I have been itching to get back into the mountains but the price of gas has kept me doing local walks/hikes. Yesterday I took a longer, hillier route to the mall. It was a decent (7 mile) workout but, let’s face it. Walking on sidewalks along busy streets is not exactly peaceful. It is not what Beethoven had in mind with his Pastoral Symphony.
Today I did an Olallie Trail hike: PTC to Cedar Butte, to Southside Trail, to Olallie. I took a right and, 1.5 miles later, was at the first view point. Just to prolong the pleasure I took Olallie all the way down to the PTC. Total mileage today was 8.3.
I saw one trail runner as I was leaving the lot at 6:35 am and not another person until I was almost back at the car. I heard excited voices ahead and ran into a group of close to (I estimate) forty people, mostly little kids with a few adults trying to keep the kids under control. I am glad they were going out while I was coming back, but I do like to see kids out hiking. Get ’em started early.
Track below.
