Turkey Mountain, Yorktown Heights, NY

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/5/2018	2.2 miles

Map: Walkable Westchester book
Parking: Route 118, Yorktown Heights
Directions: Take the blue trail up to the summit, and the blue trail back down to the parking area.

Today was the first after work evening hike of the year! It's always really nice to get a hike in during the evening to de-stress after work. I've also decided it's time to gradually start some training for backpacking. I've only been on two short backpacks before, so my body definitely needs some training. I brought my backpacking backpack instead of my daypack. I filled it with 15 lbs of miscellaneous gear. Turkey Mountain is a very short hike but has some short steep hills. I'll have to figure out a plan for increasing weight & hiking longer distances with increased weight. In May, I plan to start hiking more in the Catskills which has plenty of elevation gain for practice.
br /> I have applied for a permit to backpack the Wonderland Trail in Washington this summer. It's a 93 mile hike with 22,000' elevation gain. That's going to be a big challenge for me, as I'm not used to doing 3,000' elevation gain/day carrying the weight of a loaded backpack. So I better start now! It's difficult to get a permit, and we are playing the waiting game now. The National Park Service started processing the permit requests on April 1st, and we should find out by mid May if we get one. Otherwise we'll be working on finding another adventure (I have several ideas already).

Hiking went pretty well. 15 lbs isn't bad at all. It feels like a pretty normal weight for winter hiking, when I carry extra things such as microspikes or snowshoes. Hiking on level ground felt easy. Hiking up hills had me breathing heavier. I did manage to roll first my right ankle - which made me fall down, and then my left ankle - which also made me fall down. Yes, I tend to fall more than most people lol. I can fall when walking on pavement! I'm guessing hiking with a heavier pack may make me not lift my feet up as much? Who knows. Maybe I should bring trekking poles for this training, though hey, I can fall when using trekking poles as well.