It's now Fall, and I wondered how many times this year I had hiked the Y.  Since I collected a rock every time I went hiking, dated it and put it in a jar, I could tell!

From counting my rocks I knew that I went to the Y 24 times, including today.  Went to other places 4 times.  Those included the "big hikes" we took on a couple of occasions that took many hours.  I collected 3 rocks each time we went on a big hike, taking a rock from each main trail. 

The first time I hiked the Y (not including the times decades ago!), it took me 45 minutes and my legs were shaking when I got back down to the car.  My knees always hurt coming back down, too, for many months.  Now I can make it to Turn 10 in less than 30 minutes (my record is 25 minutes 20 seconds) and my legs don't shake and my knees don't hurt anymore coming down!  Yeah!

My jar of hiking rocks.

All the rocks spread out, according to date.  January's rock is on the far left, September's rocks are on the right.