Lots of hiking this weekend!

On Saturday we hiked up to Dabney Cabin on the Manzana trail. It was a lovely tropical September day with some lightning and thunder at the beginning, warm humidity with cool cloud cover most of the day and warm sun toward the end of the day. The fall colors are starting to show. We hiked fast and hard and everyone seemed happy.

On the way in, there was a hive of yellow jackets on the trail. Half of us got stung, including me. On the way back, I didn't want to get stung again so I hiked in the creek back to the cars rather than take the trail. The creek was shady and pretty and it was really pleasant.

It was a 13 mile hike that I did in my homemade huarache sandals. It is fun to hike in them. I'm getting a good tan on my feet just as the summer is ending.

On Sunday we hiked up to Gaviota Peak. The weather was cold, foggy and wet. We didn't want to stop on the summit for lunch because everyone was wet from the exertion and sweat and the wind was blowing cold wet fog so it was not pleasant. Instead we continued through the overgrown trail and got even wetter as we pushed through brush. Then after a couple more miles, we found a flat spot in the sun and ate there. People were tired of the overgrown trail so half the group took the dirt road back to the cars and the rest of us kept on the trail. We all ended up at the cars at the same time. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

One guy on the hike told me he had recently lost 95 pounds. His doctor told him he needed to lose weight and get his diabetes under control. Apparently he has achieved it. He was surprised when he called me about the hike that we would be out exercising for 4 or 5 hours. He normally took an hour walk each day. He thought it was super human to exercise for that long. Well, he made it easily, or at least it looked like he did it easily. Hopefully he's learned that exercise, especially something fun like hiking, doesn't need to be rationed, that it is possible to walk 16 hours in a day and wake up feeling fine the next day. That's one of the many things I like about hiking.