Sore Feet

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Originally uploaded by bricedahlmeier

After about 14 days of tramping, it seems we are heading into our last leg of our journey... the bike tour. Our feet are tired so now we're going to give our butts a go. We just finished two tramps--the Gillespie Pass and the Cascade Saddle to the Rhees track. Both hikes were incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out so I don't have many pictures to share, but thankfully Skyler and Lucas stepped up to the plate and took some great photos. You can check them out here...

Lucas: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57181626@N08/

Skyler: http://theadventuresofskyler.blogspot.com/

Skyler wrote a nice post about our trip and I'm feeling lazy so I recommend reading his blog, but here is a little blurb.

Gillespie pass was a very scenic hike. It is also a very well maintained trail and therefore crowded. The huts (which were basically hostels, with pristine toilets, running water, cooking areas and covered patios) have bunks for twenty people. When we talked with the warden he said that the hut we were headed to had nearly 50 people sleeping there the previous night! Luckily we were sleeping in our tent.

The mountains here are absolutely awe inspiring. It continually amazes me how up close and personal they are. You can be casually walking through a grassy meadow and just a few hundred meters to your left and right are sheer exposed walls of rock. They are so close you can't fit the thing in the frame of your camera. They are incredible.

The cascade saddle was the hardest climb we've done on the trip (I think it was around 1200 meters). The first hour sucked because you can't stop thinking "shit I have to do this for like 4 hours." After that though you start to feel like you're making progress. We found a great camping spot on top of the saddle where we had a frigid waterfall to "shower" in. Luckily the weather was gorgeous so we had some incredible vistas of Mt. Aspiring and a few different glaciers. The next day we got to hike alongside a glacier and stand right at the base of it. I was imagining pristine glacial melt--something you would see on the label of a overpriced water bottle--but it was incredibly muddy, nasty water.

At the end of the hike we got a ride into Glenorchy by a nice oil painter where I finally got to air out my feet. I am hoping that my biking shoes don't keep rubbing on my blisters that have been hanging around for about two weeks now. It seems as soon as they start healing up I open them up by hiking all day with wet feet.

The weather forecast is looking bleak for the next few days, so we will most likely have a rough start to our bike ride. As soon as it is sunny though, be ready for some sweet pictures of bike spandex and beards/chest hair!