Inaugural Trail Ride

                           I don't talk a lot about my horse on this blog.  Actually, I'm not sure that I have mentioned him at all.  My horse is Blue.  He's a Missouri FoxTrotter and I've had him almost 4 years.  I have had horses most of my life and they are an important way for me to relieve stress and relax.  My horse is my activity I do without my husband.  He golfs without me and I ride horses without him.  It's our alone time.  

Today was my first trail ride post ACL repair. It was a beautiful day and my husband was making his lesson plans for next week so I went to the barn. I originally just went to brush out my very furry horse but a few friends were there and were getting ready to ride so I decided to tag along. I like riding with a group especially since my ACL tear last year. It is challenging to get on and off my horse without a mounting block. So for safety reasons over the past year I have only ridden with friends. I'm hoping this year after I can mount and dismount un-aided I can do some solo rides. 

Today however I was thrilled to tag along on their ride. I'm not sure why but the first ride of the year always makes me hope that Blue still will accept me as his rider.  Every year he acts as if we rode last week. He's just as mellow as can be. I, as usual, was sporting my yoga pants and tennis shoes. Way more comfortable than jeans! We rode along the lakeshore talking about how low the water is this year.  

We made a stop along the trail where it's always nice to chat and have a Dove Chocolate before turning around to head home. When we got home I continued to spend another hour trying to brush all the excess hair from Blue. He is just out of control. Hopefully as this year goes on I'll be able to post more from my time on the trails with Blue and my time on the trails with Jon and Winston.  

Head in the books.

I have had my head in the books lately.  Well, in one book and in my kindle to be more accurate.  In the past 2 weeks I have started and finished two books.  I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas.  I guess I should clarify.  I partially read Wild.  When I read the backcover it spoke about her overcoming some difficulties with her mother's death and hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  Turns out most of the book is about her constant whining from being ill prepared, drug use and complete ignorance regarding hiking.  I ended up skipping most of the pages of the book whenever she was rambling about her past and tried to read the poorly described trail descriptions.  I gave up on the book with two chapters left and moved on to Walden on Wheels.  It was clearly written by an educated writer that has ability to describe his surroundings, feelings and thoughts with ease.  Walden on Wheels tells Ken's story about graduating with his undergraduate degree and thousands of dollars in debt.  He becomes so bothered by the debt and the inability to get a job related to his degree that he travels to Alaska and works minimum wage jobs for three years to pay his debt in its entirety before getting accepted into a PhD program at Duke.  He then lives in a van on Duke's campus parking lot for the next 2.5 years staying out of debt.  Naturally, Duke now has a law against anyone living in their vehicle on campus.  His story is very well written, his adventures in the summer with work in Alaska and other nature oriented jobs add the little bit of outdoorsy-ness that I enjoy reading.  His book is also inspiring about ways that others can simplify their life to decrease their debt and to feel a new type of "freedom."
Now, it's time to charge my kindle and try to find a new book.  What good books have you ready lately?  Please leave a comment below.

Getting Outdoors

Today Winston and I went out for a little day hike.  Jon was in Kansas City and the sun was shining so Winston and I hit the trails.  We each fueled up with a hot dog before our trail.  Yep, a hot dog.  Ok…so we make questionable decisions sometimes.  I decided to take my little daypack which I don't normally take.  I have been thinking I need to start slowing adding pack weight to get back into hiking shape.  Winston sported his harness and ruff wear boots.

My daypack included water for both of us, a collapsible water bowl for Winston, a snickers in case my hot dog didn't last, a jacket since the wind was chilly, gloves, my buff, lighter, phone, camera, gorilla pod, Leatherman multi-tool and headlamp.  

Most of this just stays in my pack from hike to hike.  I usually just leave my daypack in the car so it's always ready.  This also means that my snickers bar goes through various stages of melting and hardening.  This doesn't matter because a snickers bar is fabulous regardless of the structural integrity. 

Today was just a short 3.5 mile hike but it was a good distance for me.  I have been hiking about 1.5 miles every evening after work with Jon and Winston so 3.5 miles today was nice.  We had a pretty good pace the entire time.  We had a stop for water about half way through.  There was a lot more traffic on the trails today.  We encountered 2 mountain bikers and numerous hikers and trail runners.  Winston has decided that he does not like anyone passing us.  He whines and howls after they pass and wants to run with them.  It got to the point that when people would pass us I would let them know that he will whine as they get ahead of us.  He really sounds pathetic.  It's not like a bark or a howl but more like he is being left behind and is throwing a fit crying.  It's ridiculous.  Here he is a 60 pound large dog and he sounds like a tiny little foo foo dog whining because he can't see out the window of the car.  

We turned off the main busy trail and Winston seemed to mellow out and just walk casually.  Apparently according to the smell of the trail there had been little traffic ahead of us that he needed to whine about.  However it was a little more technical. I am still fairly cautious about the rocky, uneven parts and we slow down considerably for these areas.  Especially on my own I don't want to risk twisting my knee. The good news was that I didn't feel worn out or tired and I think we could have hiked much longer.  I'll see how my knee feels tonight and if it's all good then tomorrow we will have to get out for a longer hike and maybe we will take Jon too!  

I hope you enjoyed the outdoors this weekend too! 

Orienteering

Jon and I spent a beautiful, chilly Sunday afternoon trying something new.  At the lake that is just 3 miles from our place a group was hosting an orienteering course.  We didn't know anything about orienteering except that it was at our hiking trails where we spend so much time every week.  

We arrived and met the two people hosting the event and they were so nice.  They gave us a map of the course and gave us a little intro on the goals and ways to make it easier or harder, our choice.  We decided to take the short, beginners course.  Especially, since my ortho doctor said I could hike just 3 days before.  

Here I'm putting the little stick into the check-in spot.  It tracks when we check in to each location and when it is all done you can see your time from each location throughout the course.  

Here Jon was deciding that we should abandon our trail and head across country to save time.  I'm not sure how much time it saved since our speed was much slower through the brush.

We had so much fun with this and will definitely do this again.  It was fun to try and keep ourselves oriented to where we were and not just enjoying the scenery.  We tend to worry less about getting lost since these trails are very familiar to us.  Some of the orienteering courses are in new places that we have never been and that will be a great challenge.  It will give us some practice using our compass and help us to notice the land more.  

If you have a chance to participate in an orienteering course…..go do it!!!! 

Fitness Special—Hike Forever: The Exercises | Backpacker Magazine

It's March!!!!  That means let's get in shape for some hiking!! Ok, maybe we should have been doing this all winter long.  Backpacker Magazine just had an awesome article about exercises to help you hike forever!  I'm hoping to do a lot of hiking this spring and summer so this article comes at a perfect time for me!



Hope it helps you too!  Happy Trails!



Fitness Special—Hike Forever: The Exercises | Backpacker Magazine