Training #2 - Sanborn Skyline Park to Castle Rock State Park

Before I get into the training hike today, I want to thanks those of you who are reading my blog.  I shared one of the posts to Facebook and got a number of comments.  Thanks, keep these coming and feel free to comment directly on my blogger page.

I also want to comment on the Blogger update that I made.  I added the list of future topics to the right and moved down the block about me.  That block was just too long.  If you want to know more about me, you will have to scroll!

Now on to the hike.  Today was a good one, and I was joined by one of the two guys that are going to do this hike with me, Greg.  As one sentence of background - Greg is not a big hiker, but he is active and  has run a couple of half as well as a full marathon, so he is in good shape but will need a bit of time in the boot (just made that up, kind of like time in the saddle for biking) to be ready for the Rim-to-Rim.

We decided on a good long hike, with a lot of elevation gain.  The hike really doesn't have its own name as it starts in one park, heads over to another and then comes back.  As a result, it is called the Sanborn Skyline Park to Castle Rock State Park hike. It is about 16 miles with over 3,000 feet of elevation gain. The views are awesome.  The trails are beautiful, loaded with trees and mostly empty of people except near the entrances to the parks.  The link describes the hike as "an excellent training hike for High Sierra adventures like Yosemite's Half Dome."  This is perfect as we will be dong Half Dome in about a month and a half.

We arrived at Sanborn park just after 7.  The park does not open until 8, so we had to find a parking spot on the side of the road. From there, we were quickly on the trail and enjoying the hike.  The beginning of the trail is mostly up hill.  We worked our way up to the summit and along the top until dropping into Castle Rock.  We headed down until the end of the loop, climbed back up to the summit and then back down to where we started.

Sounds simple enough.  It was not.  This is a good, challenging hike.  We did well most of the hike.  As we began heading down for the last time, Greg's knees started to hurt.  Good thing I brought my poles (Pacemaker Expedition).  I had them with me to practice with as EVERYONE says I need to use poles for the Rim-to-Rim.  I was not convinced, and I am still not sure that I need them for much of the hike, but I am becoming more and more of a believer.  But given that this is a future topic, I will save the longer discussion for then.  What I will say is that the poles really helped Greg.  That and a few Ibuprofen.  He is now a full convert.  He had been looking at poles, trying to decide what which ones to go with.  After this hike, I expect he will have poles the next time we go out.

That's it for now, hope that this is interesting. Comment if you have a recommendation for what I should talk about next.