If I am going to get serious about hiking the 300+ mile Ohio To Erie Trail in a span of 21 days I need to get in shape. I have already logged over 250 miles of hiking this year but I have not done any backpacking.
Today I got out my backpack and loaded it up with 17 quarts of water - four gallon jugs and a quart bottle. Add in some gear weight and the weight of my backpack and the total load was around 40 pounds. This is much heavier than I plan to carry on the hike but it is a good weight for training. I hiked 8 miles on the Great Miami River bike path in Dayton. I need to get my body in shape for carrying a heavy load on hard surfaces.
I remember well how much my feet hurt from all the hard surface walking when I thru hiked the Buckeye Trail in 2011. My feet hurt every day for weeks.
Tomorrow I hope to carry the backpack and do more miles.
