MA Appalachian Trail - Section 3 - Gore Pond to Gulf Road

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
11/5/2016	7.7

Directions:

I had another good hip week. Mostly only mild pain. I did have one day where the pain flared up at noon & I got nausea at the same time. That has been happening sometimes. The pain went away on its own, but the nausea lasted for 2 days. Then it went away too. The hip pain radiates into my pelvis (my latest MRI showed inflammation in my pelvis).

I was expecting Glen might let me go on a 5 mile hike in Harriman, but to my surprise he suggested hiking on the MA AT. We had originally been planning on finishing the MA portion of the AT this year, but that plan became unrealistic. Most of the hikes require at least 8 miles due to the location of parking areas. This summer, the few hikes I've been on have been closer to 2 miles.
I carried my backpack this time, which I haven't done on all of our shorter hikes we've been doing. I feel out of practice. We found a 7.7 mile section with a pond at the end. We parked at Gulf Road, which although is a dirt road, gets its fair share of traffic. The parking area was almost full. We saw a sign for "The Boulders" which we read was a new land purchase & hike starting from the same location. We left Moxie home today and just brought Trek. There were no road crossings on this hike, so we let him hike off leash. We heard gunshots in the distance, and then remembered hunting season. We are out of practice. We weren't wearing our blaze orange, but then again neither were any of the other hikers we saw. I verified it is bow hunting season, not shotgun season at least. I developed some pelvic pain while hiking, but not too bad. Mostly I felt out of shape. The hills were hard cardiovascularly. And by the end of the hike, my leg muscles were shaking! My lower back was sore, my shoulders were sore. My feet were sore. My body is so weak right now. When I got out of the car after our hike, both hips were stiff, not just my right one.