Death march(es)

bordertoborderOkay, let’s just walk 14 miles. C’mon, it’ll be fun.

A few weeks ago, we discovered that a new section of the Border-to-Border Trail had been completed since the last time we ventured out to the Dexter area to do a little walkabout. So yesterday, we parked in downtown Dexter and walked to the Hudson Mills Metropark (approximately five miles) and back.

I’m not sure that this trail segment will be on our go-to list although we will definitely hike it again. It is a beautiful wide paved trail that supports multiple kinds of non-motorized traffic: walkers, runners, cyclists, roller-bladdersbladers (roller-bladders?), people pushing strollers or wheelchairs. There is a porta-potty (a rather tippy one) along the way and someone wonderful left a cooler of ice water and some Dixie cups on a bench. At first we thought it was for some kind of race-type event but on the return trip, I was a little thirsty and, as there didn’t seem to be any organized events going on, I helped myself. Note to self. If you *know* you are going on a 10 mile hike, schlep yer own dern water. You know that!

It was lovely but our preferences run more to woodsy foot trails, where you are walking on the ground and need to navigate over fallen trees and around water holes or posthole through deep, rotten spring Yooperland snow.

Not that this was not fun. Not at all. Just a few more people than I am accustomed to seeing on the North Country Trail or wherever. Although we did run into one of my co-workers and her husband, who happened to be on bikes, and that was really fun! I was glad we were out there on the early side because by the time we began to approach Dexter on the return trip, there were whole pelatons of cyclists coming along and a few zippety-doo-dah-fast roller-uh-bladers and just more people than I generally like to encounter on a Sunday morning. How many times can you say Good Morning? But I am glad to see people getting out and about!

So we came home and the GG grilled some brats for lunch that I rescued from the freezer and… and… then… we walked down to Kerrytown (two miles or thereabouts) for the annual Kerrytown BookFest. I have been trying to get to this event for years but we are always either out of town or I FORGET(!) about it. It is a really cool event but we were both a bit overwhelmed. When we were about at the absolute end, the GG started to head off toward downtown and I said something like, “The bathroom is that way, so why are you going this other way.” He replied with something like, “The bathroom might be that way but the Grizzly Peak (brewpub) is *this* way. Which way do you think I went?

Walk 14 miles? Was it fun? Yes yes yes it was. Move. Use it or lose it!

Love y’all,
Kayak Woman

One Response to “Death march(es)”

  1. Margaret Says:

    14 miles is amazing–and I don’t blame you on the people. We’ve hiked trails where there were numerous bikers and rollerbladers and it was kind of scary! On a couple of occasions, they almost knocked me over!