not all talk part 2

another weighted hike in the spirit of the previous:

i started and ended in exactly the same parking lot as last weekend's hike, but traversed an entirely different portion of the park. no swinging from trees this time but toward the end i managed to get a little lost and ended up hiking 100 yards through an ankle-deep swamp. this week i'd decided to wear my non-waterproof dunhams, so my feet got swampy. ick. the shoes aren't dry today (next morning) so they may have to be... serviced.

part of the hike traversed the difficult part of the infamous black mountain hike. i weighed my pack before i left in the morning and it totaled 32 pounds including consumables.

hiking a nasty trail with extra weight after a 7 mile warmup is an exercise composed 80% of physical endurance and 90% mental endurance. but the swell thing is that i know with a couple months of regular training, a 14 miler like this will be easy street with 50lbs.

the gps didn't really save the time info but i remember the odometer said my "average moving speed" was 2.8 or 2.9mph. that's not bad since my unweighted-flatland moving speed is usually 3.3mph. the whole 14 miles took me 6 hours, yielding a 2.3mph average for the whole hike.

W mentioned something about scenery. i also met a guy on the trail who was impressed with the scenery. it's quite the scenic hike, but i'm kind of used to that by now.

animals seen on this hike:
- bees
- dead mouse
- many deer
- goats
- goatherds
- dead racoon