With just 2 weeks until our big endurance event, we did one last big training day, setting off on a 12 hour hike. As part of the training, we needed to stop every 45 minutes for a 15 minute break and to refuel, i.e., eat. This is to simulate the gondola ride back down the mountain after each ascent. The gondola ride will also be when we do a lot of our refueling. We carried with us cliff bars, granola bars, sandwiches, and pretzels. We also had lots of water and sports drink.

To make the rest stops more fun, any time we were “lucky” enough to find a flat rock, we also did 50 step ups.

It was a beautiful day and we headed out from the RV around 7:30am. We are fortunate enough to be able to hike right from the RV into the Rothrock State Forest. There are many trails in the state forest and we were able to wander around basically making a large loop of sorts. Some of the trails are very rocky and others have so many bushes along them that you feel like you have to bushwhack your way through.

Being in the mountains, there is a lot of hiking uphill and downhill. It felt like the only time it wasn’t up or down was the few times we were on a gravel road cutting through the forest.

We didn’t see many animals, a few birds and a squirrel or two. And a couple of cows as we headed past a few homes.

We did see lots of mushrooms. It is amazing how many different ones there are. I know nothing about mushrooms so all I took were some pictures.

At one point we found ourselves on the same trail we had been on a few days before. As we hiked along, Steve made a great discovery - my hat I had lost on the previous hike.

Because of the time of year, we did not return to the RV until after sunset. This gave us the opportunity to practice using our head lamps. Another useful part of training as we will definitely need to hike during the night to make our goal.

We arrived back at the RV after 12 hours and 15 minutes and a total of 27 miles. A little tired but feeling pretty good.

And it was Steve’s birthday - Happy Birthday Steve!