I slept in later than I had planned, but I managed to get moving in a reasonable enough time. I started my hike before 10 am. The plan was to try and hike a loop that I’d seen on the maps. As long as there wasn’t too much snow, I’d be able to go up the steep trail and down the well graded road.
At first, I thought I’d be able to make the loop. There wasn’t any snow in the first mile of the trail. I did find a fall of feathers. It looked like an epic battle had been raged between two birds, leaving feathers spread in a five foot radius.
I did the first mile in just under 39 minutes, which I felt was pretty good. Not my fastest time, but I was focusing on keeping my thighs rotated out to keep my knees tracking and engage my quads and glutes. I did feel my glutes engaging. The quads, kind of.
A bit past the 1.5 mile mark, I started finding snow on the trail. Just little bits at first, but by the time I got to the junction near the 2 mile mark, there was a lot of snow. Not as much as last year, but enough to keep me from continuing with my planned itinerary. If possible, I prefer not to find new trails when they’re covered in snow. Though I guess Ambrose and I did navigate through snow before on first visits. But we were together. Finding trail with visual cues hidden by snow is harder on your own.
I turned back and kept my focus on turning my thighs out. The last few times I’d hiked down this way, my knees had been hurting after less than half a mile. This time, they didn’t hurt that way. I had some transient painful sensation, but it faded and I finished the hike feeling really good in my body.
As I drove home, I caught two turkeys crossing the road. No danger of hitting them, but it was surprising to see them dashing across the road out of nowhere. When I got home, I did my shoulder exercises and then my ankle/knee exercises before I showered. I didn’t want to leave those to evening and end up skipping.
Then I moved through the rest of the tasks that I’d set myself for today. Well, after showering. I boiled my eggs, prepped my oats, did the cleaning routine that I’m trying to establish as a weekly habit, and chopped up veggies and garlic for the tomato sauce I’m making for this week’s dinners. Tonight’s dinner is the last of last week’s leftovers, so I didn’t need to finish cooking the sauce before eating tonight.
At five, I drove into town to feed my friend’s dog. I think he’s starting to get that when I arrive, it’s food time. I gave him a few treats before handing out dinner.
The sauce is taking a while to thicken up, so I stopped cooking it for the night. I’ll get it going again in the morning until I like the thickness. And keep adjusting the flavor. I added the Peruvian yellow pepper paste for a nice kick.
My legs are nice and sore from the hike. It will be interesting to see if this week’s forecasted precipitation will make more snow up there or melt things. It would be good if it were snow, even though that will stop me from doing that route next weekend. It’s really too melted already for the time of year.
