My back is still giving me problems. This time, I didn't wake up with the pain. I went grocery shopping yesterday and forgot to get some Tylenol. Now, that's going to have to wait about a week. I have to get into a stretching routine twice daily because my issues are muscle related going back to the Night From Hell
The problem from back then was I had no choice but to push myself way beyond my design parameters that day. I wouldn't have ordinarily done this without sufficient testing of my abilities. By way of testing back then, I was only rated for an absolute maximum of 32 miles in one day on flat terrain.
The first test was on a loop using a portion of the Pemberville Section - Buckeye Trail. That was 31 miles in 10 hours, 04 minutes and 28 seconds. I then had to notch it up to 32 when I was on the International Appalachian Trail - Newfoundland and Labrador when I had to make a regional bus stop on time. Normally, I hiked in the ball park of 20 mile days.
On the Night From Hell, I prepositioned my bicycle and scheduled a 24 mile day hiking. The bike ride back was supposed to be about 12 miles. I started late and my hike took me past dusk. Road Fork Section - Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent, during that time) wasn't maintained well and I didn't trust it. I've had plenty of off-road night hiking experience. And at night, it's slower. There's also optical illusions out there. Even the most powerful flashlights can't display certain depths right (like inside of a rut).
I executed two contingencies that evening that added mileage on foot. For me, it works out to be 1:2 or 3 in hilly terrain and 1:4 on flat terrain. The rear rim on the bike was so out of true that I couldn't ride it much more, so I had to walk it on-foot for about 6 miles. The bike has a drivetrain that spreads out the load on a person's stamina. In total, it turned out to be a 54 mile day, 44 of those were on-foot.
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