Ten Trials of Overall Run

1. Before we even left the house, I caught my toenail on one of my pack straps as I lifted my pack off the floor to test its weight. My toenail bent back a little bit and hurt greatly, but it was fine in the end.

2. Every time we've ever printed directions from hikingupward.com, they've been a little wonky. These were no exception, and we had some trouble locating the correct parking area.

3. While we drove around looking for the correct parking area, the gas gauge dropped abruptly from 1/4 tank to E and lights began flashing at us. Then it went back up to 1/4 tank again. We didn't know what to believe.

4. I had been hiking for approximately two hours before the balls of my feet started hurting so badly that I thought seriously about removing my boots and walking barefoot over the rocky path. I spent a long time immersed in an analysis of exactly where I could cut my foot off in order to get rid of the pain I was currently feeling while still having enough appendage left with to walk effectively.

5. The temperature was, quite possibly, near 100 degrees.

6. The directional wonkiness extended beyond the parking lot mystery to include a mathematical error and some measuring discrepancies that ultimately meant that we had to cover 2 miles and 2700' more than we'd anticipated.

7. We had loaded more weight into our packs than we would have done if we had known the extent of the hike. On the bright side, we take our excess weight in the form of 3-liter bottles filled with water, so once we decided to start dumping ballast, we just poured the extra water over ourselves.

8. We knew we couldn't get back to the car in time to fill up the gas tank at the nearby ranger station before it closed.

9. It threatened to thunderstorm over us, but didn't. It only rained on us, which was felt good because we were so hot and sweaty. I still had heat rash on my chest by the time we were done, though.

10. We saw 5 black bears, which is 5 more bears than I've ever seen in Shenandoah in my whole life!