Fantastic weekend
Saturday I had scheduled a 7-mile hike for the club at Mohican State Park, which is about an hour north of Columbus. I admit, I was a little nervous about it. The first mile of the hike contains some fairly steep hills and I've been feeling insecure about my fitness level lately. I haven't been doing as much hiking as usual this summer (combo of weather and schedule). For the last month I've been going to the gym a lot but I still have this (stupid) notion that I ought to be able to zip up steep hills without being out of breath. Also the weather looked chancey and the attendance was going to be very low. I came within a hair's breadth of cancelling. I'm SO glad I didn't. It was, indeed, gloomy and damp when we started (there were only four of us, one woman I like a lot that I've been on a few hikes with and two newbies who turned out to be awesome)...but that first mile is woodsy and mysterious and the mist was hanging in the treetops, it was otherwordly and beautiful. We were seriously waiting for Galadriel to float out of the mist.
I was out of breath on the hills but never had to stop, I just trudged right up, so right away I felt better. That's about as well as I did those hills when I'd been doing more regular hiking and gym exercise. Then the sun came out and it was lovely and cool and perfect hiking weather.
I don't think I realized how much I needed that hike until I was on the trail. Since my big Lifestyle Change, hiking has always been so associated with my general feeling of well-being and accomplishment that when I'm not doing it as much, I feel...well, kind of unfulfilled and icky. Being on the trail and feeling really good doing a not-super-easy 7 miles reassured me a lot. I'm feeling much more confident about the very busy schedule of hikes I've got for October, the best hiking month of the whole year.
Then Sunday, my docent friends and I took a field trip to the Toledo Zoo. We loved it! We knew it was a smaller, older zoo and weren't sure what to expect, but it exceeded our expectations. We were especially excited to see the African Elephants and the hippos, which our zoo doesn't have. We were there open to close and had a great
time.
So it was a busy weekend (I was up at 6 am both days, argh) but really fantastic.
Hope you guys had a good weekend, too!
I was out of breath on the hills but never had to stop, I just trudged right up, so right away I felt better. That's about as well as I did those hills when I'd been doing more regular hiking and gym exercise. Then the sun came out and it was lovely and cool and perfect hiking weather.
I don't think I realized how much I needed that hike until I was on the trail. Since my big Lifestyle Change, hiking has always been so associated with my general feeling of well-being and accomplishment that when I'm not doing it as much, I feel...well, kind of unfulfilled and icky. Being on the trail and feeling really good doing a not-super-easy 7 miles reassured me a lot. I'm feeling much more confident about the very busy schedule of hikes I've got for October, the best hiking month of the whole year.
Then Sunday, my docent friends and I took a field trip to the Toledo Zoo. We loved it! We knew it was a smaller, older zoo and weren't sure what to expect, but it exceeded our expectations. We were especially excited to see the African Elephants and the hippos, which our zoo doesn't have. We were there open to close and had a great
time.
So it was a busy weekend (I was up at 6 am both days, argh) but really fantastic.
Hope you guys had a good weekend, too!