Monday, July 29, 2013

Sunday Stroll

Friday was free money day. I finally got to cash in my $100 REI gift card, using it to replace the hiking boots I’ve had for more than 12 years – I was thinking maybe the old boots were contributing to the beat up and footsore issue. Couldn’t get boots – they didn’t have any in my size and price range. So I got a pair of hiking shoes instead, and the reading I’ve done since says that the higher ankle on boots really doesn’t contribute to supporting the ankles anyway.  I’m a happy camper - less weight on the feet is less weight dragged down the trail.

My original plan was to head down to Sky Meadows State Park to challenge myself with some elevation variation. Then I saw that gas has jumped to $3.89 a gal and that intermittent thunder storms were predicted. Yeah, that’s what I want – spend a bunch of money on gas and climb up into an open meadow on a mountaintop during a thunderstorm. Um…not so much. But turned out the thunderstorms were just showers and there was a lull in them Sunday morning, so I dashed out the door and grabbed some time on the AT. Not much in the way of a challenge elevation-wise, but it'll do.

It was gray and occasionally showery, so not much good for views:

 


But the rain and warmth has brought green, green green:






And it's brought some fast-sprouting and interesting plants.

A bright fungus of some kind:


A patch of  Indian Pipestem:



The new shoes did well, and my feet were definitely in much better shape at the end than they have been.  A brisk 6.5 miles in and out of showers and then it was back to my garden to putter in the sun that emerged by early afternoon.




12 comments:

  1. Dang. That sounds about like the perfect day! Except for that "gardening" bit at the end. I have determined that my thumbs are so far away from green that I can kill plastic plants.

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    1. LOL! My approach is to not replant anything I kill or that the deer will eat. Which is why I am encouraging the black-eyed susans to spred - tough and deer don't like their fuzzy leaves.

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  2. It sounds like a good day to me! Congrats on the new hiking shoes - that definitely makes a difference. And your gas prices are within a nickel of ours; not exactly a source for celebration.

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    1. Very good day, and definitely better than the clean-out-under-stairs closet Saturday.

      I think the gas jumped 20 cents overnight...

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  3. Great day, and NOT being footsore afterward is a BIG plus!!! :-)

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    1. No blisters, either, which is a very good thing.

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks. I keep putting off tossing the 4.3 MB camera I bought a decade ago - seems a waste - but my cell phone takes better ones.

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  5. Congratulations on the new hiking shoes.
    Thanks for the pictures

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    1. Thank you. Trying to make up for the ones that got sucked out by the mapping ap the last time...

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  6. I like the pics of the Black-Eyed Susans; they're a pretty flower. And for most people who aren't actually bashing over rocks and scree, trail shoes are perfectly acceptable.

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    1. I love my black-eyed susans - what you can't see is how well they are taking over a slope that is too steep to use a mower on.

      The banging of ankles on rock is my only concern - I have a dream of climbing Old Rag at least one more time and that would potentially be an ankle chewer.

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