utenzi

I went on a 3 hour hike today with a Meetup group. The temperature hovered just over freezing the entire day. While the hiking was enough to keep me quite warm, as you can see in that picture to the left where I'm sweating like a pig, it didn't help my bones much. By that I mean that by the end of the hike my knees and lower back were screaming. They really don't like cold weather at the best of times and especially not when you're scrambling over rocks and trees. The picture over there was a candid taken when I'd just crossed a stream and then dropped down the bank to try to get a better angle for a photo. Had I known he was taking my picture, I'd have at least closed my mouth! The picture below is the dam across the Haw River just above highway 15/501. It's where our hike started. Damn but I feel old. After a hike like that I really think about buying a hot tub!

I went on a hike along the Haw river today. It was organized by Ching, a research scientist at UNC. She's the one on the right side of the picture who is taking off before the picture was taken. Two people didn't show up so just the 6 of us went. The picture below is Daniel, a mechanical engineer in RTP, crossing a stream on a log. It looked like fun so I went next--but nearly froze half way across so I scrambled across the second half quickly before I could do that freeze-thing. I have a touch of acrophobia, I'm afraid. This is the small damn that is at the beginning of the trail we took. Isn't it pretty? The day was perfect for hiking. The temp was just below 60f and the sun was steady and felt warm on the skin. What a great way to spent Easter Sunday. We never saw a rabbit tho.