Exploring!

   I am having a moment or two of rebellious procrastination, right now.  I have a significant amount of reading to do for my UALR classes; I still have a few late papers to grade from my Conway students before grades are uploaded tomorrow morning; there are several things which need to be done in the chicken houses; and I don't feel lke starting, because then I will just plug through until I fall asleep, or until I am mentally "done".  So I am spending a few moments doing something more relaxing.
   I am still at my same weight, but I am feeling much better.  Those last 2 weeks, I was not able to get out much to walk or hike or anything.  Last saturday was looking like another "chickenhouse til dusk" kind of day, but that was contingent upon Bob having a couple of pieces of equipment and some specific supplies.  He had not made those runs during the week, so I ended up with the afternoon free.  YEAH
   I took Kaylee and Ben, and we went to hike!  ( Ian did not get to go, because he stepped on something "sharp" and spent the morning in the ER dealing with a puncture wound.  He was still sore, so he did not feel like 2 hours of hiking would be much fun).
   We started over at Sugarloaf mountain.  I was dumb, and forgot to take a camera, but next week, I will take some pictures and see if I can't figure out how to upload them.  Sugarloaf is one of the biggest "hills" around here.  It is sort of a "stand-alone" left-over from the surrounding region of bluffs.  Hard to describe, exactly.  It doesn't tower over the surrounding hills, it actually juts up from a valley that is kind of like a big bowl, meaning it is about the same height as the surrounding hills, just isolated.
   The trail up the "mountain" is only 1/3 mile, but it is fairly steep.  We were breathing hard at the top, but decided it would be "fun" to climb through the rocks to the top.  "Chimney's" is what the climbers who went up ahead of us called them.  Very narrow, fairly steep, but "do-able" even without ropes or equipment.  A few spots would have made me very nervous if we hadn't gone up behind some people who knew the climb.  (oh, that, and the fact that they were helping a 3 year old up, which made me confident that I could probably make it.)
   NICE VIEW!  Nothing like the Rockies or the Alps, but for this part of Arkansas, very much worth the climb! (and not nearly so "scary" as looking off the edge of a 600-700 foot drop.)   Then we hiked back down, and decided to go over to the trail by the dam.  we hiked it "backwards", that is we started in such a direction that the long stairs at the far end of the loop were climbed, rather than coming down.  Made for 2 solid hours of hiking.  Good afternoon!
   I could feel it in my legs the next morning, but nothing hurt!  That is progress!