And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

I lost a few days and a few pounds due to the stomach bug, but I'm feeling good again and now seem to be hitting the roads and trails even harder than before. Nothing like being sick to make feeling normal so awesome.

The last few days have gone as follows... a twenty mile run on Tuesday, a 36 mile hilly bike ride and 5 mile run on Wednesday, and Thursday a quad and skin burning 15.5 mile circuit of Mt. Cammerer. I have loved every exhausting minute of it.

All week has been near perfect Southern Appalachian Spring weather. There was snow on the mountains and the grass was so green it nearly hurt your eyes.

Brent Worth, showing the bike who's boss

The elder Worth has been hammering out piles of miles on his bike this year. What I thought would be an easy recovery day on Wednesday turned out to be quite the opposite. We parted ways happy, each of us eager to resume our normal (and slower) paces.

Thursday morning I could see no relief was sight. In regards to the days Caitlin picks to go hiking, I have noticed a distinct pattern. She never wants to go to on a day in which I am overflowing with energy. In fact, she seems to want to go on days where I am borderline exhausted even before beginning the days adventure. When confronted on this matter, she candidly claims possession of her intentions and states, "Yeah, its great. It levels the playing field. The only thing better than you exhausted is you passed out on the couch."

So, with my quads feeling as if they had been replaced with bags of sand we began a 15.5 mile circuit of Mt. Cammerer. This hike also begins with about 1,800 ft of elevation gain in the first 2.5 miles on the notorious Low Gap Trail, known for being the steepest official trail in the national park. Wonderful.

We had warm temps, full sun and a steep grade leading me to drop down to a t-shirt on the AT. Perhaps Spring really is here?

Hiking in a T-shirt in the snow, a sacrilege in the minds of many local hikers

The initial punishment from Low Gap trail was set right by views from the lookout tower, where we perhaps idled to long and collected the beginning of what would be an early season sunburn for Caitlin.

Leaving Mt. Cammerer, we were happy to have 2/3rds of the work behind us, but we'd only covered about 1/3rd of the distance. What we thought may deteriorate into a trudge fest was actually hours of great walking in and out of the creeks and coves of Lower Mt. Cammerer trail.

While Caitlin took wildflower shots, I didn't miss a chance to sit a spell

Bloodroot

Dutchman's Breeches

After a little over 7 hours of walking we finally made it back to Cosby campground. Sunburned and out of water for the last two hours we were two happy kids to see the car. Nothing makes a car seat more comfortable than a day full of hiking. 

Now that I've made up for lost time, maybe I'll take a break... but probably not.