Post 900 Hike #145

Did not hike on 6/15 for I took my wife to her recreational property listing on the Hiawassee River; the last road would have been difficult for her Prius and I had just acquired a new 4-wheel drive Outback. Rather than do a group hike scheduled for either 6/21 or 6/22, I chose to take my running buddy at UT (Craig Wrisberg--he and I ran together for the first time in 1978) on a short hike; he just retired and when he finishes with his last Ph.D. student, hopefully will be a regular in our hiking group. Although he has hiked a little bit, today was his first hike with the trekking pole gift that he had received some time ago; he wanted a little guidance on their use. The hike that I chose for his first hike with sticks was Little River, Cucumber Gap, and Jakes Creek (~5 miles). Ironically this was very first solo hike that I made ~6 years ago. I have done this segment of Little River trail (& Jakes Creek) countless times; however, I had done Cucumber Gap only twice.

We got on Little River trail ~09:30; our pace along its 2.4 mi. length was somewhat leisurely; however, when we came to Cucumber Gap I realized that we had to put it in high gear because he had an appointment with a graduate student at 13:00. (I had decided not to bring my GPS, Pedometer, or HR monitor; in retrospect I wish that had done so. Craig was very satisfied with the aerobic workout that we had on Cucumber Gap (~500' of up in its fist 1.3 mi. I should mention that for at least the 5-years prior to my retirement in 2005 he and I ran together ~3 X's each wk; after I started hiking 6-months later we have run together about once each week and plan to continue doing so. Craig is in pretty good shape; he has also run one marathon in a little over 3-hrs.). This was the first time that he had seen the old vacant homes along Jakes Creek; it was an interesting hike for him and from his perspective just the right one for his introduction to trekking poles.

We arrived at my home ~12:30; he was not late for his 13:00 hours appointment.