These Shoes aren't Made for Hikin!

Hello fellow hikers. I went on the first real hike of the 2012 year, and was it a doozy? Yes it was. I never knew that Miami University  had such great hiking trails. I knew there were some but not ones like this. Up, down, and through some lovely woods, I hiked with 22 elementary school students members of the Earth Club and 6 adult women. My shoes were awful, and I fell 5 times but I did get up and persevered. I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment at finishing the hike.

We walked across this swinging bridge at about the middle of the hike and it had a delightful

rushing stream/creek called 4 Mile creek running  under it. Originally we were going to wade across it but the water was too muddy and swift so we didn't.

Another high spot was the pond were we saw and caught frogs and snails and dragonflies and a black snake. At this point I realized that most of the children had never been on a hike like this before. How could that be?

But the most challenging place for me was the steps up the side of the hill. We climbed several of these and I found a stick to use as a third leg. that helped. Though this particular set had a rail. most of the ones we climbed did not!

So another piece of the adventures of the yearly goals has been done. Katie could not join me as she was in Raleigh, but I did have company. Thank you to Gail and Allison who helped me up when I fell. And thank you to the others who loaned me a shoulder to lean on as I struggled to place each step carefully.

One day soon I am going to go out and buy some good hiking boots. I should have done that first!