Hiking The Flats

I joined a hiking club in Regina, and today was my first hike with the group.

We walked about 8K around some cross-country ski trails 15 minutes east of Regina.  It rained overnight so the weather was cool, the ground was wet, and since the trail hasn't been mowed in a while, the grass was waist-high in some spots, and wet. Not ideal.

Still, it was nice not only to get outdoors and walk (the terrain was as flat as a board, so I'm going to have to adjust my definition of the word hike), and much more so with people.  There were 8 of us in total, from a variety of backgrounds.

After the hike I went to an outdoor sports store to pick up some bug lotion; there were many mosquitoes on the trail.  I also met up with two other hikers for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Next weekend I can't go hiking as I have a spiritual direction appointment and I'm also getting a car tune up, but I hope that the following week I will be able to join the gang again for another outing.

This is good.  The badlands 3 weeks ago, and the ski trails this week.  Hopefully there are some hills - not mountains, even just a few hills - in the area that I can go to and "hike".

A good day.

PS - funny anecdote: halfway through the hike there was a warning sign that read: "Warning.  Steep hill ahead."  As I approached the hill, it turned out to be an "incline" of about 10 steps.  The incline was grade of maybe 10%, maximum.  Good thing there was a warning sign.  Pheeeeeeew!  - this was added on Friday, July 19, 2013.