miscellany

[jaeclectic]

Item the first: Last night, I woke up at about 3:30 having the following dream:

I was sitting on a steep, sandy beach, looking down at the surf. I was talking to someone, I don't remember who. I wasn't myself in this dream, in fact, I was male. (No, that's not the scary part. Well, maybe it is, but it isn't the part that woke me up.) I think I was the prince of something, perhaps the island that the beach was part of. I was feeling rather pleased with myself, watching my waves break on my beach, when suddenly a larger wave broke and the water came up over my feet. As I was about to gather my things and move back, I saw a really large wave and realized it was going to break over me. I grabbed my belongings and took a deep breath. As the wave was breaking over me, I realized it was going to wash me down the slope into the surf, where I would be trapped.

At that moment, I woke up. I had to stay awake for several minutes and make myself think of other things, because every time I drifted off I kept sliding back into that same moment of being overwhelmed by the water.


Item the second: I have determined that I cannot reliably estimate my hiking distance by looking at the map and adding up the numbers in my head. This became clear today when I went for an obviously longer hike than last week and came up with the same approximate distance when I tried to calculate it. So, I actually typed all of the little numbers into a spreadsheet and got:

Two weeks ago: 4.78 miles (very little elevation change), took about 2 hours with one short break.
Last week: 4.43 miles (more elevation changes), took about 2 hours with no break.
This week: 6.31 miles (basically a combination of the two above), took almost 3 hours with one short break, very muddy trails.

This actually makes much more sense. I had been quite surprised by my previous estimates that I was doing 6 miles in 2 hours (more like a flat city street pace than a trail hiking pace).


Item the third: I have picked the date (September), filled out the application form, just need to write out a deposit check for this trip to Peru.

Despite the math impairment noted above, I remain (irrationally?) optimistic that I'll be able to get into shape for it. Among other things, I plan to hike every weekend between now and September, and probably make a couple of weekend trips to higher altitudes. I reckon I should work my way up to doing 12 or 15 miles (in order to be able to do 10 miles at high altitude).