We met up at 8am.
Two brave ladies carpooled with me and we met up with 4 other brave souls. I've known two of them from the gym at one time or another. We all headed down trail chatting and laughing.
The first leg of the hike was along the paved multi use trail. One of my friends had never hiked before in her life. The other had never gone further than 7 miles with me and only hiked rarely.
I think Candace's group had been doing hikes and practicing to do the MammothMarch at the end of June which is a 20 mile hike event.
We all hiked in different small groups, sometimes all together, sometimes on our own. There was a lot of laughter and conversation.
The sights were amazing as usual.
We encountered two sets of horse riders, a few bicyclists and a couple of folks walking on the paved trail.
Otherwise, we were immersed in nature and each others' laughter.
One of the games we played was 'walking' the Balance Beam otherwise known as a log.
Our hike was not about time or speed but all about enjoying nature and friendship along with laughter. We took frequent breaks and as promised, we did not leave the tired folks behind.
My two friends who are new to hiking did stop at 15 miles. I walked on to where we'd parked and grabbed my car and returned to pick them up.
When asked if they'd do it again, the answer was a definitive yes. I promised to create shorter hikes. After all who does these crazy super long hikes?
We also witnessed some amazing wildlife!
I didn't have a decent camera with me, but we all stopped at one of the ponds to watch swans swimming with their cygnets.
We saw a fawn walk into the trail and lay down. I asked everyone to be quiet and walk around the fawn and not stop.
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. ...Friendship is nothing but sharing!