Thanksgiving Day Hike

Location: Highland Recreation Area, MI

Hiked with: Gary, Ian and the Barbour family

Route/trail: Teeple Lake

Weather: 30 degrees, overcast, flurries

Duration: 1.5 hours, 4ish miles

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: up and down gentle hills over frozen ground 

Sightings: snow!

Emotions, etc: First, thinking that if God had intended for us to rake leaves that this would be a monstrous job on these trails. Secondly, thankful for our children introducing us to new friends that we can spend this Thanksgiving holiday with. Lastly, glad to have a dog along. Abby the labby would have loved this type of hike.

Location: my driveway

Hiked with: myself and a snow shovel

Route/trail: up and down, back and forth, and an occasional round and round to break the monotony

Weather: 25 degrees, light snow and wind

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: one steep part of the driveway caught me off guard and I fell (gracefully of course-haha) to my hands and knees. That's humbling!

Sightings: many animal tracks in the yard

Emotions, etc:I actually like shoveling and find it refreshing to be outside on a winter day. We'll see if this is still the 'emotion' if we're shoveling through until spring :) In a week that I could take a longer hike this activity is a good compromise.

Location: trail behind Lakeland High School

Hiked with: myself

Route/trail: the only one that was marked...I wonder if it's for gym classes or the cross country team

Weather: 52 degrees but overcast as a sign of the cold front that's headed our way

Duration: under an hour...forgot to set Map My Walk to get accurate stats

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: mostly flat worn down grass path

Sightings: just the happy sounds of children on the elementary school playground

Emotions, etc: trying to be content that this short, fast walk (other than what I do in my 

neighborhood) would be the longest I'd probably have in this busy week

Location: trails behind Highland Public Library

Hiked with: myself

Route/trail: the initial trail surprisingly (actually disappointingly) led to a neighborhood. After walking the neighborhood I found more trails that seemed to be for ATV's. Last landmark was Downey Lake.

Weather: 48 degrees and partly cloudy

Duration: 2.94 miles in 50 minutes

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: little elevation changes with sandy trails that made walking slow at times but it was probably a better workout for my legs

Sightings: a woman putting up Christmas decorations (it's too early for that!) and a dog that walked with me for a little bit (this was delightful but made me miss my Abby the labby)

Gear/food: water

Emotions, etc: Thoroughly enjoying exploring this new area we live in!

Location: Cromwell Valley Park, Towson, MD

Hiked with: my husband, son and sister's family

Route/trail: Sherwood Farm Trail, Willow Grove Trail 

Weather: low 60's and sunny. I beautiful East coast autumn day.

Duration: 2.74 miles in 1 hour...not the fastest or furthest but it was clearly fun

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: up and down a hillside through the woods, along a ravine and a stream 

Sightings: the people we had to ask for directions to get down from the pinnacle after we made the wrong turn!

Emotions, etc: happy to be outside and happy to be family and I'm not sure if we ever concluded that this was a stroll, walk, or hike...we'll have to go at it again!