Sunday December 31, 2006 The Notch Amherst Massachusetts

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!! I can't think of a better way to end a day then to watch the sun go down from a mountain top. Today Bev picked the trail and what a trail it was... if I could do this hike once a week for a year I would get that Jessica Simpson butt I am striving for. As most of New England is the side of this mountain is all trap rock which means at any moment one of the rocks could break free and you lose your footing... we've been pretty lucky and no one has really twisted an ankle or been hurt badly while we've been out. There were points we were climbing up the straight side of the mountain on our hands and knees. We didn't dally long as we had a late start in the day and some form of daylight was needed to navigate down the mountain through the woods... most of the trails we are on aren't what you would call perfectly manicured foot trails, some of these trails take some work in finding as they are pretty overgrown and not traveled as much as they should/could be.

I still can't get over the weather we've been having in New England this year, today was in the low 40's when we started our trek and only went down to about 32 degrees as the sun came to set.

As always if I can I like to add a link for more information:

http://home.comcast.net/~tm01001/default.htm#MM

I'm giving myself 5 miles hiked today for a total of 132 miles since October 1, 2006... or an average of 1.46 miles per day.

December 30, 2006 Week 14

As promised I got back on that horse and have started walking regularly again. Started the week out on Sunday with a pretty easy 4.4 mile hike with the dogs. This was Riley's first official hike and all went pretty well. As clumsy as this dog is he did extremely well with the trap rock, he was almost graceful. When we reached the area with the view Riley dropped totally to the ground in fear... I think he thought I was tossing him over the edge. Once I settled in and sat down he calmed a little and was able to get up and sniff around though he never got closer than about 6 feet from the edge.

The nights have been cool but still not enough to keep from walking... actually it's been quite pleasant to walk at night. Total this week was 17 miles including the hike giving me a final total of 127 miles.

November 25-December 23 Weeks 9-13

As you can tell we've been busy with life, not busy with walking. It is embarrassing to tell you in these five weeks I've only walked a total of 16 miles and only 4 of them were on top of a mountain. Now that the holidays are past I will get back on that proverbial horse and literally get my butt in gear. My total miles walked is 110.