1000 Hiking miles in TWO years!!! Window Hike: Big Bend National Park

 

This one goes onto our favorites list. It isn't long or difficult, but goes through spectacular areas.

From our campsite, the well maintained trail is 4.6 miles round trip with 700 feet of elevation gain.

You descend into a draw that follows a stream, dry in most places this time of the year, until it reaches a rocky portion where stairs have been created. The entire trail reflects time and effort. We will have to ask if it was built by the C.C.C., as parts have that look.

We like trails that are either loops or that have an interesting destination. That is one of the best features of most trails in the Cascades--they usually lead to small, beautiful lakes.

This one led to a window in the rock formation where one could see far into the south of the park, and probably into Mexico.

 

 

We brought along a glass of wine to celebrate. I can find any excuse for wine:

 

This was a fitting hike for us to reach our 1000 mile mark for hiking in the past two years.

Unless we were taking road trips we could never have gotten close to this mark--one of reasons we are committed to this life. The health benefits are incredible. In that 1000 miles, we have traveled up 27 miles. Of course, we had to walk down these 27 miles too, which in some respects was more difficult.

To be able to do such a thing has additional meaning to us because both of us have faced serious health issues that we have had to overcome. Vicky had a disk obliterated in her back when her car was rear ended by another car several years ago, requiring surgery where her back had to be broken so a titanium substitute disk could be installed. She was told she would never run again, ride a horse, or dance. She went through so much pain during her recovery. I can't even think about it--pain medicines wouldn't work. I wish I would have been there.

I have had surgeries on both rotator cuffs, plus three major surgeries to rebuild my right foot, necessitating being off my feet for a total of 10 months. Vicky and I were on our way to being cripples if these surgeries had not been successful, and if we had not been committed to working hard after the surgeries to rebuild our bodies.

So these activities, added to the 4000 cycling miles we have accumulated together, plus dancing in places as remote as Death Valley, on the Mississippi River, in Puget Sound, and in the Florida Everglades, make us both extremely grateful for this period of time in our lives, a time we know will be short-lived because of our ages, and because life, being what it is, can throw unpredictable obstacles in front of you at any time.

But now, even if life would be cruel to us, as it has been to too many others, and takes this kind of life away from us, nothing can take away the memories of these adventures, our road trips. Those 1000 miles, plus much more, are already in the books.

 

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