Sunday, July 31, 2011

Preparations Underway

Preparations are well underway. Most of the gear is ready. Bought my 50L sized hiking bag yesterday on Ebay. Samer bought a hiking shoes, which I asked him to break into. He called me yesterday to tell me that he was thinking of sleeping in it :-).

Physical preparation has also been progressing. I am fortunate to be visiting Colombia at the moment, which affords me an altitude of about 2200 meters, more or less commensurate with the altitude along the higher ridges of Lebanon's mountains. As I do not have enough time to hike here, I have instead decided on a jogging regimen of about 4 miles (6 km) a day. Not quite the same as walking 20-25 km a day, but close in terms of energy consumption. A recent study from Syracuse actually pointed to running consuming net calorie burn of fours times that of walking. Meaning 6 km *4 = 24 km. In net calorie burn, it comes close to the goal needed ... The altitude being commensurate helps in terms of the breathing. The only thing remaining is the actual change in pitch (i.e. going uphill ...). On this front, I figure there is nothing much to do about it except to be comforted by most uphills being followed by downhill, averaging the effort out ...   

On the security front, we are planning on advising the proper authorities to make sure there aren't any surprises for them or us. The region is a bit volatile these days, wouldn't you say? And yet I am confident that it will be a relatively safe expedition. And I hope by the end of it, we will be able to prove it.


Meanwhile my friends in Lebanon have been very helpful. Karim D. has offered his zoom in lens, which should make for great pics as well as cel and internet connection. He is going to join in some of the legs of the trip. Karim M. wants to join too. Abiro will be safe keeping our stuff while we are on the hike (in exchange for some brownies). We haven't really advertised this, nor do we plan to except for close friends and family. I think it is better that way.

WY

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