Hiking is Addicting!

I got this brilliant idea to take advantage of the beautiful scenery Utah has to offer. OK, so I have only lived here 20 years and this has just now occurred to me. I'm a little slow, people! Larry (my willing and able partner in all of my harebrained ideas) agreed to a Sunday morning hike. We decided upon Dog Lake because in my quest to be near water, I like the sound of anything that has "lake" in it! The day was beautiful. The hike, although marked "easy" was definitely challenging! We dodged some bikers who barreled down the trail (and I saw my life flash before my eyes). The flowers were so beautiful and there were butterflies, small animals, and ravenous insects everywhere! I made a mistake and commented to Larry that I felt like I was in better shape than I had been in a while. Boy, did those words come back to haunt me! The last .6 miles of this hike are on a steep incline. I huffed and puffed, exclaiming "My kingdom for some oxygen!" My pulse pounded in my ears and to top it all off, I became paranoid about the insects whizzing around my head. It sounded like a bug airport and I was the landing strip. Now, this may give you the impression that I didn't enjoy the hike. You couldn't be more wrong! When we arrived at the lake, I felt like Rocky climbing the well known stairs! I had made it and I didn't break anything, have a heart attack, or get carried off by a large flying insect. Ironically, when we spied the lake, we noticed there were many people (including kids in strollers) which made us question how they managed to make this hike so effortlessly. Apparently, there is another way to this lake that is much easier. That's OK, we were cianotic hiking warriors!!!! Take an easier way, not us!!! We enjoyed a delicious lunch and watched the dogs swimming in the water. We felt like bad parents because we didn't bring Cracker. Of course, that probably made us responsible parents since Cracker would have annoyed the crap out of everyone. The lake was such a great spot, it was hard to leave. Of course, that may also have been because our legs were now like jelly! The trip back down was definitely easier except for my lovely prat fall over a root. Luckily, Larry inadvertently broke my Chevy Chase worthy fall and wondered why I was falling into his back! The sound of the traffic, as we got closer to civilization made me sad. It was a grueling hike for us, but it was invigorating and Larry and I immediately started making plans about where to go next. This time we went on a 3 hour hike, next time maybe we will be even more ambitious. Larry suggested we try this hike again later as a gauge as to whether our hiking fitness improves. I heartily agree. Now we get to log 3 hours of exercise for our Salt Lake Get fit. Cream O' Weber, watch your back! We're coming for you, if we can get up!!!