eight miles on the tow path

Today Bonnie picked me up at 6 am to walk, and we still didn't beat the heat. By the time we picked up Lydia and reached the Lehigh Gap trailhead, we didn't start walking till 6:45. Clearly we were the last ones there. I saw at least four people come out of the Appalachian Trail trailhead, with a good sweat on. They must have started walking at first light.

We met Dawn at the trailhead and headed out. In many ways this section is the same as most of the others—flat and groomed gravel. However, the vegetation is much different. Back in the 70s there was nothing on that mountainside. It was strip mined clean and bare.

Slowly, it's been allowed to come back to life. Lots of butterfly bushes, black eyed Susie's, queen Anne's lace, sumac, immature trees. Often there are beautiful vistas of the river. And lovely tiny spring waterfalls. In fifty years the strip mines will be a distant memory.

 There was also a little graffiti.

 If Jesus is saving kegs, what is he doing with them? Are there really keggars in heaven?

Because of the severe weather, we prepared for the walk. Lots of water. sunscreen, Deep Woods Off!,  bandana to soak with water and wipe off sweat. Most of us wore light colors.

At the East Penn Trail Head (Riverside Park), the half-way point, there was a port-o-potty and a huge parking lot. Also a boat launch. We walked down the boat launch and soaked out hats and bandannas in river water. The put them back on, soaking wet.

 At Riverside Park there were many of these stones, all painted with a similar theme. Clean up after your dog. Ironically, I saw no dog poop. Lydia picked up this stone and carried it all the way back. She's putting it in her yard. The neighbor dogs won't stop pooping on her lawn, but their masters might get a chuckle. It weighed about 6 pounds. Dawn figured if she could carry around the 100 pounds she lost, carrying six would be a cinch.

We returned to the car. My 32 ounce cup that I frozen was melted into beautiful cold water. The knitted dish cloths I soaked and froze stung when they touch our hot skin. Damn did they feel good.

So did the A/C at full blast in Bonnie's car.

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happy independence day!

Today is the annual Firecracker 4-miler. Only Bonnie and I went. Lydia had a friend in crisis and decided to walk with her. I'm all for helping friends, but I'm really against wasting money. But she is her mother's daughter, and Elin would have done the same thing.

Bonnie arrived at 8. I had on my Birks, and took my sneakers to put on there. The race, we thought, was at 9. We pulled into the park at 8:23. Gee, there is a lot of people for a half hour before the race. It probably took 5 minutes to find a parking spot. We're walking up the street and could see the park. We also saw the runners lining up. WTF? The race, it turns out, started at 8:30.

No time to change my shoes, I'm doing this race in Birks. We dropped my sneakers and the swag bags and headed for the start line. We were a good 30 seconds away, when the gun went off. We missed the start. We booked it down the road and passed or first set of people, then another set and ultimately remained in the middle of the pack. We finished in under 63 minutes. Not bad for four miles.

Last night was the walking clinic. This time we met at Steel Stacks, and walked over to the Greenway. The Steel Stacks campus now has rules. They've taken all the fun away!

The walk to the Greenway was the warm up. When we arrived, we did intervals. This time, our warm-up pace was a one, and we worked our way up to ten. Each time counting our steps to see how much faster we could go.

After that there was stretches, and then speed drills. This time it was the one where you chalk a line at the start and then each subsequent time, mark where you ended. Hopefully, you've gone further. One time I came up 5 feet short.

More stretches and back to Steel Stacks. (That's Michele the instructor in the pix with Lyd.)

Tuesday night I went with Lydia to L.L. Beam to a hiking lecture. It was supposed to be 5 hikes in the Lehigh Valley. It wasn't very good. The guy really only wanted to talk about the Appalachian Trail.  It's Pennsylvania—the rocky-bolder-trail-state. Who the heck wants to hike the AT in Pennsylvania? Not me, that's for sure.

The AT aside, I could have done that lecture. Actually, I could have done it better.

That's the first poor lecture/activity I've gone to there, so more than likely will go back.

Happy Independence Day!