Training in Big Woods and Old Stomping Grounds

Minnesota's Big Woods--a gorgeous place for training--or enjoying.

With just a month to go before our trip, walking continues at a somewhat leisurely pace. I'll have to be pushing the miles alone after this coming week since Jan heads off to his annual week at Boy Scout camp in Wisconsin.

Fortunately, my youngest (of three) brother Pete has ramped up his hiking, too, in preparation for the move his son and daughter-in-law are making to Colorado in a couple of weeks and the visits Pete plans to make to the mountains. And because Pete has been hiking, his beautiful girlfriend Tami has been dragged into the "sport" as well. We even found out the hiking spirit moved her to go shopping for Merrill hiking shoes!! And so we're adopting them as our hiking partners in crime.

Pete, Tami, Me, Jan -- Hiking Partners in Crime

My litle bro and I

Hidden Falls in Nerstrand

Iconic Minnehaha Falls

Last weekend's training distance was about 15 miles. We went for more waterfalls--a hidden little gem in a southern Minnesota state park called Nerstrand Big Woods. And then a Minneapolis treasure--the beautiful Minnehaha Falls.

When I was a kid our gang would walk here to the base of the falls and follow the creek to the Mississippi River. Nostalgia!

Both of these were nostalgia walks for me since I grew up three blocks from Minnehaha Falls park, and my grandparents
regularly chose Nerstrand for extended family picnics. We got in some rolling hills and some flat distance. Mostly it was awesome fun just to be able to add mileage with great company in a beautiful state!

 Check out some more pics from our Fourth of July hiking weekend!

Our gorgeous Nerstrand training camp.

Hills ahead!

The best hiking partner a girl could want!!

Out on a limb with the Mighty Mississippi behind us.

Peter being mean to Tami and rocking the branch.

It looks as if we don't really get much hiking in--we're too busy goofing off. But we figure that's part of the training, too. If we don't get our picture-taking muscles in shape, how will we get gorgeous photos of the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond?

So we empty the rocks from our shoes and go on to the next pre-adventure next week!

Mega Mall and Waterfall--Walk Training Underway

So serious about training.

With exactly six weeks until we leave for Scotland on August 6th, I've determined that it's time to ramp up my walk training in earnest. Jan and I are avid hikers all the time, but our park hikes and neighborhood walks generally run from 3-6 miles, squeezed into weekends when the weather is good and we have no other obligations.

Our planned 95-mile hike through the Highlands will take eight days and consist of three 14-mile days, two 12 mile days, two 10s, and one nine miler.
So--in the next six weeks we'll be taking some longer treks around home just to test boots and get used to uneven terrain and hills.

To that end we started out this past weekend at Minnesota's premier, super difficult hiking Mecca:  The Mall of America.

Tough terrain right in our own backyard.

Yes, cue the laughing emoticon, but the weather didn't cooperate with our desire to walk. When a thunderstorm came rolling through at the time we wanted to leave, we gave up on our outdoor choice and headed for Nickelodeon Universe--the indoor amusement park at MOA. While there are no rocks, hills, roots or lochs at the world's second-largest indoor shopping mall, there is fantastic people watching, literally miles of floor to walk, and lots of really good bad food. We were so proud of ourselves for limiting junk intake to one Tim Horton doughnut each!

My faithful & loved Lowa boots.

I made the indoor trek about testing some new arch support inserts in my old faithful hiking boots. We walked approximately three miles, did stairs at every opportunity (even the escalators), and in the end my biggest takeaway was that I might not need to buy new boots. The next few hikes will tell, but I know the decision has to happen very soon so I'll have more than a month to break in new footwear.

Nickelodeon Universe--it's a jungle.

One corner of MOA always smells like this. Le sigh...

A random Cat Hat (for Miss E?)

After the MOA journey on Saturday, we took a 90-minute drive on Sunday to one of our favorite Minnesota state parks: Minneopa. It's special for a couple of reasons: it's one of the last places we took our beloved Magic The Wonder Border Collie for a long walk before we lost her to old age a couple of years ago;  it's also got a really cool waterfall that was the inspiration for the falls in my first book series' little town Kennison Falls.

Minneopa/Kennison Falls

The weather was much nicer for this walk and we clocked around seven miles. Instead of

Testing the ankles on root steps

smooth flooring and Tim Horton, we had rocks, roots, craggy paths, and 100-calorie almond packs. And instead of people-watching we got Minneopa's wild, no-cattle DNA bison herd and wild flowers. At half the distance of our longest days to come in Scotland--it was good
to get out on some truly uneven ground and start getting the ankles in shape.

More about long, weird training walks to come along with the saga of my right leg--which has this new tendency to fall asleep unexpectedly while I'm walking. I'll let you know...

Jan and his resting rock.

Us!