Rambling Woolysheep: Lake Mineral Wells Trailway 1

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Lake Mineral Wells Trailway 1

Even with the pain my knee has been giving me I was determined to get out and go walking. I managed to drag Jeff back out to Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway. This time we headed for the Trailway trailhead and headed out. The route in purple is what we walked. The route info shows the distance round trip. Right south of the "2" marker on the picture are some switchbacks where the grade is steep. The sign at the trailhead said they were 5% grades. I have no idea what that means except that it really makes one huff and puff when one goes up them and that one weighs 350 pounds. I had to stop for rests 5 times; 4 of them I sat for a few minutes before I continued on. I was feeling a bit pathetic having to stop and rest so much until I had to stop about 1/3 of the way back up the switchbacks. That was when I realized that I was doing everything Jeff was doing but I was carrying 190 pounds more than him. I was then able to tell the little self hating gremlin in the back of my mind to go suck it. That got a little more of a boost when we got to the car. I was breathing pretty hard by the time we got back to the car and Jeff mentioned it. I said let's strap you into a 190 pound fat suit and see if you aren't sucking wind by the time you reach the top. He said that was the difference between us....he wouldn't have tried to make it to the top. He would have sent the skinnier person on to go get the car and meet him at the bottom. Yeah self hate.....suck it.

After our walk we drove over to the picnic area up overlooking Penitentiary Hollow and the Lake to watch the sunset and see some of the stars come out. I took some pictures out there.