Carver's Gap to 19 East

It was almost an epic day. Almost.

I first experienced "the humps" as a thru-hiker in 2009. It was epic. Admittedly, my experiences along the Appalachian Trail eventually taught me that hurricane force winds can just happen in the mountains without the accompaniment of tornado's or lightening, but I didn't know this at the time. Rather, my first experience will go down in my mind's history as one of the most terrifying experiences along the trail. Still, I  have had the desire to re-experience the humps in good weather. I had seen photos, read blogs, and had been told stories about the beautiful panoramic views that the balds (Little Hump and Hump Mountains) offer. It was these, the fairytalesk stories that I wanted to experience.

Good-bye 2011, Hello 2012

The year of 2011 wasn't exactly the year for adventure, but it was a year for self-challenge. I spent the year being more active than I've been in my entire life. I ran my first 5K and 10k races. I discovered that I like spin class. I discovered that I despise bootcamp. I rediscovered my love for roller-skating. I think most importantly, I discovered what many of my limits are. I've begun to learn to focus on what I'm capable of, regardless of how it stacks up to others. To this I have my Garmin Forerunner 210 to thank. There are days when I know I'm moving slow enough that snails can out pace me, but when I look down at my Garmin and see that my heart rate is at 80% of my max I know I'm really doing about as good as I can do and that's all I can ask of myself. Of course there are those day that I feel like I'm moving like a jaguar and I look down at my Garmin and see that I'm still moving slower than a snail and my heart rate is at 50% of my max. It's at this point I usually whine to myself and say "but I don't wanna" and then suck it up and pick up the pace, because I know I can do anything for an hour. So regardless of whether I felt like I had a bad workout or a good workout, numbers never lie. They tell me whether I did or did not try hard enough.