This is the hike my friend Vince and I took yesterday: Around The Mountain
(Here’s an article – Statesman Article and another description: Boise Trails – Around The Mountain)
If you open the link you will see pictures and a description of the loop. It was drop dead gorgeous yesterday. The loop is supposed to be 10.1 miles but my watch only gave it 9.8 miles. Regardless, it was a trek.
I am pretty sure I rode this on my mountain bike years ago with my friend David Clemons, but I’m thinking it wasn’t finished when we rode it. The loop was completed in 2013 and we must have ridden a bit earlier than that.
These days I hike instead of mountain bike and it is a genuine pleasure.
I turned 67 just a week ago. Hiking is becoming my go-to physical activity and I love it. It’s relatively safe, you can walk every day, and if you get outside of town the views can be spectacular. Mountain biking and even commuter biking, which is so much fun, is something I’m putting aside for the future. I haven’t been on my bike for several years and I don’t trust myself not to take a tumble and crack something I don’t want cracked.
Tennis was supposed to be my life-long sport and physical activity but, after some ongoing neck and shoulder problems my physical therapist recommended I not play, or swim for that matter. That was a sad day, and I’m not completely sure I’ll follow that advice forever.
Unlike tennis, which I played early in life and played on high school and college teams, I came to mountain biking and now hiking late in life. I remember my son Shane taking me out for my first ride and sprawling all over the place. The son teaches the father.
And with a smile on his face.
Such fun.
So I rode for a few years, was never very technically proficient but managed to ride up some of Boise’s foothills, to therefore see some beautiful sights – including the ride Around The Mountain, and to come away without breaking my collar bone by going over my handlebars, unlike a number of my friends. It was a nice little chapter in my physical life.
Now, it’s hiking. I do not believe I would ever have become a hiker without a friend like Vince. I wouldn’t join a hiking group. I wouldn’t do it on my own. He has been a hiker for many years and is very patient when my old bones and muscles and lungs just slow us down to a crawl. And, we have great conversations along the way.
And usually a couple of beers afterwards.
At 67, I’ve been around the block. Yesterday, it was great fun to be able to go Around The Mountain.
The Profound Bartender 