Hiking the Trail

While at Flagstaff lake the other day, I met a couple of people who had spent the summer thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. I enjoy day hiking and can see myself getting into doing some over-night hikes, but taking on the challenge of a long trail like the Appalachian is truly mind-blowing. We're talking walking around 2000 miles over some of the hilliest terrain on the planet. Beautiful, but tough.

So my admiration goes out to these people as they reach their goal of being a 'thru-hiker', someone who walks the total length of the trail in a single season, more or less non-stop. Many people keep an on-line journal of their experiences which can be accessed here.

Not One Thing, It's Another...

Given the hard state of the water in local lakes, I've had to pass the torch over to the few still remaining on the water - what little there is. These ducks, mostly mallards from what I can see, are clustering close to the lake's outlet where a small patch of open water still exists.


Meanwhile a few kilometers downstream, I'm busy 'geocaching'. At this point, I'm following the river along an old rail bed that's been converted to a walking/skiing trail. A series of geocaches have been hidden along the trail every 500 meters or so. I walk along - the skiing being temporarily ruined by some rain - following my GPS from cache to cache. Six of them found today, which equals about three kilometers each way. If it's not one thing - kayaking - then it's another - geocaching!

The geocache in the photo above was hidden right at the river's edge. Perhaps I ought to look into getting a river kayak and take advantage of the running water. I have very little experience in fast water however and wonder if winter is the time to learn... Perhaps not.

Beaufort Trail Ratings

I don't want people to think I'm a very knowledgeable hiker. I have no serious ambitions to hike any of the world's big trails, but I do enjoy getting out for a few days of walking. I do believe that hikers would benefit from better descriptions of what lies out there along their intended route. At sea, we have the Beaufort Wind Scale. What do hikers have?

Hiking trails have a high variability of conditions along the way. What might begin as an easy walk can suddenly turn into something quite different. Here are a few Beaufort style suggestions using photos I took when in the Moosehead Lake area last week. What do you think?

Trail Condition 1
Trail is like a mirror with few, if any, ripples.





Trail Condition 2
Trail broken by some surface roots, but remains more or less even, with some increasing slope.











Trail Condition 3
Large roots in trail, rock outcrops beginning to appear, increasing slope and unevenness, scattered hazards, few handholds.










Trail Condition 4
Trail heaps up, short vertical rock faces begin to appear in places along route.






Of course, this is a bit 'tongue in cheek' and not fully expanded, but a fun exercise nonethless.