Up, Up and Away?

Well, kinda sorta. Last Saturday morning I went out for a run. Wore my brace, walked a lot, did run. I can't say my knee felt a lot better afterward but also can't say it felt a lot worse.

This plane, which may be a boat but certainly isn't a bird or Superman, is a recent addition to the scenery along my usual running route. Its name is painted on its nose: Spud's Scud. Whether it touched down where I found it or was dragged there by Spud, I really can't say.

Sunday Z and I drove south, to the Sunol Regional Wilderness, for a hike-a-ganza, which regular readers of this space will know is one of Z's and my periodic activities. The ideal 'ganza consists of a vigorous walk in a bucolic and salubrious setting, followed by a hearty picnic lunch. Sunday's hike was, sadly, a bit short of wonderful because we took a wrong turn.

The master engineer and his work.

Then we spent about 45 minutes figuring out how to cross a rushing Alameda Creek in order to get out of the dead end we had reached. It wasn't until we'd crossed the creek (on a masterful and artful arrangement of stones Z created by throwing small boulders into the water) and walked another quarter of a mile that we realized we needed to recross the stream and head straight up a steep hill to get to the path we wanted. Z created another sterling crossing and over (and up) we went.

A free-range-chicken sandwich on whole-grain bread washed down with a diet cola? Welcome to my life in twenty-first-century America.

We ended up hiking probably 2.5 miles (at the most) but it was getting late and we were hungry. We returned to the parking lot, got our lunch out of the car, and dug in. I'd say we had a good day but not a great day. This morning we looked at the calendar and set a date less than a month from now to return to Sunol and go right where on Sunday we went wrong. Should be fun!

This is a great time of year to hike--the air is cool and as last year's flora decays it nourishes this year's nascent growth.