Back to the Basics

You never truly know how far you have come until you go back
to the beginning. This is probably true for so many things, but for this purpose, lets keep it outdoors. ;) So today I took my novice hiking buddy to a trail I used to do back in the day. It was the first local trail I mastered and even learned to trail run on over 8 years ago. I remember the hills being so steep, the trail being hard, and me being winded and having to stop every few steps. WOW have things changed. I didn't expect to powered through the hike at full force AND not loose my breath. (Maybe the 5am gym workouts are finally working!) I felt that compared to the last hike that
literally kicked my ass, this was just the opposite. Don't get me wrong, it was still a hike, we were dripping with sweat after our first loop, but felt like we could still do more. We opted to just do another 2 mile loop and then called it a day. Talk about a hike that gives you the confidence to keep doing this. I guess after hiking a section of the Appalachian trail, everything else is just cake ;) Kidding of course, but man did it feel good to kick this trails ass! The trail we did led to an old 1800 rock house. Well, really it's just rock ruins now, but still pretty cool to come around a bend and see it. The elevation gain was less than 500 feet and the terrain was still rooty, rocky, and in some places muddy, but it was a great beginner trail. It was really nice to get back to the basics and to see just how far I had come. You can't see it, but I'm laughing at myself for thinking how hard that trail used to be. I guess we all have to start somewhere. :)