Just got back from a fabulous weekend at Mt. Kidd with friends, Brian and Brenda Lenzin and Stu and Barb Patrick.  Brian and Brenda and Bill and I headed out Thursday night, Stu and Barb came out Friday morning.  I was a little concerned as to whether or not I would be able to keep up with the group on the hiking trails or if I would even be able to do the hiking.  Still struggle with hills and we all know there aren’t many mountain trails that don’t involve some sort of elevation gain.  Consequently, I decided that Bill and I would golf on Friday (I can take a cart) and the others could hike and then Saturday I would bite the bullet and see how I fared on the hiking.  Well, it poured rain on Thursday night, was still raining when we woke up Friday so I cancelled the tee time and decided a quiet day around the campsite might be the order of the day.  Stu and Barb arrived about 10 and the weather had cleared so we decided we would have lunch at the campsite and them head over to upper Kananaskis Lake and do the trail along the shore (about 10 km).  Well, it was a fabulous hike for me.  Very little climbing, great views and no other people.  We pretty much had the trail to ourselves.  It was heaven and not an experience one often has when hiking in the Kananaskis.  I was much keener to hike on Saturday and we decided to do Arathusa.  The trailhead for Arathusa starts at the peak of the Highwood pass so you basically drive to higher elevation.  There was some climbing at the start of the hike and yes, I huffed and puffed my way up but did get to the rock slide area and then up onto the first ridge where we had lunch!  It was one of those perfect, blue sky days!  After lunch the guys decided to do the loop up to the next ridge and back down through the meadows and Brenda, Barb and I decided we would return the way we had come.  Barb and Brenda are terrific rock hounds.  They can spend hours scouting out beautiful rock formations and fossil formations.  My attention span for that activity isn’t quite as good as theirs but I do enjoy doing some rock scouting and then resort to playing with my camera and snoozing in the sunshine in the mountain meadow.  It was a 11 out of 10 day!

We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.  Blue skies, great weather, fabulous views (even a moose), and great friends.  From Boomer’s perspective also perfect!  Brian is a pushover for treats!  Human treats!  At home he gets little in the way of table scraps or treats but on camping weekends with Brian his luck improves considerably!  That combined with the fact that Indy (Brian and Brenda’s pooch is a grazer)  She nibbles on her food and then leaves it.  Boomer of course could NEVER in a million years imagine showing such restraint and is more than happy to clean up the leftovers for her!

I had been quite concerned that I would not be able to hike but have discovered that hiking, like golf, cycling and swimming can still be enjoyed just not with the same vigour that I did it in the past.  I know I still am secretly hoping that with time my breathing will improve and I will be able to attack these activities with a little more energy and a little less laboured breathing.  Still, I am not complaining.  I’m out there doing the things that I really love to do and Bill was quick to point out to me how far I have come in the last few months!  The weekend has certainly put to rest any concerns I had about hiking in Zion and Bryce Canyons when we head down to the Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks.  I can hardly wait!

I am very happy at how quickly I rebounded after this round of chemo.  I had two “tired” days and by Thursday was starting to feel pretty darn good.  I seriously believe that getting up and doing things and having things to look forward to are major plusses in how you handle this treatment stuff!  We are off to the finale of the fireworks tonight with Geoff, LIndsey and Kelli!