3/52 Frosty 4-Miler

Chan needed a tooth looked at and of course they could fit her in EARLY on a Monday.  yay.  Much to my surprise, when I asked Ben if he wanted to go, too-he did.  Even without the lure of Alex and Emma, which is generally the only reason he heads north.

Tooth checked-there is a hairline crack, but after X-raying her head for an hour, they decided it was her super stuffed up and super small sinuses putting pressure on her...face.  So the weakened tooth was feeling it more than usual.  Nothing to do for it.  I have a tooth that's been cracked since we lived in Tennessee. Sometimes they don't get worse.

I am pretty happy about it not being an issue, the van was in the shop 2 days last week for brakes that were mysteriously overheating-enough that the ABS stopped the van in town.  The diagnosis was ABS module failure.  Just google that little teeny tiny part. Yeah.  $1500.  For just the part.  So shelling out for a crown was not at the top of my wish list!

After the dentist, we had kids meals at Sonic (grilled cheese and tater tots, our personal manna) and all scored Jake the Dog toys from Adventure Time!  Then, to my amazement, they both wanted to go hiking! So off we went to Blevins Gap and we did the Certain trail to the end and looped back on the West Rim trail for a total of 4 miles.  It was so pretty up there!   Good solid climb at the start of about 400 feet or so over a quarter of a mile (guessing, I have not looked at the terrain map).  Then flat along the top of the mountain with views at the overlooks.

We saw a herd of deer!  They flashed and ran.  Saw 2 downy woodpeckers and 3 indigo bunting quite near and a couple hawks sailing around over the valley below.  Picked out the library, Arsenal, South Parkway, the dentist, Lowe's, Wal-Mart and Arby's.  We could see the Space and Rocket Center and the Tennessee River!

 My two Lomo shots of the west rim overlook

I spent most of the weekend playing my favorite game from childhood-Pioneer.  In it, I pretend all of my worldy goods are in a wagon and I run away from home. I have modified it somewhat to put all my things in a pack and to run away taking as many people from home as will go with me.  With the icy rain and chance of hail, that turned out to be only Nia and only on the bed.  Murphy is NOT allowed in the tent, she will viciously eat his face if he tries.

The van was iced over.  It was 11 miles down the road before all the ice finally came off the front!

The trail was ICY

There were frost flowers in the creek!

My puffy!  Matt got one, too, it's a faded orange.

I have been looking for a down coat with a hood for a whole year.  Got this at TJMaxx for $32!

Even though it's a men's size large and does not fit my curves, I still am very happy with it.  It fits in a tiny stuff sack and weighs about 7 ounces.  It's SO warm.
They only had large or I would have snagged one for Ben!

Hampton Cove

Ben took all these of the frost on the frozen puddle!

The Connector Trail between Certain an West Rim

The left side of the trail is still in ice/frost

More frost flowers

The library is next to Redstone FCU, the blue-roofed building

Also visible is the Parkway, greenway and the Arsenal off in the distance.

Ice!!

Ben took more ice photos

Chan holed up and finally ate breakfast, a meal bar she'd been toting around since we left the house.

Ben needs a warmer coat and new trail shoes!

That's the third hike for the year!  Yay!

2/52 Richard Martin North End 12m

It's 11.88 miles, but I figure walking around the Elkmont downtown area and climbing around on the caboose, getting to and from the car, and the Waffle House afterward all added to .12 tenths of a mile.  So I am taking all 12.

4.2 hours of moving time.

We picked up 16 geocaches along the trail, which is the real reason I look like I have been badly surprised in the 'end' shot of me.  Sawbriers are a bitch!

we've always believed there was a magical tree in the rainforest with powers...

This was a grapefruit and ginger drink.

I don't know WHY the blurb caught me off like it did, but I found it so absurdly hilarious that I thought Matt was going to bounce the empty can off my head.  I had a dry blood orange soda, which had zero magical rainforest powers.

My favorite mile on the way back, even if it is STILL going uphill.  The 6 mile path is downhill for 4 miles going into TN, but coming back, it's a steady incline for FOUR SOLID MILES with the occasional steeper slope.

1/52 Big Tree 2016

I have set myself up for a VERY active year, so we hit the ground running.
Once a month or so, I will post the current tally of miles.  I accepted a challenge to walk 1,000 miles in 2016!  Also to do one hike a week with added challenge via 52 Hikes and of course my own idea to set up a hike on the first day of every month all year.  :)  unless the first is a Monday.  haha

I am excited.  I was doing really well keeping up with my personal goal of 15 miles a week last year. For months.  Then, I didn't get it for a week then 2 weeks, then it quit being on my radar.  Hopefully (how I both overuse and hate that word) I will be more motivated with other folks joining in, even if it's just online in some cases. 1,000 miles in a year is just 20 miles a week, so I KNOW I can do it.

The pics are all Matt's.  I left my SD card in the computer, so I had to use my camera's internal memory to take pics and so far, none of the software I have to pull photos can find them!
UPDATE!  My pics are below these.

The kids and I measured around the tree and then stretched out, keeping our arms and hands in the same way so we could show how big around it was.  Our guess, 26 feet!

I have socks in my inner vest pocket, so I look extra lumpy!  hahahaha

Group shot. I desaturated the next one because that orange seems CRAZY bright.

We didn't get shot at even once, so it worked!

Matt, Kurt, Emma, Elan, Ben T, Melanie, me, Alex T, Alex, Ben
Melissa and Bren!

Several trees near campsites were labeled this way, pretty cool that they bothered and pretty sad that enough people have been injured from setting up camp under dead trees.  I imagine in the dark or the rain, you don't bother looking up, though!

My pics below.  :)

The Big Tree Fire back in October burned more than 2.000 acres of the forest.  It could have been so much worse, this really looks about like it does after a prescribed burn.  There are probably more devastated areas, but this is not as bad as I had feared.

204 trail

those little trees across the trail get harder to hop over the longer the trail!  There were a few that were crotch height that made me realize I need to be stretching WAY more often!  I started on the RM hike Sunday doing squats every 3-4 miles.  It really helped!

Great kick off for the year, I am stoked.