“I can't express how grateful I am for your help with my fitness--getting in shape to do trips like this past weekend was one of my main goals and I feel like all of the work of the past year really paid off. I crushed the portages, more than ten of them, some of them over a mile long, carrying about 70lbs. We were definitely over packed but I was still able to carry everything in one go. Some of the trails were very steep, rocky, rooty, slippery, downed trees, mud a foot deep, etc. and would have been a challenging hike even without carrying all of our gear. It's hard to imagine I would have been able to do any of this a year ago, and definitely not at this pace, which was quite fast. When we got to the final canoe take out, I ran five miles at 10:00/mile without stopping on a beautiful, crushed gravel rail trail to retrieve the car, which felt awesome. I would say it was a moderate effort, a bit more than nose breathing pace. I'm very excited to plan even longer and more epic trips for the future that integrate hiking, biking, and canoeing so I can cover even more distance and reach even more remote locations!”