Hiking With My Heroes

My appreciation goes out to Rocky for expanding the scope of Cycle365 to include hiking and other outdoor activities. In return, my pledge to her (and to everybody else) is to not take advantage of the new rules by posting frivolous junk every time I go out of the house. EXCEPT FOR TODAY!

I’ve been thinking of writing about one of my twice-a-day walks with The Feeshko and Diggity for a few days now, but decided against it because they seemed too boring for public display. I figured it would be more interesting to wait until we headed out on a hiking trail in the woods or something similarly adventurous. Both Diggity and The Feeshko like hiking in the woods. Unfortunately, The Feeshko is still a few weeks away from being able to ramble up and down hills, over rocks and exposed tree roots, and through several inches of snow. (A reminder: She’s only on month number four of her six-month recovery after meniscus surgery.)

Today, however, we got an opportunity to do something a little more adventurous than our routine doggy walk.

Instead of the 6″ to 10″ of snow we were supposed to get last night, we got a nasty mix of rain and snow thanks to temperatures that never got below freezing. What that means can be summed up in one exclamatory word: SLUSH!!! Lots and lots of slush. Heavy slush. The kind of slush that often causes heart attacks and broken backs when people shovel it off their driveways.

There was a time when I would have ridden in that slush on my mountain bike. Alas, my mountain bike is dead.

After shoveling that crap off my driveway, I returned the shovel to my garage. The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong assumed that meant it was time for a ride together. “Sorry, the Reckless Mr. Bing Bong,” I had to announce, “but you will get no traction in that stuff. I’ll leave you with the important task of standing guard over the carcass of your mountain bike step-brother.”

Once back in the house, I said to The Feeshko, “I don’t think Diggity will want to go for a walk in that slush, but I’m going to ask him anyway.”

“Aren’t you going to ask The Feeshko if she wants to go for a walk,” asked The Feeshko? Yes, sometimes she’ll actually refer to herself by that odd name I gave her. Sometimes I think she actually LIKES it.

“Oh, absolutely,” I replied. “I just didn’t think you’d be up to walking in that wet, greasy, slimy slush.”

“Well, I was thinking about it.” And with that, she put on her leggings and her boots and her coat. I attached Diggity’s leash to his collar, and within minutes all three of us were walking up the road. See why they are my heroes?

Diggity climbs a mountain, and The Feeshko is the mountain rescue team.

One of my heroes navigates the slush and loves it.

My other hero scolds, “quit taking pictures of me.”

Biking, hiking, and shoveling are only three of my favorite wintertime activities. The other two are snowman building and snowball throwing. I know The Feeshko thinks I’m a complete nut job, but she agreed to film me in the following video.

And she didn’t mind stopping for a couple minutes so I could make a tiny snowman. Today, she is my #1 hero. Diggity is #2. I can’t decide if #3 is Shakespeare or Bob Dylan or the Coen Brothers.

We made it home and all three of us agreed it was one of our most fun walks in months. My snow shoveling back felt good. The Feeshko’s knee felt good. Diggity’s paws felt good. I made a delicious lunch. All was right in the world.

A couple of days ago I made six pasties. After our walk, I heated up the leftovers.

Hi. My name is Greg and I ride my bike a lot. That is to say, I ride my bike almost every day. I go on long rides and short rides. Sunny rides, cloudy rides, and rainy rides. I like commuting, errand-running, day-tripping, overnighting, and touring on my bike. I ride on city streets, highways, gravel, single track, and snow with equal enthusiasm. Sometimes I ride fast and sometimes I ride slow. I try to keep my feet on the pedals at stop lights and I do not dismount when I hop up on a curb. I have a roadie bike, a mountain bike and a touring bike. I try to accept any challenge a bike ride can throw at me without complaint. But I don't like bugs.

6 response to "Hiking With My Heroes"

  1. By: Suzanne Posted: January 15, 2021

    What a brilliant walk! Great to see The Feeshko can even manage slush! Yes, walking can be fun. Since I put my bike away until the weather is more to my liking to be on two wheels, I have been walking. At first just because it’s good for me but unwillingly, but by now I am beginning to like it. Of course, always combined with getting a picture for the walk and tallying them up. That motivates me. And my walking endurance is improving as well.

  2. By: BobinVT Posted: January 15, 2021

    It looks like you all had a great walk, despite all that slushy stuff on the ground. That is by far my least favorite form of precipitation. And by the way, that’s exactly what’s headed in our direction over the next 24 hours. I pretty much already decided tomorrow is going to be a walking day, not a cycling day.

  3. By: NancyG Posted: January 15, 2021

    What a great outing you three had!!! I may be doing my own slush/snow walk at the end of next week, but for now I am squeezing in as much riding as I can in our moderate weather. Take care of those heroes — precious cargo you have out there in the questionable terrain ?.

  4. By: Lednar De Nalloh Posted: January 16, 2021

    “quit taking pictures of me.” I get a lot of that too

    Those pasties looked nice and how does Diggerty not get his paws frozen?

  5. By: Rocky Posted: January 17, 2021

    Great post! I’m so glad to hear what a great time the 3 of you had! It certainly made my day to read about it. Keep it up!

  6. By: Laura Posted: January 17, 2021

    Looks like you both and the pooch had a good time. Loved your snowman.

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