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!