More Hiking

Blur of sniffery.

Hiking is an activity I've always had a love-hate relationship with.  It's something that has to be done to get to a crag, but it's always the worst part of the climbing process for me.  I'm no good at it, I lack the balance, sure-footedness and stamina to really enjoy it.  Also, half the time, it involves some reverse approach in the fading daylight, in addition to the general lack of skill. That said, Singer can't get enough of it, and for her, I am willing to get a bit, or a lot, uncomfortable.

Serendipitously matching hat and backpack.  

On Saturday, we took a short hike in Terryville, replete with a few scrambles and some trail running.  Cue fading daylight.  On Sunday, we met up with the dog hiking group for her second big girl hike with the other dogs.  This time, instead of being 15 minutes late, we were a solid 30-45 minutes late.  (Fence mayhem.)  This meant that by the time we got there, we were sprinting (okay, sprinting then walking, sprinting, then walking) up the trail, trying to catch the rest of the pack.  Singer didn't mind one bit.  At one point, before the summit, we spotted them descending, so we cut through another path and caught up in time for Singer to run around with Avery and a little beagle for the last mile or so.  We ended up doing a variation of the loop again, to let Singer run around and to check out the frozen pond

I think I've done more hiking in the past two weeks than I've done during the past 12 months, but at least my boots are getting some use.