hiking!

Back on April 29 I went on my longest hike ever. The Rivanna Trail makes a mostly continuous loop around Charlottesville, and I walked all nineteen-or-so miles of it.

I met a group of friends (well, I knew four of the twelve people total) at 8am at Riverview Park, and we set out counterclockwise on the trail. The first couple of miles are paved. Several times you come out of the woods and have to cross streets, or even walk on streets until you get to the next section of trail. You cross the river a few times, and go through a couple of culverts. Parts are flat, and others are definitely not. I had probably only been on about a third of the trail before this, so it was neat to see parts of the trail and city I wasn't familiar with. You get a whole range of scenery and hiking, and I think it's neat that it's all available right here in Charlottesville.

The one place we had to take off our shoes.

We started with twelve people, but half of us didn't have time (or desire?) to finish the whole thing, so people dropped out at different points throughout the day. After about seven miles we stopped for an early lunch at Bodo's. Then after a long stretch of hilly and tiring hiking, we had another break in the grass on Fontaine Ave. Those were the only times I got to sit down.

About to cross the street after lunch.

We finally made it back to Riverview Park at 3:45. I was pretty sore and grumpy by that point, mainly because I could have used a few more breaks and I'd pulled something in my leg that was painful. I didn't know the person leading our group very well so I didn't speak up more about needing to rest (and who wants to look weak and needy?), but I should have. Oh, and it was really hot that day too. In any event, we finished the whole thing and while I was plenty please with the accomplishment I was also pretty stoked it was over.

The next weekend I joined friends for a much shorter birthday hike on the Lower Shamokin Falls Trial at Wintergreen. It was only 1.7 miles out, but it had rained a lot recently and there were several unexpected water crossings. Some people just got their shoes wet (none of us were prepared for water crossings except the birthday boy), but a couple of us stopped each time to take off our shoes. The hike ends at a tall waterfall, and it was really roaring.

Brrr

Apparently you can normally get in this pool, but the water was crazy that day.

Birthday boy and his hike-planning wife.

This wasn't an easy hike, and I was impressed with all the parents of small children.

This coming weekend I'm going camping, and I look forward to more hikes and more outdoors!