Breaking Hearts

Terrain: Trail
Path: Arcadia Management Area, Heartbreak Pond
Time: ~2 hours
Mileage: 6.7
Blister Count: 0 (for me)

The months since we met as a team back in February flew by. The weather finally broke and outside from doing short 3-5 mile walks, we haven't done much as a team and distance. We were anxious to pack some miles on.

Jill met me at my house and we went to Kate's. She lives near the woods so we snaked through some back roads and found a parking spot at a trail head. We had a general idea where we were, but no real trail map or plan. I had my GPS with me just in case and Kate had a map of sorts on her phone. 

The summer thus far has been humid, and we were feeling like a trio of hot messes trudging through the woods. Before leaving the car at the lot, we lathered up in our sunscreen and bug spray. Due in part to the humidity, the bugs were crazy. They stuck mostly to Kate, which she blamed on her blue hair. Something about the color must attract them.

It wasn't long before starting down the path that we could see a giant hill ahead of us. It's just a warm up, I told Kate and Jill. It was one of those long, gradual, feel-it-with-every-step kind of hills. If we thought we felt like hot messes before starting, we certainly felt it now! Thankfully there were steps on the other side we could take down. They were nice on our knees.

We took the path down to an old farm road, past a dead end street, some houses, and two horses. After passing Fabio's calling card, we spotted some trail markers and followed those down hill. We had a feeling that hill may kill us on the way back. 

The trail took us down to Breakheart Pond and we did the loop around. It was still early in the morning so the water was calm and yielded nice pictures. We walked around the launch spot to the fishing ladder and stayed mesmerized by it for a few minutes. Due to the dry spring and summer, there wasn't much water running down the ladder. 

Occasionally, I try to geocache while on these training walks. The caches on this loop around the pond I had already found. However, when we passed an old foundation, Jill noticed a Tupperware container among the stones. (I've trained her well!) Nothing was showing on my GPS to be here, so I went down to investigate. 

Stepping carefully to avoid any creatures, namely snakes, from grabbing my toes, I safely made it down. I pulled out the container and before I had the lid fully off, Kate was squealing. I thought there would be a deer hiding behind me. When Jill and I looked at her funny, she spouted out, "Rainbow Dash! My favorite!" Still unsure of what she was referring to, I took the lid off and found what she was referring to. A My Little Pony lay on its side in the box. I found a stamp in there too which indicated it was a letterbox and not a geocache.  

The heat was getting to us enough. We thought we'd be able to avoid it being under the trees, but we were wrong. Our trail antics and conversations were getting a little crazy. Unlike a roadside walk, on the trails we had plenty of distractions to keep us entertained.  We test drove an old tricycle, played with a Frisbee, and discussed the colorful mushrooms along the way. 

This year will be Kate's first walk with us. On the farm road back, she asked us for some tips and what to expect. We mentioned all the people, the crew teams, the hotel we planned to crash at, the soreness we push through, and the fun of it all.

Jill suggested we line our canvas "change of clothes" bag with waterproof bags/ziplocs - nothing like putting wet socks on at lunch. We mentioned the multitude of snacks and pit stops. Find a light water bottle to refill at the stations. We go out to dinner and hit the Jacuzzi at night. Expect blisters and bring scissors to cut the moleskin. 

It was a good almost-7-mile walk and talk. After the walk, the upcoming 50-mile Challenge seemed more real and sudden. Time to really start packing on the miles! 

 

We did this walk on July 11, 2015