Hiking

[Crankin]

Did 4 miles in Estabrook Woods today, including hiking up the old ski slope, which had a tiny swath of dirt going up the wildflower and grass covered slope. Looks like some crazy azz mountain bikers had been there. Felt good and this is probably the most challenging local (in my town) hike I can do.
Then, being who we are, we decided to walk into town around 5 and participate in a farm to table restaurant's one year anniversary celebration, which featured their new brewery made beers. So, we walked the 1.8 miles, had a flight of their 4 brews (not too much), shared a soft pretzel and a burrata with bread. Then, we proceeded to the local ice cream place and had a cone. Another 1.8 miles home, where we went a slightly different way out of the village, and then for less on Main St, where, although there's a sidewalk, is a bit noisy. Took the dirt road that leads to the neighborhood next to our condo, where we had 2 small hills to go up, before getting to the path the goes right to our street.
My feet hurt, but I will sleep well tonight.

[Catrin]

Sounds like it was fun Crankin! I had a nice 5.5 mile hike this past weekend, and am planning another this coming weekend in another location. It certainly does help sleep come@

[Crankin]

I am going on a hike very early tomorrow, with a former colleague from when I was teaching. It's a 4 mile hike, with a good up in the beginning, and a view of a chasm in the middle. Very strange in the middle of a town of 20,000 people.

[Catrin]

I am going on a hike very early tomorrow, with a former colleague from when I was teaching. It's a 4 mile hike, with a good up in the beginning, and a view of a chasm in the middle. Very strange in the middle of a town of 20,000 people.

Sounds wonderful! The chasm sounds quite interesting, any chance for a picture or two?

[emily_in_nc]

That sounds like a nice hike, Crankin. Hope it wasn't too hot. Been seeing some awful high heat indices for the east of late, and here in Minnesota we had to turn our heat on this am. It was 51 degrees!

[Crankin]

So, my hike this morning was timed appropriately, as we are under a poor air quality alert starting in 30 minutes, for the rest of the day. It's got to be 90% humidity, going up to 90 degrees later.
Unfortunately, that meant slippery roots and rocks... I was talking away with my friend when my foot hit a rock and I felt a little "that hurt." Not my ankle, on the metatarsi. It felt sore, but is fine now. Then, like 2 minutes later, I took a flyer on something slippery. Thankfully, wearing my hiking capris, so no damage, except dirt stains! But my friend asked me if my balance is off! Of course, I explained that it's always been off, and is actually better now. I really was not paying attention to the ground like I usually do. We still had a good hike and sat atop a rock/viewpoint for awhile, near the end. I don't have pictures of the chasm, I do have some of the view, but I cannot figure out how to get it from my phone to TE. Let me work on that!
I think it was about 4 miles. We had a great time, and so glad I did this, instead of the sweaty 12 mile ride my DH did. Just a little worried about my ability to do the hiking in Acadia in the fall, when it may be raining, but I can't worry for the next 4 months.

[Catrin]

Decent hike today with a new hiking partner, I keep finding more women who like to head out into the woods. We decided to call it trekking instead of hiking. I was checking out my knee on a trail I've not done since long before my knee injury and it did fine. So well that when I bring my little hiking group back in 2 weeks I will make it a 6-mile route rather than the 4-miles from today. Was actually unsure how far it was until we were done so that was nice.

Saw LOTS of a wide variety of very brightly colored mushrooms of different sizes and shapes. Interestingly enough, they all appeared to be on the uphill side of the trail and never on both sides outside of one location that was on a hill top. Some were bright and fuzzy, like something from a Disney movie, others were bright and hairy, colors ranged from blue to red to yellow to white. I know that bright colored mushrooms are always to be avoided, but I've never seen so many! Will look them up to see if I can find out more about some of them.

edited: many of the mushrooms appear to have been a combination of amanita and fly agaric (another kind of amanita) - both posionious - and their colors were quite bright and vibrant. I may not be able to figure out what the bright red and orange fuzzy/plush ones were - they looked like they would be warm and fuzzy to the touch. We didn't touch them :-) Pity I didn't get any pictures. We saw many different things today that I've never noticed in that park before, interesting!