Saturday, January 23, 2016

Active Recovery

Today is what you would call an "active recovery" day. It was a rest day on my calendar, but I knew I wanted to get out and about with my guys (the hubby and puppy). I had to work from 6am-10am and then again from 6pm-10pm so we had a good eight hour window to hit the trails.

We decided to head up to Palomar Mountain and hike the Observatory Trail. The trail begins at the Observatory Campground.

Look, you can even see a little "snow" on the side of the road!

The only issue is, the campground is closed during this time of the year. Thankfully there seemed to be some street parking by the entrance so we pulled off the road and decided to do it anyway. Once you get to the trail head, the hike is about 2.25 miles to the Observatory. The hike there is a pretty decent climb. I would say over the two and a quarter miles we probably climb about 1,000 feet.

Some of the hill-age

You definitely earn the views on this one!

Seeing as the East Coast is being pummeled by snow, I thought my snowflake PRO Compression socks were the PERFECT choice for today's hike. I was actually hoping we would come across some snow... And guess what! WE DID!

So it wasn't FEET of snow, but there was some WHITE!

The snow never bothered me anyway... well, I guess it has... but at least now
I can drive to visit in and then drive back to the 65* weather ;)

It was more like ice crystals, but you gotta take what you can get in SoCal

Walt did a great job, especially since he has never seen snow before (well, at least not while we have had him). I wouldn't say it is his favorite (he is a pretty big wuss when it comes to being cold, but thankfully with the huffing and puffing of hiking at above 5,000 feet we warmed up pretty quickly), but he kept up and held his own as a sausage dog ;)

#Shoefie with #WaltTheWienerDog

You can see some of the elevation in the background

When we came across a little patch of snow, Ryan even made Walt a mini snowman. (Am I the only one who finds it funny that we found more snow in Southern California today than we saw in Michigan over our Christmas break?!)

Next time we will hike with a carrot for the snowman's nose!

The Observatory was pretty cool, although I am sure it would be even cooler if it was open and you could actually see through the 200 foot telescope! Ah well, at least it gave us a turn around point for our hike. (And a place to refuel with our PROBARs.)

I don't know if any of us were looking in the proper direction ;)

We took turns going into the Observatory (since doggies aren't allowed inside),
this is Walt waiting not so patiently for Ryan to come back outside

We worked up an appetite! Glad to be #FueledByPROBAR!

The hike back to the car went much quicker than the way to the Observatory seeing as it was mostly downhill (praise the Lord, since my legs were pretty beat from yesterday's 20-miler to begin with). We stopped for a couple pretty views and funny photos, but other than that we were cruising.

Snow-capped mountains in the distance

Look at how big that pine cone is!

Our selfie stick comes in handy while hiking!

I'd say it took us about two hours to hike probably 5.5-6 miles. Not too shabby with a wiener dog in tow (and stopping for #AllThePhotos). On the way home we stopped at Mother's Kitchen, which is an all vegetarian little gem. DELISH and hit the spot after a morning of hiking! The hubby got a bowl of chili and I had a club sandwich - YUM! (We inhaled it before snapping any pictures - sorry!)

And we were home with plenty of time before my next shift (in fact, we were even able to watch a little Red Wings and Walt was able to get some more napping in. I can't blame him... Those tiny legs of his work hard when we are hiking!). I'd say it was quite the productive "rest" day!

Do you prefer active recovery or complete rest days?

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