Last long training walk ... 17.17 km

At our doorstep!

At our backdoor!

Well we started out this morning and went downtown to see the staff at the thrift store, stopped in at Home Hardware to get some more nylon cord (for a clothes-line, or whatever), then on to the bank to say hi to Steph (a run buddy), met one of Martin's barbershop buddies (singing chorus). Then on to Shopper's to get my prescription, after that on to the Hearing Centre (yup, it seems I might be losing some hearing) ... but, discovered they can't do a test until I get back. After this we figured we were about ready for lunch, it was 11:30 a.m. - I had forgotten to eat breakfast ... crazy since I had been awake since 4 a.m.!


Had lunch at Lefty's, (met a fellow Rotarian there) then carried on out the town highway. It was crazy, you would think it was summer and all the tourists had arrived in town with the amount of traffic! We went as far as the Industrial Park and headed up the Top Ridge trails (a running trail that I love) ... it was a perfect day, the weather was just right and the scenery in the park awesome! It was Martin's first time ... he just loved it too! I tried to get him to make an agreement with me that when we come back from Europe we could do this lovely trail many times ... if he will come to run it with me, I would come to hike it with him - very fair I think (especially that he was a runner once upon a time!). Yet, he has decided to defer his decision until after we have completed the 800 km ... hmmmmm

We carried on to cross over the bridge and came back Allsbrook ... a road that is for the most part quite quiet, but, I found out that it doesn't matter if you are running it or walking it ... it still feels like the road that never ends!

So we took a little break and stopped in at the Forestry office to see my running bud Penny. After leaving there and starting to walk again we knew the bods were pretty tired, especially the feet and I was ready to get home ... we picked up our speed and made it into the house just prior to the rains coming. Wow! this has happened time and time again ... quite incredible really, now if we can have such good fortune on the other side of the world too. :) All in all we were gone 6 1/2 hours with our packs on almost all of this time except for our lunch break! Pretty good ... that will be about the length of time we will need them on there.


We did a trial run with our fully loaded packs today ... mine weighing 20 lbs (my hubby graciously carrying my sleeping bag for me) and Martin's 25. Not sure if this is the final weight for them or not; but, we don't want to go over this weight and so we may have to take a few things out as we squeeze a few essentials in ... like toilet paper!