Veteran's day and hiking

Looking awful sassy on my part

We played a "veteran's day" concert on Sunday. I know it's not veteran's day, but Medora has their own. On it they have a free concert for veteran's (that's the third time in a row I've written verteran's... vertebrate veterans?) and then they get into the musical for free as well. They were a GREAT audience. That's the thing about country music, the kids who should be up and screaming don't give a crap and the old foggies are clapping and smiling and even dancing sometimes.

Today I went for a hike at Painted Canyon. It is UNREAL. I swear it's not really on planet earth. It's mars mixed with middle earth. (actually there is a butte that I call Weather Top in my head that I see on my drive home.....) Again, I took a bunch of pictures but they are on a disposable. I'm feeling less and less silly for having brought three of them. I did about 4 miles in about 70 minutes (I ran the flat parts) in 80 degrees at noon. Maybe one of those miles was flat, the rest was up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and oh god I'm cold and think I'm going to puke I think I have sunstroke! I'm exaggerating a bit but I did actually get chilly at one point on my final ascent back up to the parking lot. Maybe that was just horror when I realized I was only half-way up and my so-called in shape thighs were burning and I couldn't drink from my water bottle because I was gasping too hard. I came home, ate till I was ill and fell right to sleep until I had to go to fondue.

I'm super proud of myself but also think that maybe I should start hiking earlier to avoid the sun. It's not that hot, but perfect blue clear skies mean blinding sun. I've also discovered a medium sized gray fly that loves the taste of my blood, mostly notably from the backs of my knees. It and it's friends have found me on both of my hikes. I am running on the theory that it is a horse fly but mostly I have been calling it "Jackass." This name could be used in a sentence like "GET OFF ME YOU LITTLE JACKASS!!!! GAHHHHH! EEEK!" Usually accompanied by childish flailing.

I tacked a trail map to my wall and I've starting marking off where I have hiked. I've got this crazy idea in my head that I'm going to hike the whole thing. on the one hand I think I could actually do it. On the other hand some of those trails are really long and you can't start in the middle so I would be looking at a 5 hour hike. Part of me is all "I've got this!" but the reasonable part of me is reminding myself I have to play a show every night. I've got 2 months so I'll see how much I can get in.