Saturday, August 1, 2009

Climb every mountain...


So, every now and then I like to change things up with my fitness and working out schedule. And this week, that involved a scramble. What is a scramble you ask? Why, a scramble is when you go to the top of a mountain, sometimes using your hands to help you in tricky spots, getting up or down. I facebooked a friend who I knew liked to hike and we got some dates together and drove out there. I brought my baby, and had him in a kid backpack, and my older child went to the dayhome for the day. We set out in the morning, Starbucks in hand and drove to Canmore. Our chosen mountain was Ha Ling, named after the first person to reach the top.


The thing about climbing mountains is, it's all up. Literally, in order to get to the top, you just keep going up until there is no more up to do. It's not like hiking along a trail through the forest with ups and downs, again, if you want to reach the top of a mountain, you have to keep going up. My friend was doing her first ever scramble and we took our time. I mean, I was, after all, carrying an extra person and all!! It was great fun. I'm sure I burned a couple thousand calories. My heart was a thumping the whole time, going up and even coming down (although coming down was a lot less effort for the lungs!!).

We did great. We made it to the top, had some snacks, took some pictures, and then headed back down. The thing with this particular hike, is it's only 3km to get to the top, but you go up somewhere between 700 and 800 meters in elevation. So, it's a very short distance to cover that amount of altitude gain. Just think about it. 800 meters is two times around a track, it's just short of a kilometre, UP.

I loved it. I loved every huffing and puffing moment of it. I loved the exercise I knew I was getting, and I loved the feeling of accomplishment when we got to the top. "So, what did you do today?", "oh not much, just climbed to the top of a MOUNTAIN!!"

I want to do more. Not sure which ones, they have to some that are easy enough to do with a kid on my back. I also want to do more hikes, and take the family. I am so fortunate that I live in a part of the world where hiking in the mountains is something I can do whenever I want. I may as well take advantage of it!!

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