Sunday, January 17, 2010

I get some of my best ideas while enjoying a glass of wine. The next day, I realise that someone should have stopped me.

Flashback to 2005.
I was in London and chatting with my friend and travelling companion about other travel possibilities. Wine was involved. We discussed the possibility of walking across England. The Holiday company would ferry our main luggage to various B&B's. We would only have to carry our day packs which would of course have our prepared lunches in them and very little else.
When I arrived home and told Mr.B of the wonderful plan, he told me I that I had lost all semblance of sanity and for once, I agreed with him.

Fast forward to 2010.
Somehow, late last year, the idea of walking across England was brought up for discussion again. Wine may have been involved. We did not hear the "Your crazy!" response.

We paid our deposit and in September will be walking. Eight days of walking. West coast to East coast. Our day packs will have to hold more than our lunches.

Obviously, training is necessary. Sitting on the couch and knitting, unfortunately does not count as training.. Last weekend, Mr. B and I walked the ravine from MacEwan to the Edgemont superstore. We have walked this route many times. In the summer, it takes about 45 minutes to walk up the hill to the store. and slightly less to get home...down hill the whole way. The paths were snow covered and icy. We needed to find a better route.

Yesterday, we thought we would tackle Nose Hill. After all. the Chinook had been around for an additional week. There would be less snow up on top of the hill since the wind would have blown much of it away. and the warm sunshine would have melted the rest of it off of the paths.

It was a great day for a walk.
The sunshine was warm. There was no wind which is unusual for the top of the hill.

Our theories about the paths being clear were wrong.
Two and half hours later, we had walked from 14th st at 64th Ave to the Edgemont parking lot and back again. We took the scenic route back as we headed north and were close to the Beddington parking lot before we turned south and walked on deer trails and coyote paths to get back to our car.
We checked the map when we got home. Close to 6 miles was covered. Many feet of elevation were involved. I missed the descriptive part of "Nose Hill"
Today we are looking for a shorter path...on level ground. Are the bike paths by the river still covered in ice?
We're leaving Nose Hill until March.
Training is cutting into my knitting time.

1 comment:

Annie said...

i'm really impressed!