Back At It
Last time I talked about my long-neglected walking habit— well it is neglected no more! It was not simple self-discipline and motivation though—I was thinking about it having written about it, then my husband asked me if I wanted to walk with him. He has a really big adventure coming up in a few months and is starting to prepare for it.
We started off with the approximately one-mile route, which is to “The Goat Shed” and back. I have walked that nearly every day in the past week and a half and twice a day most days. It is amazing how your step count easily rockets up when you get a few thousand steps in first thing in the morning.
Now that we have commenced, I wake up every morning excited to go for a walk. Afternoons are not as enthusiastic and I imagine will be even less so once the real heat sets in, but I am feeling determined to keep up with it.
Walking on this ranch comes with built-in motivation as there are always interesting things to see, hear, smell, and feel. There are still tons of wildflowers to see right now and with rain predicted again this next week, they should keep on for a long time to come. The colorful summer birds are arriving—we were serenaded on our walk last week by a male painted bunting. Early in the morning and late in the evening, there are the smells of the flowers and the grasses, and occasionally the whiff of other more unpleasant smells (which is how I discovered something has been killing my jackrabbits). Depending on the time of day, there is the sensation of the sun on your skin, the breezes (or sometimes gale-force winds), and in some spots there is cool as if that spot has been air-conditioned.
We have already starting dreaming about walking elsewhere. Yesterday morning we were talking about the time we climbed up a huge ridge through a sheep pasture to see a partially intact portion of Hadrian’s Wall near the border of Scotland and England. We talked about going back and walking most if not all of the Wall Path. Something about walking those ancient paths is very appealing.
I have been thinking back trying to decide if doing something drastic like walking the Appalachian Trail would have ever interested me and the answer is no. It is one thing to set off with some water and a snack and completely another to carry your entire life on your back for months at a time. I do, however, wish we had walking trails or footpaths like many other countries have so that we could do something like walk to town without having to dodge cars and trucks. That would be pretty drastic, too. At my current pace it would take me four to five hours to walk to town. I would definitely want to catch a ride home!