Hiking

[emily_in_nc]

That sounds like great fun, Crankin! I have never been to Acadia NP, but it's on the list. My DH went there on his honeymoon with his first wife, so we've kind of avoided it for that reason, but since he and I have been married for over 31 years now, and they were only married for four, we should get over that, right?!

I look forward to hearing about your trip when the time comes, and I like the idea of staying at the Hampton Inn instead of a tent. :-)

[Crankin]

Ha, ha, Emily. Yeah, it's time to get over that! I was married to someone else for a year before I married DH, but since we didn't do much of the things I do now, I haven't experienced that. However, the first time I went to the Prudential Center with DH (a big shopping area in Boston), I realized I had been there with both the first husband (during my brief one semester in college in Boston) and my first boyfriend, the one who died last year. That was weird, as the different parts of my life are very distinct.

[rocknrollgirl]

OMG, I love Acadia. We go every summer. LOVE it. This is the first year we are not going in a long time, and I will miss it. You will have a great time hiking there. October will be beautiful. Are you actually staying in Bar Harbor?

[Crankin]

Yes, nothing fancy, though. After all, it's an AMC trip. Last time we went, we rented a house in Southwest Harbor. Probably the quietest, most relaxing vacation I've ever had, despite being with 2 teenagers.

[Catrin]

Yes, nothing fancy, though. After all, it's an AMC trip. Last time we went, we rented a house in Southwest Harbor. Probably the quietest, most relaxing vacation I've ever had, despite being with 2 teenagers.

Sounds like fun - I had to look up AMC to see what kind of hiking trip you were referring to. Hadn't heard of them before but the way my life has gone I've lived in the Midwest for most of it since my mid-30's even though I'm from eastern Tennessee. Sadly my home state will need to change some elements of it's political climate before I would return but that's an entirely different topic. Enjoy your trip!

Today I hiked 4.5 miles in a local mountain bike trail system in 90 minutes. It's as aggressive as it gets for Central Indiana, I need to go to Southern Indiana to find more aggressive trails and my schedule didn't allow that today. It went well, and I had wanted to back off a bit today anyway. The last two Saturday's I broke my post-surgery hiking distance records and it seemed wise to draw back a bit today. Lovely temps for July, it was 58 when I started at 8:30 am! A bit of a break in the heat wave we've been having (though I've been really enjoying that), and it returns later this week they say.

[Crankin]

OK, you all would proud of me. We hiked up Mt. Wachusett today. The shortest and steepest trail up, which was hard and scary (rocky), but nothing compared to the rocky stuff we had on one of the trails coming back. Part of that was ok, like what I expected, both up and down, but then we turned to go along the ridge that would bring us back. Not a long distance, and we could hear the road, so even though it looked like wilderness, it's not. There was some serious rock scrambling, where I had to put my poles down and crawl. Seriously praying our trip to Acadia is not this bad. I can do it, but I am so slow, as I don't have the greatest balance. It's much improved since I started riding, but I look at these people in sandals just flying over this terrain and I am wondering what is wrong with me!
We will be going back for more torture.

[emily_in_nc]

Teehee, nothing is wrong with you, Crankin, but I suspect most of those folks scrambling in sandals are 1) 20-30 years younger and 2) Been doing it for a lot longer than you. Give yourself a break -- you're out there doing your best, and that's way better than most people sitting on their couch eating potato chips! So, congratulations! Sounds like you did a difficult hike and made it! Yay you!

We actually did another hike today. There has been unseasonably cool weather here in western Iowa for the holiday weekend; otherwise, we would not have been hiking. In fact, I thought our hiking was through for the summer, as I mentioned in a couple posts back. Yesterday was raining with a high of 61, so we did nothing at all, but today it was overcast and slowly rose from upper 50s to low 70s but with quite a bit of breeze, so we decided to postpone our planned bike ride 'til tomorrow, which is going to be warmer and sunnier, and hike instead. Just a short one of a little over 4 miles, but very pretty, and nice to be on a trail in the state park where we only saw two other people vs. in the very busy campground section where we're staying, with kids everywhere, biking up and down the road in front of us, walking, scootering, etc. A good break, and very pretty to see all the prairie wildflowers and many birds. We saw a Baltimore Oriole, a couple of Dickcissels singing madly, a hawk being chased by a posse of Red-Winged Blackbirds, lots of Canada Geese on the pond, a Great Blue Heron, and a deer. Lovely!