Looking forward to not struggling on hikes

On Saturday I did a hike with the group that we did for the first time last year in August.  Even though I still struggle on hikes, I honestly thought that I'd do a bit better this time around.  Especially as it was cooler, I had the intravenous iron in May, AND I've been doing a lot of hiking the past year.  The very first uphill nearly made me turn around.  Then I realised I'm the only one who knows the route, so there was no escape route for me 😣  And to add insult to injury, one of my regular group members is a 73 year old - and she was ahead of me!  She's only been hiking for little more than a year, and when she started she was recovering from a back injury, so it's amazing to see how far she's come.  But also sad that she's already doing better than me, and I've been hiking regularly for almost a decade (wow, typing that now just made me feel old!).

Silver lining though, after the hike some of us stayed behind for a milkshake and we started talking about the hikes we want to plan for next year.  I've always had 2 hiking bucket-lists: one list of hikes I'd still like to do, and know I could do, and a list of hikes that I've always wanted to do, but never dreamed I'd be able to do.  Now that those lists can become one list, I feel like a kid before Christmas.  I have no idea which ones to do first!

 

Some photos of the hike, as it was absolutely gorgeous.  And I'm looking forward to doing it again next year, and actually enjoying it this time :)

 

PS - T minus 49 days before D-day!