view from Greeley Ponds trail

some peak
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view of a distant peak, taken while traveling along Greeley Ponds trail. I suppose it might be Mt Osceola or East Osceola, but I'm not sure. It was in the right direction for one of those, to the southwest.

I deliberately hiked very slowly, for several reasons. I was not in great condition; I hadn't done so much hiking this year - very little of it with a loaded pack, and most of it more than a month ago. Now, I was carrying a pack weighing about 26 lbs. Sometimes a lot of hillwork can give me knee pain. I wanted to avoid that if at all possible, and going slower seems to help. Also, I wanted to avoid getting blisters in my new boots, if possible. Further, I wanted to dole out my energy use slowly, knowing that between here and Mt Osceola was the most difficult part of the trail.

My new Asolos performed very well. Soon after starting on Greeley Ponds trail, I had to cross a couple of streams that couldn't be managed without stepping into the water a few inches. No leaks! There were pools of water everywhere along the trail, and my feet never got wet.

It took me about 50 minutes of hiking to cover the 1.3 miles of Greeley Ponds trail before it intersects with the Mt. Osceola trail. At this point, I stopped to apply Dr. Scholl's Blister Treatment cushions on some spots where the shoes were rubbing my heels. I've only used these before on actual blisters, but I decided to try them out for blister prevention. In the end I think they worked pretty well, but I still managed to get a blister just outside of the cushion on my left foot. Other than that, no blisters, excellent!