Once More, to the Summit! (I Paraphrase, Of Course)

So today is Thursday, which appears to be lining itself up as my regular hiking day, as it's one of my two days off and I generally need to sleep Wednesday or I'm busy paying bills or something.  And since I promised her I'd give her more warning next time in case she wanted to come along, I invited my sister and her two children (a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl) to explore some different trails at Arabia Mountain park.  This is us before we started up the mountain.  I'm not posting pics of the kids because, well, they're kids.  You don't need to see them anyway.

My sister is at least as into health and fitness as I am, though she follows a more mainstream method, doing boot camp three-ish days a week.  She also has clearly been more successful than I am, but part of that is due to my having focused more on strength development than weight loss.  Until now, anyway.
I actually didn't find out until later, but I got T to meet me for hiking immediately after she'd just finished a stadium workout.  She didn't even have to change for the trip.
Also, I was attempting to use a new app to track how far I hiked, elevation gained, etc, but for some reason mine didn't work.  However, when I mentioned it to T before we started, she liked the idea and downloaded it, and her's worked (meaning it was probably user error on my part.... curses.  There goes my sense of superiority...) so I had her send me the information when we were done.  We totaled out at 1.3 miles in 81 minutes, with 2712 steps taken and 398 total feet gained in elevation.
Now, those numbers aren't exactly record-breaking, I know, but we were taking it a little slower for a variety of reasons.  I was barefoot for the whole way up, so my feet do seem to be getting stronger and more well-adapted to being bare (although I still have to watch where I put my feet, in a public park that has smatterings of shattered glass, etc).  Also, T had just gotten done with her workout, and, you know... kids.

I did make it to the summit before having to put my shoes back on, though!  Once there, we took a break for about 15 minutes to let the kids rest in some shade, and we all took a breather to drink some water and eat an apple apiece.  Once we started back down, the rock had warmed up to the point that I needed to put shoes on.  But I was really hoping to avoid stereotypical shoes on this trip, so I brought along these!

They're house shoes my mom bought me a year or two ago, with rubber soles and faux sheepskin lining.  They're very comfortable, and have minimal padding inside (since I've mashed it flat with use) and I'm pretty sure the sole is relatively thin rubber with minimal heel-to-toe drop, so while they're not the RunAmocs I just ordered, they were a better choice than tennis shoes.
Oh, I may have forgotten to mention, I just ordered my SoftStar DASH RunAmoc - LITEs!  I'm REALLY excited about it, and I guarantee that as soon as I get my hot little hands on them and have a chance to field test them, you will get a review.

It'll take a few weeks for them to get here, unfortunately, so while I'm waiting I plan on writing next on my struggles with switching to a Primal diet.  Meat is awesome, but I'm fairly certain I have a food addiction and I work at a convenience store for God's sake... temptation, I have aplenty.
Anyway, until next time, Stay Native!