Take a Hike

Mike and I have decided to start hiking again.

Now if you know me, this might come as a surprise. I'm not much of an outdoorsy person. I don't like to sweat. I don't like bugs. And I generally prefer to be laying on the couch watching House instead of roughing it. Despite this all, I really do enjoy a good hike. (Not the extreme, backwoods, overnight, life or death, 45 mile hiking... just your usual day trip hiking.)

When we lived in Bloomington, Mike and I would go 3-4 times a week during the spring, summer and fall months. We'd easily go 2-3 miles, depending on what trail it was. Some of the reasons: Bloomington had some awesome nature trails, we had to exercise our beast of a dog (who we were hiding from our landlord) so she wouldn't wreck our little apartment, and we had very little money to do anything else.

After we left Bloomington, the hiking slowly came to a halt. Student teaching took over our lives. Then jobs. And this and that... there is always something, right? We take Scout out to run into an open field near our house or to the city lake when it's warm, but that is pretty much the extent of our walking trips as of late.

So the other night, as we sat around complaining about our out-of-shapeness and slowing metabolism, we decided that we should start hiking again. We both enjoy it... why not make it a hobby again?

The plan is to start out slow and work our way up to a rugged trail somewhere in the Smokey Mountains this summer.

I'm excited. I started my "training" by doing some leg squats yesterday. I regret doing them now that I cannot move the lower half of my body, but ya gotta start somewhere, right?