Breaking in the Boots

I bought some new boots for the CDT hike, since I noticed the soles on my old ones were starting to wear through.

I used the opportunity to try out some different types of leg braces, and get a little more endurance training in before I ship out.

I tried two new leg braces. The one I found for my left knee worked great. It is a band that wraps around your leg just at the base of the knee cap. It holds the kneecap up so that it isn't rubbing on the tendon behind it all day long. I worked great.

The second kind I tried (on the right knee) was for the IT band (connecting your knee and thigh on the outside) It did nothing :-/ Maybe I was wearing it wrong, I'm not sure.

The hike was good though overall. I carried a 45lb pack to try to reproduce what we will be encountering, and I think it went pretty good. It was way hotter here than it will be in Colorado, but the altitude is much lower, so you win some, you loose some.

I was very lucky during this hike, and I hit a number of great views because of the clouds. I've included a few here.