Trail legs

If you are not used to hiking it can be a painful experience. The first couple of days out you will begin to notice aches and pains in muscles you didn’t even know you had. You will have cramps and muscle tension, allergies and headaches, and unknown pangs of hunger. It is all a part of getting used to the new life you will be living, and commonly referred to as getting your trail legs.

  You can expect the first few days out to find new places on your body. Places and muscles you never knew were there. Luckily, it will all settle in a matter of days. After a couple of mountains your legs will begin to accommodate the new weight distribution, and the pains will start to go away. When you wake in the morning and your legs do not feel like a knotted piece of meat you have achieved your trail legs. My problem with this phenomenon was that I was still in Georgia, and had many friends near. As I began to get my trail legs I would find an excuse, or a friend that would take me off the trail for the weekend. It  was great to see the friends and spend some time back in civilization, but I would inevitably regret it when I returned to the trail. I heard stories that after getting your trail legs your mileage would increase. I wasn’t that lucky though. I was so interested in what the forest had to offer. I would take many of the side trails, known as blue blaze trails. Blue blaze trails are the other trails you come across and get their name from the fact that they are marked with….. you guessed it…. A blue blaze instead of a white blaze.

 There are also times when a hiker may take one of these blue blazed trails instead of the A.T. to reduce the amount of miles they  travel that day, and still end up somewhere on the A.T. When a hiker decides to do this it is commonly referred to as “Blue Blazing.” If you get off the trail and hitch a ride to get farther up the trail it is called “Yellow Blazing”. There are several other blazing types around and I’m sure  to get into those later. In case you haven’t read the earlier entry, a blaze is a 2” x 6” mark usually found on trees and rocks. These marks will guide you along the trail you wish to follow. The Appalachian trail is the only one with a white blaze.

Find out about  Susan G Komen: HERE

Living for something more than the almighty dollar.