We went hiking last weekend, at Ramona Falls. It's a 7.1 mile trail, round trip. It gains 1,000 feet of elevation, or so it says on the website. After today, I don't believe that! Either Ramona Falls was way less than 1,000 feet elevation gain, or today's trail was WAY more than 1,500.
Last weekend, at Ramona Falls, by the time we got to like 3 miles, maybe 3.2 miles, I was like.... ready to be done. I'm still in decent shape, despite not having been able to work out at my normal intensity (or my normal amount) since March 24th, and we passed a few people on the trail. But... going uphill, even at a pretty slight incline like Ramona Falls was, without the ability to use your abdominal muscles is a little on the difficult side. I kept stubbing my toe on rocks, bees were dive-bombing me every twenty seconds, I was sick of going uphill, and I got annoyed. Soon, though, we finally made it, and of course it was all worth it.
Ramona Falls, as it turns out, did nothing to prepare me for today! It's not like I'm an inexperienced hiker. I'm just an inexperienced pregnant hiker. It's way more difficult when you can't use your abs to climb a hill.. and you're on a trail that goes practically straight up! The beginning of the trail was gravel and relatively flat. But before too long, it turned into woods and roots and dirt.. and a serious incline. After that, we came across a huge boulder field. Walking over and around boulders isn't too difficult, unless you can't step down hard (too jarring for the baby.) So my quads took the brunt of that.
After the boulder field came the hard part. The trail went DOWN for a while, with loose rocks all over. Gravel doesn't stick well on a downgrade like that, so I was constantly looking for rocks stuck into the trail to brace my feet on. After that nice little stretch, the trail changed again and became woods once more... and went straight up again to make up for all the elevation we lost on the loose gravel. Just when my hip flexors couldn't take anymore.. the trail opened up and we were totally on the top.
You could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams (I think?), the 3 Sisters, 3 Fingered Jack and Mt. Bachelor (I think?) from up there. It was SO pretty, and SO worth the agony and pain of the total 4 and a half hour hike.
4, 481 feet.
4 months pregnant.
Like a boss ;)
Wow-eee! What an amazing effort, and a breathtaking view! The third picture would have to be my favourite. I really want to get into hiking but I'm a tad terrified of heights. I've done a few bushwalks at this mountain range called the You Yangs but I've never gotten to the peak (and even then, the peak is only 1,194 ft!). Yikes.
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