Today's the Day

Today I begin truly training for my 3-Day training.  That's right, I'm training to train.  I have to make sure I'm in the habit of working out six days a week before I absolutely HAVE to do it.  That starts March 30.  Unfortunately, this crappy weather means I have to drive to the gym and jump on the black belt to nowhere.  Ugh!  I hate doing an hour on a treadmill.  I hope there are some sweet gym sites to keep my mind occupied.  You know what I mean.  Maybe I can snap some pics all incognito like....  Updates to follow.

The deep freeze in the south has allowed me to become a slug, hence the journey back to the gym, but I have managed to get a few things accomplished.  For instance, I wrote letters to businesses in hopes of drumming up interest in two events I'd like to hold as fundraisers later this spring.  I have another $2,010 to raise and seven months in which to do it.  Fingers crossed that I find some takers!

My last hike was done waaaaaaaaay back on January 20.  I finished 7.5 miles at Pocahontas State Park and, despite a death defying creek crossing, didn't die on the journey.  Here are some pics to commemorate the occasion.

Beautiful, right?  That water crosses the dam and then forms a nice, little creek.  I was walking a path typically used by mountain bikers and trail riders and there aren't any footpaths for crossing.  You basically just rock hop.

Well, in the summer you rock hop.  It was a beautiful day for January, but I certainly didn't want to walk the last three miles of this hike with wet feet, pants, or anything else.  When it comes to that sort of thing, odds are I will fall in and be miserable the rest of the day.  It wasn't very deep at that spot so I thought I might find a way across downstream.  However, I'm lazy and not willing to walk too far out of my way, so I improvised.  This is what I found.

You may notice the water is a little deeper here, but I still thought it was doable.  I did a lot of testing first to make sure the tree could hold me.  I kept getting the image of getting half-way out there and hearing a "SNAP" as the tree broke under me and I went crashing onto the river rocks in the cold water.  The tree seemed sound, so I made it happen.  Obviously, I am not so bold as to "balance beam" this thing, so I did like any delicate lady and straddled the giant log.

This "selfie" brought to you by the letter "F".... for fear.  I was sort of stuck on a knot in the wood and my left leg wouldn't go over it.  I was too scared to do anything else, so I laughed and took a picture of the fun.  Then, I looked around, noticed some rocks below and made an impressive dismount, followed by a jump to the opposite bank.  The rest of the walk was long, but uneventful.

It was the longest hike to date, but still less than even half of my daily goal in September.  This is the mission of a crazy person.