My youngest was on spring break this week so I took a few days off to spend some time with her. I thought it might be fun to go hiking and, to my delight, my device loving daughter agreed. San Diego County has lots of areas to hike so we picked one and headed out.

Though the trail we went to permits leashed dogs, Moe had to stay home. He’s twelve and arthritic. His hiking days are behind him. Still, it was nice seeing other people with their dogs.

 

 

I deliberately left my phone in my car. Being out in nature, disconnecting from everyone and everything except my daughter for a couple of hours was just what I needed. The best part was the free-flowing conversation. Our minds wandered and the conversation wandered with it. It was a lovely, relaxed way of connecting with each other. I must admit, you don’t get that in the gym.

Enough about my personal experience, here’s the good people at Web MD to tell you the benefits of hiking. Hiking is a powerful cardio workout that can:

  • Lower your risk of heart disease
  • Improve your blood pressure and blood sugar levels
  • Boost bone density, since walking is a weight-bearing exercise
  • Build strength in your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and the muscles in your hips and lower legs
  • Strengthen your core
  • Improve balance
  • Help control your weight
  • Boost your mood.

“Research shows that hiking has a positive impact on combating the symptoms of stress and anxiety,” says Gregory A. Miller, PhD, president of the American Hiking Society. “Being in nature is ingrained in our DNA, and we sometimes forget that.”

 

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Completely off topic, one of you posted this article from Tablet by Jacob Siegel. Thank you and a hat tip to whoever it was. After finishing the article, I thought the author was familiar and he was. I heard him on The Fifth Column two years ago. He is very much a man of the left but in the Glenn Greenwald or Matt Taibbi mold. In other words, he grapples with reality and is more than willing to call out his own side when they violate his core beliefs. If you think what is passed off as fact checking is a scam, then the article is well worth a read.

This week’s music.