You must do the things you think you cannot do.
~
Eleanor Roosevelt

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Wilderness Wednesday- Hike/Run on AT

Hike/Run w/Hank by tracyrunning at Garmin Connect - Details

Laima has a cool post today entitled Wilderness Wednesday, and I thought that was a catchy title for a blog post so I totally copied her.

Today was another uncharacteristically beautiful winter day in Maryland so I loaded up the monkeys and headed for the hills.  At the park we like to hike at, there are 2 trails that originate on opposite ends of the parking lot and connect farther up the mountain so you can do a nice ~2 mile loop.

One of the trails goes directly to the Crampton's Gap Shelter which is mostly used by AT through hikers, but silly kids like mine enjoy going there and goofing off.


I sent Jake with Ella and Shane on the lower trail to the shelter while Hank and I took the upper trail for a short run.  We walked up the mountain which I swear must be more than the measly 500 or so feet my Garmin says it is. Once we hit relatively flat ground, we ran and walked at Hank's discretion and just enjoyed looking at stuff.

At the 1.5 mile mark, we turned around and headed back to the side trail so we could meet up with Jake, Ella and Shane. We hung out at the shelter for a little bit and then started back to the car. Ella and Hank were running ahead of me when I heard the scritch scratch of something climbing a tree.

I looked up in time to see something small, brown and furry scamper up a small tree. My brain's alarms immediately said 'baby bear' and I tried not to freak out. E and H were just standing there staring at the little creature as I ran up to them....and  realized it was a woodchuck or something like that.

he's the little brown blob sitting on the lower branch of the tree in front

I sent E and H on their way while I took pictures. I caught up to Ella who calmly told me 'Hank's on the ground.' My first questions are always 1. Is there blood? and 2. Are any bones sticking out? If the answer is no to both, I figure we're in good shape.

And we were. He tripped and rolled about 10 yards down the mountain. He was scraped, bruised and covered in dirt but otherwise just fine.

Reenacting his wipeout for me

Another amazing day in Maryland!

1 comment:

Molly said...

Love how he re-created his fall, what a great outing!

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