Don't go hobbling toward waterfalls

Sunday showed up with Carrie working and Jo'l and I meeting in San Diego to walk out the rest of the weekend. Before I left the house I took the blister kit that Jo'l made me and got to work putting molefoam on both heels before taping them with KT tape. I doubled up on socks and got ready to head out. When it was time to put on my shoes it was a bit dicier than anticipated, but I got them on after some effort and quick expletives.

I met Jo'l in the parking lot at the Los Penasqitos Preserve trailhead and we set off for a projected 11.3 miles of easy trails. When the trail split into the loop we got to cross a really fun sproingy bridge that went over the stream that we would cross and walk along all morning.

At some point we realized that the trail that we were on was running parallel to another that had trees, shade, and no mountain bikes which made it easier for both us, and the groups of bikers who were whizzing by and trying to around us on the narrow path. We got to the waterfall just over 2 1/2 miles in, but there wasn't much to see from our side of the falls, the good access was on the other side. So we climbed back up and kept going, waiting to get to the other side of the loop to really check it out. 

It was at this point that I started to slow down. I walked on the balls of my feet to try to avoid my blisters, so things were getting pretty sore. Jo'l and I had completely different mileage down and eventually figured that it was because I was doing something called the hikers hobble and talking smaller steps, so my fitbit thought I had gone further than I had. Meanwhile Jo'ls watch used GPS and kept accurate distance. I was so glad to reach the halfway point and stop for a break and our snack spread. 

When it was time to get going again I was really feeling it on my left side for the blisters, but my right hip was making its presence known. We talked about shoe options, and did some really good dog watching as we wandered toward the turn around point. 

When we finally got back to the waterfall I was so excited because it meant we weren't too far from the car. We made the climb down to look it over and while not a huge roaring falls, it was still a pretty sight for a San Diego water attraction. 

Once we reached the split we decided to take one more walk over the sproingy bridge for fun and walked what felt like forever toward the parking lot. We paused to watch a murder (ha!) of crows that was in a huge tree along the trail, and I turned to stretch while Jo'l took photos and I started frantically chanting "bobcat-bobcat-bobcat!" and she was able to snap a shot of the most adorable grown up Mr. Murderbritches that I had ever seen as he trotted away into the brush. 

When we got back to the car I carefully removed shoes and socks and other socks to discover that my blisters had not only survived our 12 miles, they had thrived and multiplied. There may be shoe shopping this week. Until then, we've had our last training walk of 2018.

There's been a slight miscalculation

Today was an Orange County Day since Carrie works Sunday, so we started bright and early, and I almost didn't make it out of my driveway for how cold it was. 33 degrees is not a reasonable temperature for a San Diegan, and it took a lot of willpower not to go back to bed. We were told that we need $1 for a mystery event on the walk and I packed my dollar and set out to pick up Carrie and head North.

We started from the mall in Newport Beach and after some troubleshooting with Jo'l and her camera holster we were off and going on what would become our longest walk so far. 

We started in a canyon that looked suspiciously familiar until it simply looked suspicious. In case you're wondering, Carrie and Jo'l would not let me explore what was in this hole, even though it was bound to be something fascinating. 

We set off along a marsh that smelled a little like the bog of eternal stench, and after some creative reenactments we breezed through the area with the miles disappearing behind us with easy conversation. 

Pretty soon we were around a corner and out onto a busy street where it was time for bread, cheese, dried food, and a failed experiment that can only be described as teriyaki sponge. After we ate at 6.5 miles we were all still doing pretty good and headed out toward our first pier of the day and couldn't help but notice how clean and clear the water was. It may have something to do with the fact that it was too cold for anyone to be out in it churning up the sand. 

Pretty soon we were nearing mile 8 and I was starting to hurt. My right hip was getting painful, and I was pretty sure that I was working on a new blister on my left foot. We stopped at a bench to check things out, and sure enough it was blisters all over. I'm not sure if it was the way I was walking, the new socks, or my shoes failing me, but t hurt. Lucky for me Jo'l put together fantastic foot arts and crafts kits for each of it with bandages, KT Tape, moleskin, scissors, and everything you need foot basic blister triage. I got to work and was not pleased to find that I needed to use stupid molefoam on my stupid blister while Carrie and Jo'l got to stretch blister-free. 

Heartened after blister recovery we wound through an alley that we cleaner, quieter, and quainter than anywhere that we live. I think I could get used to alleys like this. Carrie also found the sign of her dreams, no bicycles. I know she's resistant, but we'll get her onto a bike for a training day soon. 

From there we wound through a residential neighborhood and along the backside of the docks finally finding out why we had each packed $1, it was for the ferry ride to Balboa Island, and boy were we glad to sit down. For some reason this walk felt long today. 

After getting off of the ferry we were supposed to cross a couplet of streets and find ourseves back at the car, but suddenly my mileage read 13.4 and we weren't there. I spoke up and Jo'l admitted that there may have been a slight miscalculation, we had longer to go. So we took a deep breath each and went up a couple of hills to keep going. 

By the time we reached the car we were just shy of 15 miles and my blisters had swollen to the size of small grapes with a matching set for each foot. My right hip is still unhappy and I'm doing a very disinct waddle.  I don't know what my strategy is for tomorrow, but we're going to do a couple less miles and I'm going to shoot for less foot irritation. 

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

You may have noticed that I didn't post over the Christmas holiday. That's because I wasn't in Southern California to walk, I was roadtripping through Southern Arizona with my husband and visiting family. Strangely it's colder there than here, and there was a chance of a white Christmas while we were there, but we got a sunny Christmas Eve to visit Tombstone instead, followed by a very windy tumbleweed filled Christmas day.

There's a ton of history around the area as it's part of the American frontier, and the remains of buildings, settlements, graveyards, and entire towns are there to be discovered. My grandparents shared all sorts of local lore with us and it was great to get a good overview of the roots of Cochise county while we were there. We also had the chance to do some off-road exploring before left the neighborhood and set out for the mountains. 

On our way out of Cochise county we took the time to stop to see Americas roadside attractions at its finest. I saw "The Thing!" more than 20 years ago as a child back when it was a dusty giftshop with some back hallways. Now it's a busy stop with a full museum dedicated to the story. I was not expecting the dinosaurs. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not a fan of them, and that my close friends delight in gifting me with dino related goods. Imagine my surprise and dismay when we paid our admission, and walked in to this. 

Knowing that I was missing two training days while we were gone, I chose to make up for one of them by going up to the Superstition Mountains to hike. It's a really interesting part of Arizona with more legends and facts mixed together than most places can boast. There are tales of a lost gold mine, true stories of bodies of those who went searching for that mine found separated from their heads, more stories about the families who owned the land a hundred years ago, and facts about all of the hikers who go missing there every year. 

It's a beautiful place, and after signing in at the trailhead (in case you're lost or reported missing) we set our for what was supposed to be a roughly 9 mile loop. We had gotten started a little late, and knowing that we didn't want to be caught in a desert known for missing hikers, mountain lions, and rough trails, we chose what was supposed to be a moderate trail that we should have been able to knock out quickly. 

We decided to take it counter-clockwise and it started well with nice, clear paths and meeting a few people who were finishing up as we got started. It was cool out with a breeze and it felt good after the hours that we spent in the jeep throughout the past few days. It's the strangest thing out there, but every direction you looked, the clouds appear to be racing away from you. I tried to capture it on video, but nothing caught the effect as your eyes saw it. 

This was my first trail navigating entirely by cairns, the stacks of rocks that you see piled one on top of the other. I've heard for some time how frustrating it is that people take it upon themselves to build cairns for decoration on trails as personal monuments, natural graffiti to demonstrate that they were there in what they feel is an artistic way. It always felt obnoxious as it goes against the leave no trace principal when hiking. Building yourself something is definitely not leaving no trace, but on this hike I learned why it's not only rude, it's dangerous. There were several places where the trail became completely indistinguishable from the landscape around it, or turned at odd junctions where the whole ground was rocky and a path couldn't be picked out. That's when you would rely on the cairn build by a ranger or volunteer to show you where to go, except that so many times people had built their own. This meant that there were cairns that were built for fun that looked like trail markers in a desert that is known to confuse and even kill people with it's remote expanse and flash flooded washes. Can you imagine following a decorative cairn built for someones amusement only to go off trail for miles? 

At some point we realized that it was getting dark, we had reached 9 miles and the sun was sinking below the mountains and my phone with the map was dying. The nights storm clouds were rolling in fast as I looked to see that we were on the right trail, but we were miles from the end of the loop and the temperature was dropping quickly toward the 29 degrees that it was supposed to reach that night. Not wanting to alarm eachother we both calmly kept walking as my phone, and our trail map died. We stuck to the path as closely as possible, and hadn't seen another hiker for more than 2 hours. 

Finally we saw the same signpost that marked the split that we had seen when we came in, and relieved we made the last mile out to the car. All told it was nearly 12 miles and took us about 4 hours to complete. It was a near thing getting back to the Jeep before dark. 

And after all of that we found out that the snowstorm came one day after we left, another near miss. Someday we'll get that white Christmas. 

Three Mile Hill

Today was an Orange County day, so Carrie and I headed up first thing in the morning ready to hit the trail on the way to a hike that included a cave!
We met at Jo'ls place and she drove up to a park in Aliso Viejo and we started with a loop around the park and out onto the road for what became a long slog up three mile hill. Carrie and I didn't know that it was going to be three miles, and Jo'l kept us going when we started asking about the end of this steep climb. When we finally got to the top we were in a residential neighborhood getting ready to descend into a different park.

 After getting through the park we went down to a trailhead in a canyon that was nice and shady. I finally got it together and wore shorts, since I've learned not to trust the weather up in O.C. as it's never 64 and cloudy, and 75 and sunny makes for a warm day when you're going long distances. The path we were on was tree-lined and we saw several mountain bikers off and on all day.

It was nice to have water flowing since we finally got some rain in the past two weeks, and the cool ground was a really welcome change.

 We stopped for snacks of bread, cheese, and dried fruit and decided that bringing our snack game up to par has been the best plan we've made thus far. Did you know that Trader Joes carries dehydrated hibiscus flowers? They're like tart gummy food and they went so well with the rumrunner sartori that we were eating. I have no photos but trust me the people who stared a little may have been jealous and not just confused.

After eating we turned a corner and discovered that the trail to the cave was closed, and it wasn't the only one. Much of the area that we were walking through was closed for rehabilitation after the wildfire that had come though recently. We could still smell the char in the air, and the devastation was pretty obvious.

Jo'l was quick to get us reoriented and moved us onto another trail that looped around to where we needed to go. We got to stop and watch two beautiful (and healthy!) coyotes wander around for a bit. 

From there we kept seeing what looked like snake tracks but anticlimactically turned out to be children dragging sticks in the dirt. 

We did eventually get to see a cave-like thing that was created from erosion and formerly used as shelter by Native Americans passing through the area. It was no smugglers cave, and we decided that we definitely wouldn't all fit inside in our present sore state. 

 By the time we made it back to the car I had slowed down considerably, consistently falling behind Carrie and Jo'l. But it was different today, yesterday I had to concede that my Mizunos were leaving my feet sore and the same spot on my heel with a blister, so today I swapped to my Oboz which I usually use for hiking. At the end of todays walk the balls of my feet were hurting pretty badly, but they were the only part of me that was, my hips (and by extension my knees and back) were doing pretty dang good. I think it has a lot to do with the structure of these shoes, so I'm going to try to find some kind of cushion for only the ball of my foot and see where it goes from there. Fingers crossed for a solution, because after 22 miles in 2 days I'm walking fairly well!