Saturday, September 27, 2014

September Saturday Recap

  I'm disappointed I haven't filled up my Trail Report page this summer.  My sister has two new hips ... can we say three?  One hip ended up being replaced a second time!  We've been walking almost every day, but not quite the same as hiking.  When we do get a hike, it is a power hike with a focus on time and distance and pace as opposed to views and birds and contemplation.  I suppose it hasn't helped that we both graduated to sort-of-smart phones this summer.  She uses a stop watch function and is all about the time!!  I downloaded "map my hike" which is just my cup of tea as it uses GPS technology to show my route!  It speaks to us at each mile and lets us know our pace per mile as well as a split pace time and at the end it calculates calories burned.  After three years of not hiking, we each had some weight to lose as well as just needing to get fit again.  My favorite part of "map my hike" is syncing it to my lap top then watching a video flyover of our route through google earth.  Most of our "hiking" has been walking an abandoned road in town which gives us a quick three mile walk almost every day.  Once or twice a week we try to get a four or five mile hike in.  We are grateful for the Wapack Trail and the Midstate Trail in our backyard.  The Midstate Trail gives us a 5 mile roundtrip hike through changing terrain but it is mostly soft!  We have seen evidence of horse and bear, deer, and possibly coyote along the trail. 

  We also have Mount Watatic in our backyard, which is a relatively easy but steep hike to a rocky open top with views to Boston, as well as mountain ranges in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Last Saturday morning we began our hike with headlamps at 5:20 in the morning, hoping to enjoy sunrise on top.  It is VERY different hiking in the dark.  We made it to the top just about first light, with plenty of time to find a spot protected from the strong wind.  Coffee poured and muffins handed out, we leaned against a rock to watch the sunrise.  A very overcast day, the sunrise was not spectacular but it felt so good to finally do it as we've talked about it for years but always find a good excuse to stay in bed a little later on a Saturday morning.






1 comment:

  1. I guess I'm a slow moving birding, photography walker. And for years I though I was a hiker. Oh well.....:) I bike the same way.

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