Practice Hike

So, on Friday I had a test hike.  

I grabbed all the gear I have (except for a few things I forgot), shoved it into my backpack, and walked ~7 miles to a pub, had lunch and walked back.  Upon leaving, my backpack weighed just shy of fifteen kilos (14.96kg to be exact) of which two (and a bit) was extra water that I didn't allow myself to drink.  It was ballast.  To simulate food (and the gear I forgot or didn't have).

The hike went well on the whole, I made good time in taking a bit over 2 hours each way.  My pack wasn't too heavy and I think I could do the same walk with a slightly heavier bag without much difficulty.

However. 

I did manage to get two blisters.  The first half of the walk went without problem, but the second half - the way back - suddenly left me with pain in two spots on my feet.  This might be because of bad lacing of my shoes.  The alternatives are slightly more worrying and troublesome - my shoes don't fit my feet or my feet don't fit my shoes.  Over summer, I did quite a bit of walking and hiking in my boots with no problems; since then I've been excercising.  It is possible that my feet have changed size or shape because of the gym; or perhaps it's because I've not worn my boots in quite a while and my feet have grown used to my everyday-wear trail runners.

Once my blisters have healed up, I'll be heading into town to check if my feet have changed and to reluctantly buy new shoes if they have.

Also on the to-do list is to have my final couple of shakedowns before waiting (impatiently) for the trail.

Wish me luck!