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... 

Walker Ranch Loop Hike

My last hike was a fairly easy 6.5 miles. During which, my foot did really well and the arch pain that had plagued me 2 weeks, seemed resolved. Time to put that to a bigger test!

Walker Ranch is a beautiful 30 min drive from home. The Walker Ranch Loop, supposedly 7.9 miles long, was going to be more like 8.5 miles... cause all the hikes are .5 - 1 mile longer than All Trails claims. (I guess pee breaks, photo detours and walking a crooked line up the steep parts takes its toll.)

The day was warm and clear... well, it promised to be for the first half anyway. 

Downhill to the river... 

Through the woods and into Eldorado State Park for a bit. Up and over...

Back down to the river - which included a steep staircase and let me tell you, I was delighted not to be the guy with the mountain bike lugging it up stairs past me!

Then up the hill (which was apparently never-ending by mile 7) to return to the car back at Walker Ranch.

Walker Ranch trailhead reached just as the sky clouded over, rain threatened and the wind picked up. That's apparently how I roll!

I was impressed my foot was doing just fine and even more impressed that I knocked out 8.5 miles in well under 4 hours - with stops. 

Ooh... oooh.... almost forgot! On the way out of Walker Ranch on Flagstaff Rd, I came upon a herd. So sweet. The icing on the cake.