Hiking

    Yesterday I had a nice walk in Forest Park.  A friend joined me in the morning which was great.  I took it easy and only did about 10 miles as I was wearing sneakers instead of my hiking boots.  I bought very good hiking boot about 2 years ago and one of them ripped in the heal area.  I wanted to have them well broken in by August, but I wasn't expecting them to start wearing out!  Luckily my shoe repair guy us putting in a new lining in the back, so I'll be ready to go again next week.
   Last Friday I went to Vermont with ten others from my church and we hiked Mt Okemo.  We had great weather and a lovely day, but I felt a big difference.   Going up was okay on the legs, but I had to stop visiting from time to time so I could concentrate on breathing.  Coming down I could breathe, but ohhh, were my legs getting tired.  The hike is roughly 5.8 miles with an ascent around 1900 feet and a beautiful view of the area (if you climbed stairs up the fire tower).  My thighs continued to remind me about the hike for another 3 days!
   When I got home I checked my Camino guide book to take another look at the daily ascents.  I think I'll be okay as they do get up into the 1500 and 1600 foot range, but they are spread over more miles.  I might be going up a short while, down, level for a number of miles, then back up again.  At least that is my hope!  I'm not certain I could take hiking a mountain more than one day in a row.
   So I started thinking...  I refer to walking the Camino de Santiago, but last week we talked about hiking, not walking up Mt Okemo.  I don't know what I've thought the difference was between walking and hiking, but after Friday I thought it might have to do with pain.  So I looked up the definition of hike.  Here's what I found in my Webster's dictionary:  as a verb it is "take a long walk" while as a noun it is "long walk."  Hmmm... guess I'm hiking the Camino de Santiago.  Whatever I call it I am going to have to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.  Blessings to you as you move forward on your journey this week.