I haven’t been hitting a good cadence with my walks and I’ve been hitting an even worse cadence reporting on them.

So far in June I’ve only done three of my 10k strolls, numbers eleven, twelve and thirteen.

So. A quick recap to catch up and maybe not feel so much of the weight of this effort that is the parts dragging me into the mud.

Eleven: I set out east from the house with the goal of crossing a stretch of Whitemud Creek trail I’ve never before attempted. I walked through the neighbourhood, over Rabbit Hill to overlook the city, down into the crossing and the new(ish) foot bridge, and then north.  North is a stretch of wilderness between the road at 23^rd and the asphalt footpath in the utility corridor. We have never gone this way because there is no clear trail (at least not one that doesn’t emerge into the neighbourhood and cheat on some paved roads). There is a trail, it turns out, but it involved some serious scrambling and a lot of adventuring. I made it, and looped back towards home.

Twelve: I made the destination on this walk the “something new” as I trekked across the river on the path towards the little neighbourhood across the river. We’ve run by a little shopping complex a hundred times but have never stopped. There was a cute little bakery over there that I figured would be my destination, and it turned out to not only be the perfect distance away for an out and back adventure, but I scored a poppyseed roll to boot.

Thirteen: It has been raining something fierce this past week. The downpour was so bad they issued a drainage advisory, asking people to limit water usage for showers and laundry to avoid overtaxing the sewers. In a calmer moment I set off in a drizzle from the parking lot of a park across town. The Kid had her first day of summer job orientation at Rundle Park and while I’ve run around that area before I’d never traversed the area around it much. I set off north and did a huge loop up to Hermitage Lake and back along the gravel paths. I got soaked and muddy, but took some interesting pictures.

All this walking brings me up to thirteen walks and over 144km total… and the realization I need to step it up a little more as summer hits.