That is how many kilometers I hiked today, which is 9.5 miles.

Today was a great day for a hike. It was cool and cloudy which for me is the perfect hiking weather. I went to a state park (Starved Rock State Park) which is about 1 hour from me. I met up with a group of other hikers from an adventure group that I belong to from meetup.com. This is the second event I have done with them and they are always the nicest people. It’s great to meet others who have a passion for outdoor activities as I do. The group was broken up into 2 groups, the short hikers (about 5 miles) and the long hikers (goal was 11 miles). Everybody has a difference endurance level so it’s make the hike more enjoyable if you find a hiking distance that fits your ability. My group started out first and the hike though the trees and then very high bluffs were very cool. We saw about 5 (very small) waterfalls. The group would rest every now and then. When we were about 2.5 hours out, it was getting late so we started to head back. We took a different way so the hike back was 1.5 hours. No resting on the way back, just a fast passed hike back and we met up with the rest of the groups. This happen to be the last hike for the founder of the group. He is getting married and moving to Singapore. So, with a little speech of appreciate from one member and then “cheers” with sparkling grape juice, we wished them well and good luck. Yes, it was a great day for a hike, and yes, my feet and legs are pretty tired.

Photos will come later when I develop the pics I took.

This weekend I had the chance to help out at a Girl Scout camp ground about 1 hour away from me. Since all my girls were busy, I decided that I’d help out with the GS troops that were going to be there. I arrived at the camp around 9am and met up with the lady in charge. After all the other troops got there, there was a little meeting about what needed to be done that day. Some of the bigger tasks were to clean the three large cabins. This is what the girls did. There was myself and 2 other guys who showed up. Our task was to removed piles of old wood from behind a maintenance building, then erect large steel shelves used for holding very heaving things. Doing this and cutting up the old wood and making sure everything was clean took about 3 hours. After lunch one of the other guys and me replaced the smoke detector batteries in all the smaller cabins and platform tents. There were 21 of those spread out in this campsite. After that I used a hammer to make sure there were no nails coming out from the platforms tent bases (which the platform tents are built on) and then did a little painting of some trail markers. It was 5pm when I was done.

At this point I was pretty tried from the day. I walked back to my truck and started to unpack my camping gear. A few of the girls who were staying at the cabin that was close to me came to help out. They were all around age 10. Great and funny group of girls. Well, they wanted to help me, so I happily accepted the help and got my tent all setup. They went in for dinner and I finished my unpacking and started to cook my dinner inside my tent. It was raining so this worked out pretty well. I made shrimp fried rice. It turned out pretty good. I also made some appetizer wraps and brought them to the girls and other leaders to try since I was already full. We chatted for awhile and then I returned to my tent. It was around 7:30 and did some reading. Then, I hear a bunch of girls running for my tent because they were playing games in the dark. Four of them came in and since I had my tent heater turned on, they warmed themselves and talked. They were very entertaining. Well, they invited me in later to have dessert which the leaders had made. Mmmm, it was very good and I chatted with the leaders for awhile and then joined the troop in a few activities. I left around 9:30 and did some more reading in my tent before bed time. It rained most of the night which sounds really nice on the tent. I think that helped me sleep. I woke up at 7am the next morning. Made coffee while two of the girls came back to talk to me about all kinds of things that are important to 10 year olds. These girls had a lot to say. Ha-ha. They went in for breakfast and I enjoyed my coffee and a little breakfast and packed up everything for my trip back home. I went to the cabin to say good bye to everyone and then left. What a fun weekend for me.