Workin' it in the mountains

October 9th 2008

Hiking kicked my butt today. I went to work with Christian, which was out in the field. We hiked allover the place and tested water in the mountains. In the summer he does it every 2 weeks. I had some shin splints going on, which I was worried would bother me. . . and they did. There were two hikes which were a good length and elevation.
The first was about 1.5 hours each way and I'm not sure what elevation we reached, but it was a steep hike at times. Our elevation gain was 800 meters. The last sign I saw said 2000 meters (6500ft) and I hiked a good distance after that. Getting to the trailhead was half the fun, though. We must have gone through 25 hairpin turns on the way, and one of the roads, along with a hairpin turn, only had room for one car to pass. I don't know what happens if a car is coming from the opposite direction, and I don't want to know. Anyways, back to the hike. I found psylocybin mushrooms. No, I didn't eat any. I was wandering while he was taking measurements and I came across another hiker and we exchanged a few words. He was wearing all black and I found out later it's because he was going up to the hut at the top to clean the chimney, and it's tradition to wear all black. ooooookay. I'm told it's like that everywhere, even the US. Comparing countries is endless fun, by the way.

The second hike was about 1 hour roundtrip and reached 2142m (7000ft). I'm not sure what elevation we started at, though. I went ahead and hiked to the top myself while he was doing readings elsewhere and he met me afterwards for more readings, so I got to spend some time up there. It was gorgeous, too - stunning views. There was also a nice stream running through and a cute little hut there. Everything was wonderful there until a bumblebee chased me around for a while. He was trying to check me out, but I kept moving away from him, so he kept moving towards me. Lucky for me, he gave up first. Probably lucky for him, too.

I don't have a clue how far any of these hikes are because they measure hikes here by time instead of distance. There's no way to be sure how far they are, because the time is adjusted based on steepness, I'm sure.

I'll probably be sore tomorrow, which is double trouble, because tomorrow we start the 3 day hike through the Alps where we'll be hiking 4-5 hours each day! yeeha! We'll see how it goes. . . and if I survive.

By the way, Europeans drive like maniacs.