Sunday, September 12, 2010

And Me Without My Legs!






I am one of those kind of gals who when she takes up a new hobby she is all in, I want all the cool toys that go with the hobby. Those of you who know me know of my large collection of scrapbooking toys. When scuba diving was our hobby I was always looking for cool gear, stickers, shirts etc. Now I have moved to hiking as my primary hobby so it stands to reason that I am all about the gear. Cool boots, got 'em. Thick socks, check. Nifty sweat towel, definately have it. Cool hiking pants with zip off legs, two pairs in my arsenal.

As we have been expanding our hiking trail selections we tend to do some of the trails frequently because of the convenience. The University of West Florida multiuse trails are one of our frequently hiked trails. The trail is a good distance at 9 miles, it is a loop trail, it is well shaded, it is well marked, and it is well cleared. It is the well cleared part of the trail that has caused me to become complacent about my zip off pants. I have started wearing them as shorts when we do this trail and leaving the legs at home. It is ridiculously hot here still!


Today was going to be a UWF hiking day but when we received a text from our hiking buddies saying they weren't coming I decided that maybe we should try something new...I am also very easily bored! As we are sitting in our driveway I make this decision to go to a new place today and chose the Tarklin Bayou State Park. We looked up directions and headed off. It wasn't until we arrived and got out of the car that it occurred to me that I didn't have my legs. Oh well, how bad could it be? Right?

There is a trail map posted and there are actually three trails. One is paved and we all know that is NOT hiking! One trail is approximately 7 miles - Perfect! Oh but wait, according to the trail map this trail is very wet, possibly up to two feet of water most of the year. TWO FEET! Oh well, we have hiked wet before so off we go.






In all fairness the trail wasn't bad. We did have to do some creative trail blazing to get around several of the wetter areas. The entire trail wasn't swampy like this and we did come out to a beautiful beach on the Perdido River. But without my legs I was having all sorts of grasses, weeds and briars constantly rubbing my bare ankles and calves. And I kept expecting something to jump out and bite me.


I am amazed that every time we hike a new trail or situation I learn something from the experience. Today I learned that while I don't always have to wear my legs, I should always take them with me so I can have the option!

We ended up completing the trail without getting wet but I am confident that if there had been much rain recently this would have been a very different story. I also did a lot of thinking about how to treat snake bites today and have David in there researching this for me as I write. I hope that is information I will never have to use but better to be prepared!

Happy Hiking


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Mental Weakness/Mental Toughness

Mental Weakness vs. Mental Toughness


A few years back we adopted a saying around our house called "mental weakness". This term is used in our household in many situations. For example, the whole house gets a stomach bug except one person, well the sick people are just mentally weak. Can't talk yourself out of a nice warm bed on a winter morning to exercise then you are mentally weak. We pride ourselves on avoiding mental weakness at our house and frequently challenge one another by calling them mentally weak. So this past weekend when David and I decided to tackle the hiking trail at Torreya State Park we were having no part of mental weakness talk. We had read that this trail was the closest you could come to Applaichain Trail conditions in the state of Florida. Great, we're up for it. David's sister had done this trail and told horror stories of the difficulty of the trail. Surely she was just mentally weak. Well let me just say I was wrong. There was a river of mental weakness flowing off my body while we hiked this trail.

Torreya State Park has two hiking trails. One is a 7 mile loop and one is a 5 mile loop called the Torreya Challenge. David and I were drawn to the challenge loop like a moth to a lightbulb. It had the word challenge in the name so it had to be hard right, RIGHT. We missed the trailhead where the maps that had mileage were located so using a posted map we found an connector trail to the main 7 mile loop where we then hiked to another connector trail to the challenge loop. Of course we had to reverse this process on the return trip. No problem it doesn't look that far. No mental weakness for us.


Well 5 1/2 hours later we finally emerged from the trail. Challenge was an understatement. This trail was up and down hills all the way. You would hike down a long trail into a ravine and then hike back out of the ravine only to do it all over again. I was doing good for the first 3 hours and then all these mentally weak thoughts started creeping into my head like "what are you thinking?"; "just think how hard this is going to be when you are carrying a 40 pound pack on your back!"; "are you crazy, you can't do the AT"; "are you sure you even want to do the AT?" and it just went on and on as my legs got weaker. After 4 1/2 hours I really hit a wall and just had to stop, sit down and drink a lot of water. I was so hot and tired that I just thought I would die. MENTAL WEAKNESS!



But guess what? I didn't die! I took a deep breath, a long drink of water and told myself to get my butt off the ground and get moving. I can do this, I want to do this and I will do this. It won't be easy...if it was easy everyone would be doing it! MENTAL TOUGHNESS!




It takes mental toughness to make it through life. The mentally weak see themselves as victims. The mentally tough see themselves as survivors. This hiking thing is about getting out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to the limit and coming out on the other side stronger and tougher!

In the end we calculated we hiked 10 miles in 5 1/2 hours. Now 2 days later the pain in my calf muscles is finally easing off and I am left with a stronger sense of mental toughness and memories of the 7 deer we saw while on the trail. We may just drive to Torreya this weekend and do it again!
Happy Trails!