Planned Hike – Superstition Wilderness, AZ
Well, I am going on another backpacking trip in a few days. The weather sucks here in Michigan right now so my timing couldn’t be better. I guess you can’t skip winter every year. Anyways, my escape is the Superstition Wilderness of Arizona, a 160,000 acre tract of land within the 3 million acre Tonto National Forest. I’ll be hiking 6 days and have a 88 mile route planned. I will also be going solo for this trip, which I haven’t done since the Porcupine Mountains.
After experiencing some pretty painful knee pain during my last hike in Linville Gorge, NC, I started looking into reducing my pack weight. I’m going to go into more details on this in another post, but so far I’ve shaved off around 8lbs! The biggest weight savings came from a new backpack and making a lightweight tripod to replace my bulky 2lb’er.
Along with reducing my pack weight, I modified my exercise routine. I did some research on knee pain related to backpacking, and realized that I may not be working out my hamstrings enough. I do squats for my quads regularly, but seldom do deadlifts. This may cause a muscular imbalance leaving the hamstring weaker than the quads, causing knee pain going downhill. I don’t really like doing deadlifts though, especially before a backpacking trip because I can’t run for several days afterwards. My lower back is just too sore. But then I read about SLDLs (stiff leg deadlifts) and realized that these target the hamstrings much more aggressively than regular deadlifts. I’m doing much less weight but my hamstrings are still pretty sore the next day, and my lower back doesn’t hurt as much. Probably due to lifting much less weight. The consistently foul weather has prevented me from running as much as I usually do, so I’ve been doing more stair climbs instead. I loaded up my backpack with 50 pounds and do around 30 minutes up and down my basement stairs. Trust me, it’s a great workout!
I also added a joint supplement to my diet. I have been taking Osteo Bi-Flex twice a day for the last month, and will be bringing it on my trip as well. It’s 2 main ingredients, glucosamine and chondroitin, are supposed to help build and lubricate cartilage. I can’t say whether or not they work just yet. All I know is, I never though I’d be taking a pill with a name like Osteo Bi-Flex until I got my AARP card. Sure does make you feel old.
This hike is going to be about twice the length of anything I’ve done so far, but I’m excited as hell. With a lighter pack, lighter footwear (wearing my Merril Moab Ventillators instead of my Zamberlain Vioz GT boots), and an improved exercise regiment, I’m hoping to cover more ground and with less effort. Either way, it’s sure to be an adventure. I’ll get a trip report up as soon as I can!
