Today we went with a local group of mostly expats on a nice hike to a beautiful area with gardens and a trout farm. There are a lot of hikers around here but this is the first time that we have done this much of a hike or gone with a group other than the folks at Vista Grande where we are staying.
Much of the hike was uphill however it wasn’t difficult, especially because we still had a normal amount of oxygen. I didn’t have any trouble. I realized that my problem with having to rest a lot in Colorado is due to the thinner air (oxygen), not my hiking abilities. Not altogether a surprise since all of my siblings are on oxygen at essentially sea level. When I had a stress test my oxygen levels stayed within normal so I’m not worried, just frustrated that I will probably continue to have this issue when we get back to Colorado, some day.
In any case, I did fine. Lesia, the owner of Vista Grande felt like the hike was too short but then she does 7-8 mile hikes about once a week. This was 700 meters each way so about 1.5 miles round trip. Then we walked more to get back to where the truck was so a good 2 miles or more today. Certainly not a long hike for Dan and me either. I was able to be towards the front/middle of the pack. Towards the front going uphill but a bit slower coming down since I had to be more careful not to slip going down.
The furthest that we went to was a very lovely area of lots of flowers and a small pond with lots of trout. Here are some pictures from there.