Saturday morning was busy for me. I was up at 3:45am to workout before I went to coach lifting class. When I got home, Gina had made some homemade donuts for us, some of my favorites because we do not get them very often. All I had on my mind was hitting a shower and then taking a long nap.
Lauren had other plans.
“Dad, can we go on a hike?”
Lauren had downloaded the All Trails app and had been looking up some “hikes” for us. She was interested in some very difficult treks and my goal was to reign her in just a bit since neither of us had done anything like that before. I had no idea exactly what gear we needed and did not want to start off on a 10-13 mile journey only to find out we didn’t have everything we needed.
We made our way over to the Parklands and ended up on the Paw Paw Trail which was listed as moderate.
Our goal was just to do it. We didn’t want to push the pace or go too slow. We just wanted to walk it. The trail marker said it was 2.3 miles, but the Garmin had us at around 2.5. The final walk was around 5.23 miles in total, so it was a really good morning. I kept thinking we might have missed a turn, but we kept seeing the purple trail markers so I knew we were on the right track and just had to keep going. Eventually, we hit the end of the trail, which was our turnaround point. Lauren said she wanted a selfie to show off the “quad gains”. She had put her phone in my backpack for the walk so I did the same. The only time we got our phones out was when we reached the turnaround point.
This past week had proven to be a challenging one for all of us. Between the drama both girls face at school, Gina working on her masters, etc. it was therapy to get out in the woods for a long walk and unplug for a few hours. I knew this would be far better than just sitting at home taking a nap.
One thing that really surprised me was how sore my hips were after this. I have walked over 5 miles countless times, but never on a trail and I admit my shoe choice was not great. I don’t have trail shoes, so I grabbed a pair that I didn’t mind getting destroyed. Thankfully we both had a pair of slides waiting for us in the car. The only thing we failed to bring were some snacks for after the walk. We were not too far from home so that wasn’t too huge of a deal for us.
Got a kick out of looking at my trunk when we got home. My gym bag, camelback, weighted vest, and cycling shoes all just tossed in there. I used to keep the trunk so organized and neat but now it has become home for grab and go fitness equipment we need at a moments notice.
