Upper and Lower Bridle Paths

Submitted by Pat

Stats
Date: March 17, 2017
Miles: 2.38
Weather: Sunny, 20s
Time: 5.5 hours
Trails: Upper and Lower Bridle Paths

I’m up early for coffee and to get ready for today’s hike. I am hyper at breakfast, talking with my mouth full and running verbal circles around Nancy who looks calm and quiet. We decide to hike Lower and Upper Bridle Paths to Oak Ridge Cutoff to the High Ridge Trail, then bag Mt. Shaw and Black Snout.

We start breaking trail at 9:07 am with me in the lead. The Lower Bridle Path is wide at the beginning. The temperature is in the 20s with a bluebird sky cheering us on. There is the occasional gust of wind that chills me because I take off my fleece and hike in two thin layers, no hat. Gloves come on and off as needed to keep me cool enough not to sweat. Breaking trail is a matter of lifting my foot up and extending it out above the thick layer of snow. Up and out. Up and out. At the bottom, the snow has drifted and forms beautiful sculptures in mounds and shallows. Sometimes we walk on top of the snow, but it’s nerve-wracking because we never know which step will send our snowshoes plummeting down into the snow. The depth of our snowshoe steps varies from a few inches to a foot. It takes real effort to pull my foot up after sinking that deeply.

It isn’t long into the hike before I begin to feel my quads and calves. Breaking trail isn’t a normal gait and my legs are tired. By the time we slug it up to the overlook I feel tired and don’t think I have it in me to bag those two summits. I tell Nancy that I’m struggling. She says she’s good, though she is feeling tired legs. I’m not happy with how exhausted I feel, falling farther and farther behind and not feeling close to a second wind as I push on.

We reach the High Ridge Trail around noon. I’m angry and frustrated with myself and I know I’m done. I start up the High Ridge trail in anger and Nancy calls me back and asks me not to be so hard on myself, to breathe, to let go of expectations. “We are a team,” she says.

That stops my whining, or at least lessens it, and I tell her that it’s time for me to turn around. The hike back down our broken path is still a challenge, but is much easier than the ascent we have just completed. I don’t recover on the way down. I’m exhausted and at 2:23 pm we reach the cars. We break out 2.38 miles of trail. I think that’s the most we’ve ever done – I can’t remember another major trail break except on Waumbek.

Sitting in the car I’m unable to enjoy my cookie and potato chips. My stomach is unsettled. I don’t have much to say either. My legs feel like two exhausted, aching appendages and my breathing is stressed. I’m surprised I didn’t cough my head off on the hike. I am breathing hard and not coughing. Weird. Once again, it’s not my day. I’m tired of struggling when I hike. I wish I knew what is going on inside my body when it strives and pushes up mountain after mountain.