Getting back into day hikes

[Jeff71]

I used to hike quite a bit but do to various circumstances with work and family and getting older I slacked off. My feet started aching whenever I was on them a lot and so I gave up hiking thinking it would make it worse.

Long story short, I realized the aches and pains of getting older (past 60) are going to be there and I can either be lazy and ache or be active, enjoy more and ache. So I started doing part-time labor jobs after I retired from office work. At first my feet were very sore but after about a two years working on my feet they no longer bothered me! Use it or lose it.

So now I am coming to my senses and realizing I need to get back on the trails. I am back into decent physical condition and ready to try out the hills again. Heading out to Elk Mtn-King Mtn-Elk Creek in kind of a loop later this week for a first hike.

Anyway, I am browsing through many of the posts here to get updates on trail conditions, new regs, where folks are headed, etc. I look forward to learning about new trails and rediscovering old familiar ones. I used to hike some hills along the coast and coast range, South-West-North sides of Mt Hood, Mt. St. Helens and Rainier. Up until 1997 I lived in Olympia and grew up hiking the Olympics, North Cascades, Rainier and St. Helens before she blew her top. I had gotten into doing long day hikes instead of overnighters so logged many 20-28 mile hikes. Last long one was about 2007 then hiked more sporadically and did mostly 10-20 milers.

My initial goal is to do lots of ten milers this year and be ready to get back into the 10-20 mile range next year.