- Joined
- Apr 28, 2008
- Messages
- 21
Today is a national holiday in Norway, and I decided to spend it breaking in a couple of new boots. They're your standard issue military boots, more or less, sturdy and made for marching. After treating them with some wax and a little oil, I was ready to go.
To reach the wilderness from my home, I need to get on the subway and ride it for about half an hour. The 10-15 minute walk to the subway station already has me in trouble: my feet are hurting like hell - this is going to be one hell of a hike. "Oh well," I bravely think, "suck it up and be a man."
After a 30 minute ride, I'm finally out of the city (Oslo, Norway), and I get ready to go. Usually I am a very fast walker, but today I have to ease up on the tempo on account of the burning sensation in my feet.
A little ways into the forest, I come across a small campsite left behind:
About an hour into the hike I need to rest up and let my feet breathe for a while. The pain isn't as bad now, walking in the forest is a hell of a lot better than on the asphalt. I find a nice open spot to rest up, snooping around a little and finding some fresh animal tracks (most likely deer). For a while this has me well amused.
While I'm resting, I pass the time reviving a hobby from my childhood days, knife throwing (never mind the places where I've damaged the tree and had the knife bounce wildly off to the side
):
My aim is totally off when I start out, but after 20-30 minutes I'm getting back into it, both hitting the tree and making the knife stick more often than not!
I eat an egg and a tomato, and decide to go on, bravely going where probably a lot of people have gone before me (the forest right outside Oslo isn't exactly desolate country, I'm afraid). I quickly get off the paths:
Climbing difficult terrain is a lot harder when your feet burn with every step you take, but in my efforts to be a Man, I say to hell with it and start climbing upwards. After a while the pain subsides significantly, and I'm able to increase the speed a little, all the while chanting "suck it up, suck it up" inside
And now, time for token Ka Bar-in-a-tree picture:
We're now well into the second hour of hiking, and I'm starting to get the feeling that I should be turning around now. The thing with hiking is that when you've been walking for 2 hours, you have another 2 hours to go in the other direction to get back to where you started
The pain isn't too bad at this point, but with my powers to see into the future I foresee that it will increase again.
I follow a cute and trollish (don't know if you guys use an expression like this, but in Norway we say that something has a trollish feel to it when you come across a very silent and dense area of the woods) little stream for a while:
I make good time, even though I'm taking frequent rests to have some water and rest my feet. I meet a couple of people when I get closer to civilization, but all in all I've been lucky to see almost no one during my hike.
Now comes the real kicker: when I get off the subway and prepare for the 10 minute walk back to my place, the pain just goes through the roof. The rest on the subway has totally screwed me over, and I hobble on homeward, getting passed by old ladies and young mothers wheeling their young ones around. Brand new military boots on asphalt is less than optimal, to put it mildly
Last picture, the damage done:
Left foot similarly afflicted, but not as bad. All in all it was a good trip, with beautiful nature and some quality time with myself and my knives. Hopefully the damn boots won't hurt me as badly the next time I take them out for a spin. Hope you enjoyed the show, thanks for reading.
To reach the wilderness from my home, I need to get on the subway and ride it for about half an hour. The 10-15 minute walk to the subway station already has me in trouble: my feet are hurting like hell - this is going to be one hell of a hike. "Oh well," I bravely think, "suck it up and be a man."
After a 30 minute ride, I'm finally out of the city (Oslo, Norway), and I get ready to go. Usually I am a very fast walker, but today I have to ease up on the tempo on account of the burning sensation in my feet.
A little ways into the forest, I come across a small campsite left behind:
About an hour into the hike I need to rest up and let my feet breathe for a while. The pain isn't as bad now, walking in the forest is a hell of a lot better than on the asphalt. I find a nice open spot to rest up, snooping around a little and finding some fresh animal tracks (most likely deer). For a while this has me well amused.
While I'm resting, I pass the time reviving a hobby from my childhood days, knife throwing (never mind the places where I've damaged the tree and had the knife bounce wildly off to the side
):
My aim is totally off when I start out, but after 20-30 minutes I'm getting back into it, both hitting the tree and making the knife stick more often than not!
I eat an egg and a tomato, and decide to go on, bravely going where probably a lot of people have gone before me (the forest right outside Oslo isn't exactly desolate country, I'm afraid). I quickly get off the paths:
Climbing difficult terrain is a lot harder when your feet burn with every step you take, but in my efforts to be a Man, I say to hell with it and start climbing upwards. After a while the pain subsides significantly, and I'm able to increase the speed a little, all the while chanting "suck it up, suck it up" inside
And now, time for token Ka Bar-in-a-tree picture:
We're now well into the second hour of hiking, and I'm starting to get the feeling that I should be turning around now. The thing with hiking is that when you've been walking for 2 hours, you have another 2 hours to go in the other direction to get back to where you started
The pain isn't too bad at this point, but with my powers to see into the future I foresee that it will increase again.I follow a cute and trollish (don't know if you guys use an expression like this, but in Norway we say that something has a trollish feel to it when you come across a very silent and dense area of the woods) little stream for a while:
I make good time, even though I'm taking frequent rests to have some water and rest my feet. I meet a couple of people when I get closer to civilization, but all in all I've been lucky to see almost no one during my hike.
Now comes the real kicker: when I get off the subway and prepare for the 10 minute walk back to my place, the pain just goes through the roof. The rest on the subway has totally screwed me over, and I hobble on homeward, getting passed by old ladies and young mothers wheeling their young ones around. Brand new military boots on asphalt is less than optimal, to put it mildly
Last picture, the damage done:
Left foot similarly afflicted, but not as bad. All in all it was a good trip, with beautiful nature and some quality time with myself and my knives. Hopefully the damn boots won't hurt me as badly the next time I take them out for a spin. Hope you enjoyed the show, thanks for reading.
