Tag Archives: hike

HEY THERE

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Hi there! How are you? I sure do wish we had another 3 day weekend. Working 5 days in a row is HARD.
Recapping stuff from the past week (or so):
Hot yoga: I haven’t gone in over 5 months and I returned by taking a BV class. And did an upper body workout the next day. Umm, bad idea. I couldn’t use my arms for the rest of the week because they were so sore. I was this close to having Tyler help me wash my hair a couple of times.
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Hiking: Susie and I hiked Ha Ling in Canmore on Saturday. Crazy part is: I thought I would be massively sore from the serious incline of the hike…but I wasn’t! How was a hot yoga class more painful than a hike that lasted a couple hours? Who knows, I won’t question it. Other cool things about the hike: yelling “HEY BEAR’ instead of carrying bear spray–> even though it’s a heavily trafficked path, YOU NEVER KNOW. Also, I needed to bring more water. Also, big horn sheep have big balls (I think they should have an interchangable name: big horn sheep/big balled sheep). Also, beer and nachos at Grizzly Paw afterwards is a GREAT way to refuel. One more thing: charge your phone before you climb a mountain. That way you can upload more pics to facebook. Because everyone knows it’s priority to facebook what you do rather than actually ENJOYING THE MOMENT. I’m being half sarcastic/half serious here.
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Sangaritas: omygod do it. Mix 1/2 sangria, 1/2 marg mix and tequila and BOOM. Instant happiness.
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Beagles and water don’t mix: This one just makes me sad. We took the pups to the river on Sunday and there are so many people with their dogs. All of them go in except for the damn beagles. Seriously, I saw other beagles/beagle owners standing on the shore watching as other dogs cool off and splash around. I tried picking Reggie up and putting his feet in the water a bit, but I’m pretty sure a part of his soul died when that happened. So we brought the water to him.
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Hair: I put blonde back in! Phew, I feel 102491824x better. I don’t know what the heck I was thinking by making my hair gradually darker. It just doesn’t suit me. Although I almost wish it did because it would be WAY less expensive to maintain.
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Highlight: I booked a flight home to New York for a week in October! I’m also planning a road trip to Boston for a day or two. The older I get, the more excited I am to fly home. And have mom wash my bras and make me food.
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Hope you have a great week! My pup buddies say hi
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The Return of Sunday No-fun Day

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Since I can remember, I hated Sundays. The weekend is over=the fun is over. Time to either to get ready for a week of work, or to complete last minute schoolwork (or both). Up until this past December, I would wake up on Sunday mornings and just be in a day-long state of anxiety because of what the week would bring. Granted, the stress of work was eliminated from my mind about 18 months ago, but I was still in school- which in some cases was even worse. 

The last 8 months have been pretty great. No stress. Ok some stress, because I was TRYING to find another job. But that whole Sunday shitty feeling was gone. 

NOW IT’S BACK.

I start my new job tomorrow. I’m kinda nervous. Mostly because I am going to be responsible for stuff again. Like MONEY stuff. Not just making sure the house is clean and the dogs are still alive. 

Plus, there’s my sanity. I’m really hoping to enjoy this new experience while also maintaining all the fun stuff I’ve been able to enjoy in the last year and a half. Fun stuff being: workouts, baking, dog walking and napping. Not to mention the ability to not acquire desk job muffin top.

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(Source)

Ok, so my last ‘free’ weekend was pretty good. We picked Reggie up from the vet on Friday night after his surgery. It went really well, and he ended up snuggling with us on the couch for the rest of the night.

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Saturday, Tyler and I headed out to Canmore. We had lunch at our favorite place, The Grizzly Paw, then took a quick drive to hike the High Line Trail. We didn’t do the entire trail, but we got through a good chunk of it before turning around and heading back (rather than completing the loop).

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We parked near Quarry Lake, where a lot of families had come to make it a beach day. By the time we were ready to leave, there were tons of vendors setting up for what looked to be like a wedding. If it was, it was a beautiful location to get hitched!

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And of course, I napped in the car on the way home. And Tyler made us dinner. Yum yum.

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Time to meal prep for the week!

How was your weekend?

I Like Saturdays

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I like Saturdays. REALLY like Saturdays. Yeah, I know, every day is like a Saturday for me, but the REAL Saturday is the best. Everyone else is happy because it’s the start of the weekend! And good weather on a Saturday is even better.

This week, my Saturday was super. My friend Mackenzie picked me up at 8:30 and we headed out to Canmore.

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Since we wanted a relatively easy and quick hike (so we could get back to Calgary in the early afternoon) we opted to do the Grassi Lakes Trail. The parking lot is just past the Nordic Center and had a few picnic tables and restrooms. Lots of trees and a beautiful path!

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This hike is very easy. There were lots of families with young children and some older people, too. (Mom, Dad…ya hear that? YOU can do this hike!) On the ‘more difficult’ path, there was just a bit of a climb up some stone stairs, but most of that portion was accompanies by a handrail. You can opt out of the more difficult part, but you won’t get to see the beautiful waterfall!

At the top of the trail, there are the Grassi Lakes. They’re pretty small, but again REALLY beautiful. The path surrounding both lakes was scattered with benches, which would make a great lunch spot. If you go further up into the rocks, platforms were built for rock climbers to do their thing. The pictures don’t really capture the enormity of these mountains.

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We went back down on the easy trail just to see how different it was. There was lots of grown up talk (about documentaries and terrorism and other global things) and we stopped for coffee at Good Earth down in town before making it back to Calgary.

After Mackenzie dropped me off at home, Tyler and I went out to run some errands. One of which turned out to be a pleasant surprise when Tyler got me a new pair of sneaks!!! (Seriously ranked up high on the gift list. Besides Lululemon, jewelry and kitchen appliances)

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We rounded out the evening with some watermelon margaritas and weiners- topped with Dirt Dog sauce, the best stuff on earth.

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Like I said, I like Saturdays.

Heart Creek Trail

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Yesterday, I had made plans with my friend Nicole and her puppy Dallas to join my and my pups for a hike. We decided on Heart Creek Trail (check out that site, it’s pretty cool!), just outside of Canmore. It’s a pretty short hike, but it was easy enough for all the doggies and we could sit at the end of the trail for some lunch.

I packed a bunch of snacks for my lunch: BC cherries, red peppers, carrots, pepperoni, cheese, and a Quest bar. I also packed some doggie treats and lots of water.

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I have done this hike a couple times before, but yesterday was a lot different than the previous trips because this trail was hit by the big flood from a couple months ago. The start of the trail was the same, but pretty soon the path was covered in river rock and fallen trees. There were a few times that we had to carefully walk over the creek. (Reggie is not a fan of water, so I had to carry him in one arm while holding on to Layla’s leash as she crazily scampered across.)

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And there were a ton of log bridges. And by ‘bridges’ I mean 2 logs screwed together and strategically placed over the creek. NOT FUN when trying to cross with two crazy beasts on leashes. There were a couple of almost mishaps!

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I obviously didn’t get any photos of the bridges because I value my life and not losing my dogs in the woods.

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When we got to the end of the trail (I didn’t think we would be able to get to the end because of all the flood debris) we sat to eat. Layla had a few dunks in the water.

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We took our time, so the hike managed to stretch to just about 2 hours. 

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Which was enough to tire these two out. Thankfully.

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…and the view on the way home.

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We all took naps when we got back.

Other happenings from the day:

  • Prior to the hike, I managed to squeeze in a bit of strength training. Lots of lunge variations with gliding discs and some upper body work using 10 lb dumbbells.
  • I bought a Hugh Jass watermelon and cut that sucker up. 1/2 will go towards snacking and the other 1/2 will be frozen for some margaritas (if you want one, come on over!)
  • Chicken fajita wraps for dinner
  • Traditional Hot Yoga class (anyone ever want to come to a class with me?)
  • Discovered Reggie had a broken canine and inquired with the vet how much the extraction would cost. Got the voicemail with the estimate after my 75 minute yoga class and all zen was lost after hearing it would be AT LEAST $850. Oy.
  • Duck Dynasty is back!

How was your hump day? 

Saturday Family Time

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Yesterday was a really good day. Good enough that I feel the need to share it with you.

After having some breakfast, we loaded the dogs into the truck and headed out for a couple if different hiking spots (these were more like walking trails, but I’d rather say the word ‘hike’ because that sounds better)

The first place we stopped at was only about 20 minutes from our house: Big Hill Springs Trail. It’s short (about 2km) but it’s really pretty. Lots of spots for the dogs to jump in the water, photo ops, and some areas with a bit of an incline to really get your heart pumping.

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The starting spot has a bunch of picnic tables and a ton of young families were there with their human babies. Fur babies are better, so we brought them.

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After a bit of a climb, and several dips in the water, we got more into the woody area. The dogs loved it because there were tons of new smells.

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That little walk didn’t take very long at all, so we hopped back into the truck and headed over to Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. This had more paved pathways, but it was still a nice way for us to stretch our legs and really tire the dogs out. We probably went another 4-5km through various paths here when Layla FINALLY got pooped out and wasn’t tugging on her leash.

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I really enjoyed exploring areas of these paths that are so close to our house and I think the dogs just really liked to sniff new stuff.

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We rounded out the day with some local corn and yummy burgers (we added chopped jalepenos and madagascar peppercorn cheese to the ground beef…so yummy) on the BBQ.

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Delicious.

What did you do this weekend??