Mickelson Trail

The George Mickelson Rail Trail has several trail head quite close to where I live. I have walked and biked on different sections of the trail in the past, but I had this thing in my mind that I should not have to drive the car in order to go for a walk. So for years I contented myself with taking walks in town, which is no small feat because of how hilly this town is.

I had a challenge when I first got my place ... to walk every street in the town. I accomplished that a couple of years ago. It was fun to discover all the little neighborhoods and to see the interesting buildings and other stuff like cemeteries. But this summer I knew I wanted to walk the trail. I got over my idea that driving in order to go walking is a bad thing. I mean, I could walk to the various trail heads, and if I were training for a marathon or something, that would probably be a good idea. But I'm not (marathon training, that is). So I drive ... saves tons of time.

I started doing my walks in the evenings, but that interfered with how I wanted to eat supper, plus around here nearly every evening there is either a real or threatened thunder & lightning storm. It's that time of year. So I switched to mornings instead.

I drive to different trail heads on different days. So far I have not yet made it from a given trail head to the next one and back again, but that's my overall goal for the summer.... to do that for at least one trail head,  maybe a couple. I think I can manage that.

I always begin by walking uphill, which means I will not begin at certain trail heads, like the one in Lead town. I just walk uphill until I decide to stop and then turn around and go back downhill. The grade is pretty easy, but uphill is still uphill. So much easier to do that part first.

Some nice people have sponsored benches along the trail here and there. My routine is that when I find a bench, I stop and do a bit of standing up yoga which always makes me feel good. You can see my fine new Norwegian walking poles. Love those fellow Scandinavians. They make such good things. I do apologize for the disposable plastic water bottle. Someone gave it to me, and I see no reason to waste it now that I have it. But once these bottles are used up, I'll go back to refilling a bottle.

I don't have a picture, but when I see a picnic table, I stop and do some strength and flexibility stuff with the poles, like doing air kayaking, or holding the poles up over my head. And when I find a bridge, I speed walk across it. There are a fair amount of bridges up here because the trails generally follow streams or creeks.

I have never taken to exercising in gyms. I much prefer to do real kinds of things like walking. I think I might could get addicted to this.