thick in the head

Hikes with kev seem to be much harder than hikes without kev. I don’t know if we push each other harder or pick more challeging routes, or what. But I’m still hurting, and it’s two days later. We hiked the headlands on saturday. It was sunny and beautiful with a slight wind at the beginning that picked up and was blowing pretty hard by the end of the day. We started from the north lot at Ft. Cronkite, went up to the peak, down into Tennessee Valley, across and up to the north ridge overlooking the ocean and Muir Beach, back down to the Tennessee Valley trailhead, then up and over the south ridge, down through Rodeo Valley and back out to the beach.

It was a beautiful hike with much less traffic than I expected and sun all day. And…, I was hurting. Almost from the first mile, my legs were tight and I struggled on the inclines. Endurance on the flats and downhills was no problem, but my legs tightened and tired on the uphills and I really had to work though it. We saw a couple wild turkeys on the trail, which were pretty cool. Also, lots of birds and a pretty big lizard. Overall, it was a great day and I loved being out in Marin County. But, the day did make me a bit concerned about my ability to pull off the grand plan…

10.5 miles and 2600 vertical feet (990′ peak)
sunny and windy – ±60 degrees
4 1/2 hours