15: Parry Wants Attention

I am struggling to do my pre-hike, King of Athletics dictated, gonna-make-me-sore workout.

If I skip the "warm-up" I can do them in my pj's.

Or I could clean my desk!  Yes!  That's what I will do.

It's Spring Break, you see.  I only have to hike this week, you see.  If I'm no closer to a push-up this week, who will know but me?

Anyone else noticing the fat on my face?  Like when did that appear?

This looks familiar...

Interestingly, I post in Facebook a response to a comment on the blog about being tired of workouts.  A new friend from the first boot camp reminds me I should be resting between workouts...say what?

I call the King to confirm; he concurs that I should not do a workout before my hike!  

Then WHY in the WORLD am I doing five days in a row workouts?  With hikes??

Granted, I hate exercise.  I hate talking about exercise because there are SO MANY FREAKING CONFLICTING OPINIONS about exercise.  However, it seems EVERYONE knows this fact but me???  

Never mind the jammies then-it's time to get going and hike.  Today the Hike Shack recommends the Granite Dells Oasis area, which Ian & I had tried to get to the past two Mondays.  This week, there was no rain (so I would not be at risk of melting) so the kids and I met Becky and off we went to explore.

Because I'm made of sugar.

 Not because I'm wicked.

The kids, aged 14 1/2 and nearly 13, were skeptical of the quest.  Although Charlton had joined me before, he was coming mainly for the food.  Parry was coming only for the notoriety of appearing in this blog.

Note the way cool hair & my hiking clothes.

We started with the Staircase Loop, and detoured on to Castle Rock for lunch.  Perched high above the dam holding in Watson Lake, we enjoyed the sounds of rushing water while eating our picnic of meat, cheese, grapes, bananas and sweet peppers.

You can just barely see the dam in the bottom right of this picture.

This area is by far one of the prettiest I've visited; it is amazing that I live in such a gorgeous place.

Yep, we live here.  Pinch me!

By far, the coolest area was the grotto. Which no one wanted to go through.

Everyone (but me) thought it had just happened.

 It looked dangerous.

So on a vote of three to one, we went back the other way.  Upon exploring it from the other side, we saw it was perfectly safe.

It reminded me of the Baths in Punta Gorda, BVI

Well, at least I thought it was.

The best was yet to be-on our return to the trail head start, the two teens stopped to skip rocks.  Then toss sticks like spears.  Then play in the creek.  For 45 minutes.

They didn't even fight!

Such sibling affection is rare, so I sat and watched them.  Today was part of the fitness quest, but it was something more.  It was sorely needed family time.  Hikes can bring out the best or the worst in a person; although they expose my physical weaknesses, they rejuvenate me to the core.

I fell in love with Arizona hiking Thumb Butte and Oak Creek Canyon at 15 years of age.  Every return visit I snuck in more hikes; people in Michigan could not understand why I didn't like hiking in Michigan, but loved it in AZ.

This is an AZ hiking trail.

This is your only hiking option in Lenawee County, Michigan.

There is simply no comparison between the two.

Today I realized that the Hiking Viking will incorporate all of my degrees (History, Geology & English) and my love of hiking.  I'll be writing business plans this weekend, hopefully while resting in the hot Arizona sunshine.

Hail.  As in "Hail to the Victors."

Until then, I've got three more trails to cover, and a few more places to yell "Go Blue" to check for an echo.