Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of free time (that isn’t already occupied with work, tennis, and running) training and preparing for the hiking trips I’ll be going on during my trip to Norway. Now, before the past few weeks, it had been what seems like years since I last went on a hike! And, even then, it was only hiking to the ‘M’ in Missoula. Knowing what hiking is like due to past experience, I knew it wouldn’t be the easiest thing to get back into, but I also didn’t think it would be overly difficult either. I was just going to do a few hikes, break in my new hiking boots, and call it a day! Oh boy, was I in for a treat?! Here I thought I was in pretty good shape with all the running I’ve been doing, but my first trip up the Powerline Trail on Mount Helena gave me a run for my money! Talk about a steep, one-way trip up Mount Hell! Whew. At one point, I knew I had to be about 1/2 way up the trail (it’s almost exactly 1 mile to the summit), so I checked my handy Apple Watch. It read 0.25 miles.

Seriously?!

Shit!

I wasn’t sure my zombie lung was going to tolerate the lack of oxygen from all the huffing and puffing! But I kept trudging along. Part of me didn’t want to see anyone on the trail because I was sure they’d all be thinking the same thing, she’s going to keel over at any minute, send help! Since I’m writing this post, I obviously survived that trip and have continued to torture myself on that trail and others in the Helena area. My determination may be the death [or success] of me on this one! On any given day, on the way up, there can be lots of swearing, sweating, heavy breathing, and swearing I won’t keep doing this. Then, you get the views from the top! Whoa! If that isn’t satisfaction, I’m not sure what is!

Then the downhill comes, and all is wonderful again! I could hike downhill all day!

Jokes aside, I’ve been using this really cool app to find different trails in the area of varying lengths and difficulties. It’s called AllTrails. Not only can you search for trails near your location, but you can save and download maps, get driving directions, and get an idea of the length and difficulty of the entire hike. One caveat, it lists Powerline as a ‘Moderate’ hike. Look, those that have hiked it before, and those that read my description above can all agree it’s not a moderate hike at all. I’d classify it as a ‘send help if you haven’t heard from me’ hike!

Anyways, for all you hikers out there, check out the app here. I can’t say I’ve used it anywhere other than the Helena area, but it’s been great so far! If you decide to try it out, and find some cool hikes, let me know!