Slushy ground, misty skies... a GREAT day to test gear!

 I think I turned a mental corner this week. 

Not only a recommittment to hiking the hard stuff in prep for Kili, but I reached out to several Tanzania-based trekking operators with the intention to help Sue and I pick one and start the process to book dates and invest (commit) financially!

We up'd and outed ourselves on Sunday morning in 75% humidity, low cloud, chance of rain, slushy and muddy ground to do a 8 mile challenging hike. Walker Ranch Loop is up and down the WHOLE way... there are no flat bits! Even the road leading to the trail head is a squirrely affair.

Todays highlights were: 

* Maddie (Sue's sweet rescue dog) bounced her 45lb self along the trail getting probably 12 miles of hike to our 8. She was wet within the first 20 mins and didn't complain once about cold feet or not being able to eat chile-lime chips with us! Endless joy and gratitude... It's what we can learn from dogs!

* Despite suffering from a clear case of chronic incline-itis the last couple of miles, neither Sue nor I died or had to chew off our own ankles. We hiked, laughed and loved the forest shrouded in mist and cloud. 

I took a hundred pictures to prove our hardiness (of course).

A sign at the trailhead asked us "Are you prepared?".  Kinda, yeah. I mean, we use this trail to prep for other trails, we use this weather to test gear for worse conditions... We don't take things too lightly and we refuse to take the suffering and endurance too seriously also. Every hike, every season and version of nature has its beauty and we are here to experience it all. Our little failures are just lessons learned and will result in us going further, longer and safer in the coming hikes too.

The ride home was no less spectacular than the trip up Flagstaff Mtn this morning...