On Wednesday morning we decided to drive away from Snowbird and do a little hiking on the Appalachian Trail.   Stecoah Gap was only about 20 minutes away from the Lodge so that is where we started out.

Within the first 1/4 of a mile, we hit large areas of rocks that we had to scramble over.  They were still wet from the previous night’s rain and were a bit hard to navigate.   Fortunately by the time we came back to this area, much of the water had dried so it wasn’t nearly as hard going down.

We enjoyed walking along and enjoying the flora….mostly mushrooms and fungi.   We passed a beautiful white mushroom and stopped to take photos.  I had the idea to place the camera under the ‘shroom and point it skyward.   I was thrilled with the result…..

We came to this cool tree that was covered with fungus……

….and once again I had fun taking photos from the underside…..

We did find this one beautiful flower……

Michael did a great job of leading our expedition…..

….and we were happy to return to our starting point, some 4.5 miles later…..

 

Now, before I continue this post, let me say something to any of you who know my Mother…..DO NOT tell her about the next big trip that we are planning.   She worried when I told her that we were hiking for one day so what do you think she will say when she hears that we are planning to hike for 10 days in the Himalaya’s next May????    This has been on our bucket list for the last several years and we finally decided that we just needed to plan the trip, train for the trip and GO!!! 

I have been a bit worried about my knees and a pinched nerve in my back, but everything seems to be working fine and I didn’t have any issues on this most recent hike.   We are going to do a few other practice hikes in the next few months and also pay a visit to our friendly Orthopedic Surgeon for some  “not so free” advice. 

We are planning to do a trek with REI, spending 10 days in the  Annapurna Sanctuary and several days in Kathmandu.    Michael has also contacted the University at Kathmandu and he will give a talk while we are there as well…..it must be nice to be famous!!!

I am sure that you will hear more about this in upcoming months….wish us luck!!!