Day 108 (April 18, 2010): River Valley Hike

Today we got up early, made a small lunch and went on a two hour hike in the river valley. We wore our pedometers to keep track of our steps. Before we left I was telling Ken how I find it hard to get the recommended 10,000 steps a day completed during an average day. He said that I would probably complete that during the hike. I didn’t think so! I was wrong! I told Ken that he could practice his future career of personal training on me today because I was missing my workout at the gym to go on this hike. So I wanted to get some cardio and strength training in. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? He kicked my butt! The 10 block walk to the valley was our warm up then we stretched and started some jogging/walking intervals then we found a park bench and did some tricep dips. Then we walked some more until we got to a rail that was about 100 yards (so says Ken, I don’t know these things!) and we walked on it like a balance beam. Next we were at the bottom of the Edmonton Ski Club and we walked up the steep hill. The walk up was like doing lunges the whole way up because it was so steep then at the top we jogged a bit and then did lunges, as if I hadn’t done enough up the hill, lol. Then we crossed the bridge to the south side of Connors Road and hiked up the hill.

This is me being tired after the jogging and lunges

View from the bridge

The view of the Muttart Conservatory from up above.  We will go there for one of our 365 days this year.

View of downtown from the bridge

There is a look out up really high that I have always wanted to go to. Every time we drive by it I tell Ken that I would like to hike up there sometime. Today we DID IT! There were about a million steps to climb to get up to the top. Every time I thought we were almost at the top I would come to a platform on the step and realize that there was another flight. By the top my legs were burning and I was breathing really hard. It was an awesome workout!

The view of the Mill Creek Ravine below.  It doesn't look that far down but it is a steep decline.

The view of the high level bridge and Epcor from where we were.

After we had a breather and took a couple of pictures we headed down a different way that I think was an animal trail, not a human trail. It was quite steep so we had to hold on to the willow trees to keep ourselves from sliding down the hill. This was a great workout too. We were now at the bottom of Mill Creek Ravine so we walked up the stairs and came out across the street from the Old Timers Cabin. We found a shady spot to have a bit to eat. It was really nice and peaceful. We walked the rest of the way home which is probably 30 blocks. It was such an awesome hike and great workout. I felt amazing afterwards. I told Ken that we should try to do it every weekend. At the end of it all I had walked 10, 748 steps and Ken had walked 8,844. I have a much shorter stride than him.