You all will find when you hit the mountains your cardio is pretty good but unless you did some hip flexor and abductor training your legs will get shot pretty early.
Lots of going over downed timber that taxes your various hip muscles way different than normal gym exercises. You'll be swinging your legs over logs sideways and every which way except straight over..
This is good advice. I just did a hike with a lot of blowdown and it's always surprising how that will sap you if you don't do it much. Which reminds me one of the reasons why my favorite hunting spots are my favorites--no beetle kill so less blowdown than a lot of places. But still plenty.
I used to do a lot of leg lifts but I developed a little arthritis in one hip and my PT told me my hip flexors were way too tight and I needed to stop doing the leg lifts, stretch the hip flexors and tighten up the glutes to help with the hip alignment and reduce the arthritis. So far that's worked for the arthritis but I'm not looking forward to stepping over a bunch of blowdown this fall.
