Between a rock and a Hard place: One more

That's right, got two hikes in this month so only one left! I've really enjoyed them but, it will be nice to take the rainy months off to play Wrath of the lich King. :)

OK so to the hikes.

Hike 1 for the month was Millersylvania State Park's fitness trail. It's only a one mile loop and you are supposed to do these work out stations along the way. They have 20 stations each asking you to do stuff like leg lifts and jumping jacks. Problem is most of the stations have been tore up by punks or just rotted away. I've wanted to go back there and check the place out because it's been right around 15 years since I was last there on a camping trip. I was sad to see that our baseball fields were turned into full hookup camp sites and the nature trails were converted into basically wheel chair accessible paths but it was still fun. And, it reminded me of old times camping with my cousin Aaron and getting into trouble.

Pics.
Starts off in what looks like an old apple orchard

From 2008_10_12

This part of the trail is also a service road but it doesn't matter cause it's beautiful.

From 2008_10_12

I've tried to explain to her that a hike is to enjoy nature, look around, and reflect. For some reason she just keeps thinking it's a race.

From 2008_10_12

My favorite pic from that walk

From 2008_10_12

Ok now to hike two, It's also been about 10 years since I've been to one of my old high schools. Susan wanted to go visit Mt St Helens so I figured it was a good time to visit my old stomping grounds. I didn't realize how many painful memories of fun times with my dad it would bring up but I guess you can't avoid those forever.

The mountain was a little hard to see. It wasn't clouds, or fog making it hard to get a view of the mountain. It was the wind, I'm estimating it at about a 40mph sustained wind with gusts up to 60. That wind that nearly knocks you back a step. So here's the clearest shot of the mountain I got all day.

From 2008_10_26

Since it was nearly impossible to avoid the wind up on the mountain and I was feeling cheap for using one of my hikes to stare at a mountain from a visitors center I decided to stop at my old high school. When I was there in 94 we built a nature trail along the back of the school. I wanted to see how it was holding up and it would give me some physical activity. I was surprised to see how 14 years of use had worn the trail. However, I was even more surprised to see that the education standards haven't increased over the years.