A Hikin'

A hiking we will go.  A hiking we will go.  Hi-ho, the derry-o, a hiking we will go.
Maggie and I (with Joe some of the time) hiked 18.3 miles last week.  We made a great dent in the 39.4 total miles we need to do by September 30th.  I wanted to get the distance done early, so this week I hiked 21.1 miles in five days and finished the full and half Marathons.

Saturday morning I was at the barn by 7:45, to ride with Jan.  I got there early to give Amiga hay, and brought Zorro in to get him cleaned up.  








Here is a before and after shot of Zorro.
 
Jan and I had a good ride, covering five miles in 104 minutes, so we were not moving real fast.  I didn't take any photos out on the trail, but got this one of Amiga grazing while we waited for Jan before leaving the barn.

This was a great spot for her to eat the tall grass right up next to the log pile where they hadn't mowed.

Just after I got home for lunch, I got a call from Nancy wondering why I hadn't gone to work.  OH NO!!!  I had no idea I was supposed to go in.  This time it was completely my fault, I had not copied down the date from my work calendar onto my desk calendar.  I felt horrible.  Mike had noticed the pool wasn't open when he went to Dorchester to hit golf balls, so he opened up the pool for me.  I called to see if he wanted me to quick come in for the last hour of work, but he said not to worry about it.

Joe and I continued with our afternoon plans and headed off (with the dog) to hike two different trails.  It was about 30 minutes driving time to each, and each hike was right around 30 minutes long.  We did the Soldier's Beach Trail first and then the Lake Alice trail.  For the second hike, we were briefly walking on this one way road in the Uplands Village area.  We had driven this neat (narrow) road to get to the trail head. 

We stopped at Food City on our way home to get some essentials like milk, OJ, and bread.  Joe stayed in the opened SUV with Maggie while waiting on me to shop for 14 minutes.

I crashed before 9 pm for the second night in a row.

Sunday morning I took this photo of the back, but you can't really tell it was raining.  The precipitation was sooo needed, but made dog walking messy.  I guess the lazy rainy day feeling kept me in, giving me a chance to finish and post last week's blog and try to correct the Alaskan Cruise blog I had struggled with.  The rain persisted throughout the morning and well into the afternoon.  Such a wonderful rainy day.


I finally got my lazy bones up and going and 'hiked' on over to the Wellness Center to workout.  It was the first time in four weeks.  I am pathetic.

I was completely fatigued and shaky when I got home.  After a late lunch, I laid down on the lounge chair pads out on the screened porch and read (and napped a little) for the next 90 minutes.  The rain let up and finally quit while I was resting.





I took Maggie on a nearly two hour hike of the paved paths here in Fairfield Glade.  It is part of the 1/2 Marathon route.  We covered over 4 miles of populated trail, saw and talked to a lot of people, and met their friendly dogs.  Maggie has become very skeptical of strange dogs now.

Joe was playing cards (again) so I had a quiet evening at home, with the dog and cat.  It has really been cooling off at night, so I had to partly close all the back doors to the porches.



It was a foggy Monday morning.  After the fog burned off, Joe, Maggie and I  loaded into the SUV and drove about 40 minutes to Camp Nakanawa and hiked the 4.5 mile loop around Lake Aloaloa. 
 







The rain from the day before had made the trails soft and there was an outcropping of mushroom in several places.  The leaves were quiet to walk on, and it was so peaceful.



Camp Nakanawa is set up for girl scouts and other adventuresome groups, so there were many other trails and features we navigated past or through.


I thought this old rusty swing looked more like a metal drawing. 




On the way home, we stopped in at Stone Memorial High School where we hiked the 1.6 mile Cross Country course.  The hot sun and morning's humidity had really warmed things up, plus there was very little shade on this course/trail.





We got home about 1:00.  I was exhausted, had lunch, and read/napped on the back porch.  By the time I arose, it was too late to start landscape work so I decided to knock off another hiking trail, the 1.9 mile Kirkstone Loop.  Seen left, Maggie on the dock at Lake Kirkstone. 


Maggie and I walked a couple of extra cul-de-sacs as part of my quest to walk all the roads in Fairfield Glade.  I will continue with that endeavor after the tall (un-mowed) grass dies back on the untraveled roads, and tick and chigger season is over.

Next, along with the dog, I dropped by Wildwood Stables to check on Amiga.  I lunged her and noticed she was still favoring her front right leg.  I treated her for the few scratches she has, but wasn't convinced that was causing the lameness issue.  Notice in left photo, Cash is watching from behind Amiga and Maggie is up on the work bench, watching from a safe spot.





I fixed dinner, and then at dusk, went out to collect some rocks I had seen near a hiking trail.  There was a large one I worked at moving closer to where I had parked the SUV.  I finally got too tired, and it had gotten quite dark, so I gave up on getting it, for the time being.


I was up and out by 5 am Tuesday morning, back to moving the large rock to a place where it could be loaded into the SUV.  After an hour of invigorating work, but still not getting the rock, I returned home to enjoyed my tea and breakfast.  Then, around 9:00 I headed into work at the pool.  It was a quiet shift, with only ten customers total.   Getting in the water to scrub tile was a little difficult at first, but the 76 degree water felt good after I had been sweeping the deck and worked up a sweat.  From work I went straight to the gym to get more exercise.  Since I hadn't really hiked, I did 40 minutes on the elliptical, after a tiring weight workout. 

Our evening ended with a fantastic dinner party at Gwen and Michael's.  Their home was lovely and everything about the evening was so well done, including the great tasting meal.  Sabrina and Luke were also there, and we girls had a wonderful time reconnecting.  I really miss these two from work at the front desk.  I brought my phone with me, but completely forgot to get any photos.

On the way home, Joe and I scooped up the big rock I had moved to a good pick-up location.  I had rolled and carried this thing, probably about 100 yards total.

After my usual routine Wednesday morning, Joe and I (with dog in tow) went to Cumberland Mountain State Park.


I had my last two trails to hike, one each to finish the full and the half hiking marathons.

So we set off together on the 2.5 mile Byrd Creek trail.  Seen right, the cover bridge the Boy Scouts had built.  I am over exposed in the left photo but you can see Byrd Creek in the background, and that the sun's morning light was filtering into the woods.





Some of this trail was quite rugged with rocks and roots (seen right) that you had to walk on and step over. 







This trail ended at the road over the dam, but we chose to walk at creek level down on the back side of the dam.  The only water coming from this lake at the moment, was a brown sludge.  



Having finished the full marathon, Joe went to get a hair cut and after a short rest, Maggie and I set out on the 2.7 mile Pioneer and Lake Trail loops.






 

These top two photos were taken while hiking the Byrd Lake Trail loop.  You can see the front side of the dam/road bridge in both photos.

Next we headed out on the Pioneer Trail Loop.  I love how the light was filtering into the woodland above this rock out cropping. Maggie is such a cute puppy to add to my photo shoots.

She was not too sure about going over this swinging bridge, so I let her take her time.  

There were many beautiful sights with the natural rocks, vegetation, lake, and creek.  The man-made structures were also impressive.

Seeing is so much better than photos.  Next time you come, I'll take you on a hike.

Well, Maggie and I officially finished the full and half marathons, getting it done in just 12 days!

We then treated ourselves to lunch at the Cumberland Mountain State Park restaurant, to refuel and celebrate.  The weather was perfect and it was a beautiful setting by Lake Byrd.



I was sore from rock moving and weights and tired from hiking, so opted to go with Joe to the adult pool, rather than work in the yard.  We were there almost two hours, sunning, swimming, reading and napping.  Oh, I had finished one book (James Patterson - 11th Hour) and started another.





Joe went to his weekly poker game and I got a little blogging done.  After a light dinner, I took Maggie for a nice long walk.  Right when we were passing Mirror Lake,  her flexi-leash broke.  I returned home (over a mile) hanging on to a bitty, one foot section of line.

Some family e-mails and also Facebook messaging with Britney concluded my evening.


I started my Thursday morning with a nice long walk.  This little (well actually kind of large) spider had been busy overnight.  After computerizing for a few hours, I went out to get work done on my drainage ditch, which has been sitting idle for almost eight weeks.







Right away I noticed Allen next door, working too hard at removing a big pine tree from his yard.  I went over to offer assistance, and helped him for awhile.  I was thrilled to get three wheel barrow loads of dirt.  It was full of grass and roots but would be good for fill dirt by my ditch wall.  I also got some sod I put along the wall.


Finally I got to work on my project, using the new rock I had hauled home to put at the corner where the ditch wall ends and where a retaining wall is going to come across the hill and tie in with the ditch. 








I only had time for one batch of concrete, before calling it a day.  It gets dark so early now.  I fixed dinner and then Joe and I watched the first episode of season 33 of Survivor.  It was unremarkable for the most part, although the teams had to be evacuated from the island because of a cyclone.


Friday morning Joe and I drove separately into town to drop his SUV off and then do some shopping together.  The four furniture stores were a flop, but I did get more concrete mix and four Blue Rug Juniper to finish off my one flower bed.  After Wal-Mart the SUV was ready and we each headed home.






Once groceries were un-loaded and the dog walked, we left again, for the Fairfield Glade Employee Appreciation Picnic.  It is always nice to see and hangout with fellow employees we have become friends with.

 





I spent the majority of the afternoon planting the four new little shrub.  The before and after photos are above.

The holes were not easy to dig because of planting three of the bushes so close to the big oak tree.  Some tree roots and lots of small rocks got in my way.  I cleaned leaves from the bed and also built a cairn (seen left).




You can better see the four Blue Rug Juniper in the photo to the right.  And below is another look at the whole bed from the down hill view.  





Everything got a good watering.  Then after getting cleaned up, Joe and I went to Legends for the Asian Buffet.  Again, I ate more food than necessary.  It was all very tasty, but some of it was kind of spicy, and there were lots of peppers, so I ended up with a little indigestion. But it was worth it.