Mud on the Tires

An ordinary weekend at our home consists of going somewhere to spend some time in the great outdoors now that the weather is getting warmer.  This winter we were blessed with several nice weekends that allowed us to hike even in January and February.  Now for the most part we just plan on hiking instead of waiting with baited breath to see if the weather forecast is going to be favorable.

 A few weeks ago we headed to Fancy Creek State Park to try out a new trail.  Instead of our normal hike through prairie this trail was through cedar "forest" and fairly "rocky" on the edge of a lake.  For the most part we had the 6 mile loop of trail to ourselves expect for a few mountain bikers and one family with kids.  Now that I think about it with most of our hiking we have had the trails to ourselves which is great since we aren't a big fan of crowds.  For this hike we had loaded packs again but probably the most challenging aspect was the portion of the trail that was very muddy.  We probably ha a few extra pounds of mud caked onto our boots during our hike.  Once we finished our first loop we had our lunch--everything seems to taste better as a picnic during a hike since we were so hungry.  Overall it was a great training hike--one of our longest hikes and we felt pretty good (i.e. we were still able to move) at the end.

This past weekend we headed out to Kanza Prairie, one of our favorite hiking locales.  It was the first day of spring and the weather matched.  There was quite a crowd out there too.  In the Flint Hills each spring there are controlled burns of the grasslands.  It looked like the Kanza had been burned earlier in the week.  The purpose of burning is to clear out the dead grasses, prevent trees, weeds, and other invasive plants from taking over, and allows new grass shoots to green up quickly.  From the top of the hill looking over where the grass had been burned it looked like a different planet-- all charred and black except for the white lime stone rocks strewn over the hillsides.  We will have to go back in a few weeks when everything has had a chance to green up.  As we were hiking we could see plumes of smoke across the horizon from 5 or 6 other controlled burns in the area.  We also found some of the larger hills that we have hiked on so far and I for one need to do more training to get up and down mountains this summer.  At least in Kansas it only takes a few minutes to get to the top of the hill and then it is easy going again.  Over all I think it was the best we have felt hiking yet.  My pack was loaded up but fit well finally.  Arthur doesn't seem to be phased by his pack at all.  We figured out that we both carry about the same amount of weight for training hikes but my back is 20% of my body weight and Arthur's is 10%-- maybe that is why he skips and prances in circles around me.  We are also figuring out what fine tuning needs to happen-- I keep getting blisters so I will have to try different socks and boots while Arthur's pack is rubbing his side which he didn't realize until we were finished.  If we had kept going he might have had a gaping flesh wound.  We really couldn't think of a better use of our Saturdays right now than being out in nature walking endless miles with one another.  We are both suckers for punishment.  Omnia Vincit Amor.