are establishing lives on their own and it seems that they need dad more than they ever did when they were younger. Now that my wife and I are approaching empty nest status we are talking about relatively major household restructuring. This involves some house remodeling, rearrangement of rooms. and new vehicle arrangements; basically every aspect of our lives here in town. We will probably have to come out of semi-retirement and return to full time work for a few years to finance all of this. Somehow I have to be able to compartmentalize all of this and put it away for a few months while I go play in the woods.
Posted by john at February 15, 2005 05:23 PM