Len Foote Hike Inn

What a fabulous weekend. A five mile hike in the north Georgia mountains to the Len Foote Hike Inn, two nights of being in the mountains in a hiker's paradise, and then hiking out today with a meetup group - The Sky's the Limit. Initially, it did matter to me that the weather was calling for rain, possible thunder storms and cooler weather. And two weeks before I had injured my knee on a training hike on Kennesaw Mountain. I debated whether to go or not, fearing that I would be a strain on a group of people I did not know, and suspecting correctly that I would be the oldest participant.The Thursday before the hike on Saturday, I did a practice hike on Kennesaw Mt, (not as strenuous as the one I had injured myself on two weeks before. After that hike the knee didn't feel great, but didn't hurt any worse, so I figured I would just put up with it. As it turned out, my knee felt better Sunday after the hike in!

Looking over my most recent entry into this blog, I realize it has been October since I last made and entry. Much has happened, and my training for this trip to Scotland has been seemingly in stagnation. The December trip Scot and I planned to make of the Len Foote Hike Inn Loop did not occur. The weather report for that day was heavy rain, and I had no rain gear at the time, so we postponed,and set the date for February 13. The week before that date, I was in bed with the flu for two days, had not trained much in the weeks before, and knew that doing a more strenuous hike in the mountains was just not happening. So we changed the location to a shorter, easier hike at Sweetwater Creek State Park, and BJ and Buffy joined us. It was just delightful having my Atlanta family with me. Then since then, I finally started training for this hike in, and pulled something in my knee, having to cancel another hike I had planned with another group.

FINALLY I have a sense of a major accomplishment with this hiking thing. I had no idea what training for this trip would look like or how I would ever get there. Looking at how far I have come in the last year is massive, and looking for what else and the additional training I will need to be able to hike 8-12 miles every day for 5 days will look like. Scott and I have planned to postpone the trip to August of 2012, so I have another year to train than we initially planned.

Also, in other developments, my job is going better, and I have a part time job that fits in with the full time one. My finances are starting to look more promising regarding having the money for this trip as well.