After the 50 mile Ultra, It took about 2 weeks for my feet to heal, and for the limp to go away. Even once It did get better, I still wasn't doing much hiking or running at all. The race was December 19th, and the holidays/new year took the wind out of my sails as far as fitness is concerned. After the first 2 weeks in January I finally got my act together and started working out again. The blisters on my feet had healed, and I was running confidently again. These runs were short, and the pace was slow, but it felt good to be back out there again.
Around February, a group of friends expressed serious interest in wanting to join for a Mount Saint Helens trip I was planning. The group committed to coming, and we agreed to try to get a permit. The permits to summit Mount Saint Helens are hard to come by. To get one, you had to be at your computer at 7:00am on March 1, pick a weekend, and click "buy" before too many ohter folks wanted that weekend. In order to maintain the trail/mountains, they only allow 300 people per day to summit. We had several people We tried to get a spot for a Saturday, but they sold out in seconds.
We ended up getting a spot for Friday, May 14th, which meant two things. 1) we had very little time to train, and 2) it was time to start looking at flights and hotels. Anyway we started training, mostly on the AT. The most appropriate training hike we did was a 13 mile trek on the Appalachian Trail from Indian Grave Gap near Tray Mountain to Dicks Creek Gap near Helen, GA.
We got up early in the morning and met at the trailhead around 8:00am. Overall the hike went well, it was a bit warm that day, and the hike was mostly uneventful. We summitted Tray Mountain in about 30 minutes after we started, and took a short break at the top of the mountain.
All the guys in this photo were planning to come to Mount Saint Helens, and each of them had a pretty strong baseline level of fitness. The hike went well, the weather was great and overall, the hike was mostly uneventful. The trail seemed to go on forever. Toward the end, we saw a rattle snake in the middle of the trail. A lady was standing beside it and warning everyone not to walk on the trial. My friend Evan (above) was worried about his dogs getting bit, so we walked waaay around the rattler, and kept on shuffling. This was a great hike, but it took all day. I have to thank my wife for watching our boys, and giving me the time to do this sort of thing. Anyway it was an awesome hike on the AT! After this, we felt (mostly) ready for Mount Saint Helens.
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