So, these are my hiking shoes.
The Asolo Stynger GTX, which I thought were pretty heavy duty hikers but after looking them up have now learned that they are considered "light hikers." Huh. Well anyway, I have found yet one more thing to appreciate about these boots. They are providing foot therapy to my big toe joint.

It started several years ago, late 2012 early 2013. I suddenly started experiencing cramping and pain in my large toe joint after wearing my favorite boots and high heeled shoes. It got so bad that just trying to put my foot into the boot caused pain. But the denial would kick in, and the desire to wear hot shoes won out. For a while. It did take a while to exit the denial stage, but over the course of a few years (carrying around shoes I couldn't wear), I slowly started getting rid of my boots and shoes that had any heel over an inch.

This year, things took a turn for the worse. I started to find that even a day in my Danskos was extremely painful. I tried switching to my Merrell boots (so sexy), which have a wide toe box and although good for a while, that didn't last either. So when I head out for my first training hike a few weeks ago (see previous thread), I was a bit nervous. Would I be able to walk without pain? How could I set a goal to peak a mountain if I can't even walk without wincing every step of the way? And here was the big surprise. Not only did my toes not hurt while on the hike (well of course they did, but just the normal foot aches and pains of a nearly 50-year-old who hasn't been hiking enough), but for many days after I was able to wear my everyday shoes without pain. Somehow, the stiff shank with it's specialty support system (I was just reading about it's anti-pronation/ anti-supination/ anti-torsion qualities) put my foot in a position to give relief to my metatarsophalangeal joint. (Great word, right?)

Is it going to be a solution to my toe problem? Probably not, but it certainly gives me reason to get out there hiking more often.

Need I say more?

Yesterday was gorgeous with just a hint of brisk in the air. Mt. Tamalpais never disappoints with it's views and forest scents, and our 6.5 mile loop, while strangely much less strenuous than either of us expected, left us both a bit stiff at the end of the hike. Going home with Steven to Bryan's tiramisu was an awesome treat, however it was that much more difficult to haul my a** off the couch once I had cozy-ed in with warm tea and the divine dessert. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture of said deliciousness!)

Unfortunately, I was also left with a bit of a chill, which still is knocking me out today. So rather than write, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Heading out from the parking lot. Which, as I later discovered, was NOT the lot that I thought I was at. My wonderful mapping skills did get us back to a parking lot, just not the parking lot. Ooops.

The beginning of my confusion was when we saw this sign, which, according to my map, made no sense whatsoever. Oh wait ... it was ME who was making no sense.

Playing hide and seek. He had NO IDEA where I was.



Steven was trying out his new camera lens:

The end of the hike:

6. Hips. I need to train.
7. It is good to have a goal at the end of the hike. Ice cream does the trick quite well.

I went hiking at Mt. Diablo and drove in to the Regency Gate from Clayton. It's an entirely different world out there. In SF you don't typically see bumper stickers that say: "I don't believe the liberal media." Yes, a whole different world.

The hike was called Falls Trail loop, and I thought this time of year, and especially THIS year with all of the rain we have been getting, it would be a wonderful choice. And it probably would have been, but due to a navigational error, the best waterfall I saw was this.

Well, here I am just over 6 months out from my first ever mountaineering ascent.
Training must begin. And that magical time called "later" must be transformed into the other ambiguous moment called "sooner," which I then must comandeer into "now." I haven't been out hiking in a while, and for a number of reasons I am nervous. For one thing, I not only haven't been hiking, I haven't been doing any exercise whatsoever. I was doing a daily yoga practice, but fell off the yoga wagon when the rains began (I was doing my yoga outside). Now that I have moved, I have a designated yoga area and that has been wonderful, but the daily practice has not yet fully manifested. Walking up a flight of stairs gets me winded, so I have a lot of work ahead.

Additionally, I seem to have developed a toe problem. (If an old friend of mine, Bob, was around he'd yell out, "call the "toe" truck!! Aaagh) But seriously, this aging thing ain't for the faint of heart, let me tell you. And I am one of the lucky ones.

Look for my update this weekend. I am determined to get out for my first training hike this coming weekend and avoid the Superbowl insanity.