Thing 1 and Thing 2

Today I learned two new things. Well, one of them I learned a few days ago, but I learned it because of what we were doing today. 

Thing #1 - Ridley Park has a lake. We calculated today that I've lived in Delaware County all but 5 years of my life. Yet, I did not know that Ridley Park has a lake. I am a tad embarrassed. This feels like something I should have known. 😞

I discovered this due to our blood donation today. We had appointments at Ridley Park Presbyterian Church. Hiking was off the table then so I went looking for a route to take a post donation walk instead. I located the church on Google maps and there it was -- Ridley Park Lake. Who knew? As already established I did not. 

The lake was built with the founding of Ridley Park in the 1870s. The borough was the brainchild of Isaac Hinkley, president of the  Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. Mr. Hinckley hired architect Robert Morris Copeland to design the town. The design included the 20 acre man made lake. 

There is a walking path around the lake. On the path you'll pass two original buildings, a pumphouse built in 1890 and a boathouse built in 1935. There are lots of benches including what appears to be original ones made of stone. Similar to many of the towns built on or near rail lines in this area, Ridley Park was a summer resort destination for wealthy Philadelphia. 

If you'd like to learn more here is the Wikipedia entry and a history page from the borough. 

BTW, in case you are wondering (we were), the creek that feeds the lake is Crum Creek not Ridley Creek. 

On our walk, we encountered people walking, fishing and meeting in the park. It was lovely. 

Thing #2 - Veins have valves. My donation experience was going very well. Michelle, the phlebotomist was pleasant and kind. The needle stick was amazing. I felt nothing beyond the initial prick and there was no pressure while it was in. Strangely though I could feel vibration in the tube which was draped over my forearm. I never felt that before. It felt funny but not concerning. Michelle, however was concerned. 

The  blood flow was very slow. In fact, as she watched she was confused that it would flow fine one second and slow down the next. She calmly called for help. I wasn't worried. I just chalked it up to my notoriously low blood pressure. Every time I donate, the check in person asks "Is it always this low?"

The senior phlebotomist looked everything over and said, "I'd like to move the needle a little bit. Ok?" I reluctantly said ok. The last time they tried to move a needle while I was donating, it hurt A LOT. But I figured it was either let her move it or the donation attempt would likely be stopped short. Fortunately, she was equally good with a needle. Although I braced for pain I didn't feel a thing. And with the move, the vibration stopped and the flow returned to steadily normal. 

That's when I learned that veins have valves. The original placement of the needle was too close to a valve. As best as I could understand the opening and closing of the valve was causing the blood to flow over the needle. This caused the vibration and the blood to miss the needle opening off and on. Senior blood taker said she could feel the vibration in the tube and that's how she knew. 

And in case you were wondering (I was) the valves keep the blood flowing in the right direction. Makes perfect sense. I just never had reason to think about it before. 

So there you have it. Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

Lessons in Patience

Shortly after the injury I tried to resign myself to considering the recovery time as a lesson in patience and staying in the here and now. 

Truthfully it's not so much a lesson as a ''you-have-no-choice" state of being. I have always had the luxury of deciding I want to go and just going. In the past 8 weeks, however, many steps have had to be carefully planned. 

As I weaned myself out of the boot, I had to think about each outing with regard to needing the boot or not. Answer: I wore it in high traffic areas or in situations where I needed to move a lot or quickly. In situations where I shed the boot (mostly at home and around the office) I adopted a crossing the street mentality when leaving a room. At the doorway, I'd stop and look both ways before stepping out to avoid running into anyone and risk getting stepped on. 

I've had lots of time to think about how privileged I was (and will be again) to just move when and where I want to. 

On Monday (6-24), the doc removed all restrictions on the use off my foot. She warned me that it would be slow going to return to my previous distances. I'm supposed to build back slowly and let pain be my guide. I know she's right even if I don't want her to be. 

Today (Friday), I walked to and back from the dentist and then to and back from the library. Total for both walks 2.4 miles. My foot is achy and my ankle - inside and outside - is sore. 

However, the dentist did not find any cavities and I did find a book I wanted at the library so life is good. 

Tomorrow we are heading back to an unpaved surface for the first time in 8 weeks. I'm hoping that hiking poles and an ankle wrap will get me through to 3 miles. For now I'll put my foot up and check in to my books. I'm going to leave this post in draft mode until after tomorrow's outing. See you then. 

Hello again. 3.06 miles total out and back on the River Trail from Pawlings Road. 

I think the compression sleeve on the ankle helped serve as a reminder that's it's ok (and time) to put my weight on all of my foot. At the end my ankle was not nearly as sore as it had been after yesterday's walk. Some of the relief could have been the softer surface too. 

In other good news, while it was obvious at the end that 3 was enough, 30 minutes off the foot for the car ride home did bring a lot of relief. It's only mildly stiff and cranky right now. 

I do think I'll have to shorten this year's Freedom Walk. It's doubtful I'll be ready for 6 pavement miles in just 5 days. And that's ok. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving

-Paula 

Hike Interrupted

So this happened..... 

I stepped on a snake. To be clear it was not on purpose. I didn't see it. Regardless of my intention, the snake was not happy about that and wriggled to get free at about the same time that my hiking partner said "Snake". I spooked. I jumped to get out of the way and came down hard on my right foot. 

With Dave's help, I hobbled the half mile back to our car. A couple, younger than us but not by a lot, commented "You guys are doing great!!" I'm sure they did not intend it as it sounded to me. But when they passed us again on their way back, I made sure to tell them why I was moving so slowly. 

I twist and sprain my ankles a lot. Especially the right. So first we went home and I kept it elevated and iced. But by the next morning I knew it was more than an ankle sprain. So off we went to Urgent Care.  

Diagnosis, non displaced fracture of the 5th metarsal. The non displaced part is key because it means no surgery. But I will be off the trail for awhile. I'll know more after I visit the ortho doc on Friday but estimate from the Urgent Care doc is 6-8 weeks to heal. Never having broken a bone, let alone one in the foot, I don't know what kind of rehab might be needed after the boot comes off. I hope the Ortho Doc is prepared. I have LOTS of questions. 

I am concerned about losing my momentun on the trail. I will likely have to work back up to 8-10 miles. It's frustrating. I'm trying hard to take this as a lesson in patience and staying in the here and now. I can't do anything until the ordeal is over so there is no use worrying about it. Right? If you know me, that's easier said than done. 

Keep Smling and Keep Moving.

-Paula 

HST Section 7 Rt 10 to Rt 625

 

I was so looking forward to today's hike and it did not disappoint. Truth be told, few of them do. All week the weather called for bright sunshine with temps in the low 40s to start and low 50s by the end. And that is exactly what we got. 

We left Dave's car at Brecknock Police Station where an Eagle Scout project resulted in an access trail to the HST. We then drove together to drop my car at Plow Farms and began hiking west together. The trail starts on a downhill here and then climbs and climbs. Just when you think you are at the top the trail rounds a bend and there is more UP. It was a good workout. 

At the five mile mark, Dave headed off on the blue trail toward his car.
He told me later that he ended up wandering off the access trail
and probably put in another half mile trying to get back to his car. 

I continued on to the end at Rt 625. The blazes in this section were faded and there were these weird jumping bugs that wanted to land on my face so I had to put my sunglasses on even though I was in shade. This made the blazes appear even more faded. It was slow going up the hill and trying not to go off trail. 

This was our last section that includes trail we've covered before. Next time we go out we will have about 3 more miles of 'old' trail and then it's all new stuff. Well except for the 11 mile section that we missed several times back in March and decided to move on. We will go back to that later to make the end to end official. 

Also, after this trip we will likley start doing 2 sections back to back with an overnight stay in between. The trail sections are more than an hour away now. It's a very long day getting there, hiking and then returning home. So to test myself, tomorrow I am heading to RCSP to put in another 8 mile hike to make sure my body can do back to back days. 

I'm pretty sure I can but I will likely sleep very soundly tomorrow night! 

EDIT the next day - I succeeded in back to back hikes. My brain was not entirely with the program when I started out but after a few minutes of stern talking to, it was fine. And I feel pretty good. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving

-Paula 

HST Section 6 Geigertown Road to Rt 10

This sectio begins in a gravel parking area off Geigertown Road near the Birdsboro Gun Club. A recent re-route of the trail here take one off hte gun club property but you can still hear it. I find it weird but not scary. Of course that may be becaause I know where the sound is coming from. 

Dave and I hiked together to the spot where the access trail from the Birdsboro Picnic Park joins the trail. Dave returned to his car and I continued on to mine which we had previously left at the old Plowville Farms on Rt 10. 

I enjoyed this most of the section a lot. Spring is springing so the woods are full of new life. The elevation change provides a good work out but with enough breaks to not feel overwhelming. 

I was dreading the last two and a half miles. I had done this once before and it stuck withe me. The last stretch is all on Buck Hollow Road to Rt 10. It is a windy road with no shoulder to speak of and it's mostly uphill. I almost did somehting I've never done on a hike. I almost turned on a podcast on my phone to distract me. Almost.

Instead I tried to find things to look at (while dodging trucks) and that worked. Sometimes I have to work hard to invoke Keep Smiling Keep Moving. 

-Paula 

HST: Filling The Gap

Well sort of ...

The plan for today was to finish the piece between the downed tree and Warwick County Park. Hiking is like life. Things don't always work out as planned. 

The plan was this: 

Step 1) Park a car at Warwick County Park. DONE. 

Step 2) Drive to French Creek Elementary School to leave the second car. DONE. 

Step 3) Hike East to the downed tree or 2 miles whichever came first. Downed tree is not a thing on the official trail maps so I had to guestimate where it likely was based on our mileage back in Febraury. I guessed it was about 2 miles. At 2 miles we were steps from the right spot. I have to admit I was impressed with myself. LOL. Also, we discovered that a re-route around the downed tree had been created since we were last there. DONE.

Step 4) Turn around and head back to the elementary school. DONE. 

Step 5) Hike West to Warwick County Park. Here is where things went off the rails. Getting to the park required a crossing of French Creek. We hiked the half mile from the school to the Creek and this is what we saw: 

I was going to have to jump in a few places and 
likely was not going to make it. 
Even Dave, who is taller, was going to have trouble. 

I knew there was chance that crossing the creek was not going to be possible but I had to try. I have crossed this spot on French Creek before, but today was not a good day for that. Had the creek not been rushing so high and fast we might have tried it knowing that our feet would get wet. But not being able to seeing clearly what we'd be stepping into it just wasn't safe. No one was going to die if we tried but other injuries were not out of the question. 

So we turned back toward the School. 

Once back to Conventryville Road I could have turned left and followed the road detour to Mt Pleasant round and back to the trail. My heart wasn't into a road section. So I had Dave drive me to the Mt. Pleasant trailhead and I hiked to the car from there. 

I'm counting the whole section done because I have hiked the road section at least three different times and crossed the creek a few as well. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving

-Paula 

HST Update and other Keep Smiling Keep Moving projects

I was surprised to see that the last Horse Shoe Trail attempt was Febraury 18th!! Wow!! Weather, seasonal weekend work duties and having a other things on the weekend to do list has kept us off the trail for these past six weeks. I'm itching to get back. With luck and good weather, that will happen soon. 

Meanwhile, I've re-worked my milage expectations and pretty much accepted the fact that I may have to go into next year to finish. Had we been able to stick to my original (admittedly ambitious) plan we'd be more than halfway done by now. That's ok. Life (and hiking) are a marathon not a sprint, right? 

When dayight savings time started (March 10th) I embarked on a plan to walk every day. Not the first time I've attempted this and time will tell if I stick to it. I feel better when I excercise every day and that should be enough to keep me going. But it isn't. 

DST is significant because on weekdays I need to walk after work. Although I could easily complete 2 miles in the time I have between waking up and leaving for work, I can't get it out of my head that something might happen. I am prone to twisted ankles for example and it's very dark in the mornings right now. How embarassing would it be to call the office and say I won't be in becaues I'm a klutz. 

My goal to start was a minimum of 2 miles every day. My average from March 10 to March 31 is 2.14 miles/day. I did NOT walk every day though. Rain, and a few after work obligations gave me some zero days. I only made the average by walking longer on weekends. 

My goal for April is going to be 3 miles per day and no zerio days. On days it is going to rain (as predicted for the first three day of April) I will substitute another indoor workout. Since I can walk 3 miles in an hour or less, the substitute work out will be 1 hour. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving (and thanks for reading this) 

-Paula 

Horse Shoe Trail Section 4 Route 100 to Downed Tree and Back

The title of this section would have been Route 100 to Warwick County Park if it weren't for the downed tree (and thensome). We attempted to go around to the left but it became obvious pretty quickly that we weren't getting past this obstable without significant climbing through and over thorny vines and branches. 

So we  turned around. Turning around gave us two crossings of the same creek and double the views of the pond at Welkinweir. 

Keep Smiling Keep Moving

-Paula 

Horse-Shoe Trail Section 3: Warwick County Park to SGL 43 at Harmonyville Road.

Last weekend we had hoped to once again attempt the section between Brightside Farm Park (BFP) and Route 100. However, weather, wind chills and a blood donation have kept us off the trail for too many weeks and 11.1 miles felt like too much. Instead, Elaine, Dave and I went to Bryn Coed Nature Preserve and, despite getting lost, had a wonderful time. We covered 5.5 miles that day. 

Returning home from that outing I decided to refigure the sections to build back up to 10 to 12 miles. The other thing I decided was that two attmpts at BFP to Route 100 was enough for now. We are already out of order so we'll go back to that later. That brings us to today's section, 5.9 miles from Warwich County Park and the SGL 43 parking area on Harmonyville Road. 

This section follows French Creek with several crossing of streams feeding into the Creek.

January snow and rain has the Creek
running at a decent height and pace.

Stream crossing were plentiful today.
Rock for hopping were jsut as plentiful.

No one got wet 👏

The perk of this section is the ease of visiting St. Peter's Bakery post hike. 💖

The question of the day is "Why is the village alled St. Peter's"? While I can find many refernces to the village and its history, none shares the origin of the name. If you know, please let us know. 

Keep Smiling Keep Moving - Paula 

Flexibility Revisted

Since this is a four day weekend for me, I planned on two hikes. Friday and again today. If the title of this post has not already clued you in then, SPOILER ALERT, I did not hike today. 

Physically I have recovered from Friday. Expected wind chills in the mid-20s to start is tolerable. Been there done that and have a few tricks up my sleeve for that. Some of them literally up my sleeve*. The snow of course was not an issue. It was the rain mixed in followed by high winds with gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range. I'd end up with a chill that would last until next weekend! 

So instead I opted for a short walk to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. I had received a Wawa rewards coupon for free birthday coffee good until 1/14/2024. Today is 1/14/2024. Except apparently that means midnight before the coupon expiry date. Still got my coffee just had to be flexible yet again. 😎

Keep Smiling Keep Moving (even when the weather and your coupons conspire to try to make you frown) LOL

-Paula 

* Or down your sleeve as the case may be. Put your hydration tube down your sleeve in below freezing weather and your water will remain water :) 

Horse-Shoe Trail Section 2: SGL 43 at Harmonyville Road to Gravel Lot on Geigertown Road.

Today's hike is brought to us by the letter F for Flexible and Fall. 

Flexible because even the best laid plans may go awry when you forget that you are hiking on a Friday not the weekend. The planned section for today should have picked up where we left off two weeks ago (at Brightside Farm Park) and ended at Collinson, Inc on Route 100. Fortunately, I remembered last night that parking at Collinson is only permitted on weekends and holidays as they have a business to run during the week!! So much for my plan to hike each section in order. 

In case you are wondering (and if you're not, skip ahead), I couldn't switch my hike day to tomorrow due to yet another round of heavy rain coming tonight. 

After leaving my car at Giegertown Road we travelled in Dave's car to SGL 43 at Harmonyville road and hiked together to Hopewell Furnace (about 2 miles). From here I continued on to my car and Dave went back to his. 

The remainder of the hike was in and around the grounds of Hopewell Furnace area and French Creek State Park. Signs informed me I was travelling in and out of permitted hunting areas as well. I was properly dressed for that and felt safe. It was strange, though, during well signed "No hunting" areas to hear the sound of gunshots coming through the trees from the Gun Club not too far away. 

I saw a couple, a single hiker and a mountain biker today. The mountain biker was coming up behind and I stepped off the trail to let him pass. He stopped and commented on the condition of the trail. In spots it was very wet with boot sucking mud. He said "I've been coming here for 30 years and have never seen it this bad". I asked where he came in from. He said Harrisburg. I let him know that the snow they got in Harrisburg last week and this past Wednesday was all rain here. 

The trail here (as in much of PA) was full of rocks and roots. Many of it camouflaged by leaf cover which brings me to the other word of the day FALL. I'm impressed with myself that it only happened once. But it was a doozy. My sunglasses and Perki went flying. I am fine but suspect I'll be feeling it tomorrow. It was a bone rattler. 

The rocks, roots and mud made for slow going to day. 10.25 miles and 4 hours & 43 minutes after leaving Dave's car I was re-united with mine. 

Keep Smiling Keep Moving - Paula