This walk was a special request and a special occasion — regular hiker Tom was making his first return to the hiking trail since getting a knee replacement two months ago.He was in good spirits. This was actually his second new knee — he had the other one replaced a few years agoIn fact everyone was in good spirits — it was a gorgeous morning, with a wonderful feeling of fall in the airTom requested a walk where the trail surface would make for easy walking, and he could turn back early and be sure of finding his way back to the carsAs you can see from the close-up here, the trail surface is excellent, especially compared to our typical trail, which is a lot rougherThis is an excellent walk, realy pretty the whole way
Second hike in a row where a hiker rejoined us after an extended medical layoff — this time it was Casey, back after three months’ recuperation from major abdominal surgery — amazingly, he was able to do the complete hike at normal speedThis trail is always extremely dark, but there is one open spot where we can count on getting a photoI can’t say the hikers always love the experience of undergoing a group photoNot everyone made it into the portrait shot
Our snowbirds are starting to leave town. Mak and Tamara are planning to leave this week for their winter home in Florida. They’ll be gone until May. We’ll lose more hikers as winter gets closer.
Official head count: 21H, eight D
Ekhart’s 88th birthday get-together at Hopshire
A number of people who missed the hike turned out. We sat in the brewing room, which was open to the outdoors, and we had a number of yellowjackets buzzing peacefully around. The setting was oddly festive, and the get-together had a very lively vibe.It would be really fun if this photo was depicting a special envoy from the county sheriff’s office officially sent out to congratulate Eckhart for continuing to hike at such an advanced age — actually it’s just our regular hiker Jim, who was on duty and who swung by for a quick handshake. In fact, Jim was celebrating a milestone of his own — last day on the job after 32 years. This is the open doorway where the bees can come and go.There was lots of delicious food. Hand-made chocolate heart and photo of Eckhart by PJ
