Fond Memory

 Dear Barry, 

  I was just thinking the other day about the time you went winter hiking with me. A normally 8 mile hike turned into 16 as we had to hike 4 miles just to get to the trail head because the access road was closed due to snow. 

My favorite memory of that trip was when you showed up at my apartment with jeans, a canvas jacket, cotton mittens and Sorrel snow boots. Luckily, I was able to get you some gear that I had( a little big for me and a little small for you but still fit(ish)). Totally unprepared for 16 miles of often post-holing through thigh deep snow and kicking steps into steep icy inclines in zero degree temps. 

Despite your total lack of preparation equipment and physically(you also mentioned that you hadn't hiked for over two years and was only doing martial arts for exercise) you managed, not only to keep up but also, to keep a positive perspective. Even when we ran out of water(or in reality our Nalgene bottle froze closed), totally bonked on the descent and fell through the ice as we crossed a river. 

If I were by myself, I would have been miserable for probably 12 of those 16 miles, but with you, it was just a fun day out in the Whites. I look forward to next time we can hike together. 

Speaking of being ill-prepared, I have a trail race in Saarbrucken in 2 weeks which is 58 kilometres long. I haven't run 58 kilometres over the course of a week in quite some time so to attempt to do that in 6 or 7 hours is going to be quite interesting. But I will pretend like you're running beside me and hopefully it'll be fun.

Until next time,

Danny