I live in a flat, flat area, so it can be challenging to find hills for training. After asking around, everyone told me that the best hills were in Castlewood State Park just west of St. Louis, so I headed there with a full pack (23 pounds) to hit the hills.
The park consists of a number of trails that loop back through the parking areas, so I decided to do 3 trails--River Scene, Grotpeter, and Lone Wolf--for a total of 8.5 miles. Many of the trails are shared with mountain bikers, and I'd been warned that the trail system was popular. The River Scene trail was definitely a busy one, especially with people out walking dogs. This uphill was the first of the day, and I was feeling the burn since I hadn't warmed up at all. I definitely wasn't alone on the trail. The trails in this park are so popular that they include a number of Emergency Locator posts, presumably for people who get hurt and don't have a map to tell people where they are. I've noticed with these urban parks that almost no one carries anything with them. I guess you don't need much emergency gear when there are a hundred other people on the trail. I definitely stood out with my full backpack, and a number of people asked me what I was training for.
After the big hill, the trail leveled off on the top of a bluff along the Meramec River. I looked for bald eagles but didn't see any. I then descended a huge flight of steps down to a tunnel that took me to the river's edge. My map showed that I wouldn't have any more big hills on this route, which was kind of a disappointment, but the muddy trail provided a little extra resistance, so I still got a workout.
The trail looped back to the parking area, and I headed out on the Grotpeter Trail, which had a few more hills and far fewer people.
This picture is basically an excuse to take a break in the middle of the biggest hill on the trail. At the top, I met a couple who told me that they were thinking about doing the Appalachian Trail when they retired and wished me well on my trip. Later, I met the only other person I saw with a big backpack and we chatted for a bit about pack weight and having people look at us funny when we wear our backpacks around our neighborhoods.
The mud on the trails was really slowing me down, but I figured it was good training for the mud I'll probably find in Minnesota in the spring, too. I guess I should have gotten out earlier in the day when the trails were still frozen, but these trails see so much use since they're basically in an urban area that I wasn't doing much damage by being on them when they were muddy.
At the end of the Grotpeter trail, I took a break for a snack before hitting Lone Wolf, the shortest of the three trails but one with a solid hill at the beginning. The sun doesn't reach much of this trail, and it was unexpectedly icy due to snow melt running off the nearby slopes and refreezing at the bottom right on the trail. I took the rubber tips off my poles and relied on the metal tips for traction in quite a few places. Where there wasn't ice, there was mud, so even though the trail was just 1.5 miles long, it took me nearly an hour to complete.
As the sun was going down, so were the temperatures, so I was ready to get back to my car and head home. I was hungry and knew my husband would be, too, since he was out on a bike ride, so I stopped at Chipotle on the way home to get dinner.
The pack felt good with 23 pounds (all gear + 3-4 days of food). I've been having trouble committing to this pack since the pack itself weighs over 3 pounds, but I think I'm going to stick with it for now. If I end up doing other long trips in the future, I will probably try to find an ultralight pack I like, but this one fits well and carries well, so I'll probably start modifying it soon to cut some weight off it.
Overall, Castlewood was more challenging than many of the other trails in the area, but it wasn't as hilly as I'd hoped. If I go back, I'll probably do the trails in the opposite direction I did this time so I can take advantage of the lengthy stair climb on River Scene and see how the hills are then. The hill from the parking lot up to the bluff on either River Scene or Lone Wolf would be good for hill repeats, but it's hard to get excited about driving an hour to do hill repeats. My calves are a little sore from this hike, but it's clear that I need to spend more time at the gym on the stair climber machine since I can't get many hills nearby to train on naturally.
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