Avoid Getting Soft This Winter
Gain Strength and Endurance By Spring
Get out and train during the winter months, so next season you will see more wilderness beauty and mystery than you thought possible.
Don't give in to lethargy and softness during these short days and long nights of winter. Use next six months to strengthen yourself. It takes some time, and a lot of repetition to get your body strong enough to carry backpacking weights. You don't want to lose it and have to start again from nothing in the spring.
Taking a lot of walks is a great way to stay in backpacking shape, especially with a backback on. Some people fill stuff sacks with beans or sand and place it in the backpack. I have purchased s smaller external frame pack, for the sole purpose of training around home. I have to admit, it didn't feel right carrying a full size backpack up and down the streets of my neighborhood. I look weathered and eccentric enough without that. (i.e., like a street person. One time while I was waiting for the bus on the side of my yard, talking to my dogs through a gap in the fence at the corner, a police officer stopped and wanted to know why I was looking into that yard. I politely told her that it is my house, and I was talking to my dogs, and that the bus is coming now and I am getting on it).
There are many people who equate a good life with comfort and luxury. My opinion is that comfort and luxury often keep us from getting the most out of life. Let me put it this way, If I hadn't trained for the last several years, carrying a backpack even through the winter months, I likely would not have experienced what I did on this trip last July, high in the mountains of Southwest Colorado.
Use this winter to develop strength and toughness, so that you can be ready next season to get out and see why a simple life on this earth is such an incredible blessing.
