camping on the local trail?

ok here is the plan. i am going to load up my backpack with all my camping gear, strap my unicycle on my backpack and see how difficult it is to carry it around for five miles. that doesn't sound too difficult. i can trail run forever. i've run eleven miles recently over some pretty rough terrain and it wasn't too bad. five miles of walking should be a pretty easy thing to do after lunch. i know what i can do! i'll hike out 5 miles, unhook my unicycle, and ride back five miles on my unicycle while wearing my pack.

funny as i'm writing about this now i can not see anyway possible that this was at one time a good idea. i must have had too many endorphins still hanging around from my shopping spree the day before. how could i have possibly thought that this was going to go well. i had done this same route a couple of weeks prior to this, but back then it was all unicycle, and it took something like three hours. i really wish i would have done the math before i set out on this one. also, it is worth noting that my stupid scale said that my fully loaded pack with my unicycle strapped on, was only 33lbs! [if i sound a little harsh on my scale, it's because i have a real problem with all scales and their lies] anyway, 33 lbs was a lot lighter than the load that almost killed me in the store.

picture this:
95 degrees out, no shade, big backpack, unicycle strapped on, bed roll, sleeping bag, misc clothes, stove, 100 liters of water, no food, and i was about to use my new shoes! after several thoughts, i decided that new shoes would be too much for ... even me "sufferman". i set out on my test hike. i got some pretty weird looks from people. they didn't know what the heck i was up to. i wish i could say that they were all staring at me, but i think it was because i was glaring at them to see their reaction to me. i hiked along, mile after mile, step after step, hill after hill, nagging back pain after nagging back pain, weird look after weird look. the pain was getting pretty bad, and i was only about two miles into the trail.

that would have been a perfect point to turn around. it's really too bad that my brain doesn't work as well as it should. i did have a pretty "good" idea, however. i thought that whistling would take my mind off the pain... and if i looked happy i would be happy :) i don't know where i got this tune from, but it was definitely not a song i had on my ipod. it seemed to be a song that required a lot of exhaling blows. it did make things better for a couple of blissful minutes. but then it kind of made things worse because it messed up my breathing. then all of a sudden i felt really out of breath and tired.

i slowed down a bit, and talked to some people along the way. everybody was really nice. they all asked me about unicycling, and the trail, and snakes whatever. i can't tell you how happy i was to make it to my turn around point. when i got there i practically threw off my pack, and laid down on dirt floor in the middle of no where. i didn't have any energy bars, or energy drink, or ice cream... nothing! nothing but water.... and i was running low on that.

so after some rest, i put my gear together. i tightened up my back pack, and hopped on my unicycle. whoa, that was weird. unicycling uphill with a huge pack on, was really really hard :( i was really looking forward to this part of the journey. now i have five miles to go with a whole different type of suffering. i'll spare you every little painful moment. because frankly i'm really tired of writing about suffering.

one last thing that was pretty funny, as i was heading back, i could not do any thing very technical on the trail. i'm not too sure if it was because i was really really tired or that the stupid pack was not fastened to my back. it was firmly strapped to my waist, and this caused a whole bunch of problems with my balance. so anyway i was coming to this group of teenagers. they were very nice [for a bunch of punks] they were really impressed with my unicycling. i tried really hard to ride everything while they were watching. when i came to where they were i had to go through this pretty rocky section. they thought that it was pretty cool to be doing the stuff i was doing [they said so, i'm not making that part up.... really!]. i was talking to them as i was trying to make my way through the section. one kid ask if he can have my autograph. heh....i thought he was messing with me. you know the same way bullies lure their victims in, before they pull some embarrassing prank... i know. i kind of laughed, and tried to change the subject a bit with some story about guys that were way better than me on a unicycle. then this kid said, with a very serious look on his face, "so no then?" then i had to tell him, "you don't want my autograph [kid]" it was really weird, but there was no way i was going to give someone an autograph....unless i was really famous :)

finally, on the way back, i passed some guy, and he said, "what are you camping on th e trail?"