24 miles...

Back in June I committed to doing 100 miles of walking, running or biking between June 21 and September 21. I was off to a great start and then life really got in the way. Yesterday I realized that I had one week to complete the challenge and 24 miles to go. So... I've committed to cranking in as many miles as possible on the days that I can go and HOPE that I can reach my goal... in part because there's another 100 mile challenge already in the works that I've committed to doing as well and I've got to get going on it! 

Here's how tonight's walk went.......

8pm. I'm finally done with work and my sister (not the one recovering from a major accident) arrives. We embark on a trek. 

Me: "I've mapped out a 4 mile walk and a 5.5 mile walk. Which do you want to do in the pitch dark?" 

Lib: "I'll get my coat. Let's go with the long one."

 ..... 4.5 miles later and we haven't shut up and we are at a crossroads.... 

Me: "If we go that way we will be done in a mile, this way is even longer. Which way do you want to go?" (While trying to pretend that the howling coyote that sounds only a few hundred yards away isn't freaking me out a little...) Lib: "Let's go long." (We select the route that takes us for a second tour past our old house that we loved, past the cemetery, past the old German's house that we were sure was a Nazi war criminal with the barking/tail wagging yellow lab who replaced the scary German shepherds of our youth, through the woods Lib tells me that she's felt "spirits" in and once found an old tub in the woods with a bucket where a local color fella used to sit and soak, and I'm telling her it's the hill that tuned my thighs to near pubescent perfection riding up it on my one speed bike so I could have enough speed to blaze past the Germans and their shepherds and hold my breath past the cemetery) down to the swamp where we stand in total silence for one long minute listening to the tree frogs, the owls calling to each other and a pack of coyotes that have obviously just scored while summer afternoons of tracking beavers and turtles at this same spot swirled in my head, and then we hit the home stretch to my sister's house (the injured one), were startled by a doe just off the edge of the road in a field and secretly mourned the end of a magical walk that included the smells of dirt and wood smoke and cow manure and cut grass and sweet hay in just the right amounts to let my mind entertain only the best memories of living in this neighborhood and feel grateful for the opportunity to enjoy such treasures. In short, I did 6 miles tonight. It was perfection. Only 18 miles to go.

 Day time view of the swamp.