Rain, Rain, Go away

Well, today, Saturday Jan 17, 2012, I am unable to go on a hike because of the rain. Brandy, however, says pish-posh to the rain. All morning, while it was pouring outside, Brandy was whining to go run around in the backyard. For the most part I left her out there, until the lightening picked up and seemed to be right over our house. It seemed a safety concern at that point. She reluctantly came inside.  One time, she was out there for an hour, and when she came in she was soaking wet. She didn't give a shizzz. Brandy badger don't care.

So instead, of hiking this weekend, I cleaned my house and went to the grocery store to start a detox.  Its a detox that involves actual food, so I don't think I'll be starving throughout. However, practicing a little self control will be good for me. Sadly, this means that for the next month I will not be drinking juice boxes of wine, or eating sandwiches. I do, however, plan on making sandwiches for the people who will be joining me on the hike. I will most likely be eating nut balls.

With this weekend reprieve from a hike, I wanted to share some things I do for hike preparation and fill you in on some of the upcoming hikes I've planned.

While preparing for the long hike with nine people, I wanted to make sure to be fully prepared to lead them up the mountain without getting lost. The description on georgiatrails.com was great, but it wasn't sufficient for me. So I joined the website trails.com where I was able to find topographic maps of the area. I studied the maps and printed out close ups of different sections of the trail. It helped me feel very familiar with the trail before we even arrived. When we did arrive, I had printouts of the georgiatrails.com information, and the topo maps. I had already familiarized myself with what they said, so I actually didn't even really reference them on the trail. I did, however, I feel more comfortable having the information available if I needed it.

Beyond navigating the trail itself, there are things to be done around organizing 9 people to leave on time. The departure time was 8:30, with the assumption that we would leave 30 minutes late, which we did Ifactored that in when estimating time up and down the mountain. I assumed a 30 minute mile, which is just about what we averaged. This leads me to believe that if a hike is easier, the hike time will be even faster.

I am not a morning person, so I wanted to do as much as I could the night before. That way I could wake up as late as possible in the morning. I filled all the water bottles, and camel backs (which ended up being a bad thing since my camel back leaked everywhere). I also made all of the sandwiches the night before. Luckily I had some friends to help me out with the prep work.

The next morning, I woke up everyone in the house with "Eye of the Tiger" blasting through the TV speakers. I'm hoping to make this a tradition, whether or not my comrades like it.

I got in my 60 hikes within 60 miles of Atlanta book last week, so my next couple of hikes will be coming from there.

The next hikes planned are:


Jan 24th, 2012 Paper Mill Trail. Its in Sandy Springs, in the Sope Creek park, and its about 3.5 Miles. There are extra trails that you can hike if you want to make it longer. I need one close to home because I need to spend most of my time this weekend doing school work and cooking for my detox.

February 11th, 2012 East and West Lake Trails. Its in Buford area. 5.4 Miles. I think its pretty flat.

On February 25th, 2012 I have a wedding to go to, but I have to get in 2 in February, so I'm going to try and go early in the AM to do a short hike that's nearby. Cochran Mill is 3 miles and its not too far from home. So if I go early I can squeeze in a hike before dinner and dancing!

I have no class for a good portion of March, so I'd like to do a long hike of 6.7 miles. I'll figure out more details as it gets closer. The hike date will be March 3rd., 2012.

This semester at school is going to be hard, so when I'm not hiking I will mainly be studying. I hope that this hobby helps me keep focused instead of getting in the way of productivity...