Better Late . . .

The last week has been crazy and I didn't get around to posting.



Part 1



Saturday was kind of overcast, but not bad. There was a nice breeze so it was a good day to walk. It is getting a lot warmer and I had to break out the shorts. It is kind of a scary look for me.



The cottonwood trees are still putting out a lot of cotton. It looks like snow along the trail - particularly at the trail head and the bridges. I tried to get a picture, but it just doesn't read very well in a photo.



The honeysuckle is still going strong. The vines grow like crazy. They grow up the trees and over the top a lot like kudzu. The difference is that the honeysuckle vines are much lighter and let light through so it doesn't damage the trees. Again the perfume from thousands of honeysuckle flowers can be overwhelming.



This is what the flowers look like. They are about 3" top to bottom and they are everywhere. I took photos of the vines growing up over the trees, but it is too difficult to see the difference between the trees and the vines.









Liz joined me and we walked four miles. This is the longest walk we've done together. It didn't seem like any distance at all because we talked the entire way.



Part 2



Sunday started a bit cooler than I expected. I wore shorts again and was a little worried I might be too cool. It wasn't a problem. The seven mile walk more than warmed me up.



The bicycles are back. I walked early, so it wasn't too bad. I think I only saw about 25 bikes. I did see one person on roller blades. I have real respect for those folks. I have no idea how they pump up the rather substantial hills on this trail. I know I could never do it.



There are two wooden bridges on the trail. They are both very nice, but I don't often cross them when others are on them. Today, I crossed with several runners and a bicycle. That was weird. The vibrations from the runners and bicycle were at a different rate than those caused by my walking. It gave me a sense of being out of phase. Very strange.



I clocked my walk and was a little upset that I didn't do the first half within an hour. I was taking photos and that slowed me down a bit. When I checked at the end of the walk, I was back on track - the whole walk was exactly 2 hours. I'm pretty comfortable with the 7 miles now and I'm going to need to bump up to the next step.



The trail will be closed for the next two weeks so they can resurface the track. I'm guessing they may do some upkeep on the wooden bridges as well. My plan is to walk with Liz next Saturday at her place if she is up to it and to skip the weekend if she isn't. I won't be able to take off both weekends so I'll need to figure out where to walk the second weekend of the work. In the meantime, I'm planning to catch up on some of my projects at home.



I won't be posting for next weekend.