i forgot my sneakers but hiked anyway.

 

Today was the Get Out For Wellness hike at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center in Slatington. It's very odd that they were two days in a row. I think it might be that next week is Memorial Day. 

I got my sneakers ready, and filled two bottles of water. One was steel and that stayed in the car. The other was plastic and there was 3 inches of ice in the bottom. That is the one I would carry with me.

I rushed out the door for the 40 minute trip to Slatington. I arrived and people were already assembled. I looked on the back seat and no sneakers. Shit. I left them in the living room. I checked with Austin who was running the hike and said that he thought the trails would be groomed. I should be fine.

The volunteer from the Nature Center that was going along presented some options. The one they settled on was taking the L&E (Lehigh and New England) trail to the Bobolink trail, then returning on the D&L. There was just one thing. It was a rock scramble to get up to the L&E. Now the last time I took that trail it was a very short rock scramble. Boulders mostly. Maybe a block long. It is less rocky now, but much, much, much longer. Probably a half of mile. And I did it wearing Birkenstocks. How I don't know. I had to stop several times. Once the man next to me asked if I was okay and I shook my head yes. He said that's not helpful. Tell me. So I said I was fine, and he was happy. He also said he'd check on me later. And he did. This long expanse ended with a downhill that was so steep that they created stairs out of flat stones.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. The L&E was gravel and grass. The Boobolink connector was a larger gravel with several erosion gullies.  And the D&L is crushed stone.  I mostly walked alone.