Last Thursday's hike and Fun with the Fuzz

Barb, Steve, Rich, Peggy, Carol, Al, Chris (taken by Renae)

Since I wasn't able to join the Trailblazers last week, Barb graciously sent me some pictures of the hike. Eight intrepid hikers met to go on a ten-mile-long slog through some serious mud and rain.

Negotiating mudholes

This hike up Olsen Creek is always brushy and hard to follow, but apparently the weather conditions and numerous blowdowns from the wind storms of the past winter made it even more difficult. Peggy sent me an email and said, "We all agreed that this trail might be one to let nature finally have back; it was pretty well grown over in spots and, of course, I felt guilty stepping on various types of wildflowers." Even with those conditions, I was sorry to miss it.

Two of the almost 1,500 participants in this morning's race

 Since I couldn't go out with the ladies this morning, I noticed on the way to the coffee shop that some streets were being blocked off, and I discovered that there would be a race called "Fun with the Fuzz" to benefit police officers who have fallen in the line of duty. It was only a few blocks from the coffee shop, so I convinced John to walk over there with me. "That's pretty far," he said, and I told him it was only four blocks, maybe five, and if I could walk it, he could, too. So off we went.

The starting line

We got there and it was a bit farther than I thought (8 blocks), but we both did just fine. There were lots of people with strollers and dogs on leashes, and everybody seemed to be in a good mood. To be eligible for the prizes, you had to be sure to cross over the orange line.

And they're off!

It's a fun 5K race (3.1 miles) and I asked John if he would be willing to walk it with me next year. He equivocated but said he'd think about it. I'm assuming I'll be back in shape by then. The weather was perfect for the runners: cool and crisp with no rain. This afternoon I'm going to the movies with Judy, so I figured I'd better get this posted before my sister begins to bug me about it.
:-)

What to write about today?

A shower of pink petals

No hike for me today. I also happened to notice that although it's after 3:00pm, the rain hasn't let up all day. This means my fellow hikers spent the day in their rain gear while I stayed dry. I would have traded places with them in a minute, though. And now I am casting about for topics to write about on Thursdays. This won't be the last hike I will miss, unfortunately.

No change in the knee. I have an appointment to see my primary care physician a week from tomorrow, and at that time I'm hoping enough time will have passed with no change that he will send me to a specialist. I feel confident I know what happened: while stepping down and lowering myself onto a steep rock (even with the help of my trekking poles), something snapped or tore or otherwise made my knee unusable in the medial area. It hasn't changed in a week, no better and no worse.

My pain is spelled out in the light green words

I found this picture online, although I don't remember where I got it from or I'd link it, and now I can't find it again. Anyway, I can still get around if I take stairs with one leg, both up and down, bringing the injured one along with a straight knee. Yep, Chester and I still walk the same. My limp is no less noticeable but when I inconveniently forget that I'm injured and try to hurry, I am immediately reminded.

Nevertheless, I walked the half mile to the bus stop and managed to do my gym routine. I couldn't actually use the rowing machine again today because my arms are really sore from yesterday's rowing activity! Instead I used the exercise bike and then attended the hour-long strength and tone class. I usually can't take it on Thursdays because, well, you know: I'm out hiking. (glum face)

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing I did in yoga class hurt my knee at all. This is good news, and other than not being able to walk normally or navigate steps, I can pretty much carry out my regular routine. Everything takes longer, but at least I am not a complete invalid. (smile trying to take over glum face) I'll continue to stay as positive as I can and hope for the best.
:-}

The YMCA will keep me sane

The stationary bikes at the Y

Today I went to the Y for my usual 9-10:00am class of Strength and Tone, which was fine, no pain at all, but then again it's mostly upper body weight work. I rode this bicycle for fifteen minutes before class, also without pain, and asked my friend Carol (who was in the 9:00 class too) if she would take a couple of pictures of me using the gym. She was happy to do so. Behind this particular very comfy bike style, you can see the ones with the skinny little seats, which are nowhere near as pleasant to ride as these. There are six of this particular style and at least one is always in use. You can make it hard or easy to pedal, and since I'm trying to keep my knee happy, I'm using a lighter setting. I might work up to making it harder to pedal if my knee cooperates.

The rowing machine

Yesterday Al saw me on the bike and suggested I give the rowing machine a try, since it would not only burn more calories but also give me an upper body workout. So today I tried it, and I found that it doesn't hurt my knee at all to use it, and in no time at all I could feel myself begin to perspire. Yep, these kinds of machines are going to be my new pals to help me get through without my hikes and fast walks.

Tomorrow I'll be going to my first yoga class since I hurt my knee and hopefully I'll find that I can do most if not all of the poses without knee pain. I guess it's noticeable that I'm limping: I walked by a little boy of three or four with his mom today, and I could hear him telling his mom that he can walk like that, too. He stiffened up his little legs and marched alongside her.
:-)

Nursing my sore knee

Lilacs a month early

Well, the doctor visit on Thursday evening was almost useless. He took some x-rays and said nothing is broken (I already knew that), and suggested that I use the RICE method to heal up (that's Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation). I've been here before a time or two and have done it all. There's little to no swelling, but pain right under the kneecap. I was hoping he'd refer me to a specialist, but he said that would the next step if it doesn't get better on its own.

I learned enough online to be able to diagnose what happened when I stepped down on my sore knee and it sort of gave out with rather excruciating pain. It was either the medial ligament (not likely) or the medial meniscus that tore, so for now I have figured out that if I keep it taped up and walk with a stiff leg, much like Chester in the old Gunsmoke series, it doesn't hurt. Chester was played by Dennis Weaver, and I have learned that he found it so hard to walk that way he had to take yoga lessons! My knee bends just fine without pain when I'm sitting and there's no weight on it. I can ride the exercise bike at the Y without pain, so I went there this morning to take the place of walking with the ladies on a sunny Saturday morning.

Our neighbor's apple tree is in bloom

I'm still going to attempt to get a minimum of 10,000 steps every day, even with this injury, but there's no doubt that I'll be unable to hike or do any fast walking for awhile. My stiff-legged walk is slow but gets me around, and if I try to hurry it up a little I'm reminded by a pain from my kneecap that I just can't do it. There's nothing to keep me out of the garden, though. I'll just take it easy and enjoy planting and watering it. So even though I'm down, I'm not out of commission. Just need to change things around a little and adjust my attitude.
:-)

A hike to remember

Ow! My knee!

Fourteen Senior Trailblazers met on a fabulous sunny day to drive the 45 minutes down to the trailhead on Fidalgo Island to hike on the Anacortes Community Forest Lands to both Sugarloaf and Mt. Erie. Some of the hikers got to cover around seven or eight miles, but not all of us.

Chris' new removable cast

First, the back story. Chris is thrilled with her new removable cast and managed admirably to navigate the ups and downs of this rabbit warren of trails that starts at Heart Lake and takes us first to Sugarloaf and then to the top of Mt. Erie.

Fawn lily

We saw fawn lilies in several places. We know that's what they are because of their purple and green leaves. They are lovely and only bloom for a short period, so I had to capture this one as best I could. Then we headed for the first of our destinations, Sugarloaf. The view is pretty spectacular, to say the least.

Linda gazing out at the view

Since it was after 11:00 by the time we got here, we stopped to have a quick snack before setting off for Mt. Erie. On the way back down, I had an event with my knee. A sore spot became an excruciating show stopper. Although I don't know yet what broke, something did. It started last week on the steep downhill but today it finally made it impossible for me to continue. That's somewhat of a problem when you're out there.

Making my way carefully to the road, with help

Although I could still walk, I couldn't bend my right knee much at all without pain, so everybody pitched in to get me to the road. (There's a road to the top of Mt. Erie, but we take the trails. Usually.) Once we got to the road, Steve said he would jog to the parking lot and get his car, and he and I (and Jacqueline, who stayed with me) would meet the others who would hike to the top while he came to get us and drive us to the top to join the others.

The trail where we waited for Steve

The two of us settled in and had our lunch while we waited for Steve. Plenty of cars went by, but no Steve. Although cellphone connection was spotty, Al managed to get through and found that we were still waiting, and then... here he comes. He had made a wrong turn to the parking lot and ended up going more than twice the distance he should have, and he jogged the entire way! A dog saw him and decided to make it even more difficult for him by taking a bite out of his leg. He kept going, picked us up, and by the time we were all joined together at the top of Mt. Erie, we redistributed the cars and started back down.

A Trailblazer conversation on top of Mt. Erie

Since Steve, Jacqueline and I had only just arrived, this is the only view I got from the top of Mt. Erie, but the others had been waiting for us for awhile, not knowing that Steve had been jogging for what was around seven miles to get to us when he did! The hikers headed back down to the cars, while Carol, Steve, Jacqueline and I got in Steve's car and made a beeline to the Senior Center. While driving, we imagined how we could make a movie out of today's adventure. We wouldn't have to exaggerate much to make it a good story, would we? (A case of rabies from the dog bite, the two waiting for him having contracted the Zika virus from mosquitos, and a car crash on the way home, maybe?)

Once we had cell coverage, I called my doctor and was able to snag an after-hours appointment tonight at 7:00pm, when someone can take a look at my knee. I suspect I will be missing some hikes, because although I can walk, it's only slowly and with care, and stairs are a serious problem. Any downhill causes pain. But we'll see what he says. In any event, it was definitely a hike to remember.
:-)

Garden news and a good egg

Krysta in the henbit

This past weekend, another sunny one, I found Krysta finally making some headway amongst her field of henbit dead nettle. She's a full-time nursing student and had to wait until she got a break to get started. Not long after this picture, though, we began to receive a fair amount of rain. In fact, it rained all Sunday night, most of Monday, and today (Tuesday) is off-and-on showers. However, once this patch is over with, we've got more nice weather on the way.

My garden plot as of today

And look at my wonderful area! It's all ready for planting. In the foreground are some strawberry plants I transplanted from the rear area (see that stool? it's in the part of my garden that still needs work, pulling weeds and clearing, basically).  Now it's time to head to Joe's Garden to find the starts I'll be putting in there. It's an exciting time of year for me.

The things I find in my refrigerator

And yesterday when I went to the fridge to make my breakfast, this good egg smiled at me, his eyes at half mast the way mine are before my latte. He was just too precious not to capture for posterity. And for my blog. Now I am going off to the local Home Depot for more garden supplies.
:-)

A day filled with springtime delights

Leo at the coffee shop this morning

I could get used to all this sunshine. Apparently it will stay around until tomorrow night, when we will get some rain, and then get sunny and warm again. Leo let me take this picture of him this morning, showing his new short haircut as he basked in the early morning sun.

The season's first asparagus

And yesterday morning at the coffee shop, John brought in some freshly picked asparagus from his garden, and we happily munched down these tasty treats. He said there will be more next week. I love asparagus in any form, even uncooked. So delicious!

Trillium

In keeping with the signs of spring, I captured this picture of my first trillium of the season during our Thursday Mud Lake marathon. Look at the size of those leaves! No wonder they are called trillium, three leaves and three petals. They are also very fragile, as I have learned from this site. An excerpt:

While they are beautiful to look at they are also extremely fragile, and picking them seriously injures the plant by preventing the leaf-like bracts from producing food for the next year, often effectively killing the plant and ensuring none will grow in its place.

Our Saturday walk was also wonderful, and as it was the first day of the season for the Farmers' Market, I went there afterwards to enjoy some delicious Raven Bread. As I have mentioned before, the young baker has some of the best breads made from ancient grains I have ever tasted. I snagged this picture from her Facebook page. I bought some of this concoction that eventually became rye and spelt bread.

Sophie wresting with a HUGE batch of bread dough

So that's the news from my little corner of the universe on this wonderful Saturday. Now I'm heading out to the garden to start blending some mushroom compost into my soil. I hope you have a great day, too!
:-)