Close to home

According to her itinerary, Leslie has started walking from Le Puy.  Sometime this summer she'll reach Santiago and walk on to Muxia...some thing like 1200 miles from where she started.

She will have walked thirty days when I meet her in France on GR65,  Chemin du Puy.

My "training" has been an assortment of physical activities.  But I promised myself when she started walking I would swing on my pack and get some hiking action going.  Every day that she walks I will walk.

So, todays cold wind did not stop me.  I put 10 lbs in my pack, taped my toes, put on sock liners and smartwool and laced up the boots...Keens.  I had on Columbia water resistant hiking pants, ice breaker bottom layer, fleece, Marmot minimalist rain jacket and my ...omg I forgot what its called...anyway a neck gaiter thing that pulls into a hood.

With my trekking poles helping set the pace, I walked a 19 minute mile over to the Butte.
I headed straight up the west side, came down the trail, went straight up underneath what we call the gaps, around again, down the steep on the east side, and arround again, down the road behind the pool where I got to cool  the puppies for a few when I answered a phone call from my brother and then another 19 minute mile home.

Sometimes little things please me... knocking a minute off my walking time even though I had my pack on...keeping a steady pace and not losing my breath...NOT FALLING...although I admit I came pretty close and need to work on that "Australian Pole Walk" I have become famous for.

I trained for 2 climbs of Mt Saint Helens and  2 of Mt Adams on the Butte. Its close to home. And by golly its the only hill we have.

If you spend enough time hiking around on the Butte, you become ready for anything.

Chemin du Puy, Here I come.