Well I'm getting myself back in shape in anticipation of doing some overnight hiking trips this year. Today was a day trip, but I carried my full pack to simulate an overnight trip. Probably had the pack at around 50% of full weight. I hiked from the Tiger Mtn exit 20 parking lot taking the Tiger Mtn trail to Tiger Peak #3. The trail is pretty steep, starting around 500 ft and ending at the summit, 2500 or so feet. Distance 4.5 miles. This trail has a lot of switch backs and I found myself huffing and puffing a lot. The easier route is up the West Tiger #3 trail (which I came down). I didn't care much for that trail as it's a wide path and not what I'll be doing in the next couple of months. The trail I took was more rugged and gave me a good workout. View at the top was pretty nice, although limited to looking NW only so kinda disappointing. I was amazed to have people jogging/running past me! Of course, they were traveling light. Even so, I was impressed. I came back down through the Nock trail to walk by Tradition lake. I'm pretty sure Tradition lake is closed to fishing being it's in the conservation area. Final tally by my gps was 8.51 miles, 2285 ft climbed. Moving average 3.6 mph (booking it!). I also got to play with my gps unit, a Garmin ETrex Vista HCx. I've lost the darn manual so I was happy to see it was pretty self-explanatory! I purchased the garmin western states DVD so I have all the contour lines in the unit - very nice!

I did come home and take a shower, 2 ibuprofen, and 90 minute nap. Feel pretty good right now. I'll see what the morning brings.

Stay tuned for more hikes in the weeks ahead - and hopefully some alpine lake trouts to show off!