I'll admit it....I'd Never Been on a "HIKE".....

.....until yesterday! :)
So Lake & I were wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend & take our run outside, preferably somewhere that wasn't around our neighborhood. We will normally do longer weekend runs at the Salado Creek Greenway that's located in between Hueber & Blanco, just south of Bitters. It's right by the new Hardberger Park. I love going there & the path is pretty wide, so you don't have to worry about getting trampled by folks riding their bikes or unsupervised children riding their scooters. The only problem with that trail is that it's a bit of a drive for us, so I wanted to find somewhere that would be slightly closer & more convenient.

Here's where Eisenhower Park came to play. It's located off of 1604 outside the loop on NW Military about 3 miles north of the loop. We'd never been before, so we thought we'd give it a whirl. Grabbing the trail map we discovered the only paved path was a .9 mile uphill path, so if we wanted to run 4 miles, we'd need to run it twice & then some. Not an ideal run. PLUS the paved path was pretty narrow, so another bummer.

A decision needed to be made, so we opted to instead just walk the trail. As we were going along there were side un-paved trails & we decided to take one, that would lead to 2 others. I'm not much of an "outdoorsy" type girl, the interest has never been there for me. I've always figured, why walk through the woods, sticks, rocks, trees, when a mall is such a nicer option! :) (i'm obviously sorta kidding here). But it was a really pretty day & I knew I had to get some sort of exercise in, so I had fun with it. We ended up "hiking" on 3 un-paved paths for about an hour & a half when it was all said & done. I had a really good time & boy was some of it tough! We would have taken the nature trail down the hill, but I had to be at dinner with one of my JL girls at 6:30, so we ran out of time. We're actually thinking of going back next Sunday in the morning & completing the entire Hillview Trail which is the "nature" trail that surrounds the entire perimeter of the park.

This next time I'll be more prepared & not wear running shorts, my good running shoes, & take water. :) Live & Learn! ;)

UPDATE on my health: I'm feeling much better, still a bit congested but I think that has to do more with allergies than with anything else. I completed 11 miles for last week & I'm planning on running 4 miles today, so that'll give my 7 miles of "exercise" for this week & it's only Monday, so that's a vast improvement!

Red Oak Trail

Shady Creek Trail

Hillview Trail