Hike #1

After a recent hike to the top of a mountain, we met a family on hike 49 of 52. Since we enjoy hiking so much together, we were inspired by this once a week plan for the year, and being in a location that has many hikes within a radius of our home in Lexington, KY, we have decided to try to take 52 hikes at different locations every week this year. We know this may not happen in exactly 52 weeks due to schedules, plans, work deadlines, and family events. However, we are gearing up and getting ready to try to make this happen. We decided that each hike should be at least a 5K (3.1 miles).

We began this afternoon with our number 1 hike of 52, after having attending the 10th Annual Heritage Jazz Festival the day before. We decided to hike at Shaker Village. We got off to a late start, and ended up walking in the middle of the day. It was sunny and 79 degrees which didn't seem extreme when we started, but many of the paths were not shaded because the sun was so high. We walked a 7K (4.35) miles. It was a very hot hike. Water in the stream beds which we had waded in over our knees in other seasons was completely dried up and the waterfall was but a cliff face. We decided our next hike should begin in the cool of the morning. We drank all our water and almost drained the battery in one of our phones. We decided to get a portable phone charger to keep our map alive for future hikes and to gear up with more water. Although it was a basic, easy hike, we rated it as a 7 in difficulty.

                                                     1 down; 51 to go!                                    Stairway to Heaven