OK, here goes! We’ve been training for the AT (as we have trained for our 3 other thru-hikes) ever since October, but haven’t been able to post anything till now (WordPress site had to be totally done over).

So today we headed out for an all-day hike at one of our favorite places–Annadel State Park, near Santa Rosa. It’s got big hills and LOTS of really rocky trail. We figure that’s perfect for AT prep. I guess the rocks are different from AT rocks, though. A lot of them are lava/volcanic rocks from all the volcanic drama that happened around here 5,000 years ago or so. Hey, we still have hot springs and geysers, so it’s not totally over yet!

For training purposes, we carry our old packs, loaded up with 20 lb. of “odds ‘n sods”. My pack is the one I carried on both of our thru-hikes of the PCT, but now it’s “retired” and I use it for training. I made it myself, a la Ray Jardine, only I did add an external frame. (Sorry, Ray, but my shoulders are just not strong enough or big enough to carry a fully loaded pack without something to transfer the weight down to my hips).

Winter rains this year have been on the lower side of average, so although the grass is green, it’s still pretty short. The trees are bare and leafless, but I love to study the tracery of the branches–each kind of tree has its own shape and patterns. The wild turkeys are out, but it’s too early for any turkey chicks. It was a really cold (for CA) day–low 50’s all day, with ice still on the puddles in the forest, even in the middle of the morning. We wore all our layers, all day, and ate lunch sitting out in the full sun, by Ledson Marsh, with its great view of Hood Mountain, listening to hawk cries from the tops of nearby trees. ( For some reason the hawks seem to like to hang out by the marsh and “talk” to each other.)

It was a glorious day.

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