Hot Hike

We did our longest warm up hike to date on Saturday at the lake and man was it brutal. The distance wasn't bad, about 7 miles total and we were both feeling pretty solid about that. I'm sure we could have done 10 easily without being sore. But it was absolutely sweltering outside. I saw as high as 108 degrees on the thermometer around 4pm. Who knows what the heat index was. Temperature 108 F, feels like "a furnace." Even though we started early, it wasn't early enough. The temperature was around 103 degrees by the time we finished a little after noon. And of course, being the Flint Hills, there is no shade. I think there are 4 cottonwood trees and a lone willow tree along the gravel south of the lake that we were able to rest under.

We took a full gallon of water for the two of us and had drank half of it by the time we hit 3 miles. We decided to go a little further so we could round the hike out to 7 miles and even that was almost too much. Lauren was feeling a little light headed and dizzy by the time we got back and I was getting close as well. I think we must have drank almost another gallon once we got back. Its pretty amazing to think I could sweat out more than a gallon of water in 2 hours, but if you saw me out there...you wouldn't have doubted it.

But at the very least, my boots are feeling awesome and well broken in with about 25 miles on them, and I'm getting my new backpack settled in. I'll let you know how they feel in another couple hundred miles!

More pictures after the jump.

Shade trees of the Flint Hills... I imagine a lot of the Camino is going to look like this along the Meseta.

Z Road

Enhance. Enhance. Enhance... oh hey, there's Lauren!