The long road to hiking

My lovely wife and I went to a presentation recently about local hiking trails. The Cohos Trail system goes from the southern tip of Coos County right to the Quebec border. There it connects to a Canadian trail system.

It brought back a lot of memories. Over the years I’ve hiked significant sections of the trail. In fact, the CT has only been around for 20 years so I’ve hiked parts of it before it was one long contiguous trail. Some areas didn’t even have any trails back then. It was a bit sad to think of how many years it’s been since I’ve been out on those trails. However, it did cheer me up some when they covered a section my lovely wife and I hiked just two summers ago.

Last summer my leg infection issues started so there was no hiking at all. Months of inactivity and infection damage took its toll on me. By the time I went into the hospital it was about all I could do to walk across the street to the mailbox.

A couple weeks after I left the hospital my doctor gave me permission to go on 5 minute walks. That’s it. Five minutes. Since then I’ve built up to half mile walks over hilly terrain. It’s not climbing Mt. Washington, but it’s a start. Strength is returning.

By the end of the summer my lovely wife and I hope to be back on some of those trails we used to hike years ago. It’s a good goal and it inspires me to keep exercising.

-Sixbears