Foresthills hike

Today we hiked in the Foresthills area near Auburn. It is the Western Trail and favored by runners rather then hikers. But since we are in our training mode, we took the challenge of first going downhill then climbing again and then returning…..and man…! was it different. I was totally wiped out in the initial decent of 1700ft in 2.5 miles. Did quite a number on the knees. But then the rest stop by the middle ofork of the north fork of the American river…! I was energized enough to start the ascent on the other side, but we did not make it far before realising that it was too hot and we were getting exhausted. So we turned back and ended up climbing the last portion back in record time of under 2 hrs…!
In case you are wondering about the training it is for the gruelling hike in the Sounth American Andes on the Inca trail to get to Machu Picchu. Its a countdown now…less than 2 weeks before we fly to the southern hemisphere.

June 12th, 2005