The choices I have for surfaces on my mile long walk to/from work are numerous...

About 40 feet of lawn...

...a few hundred feet of asphalt...

...then a few hundred feet of gravel...

...then 3 choices...(about 400’)
1). The fast one...
2). One requiring some balance...
3). And the latest one...(couldn’t do this a...

I'll start off by saying I didn’t summit. Some unpleasant weather came in while I was trying to find the solution to going up a ten foot high head wall so I decided to turn back and save it for another day. It’ll still be there.

The peak on the left was my goal. To get there I had to work around from the right.

Part of the route up. Pleasing to the eye. Gentle on the feet


Tell me that’s not a cool looking tree! I’ve no idea why that bottom branch grew out that way but it’s fascinating. I’ve seen it once before on a much older/bigger tree that I was able to climb on.


Walking this stretch was refreshing....

What a fun race! I turned 60 a couple of weeks before, so I got to compete as the youngest (instead of oldster vs. young 50-year-olds) in my group . . . and placed 2nd in women 60-69! Woo hoo!

I also "dressed up" in my craziest red-white-and-blue running kit . . . I guess I'm old enough now not to care about looking silly?

Here's a more complete report (with some of those previously mentioned "silly" photos) on my blog:

https://theagavin.wordpress.com/2019/07/11/still-running-crazy-and-barefoot-after-all-these-years/

Happy (silly!) Trails!

Thea

Last month, since I was already at Grand Canyon's North Rim (for a creative writing workshop I lead there every June), I decided to take a stroll down to the Colorado River and spend the night at Phantom Ranch, a fun overnight backpacking trip I'd done several times from the South Rim.

Of course I "knew" that it was 14 miles each way from the North Rim (twice as far as from the South Rim), but I was feeling good about the workshop and happy to have a few days to enjoy the canyon solitude.

Long story short: to hike 28 miles in two days, in summer heat, carrying a way-too-full backpack (a sort of "rebound" pack job in response to being very cold backpacking in May) . . . well, it was a bit of a rough go the last five (steep!) miles.

But . . . one step at a time . . . I made it, experimenting with three...