Hello, warm-weather hiking!  Finally making good progress on my goal to hike 52 times this year, and man am I looking forward to the high summer and fall hiking season.

Hike 11: Jones Point Park (Alexandria, VA), April 29, 2018.  Major bribery – in the form of a good hour on the playground – was necessary to make this hike happen.  But I made it happen.

Hike 12: Potomac Overlook Regional Park (Arlington, VA), May 5, 2018.  Our local hiking guide called this an “easy/moderate” hike, but I don’t know what Kool-Aid they were drinking.  There were at least ten slippery stream crossings, slick boulder scrambles, logs to climb over and duck under, and lots of elevation change; add two kiddos in backpacks and – well, this was good preparation for summer in the Adirondacks, at least.

Hike 13: Mason Neck State Park (Lorton, VA), May 12, 2018.  My Mother’s Day hike, and it was perfect.  Sunshine, turtles, and gorgeous birds, including this beautiful blue tree swallow.

Hike 14: George Washington’s Mount Vernon (Alexandria, VA), May 20, 2018.  Mud, mud, and more mud!  SO MUCH MUD.  After a week of rain we did a lot of squelching, but somehow Peanut’s sandals are still miraculously yellow.  Also, the person who told me tree pollen season is over is a vicious liar.

Hike 15: Winkler Botanical Preserve (Alexandria, VA), May 28, 2018.  Found a pocket of wild paradise right in the heart of suburban Alexandria!  It was a bit of a wet day, but so much the better – the kids loved puddle-stomping and walking out into the middle of the creek in their wellies.

Hike 16: Belle Isle (Richmond, VA), June 6, 2018.  Immediately after swearing into the Virginia Bar (finally! that was a big project) I celebrated with a few minutes of trail time before I had to get back on the road for another long drive.  Checked out the pretty views at Belle Isle and hopped across the famous rocks just offshore on the James River, tired out my legs and squeezed in a little fresh air – perfect.

Hike 17: Robert H. Treman State Park (Ithaca, New York), June 8, 2018.  A reunion weekend wouldn’t be complete without hitting one of the local parks!  Steve and I used to hang out at Treman State Park during our Cornell days, and it was fun to see the waterfall up close.

Hike 18: Cornell Botanic Gardens (Ithaca, New York), June 9, 2018.  We never made it into the Cornell Plantations proper – next time – but we got in some trail time on Friday after lunch, wandering through the pretty trails at the Botanic Gardens and checking out the flower and herb gardens.

Hike 19: Beebe Lake Loop (Ithaca, New York), June 9, 2018.  We found ourselves with some time to kill before the Class of 2003 dinner on Saturday night, so we decided to squeeze in one more hike, around my favorite running trail from freshman year.  There are beautiful gorge views and a bridge that I used to jump off with friends from my dorm (prohibited now – apparently there are dangerous underwater rock ledges? who knew?) and a pedestrian bridge across the lake.

Hike 20: Minnewaska State Park and Preserve (Kerhonkson, New York), June 12, 2018.  Hike 20 was a special one!  My mom vacationed at Lake Minnewaska almost every summer when she was a little girl.  Now that both of my grandparents on her side have passed away, she wanted us all to be together there as a family.  My brother Dan and sister-in-law Danielle were visiting from Colorado, so it seemed a golden opportunity to hike around the lake in a big group and listen to my mom’s stories about her childhood summers.  Also, it was gorgeous.  A 2018 hiking highlight for sure.

How about hikes 11 through 20!  What wonderful days all of these were – and I can already tell that some will be high points for the year.  Mother’s Day on the trail at Mason Neck; celebrating my third (!) state Bar at Belle Isle; showing Steve and the kids my favorite trail at Cornell; and finally family time on the shores and cliffsides of Lake Minnewaska.  And this is just the beginning – with the summer hiking season heating up (quite literally) now, there’s plenty more to come.