running & canoeing + hiking the walls of jericho {weekend recap}

Hope you had a great weekend. Ours was jam-packed! We knew that Saturday and Sunday were going to be pretty busy, so we took it easy on Friday night. Anthony was in charge of dinner and whipped up some simple baked fish.

On the side: crumbed zucchini and a sweet potato experiment. We tried a regular sweet potato (smaller, yellow-er one) vs. an organic sweet potato (larger, deeper orange one).

Winner: non-organic! Ha. Not sure it was a true test since there are so many varieties of sweet potatoes, but they were both really tasty. Yum.

We ended the night with a couple episodes of Community and headed to bed! Saturday we were up bright and early for race day.

The 2015 Dairy Dash was super fun! I ran the 10k and was pretty happy with my finish time. Full recap coming tomorrow

After the race and a nice long shower, we hopped in the car and drove to my parents’ lake house in Winchester, TN (about 1.5 hours from Nashville).

For some reason I’ve had the strongest urge to go canoeing for the past week. I told Anthony last Wednesday that I NEEDED TO CANOE over the weekend. So we did it!

I have no idea when the last time I paddled a canoe was… maybe 10 years ago? It takes a bit of coordination and I generally don’t use my upper body ever. So that was a change. We paddled for about an hour — look at us go!!

Saturday night we cooked up a storm with my parents. They were in charge of the steaks, I was in charge of the salad. Anthony had the two most important tasks: cocktails and potatoes, aka my two favorite foods.

Oh yeah, I also made a big loaf of KA’s Italian 101 bread because it’s my dad’s favorite. I can tell the spring humidity is setting in — look how huge this loaf got! More moisture in the air generally helps the dough rise higher. #science

We ate outside and the weather was perfect.

And on Sunday, it was still lovely out there! Anthony and I have been wanting to hike the Walls of Jericho trail for a while. So we got our butts out there and did it.

The trail is located on the Alabama/Tennessee border and leads downhill to a 200-foot rock wall. It’s 3.8 miles one-way.

It was so GREEN out there! My legs were a bit beat from Saturday’s race, but the downhills were fine (the uphills were another story, haha). Anthony and I tried to keep a brisk pace because the whole hike is over 7 miles and we had other stuff to do on Sunday! Speed hikers.

We went down, down, down to the bottom and surprisingly I only fell once After this adventure we decided that we need actual hiking shoes. I guess we’re becoming pretty hardcore.

When we reached the end of the trail, we saw the big rock walls and creek. So pretty!

And then it was time to go back UP the trail! Yowzahs. I wouldn’t say that this is an “advanced” hike, but it’s definitely challenging during some of the inclines on the way back.

We stopped for water a couple times, but other than we tried to book it as fast as we could out of the woods. We were hoping to complete the whole hike in under three hours…

and almost made it! Maybe if I hadn’t stopped to take photos for this post, we would have finished a little faster

Walls of Jericho: check! If you’re near Manchester, Chattanooga, or Huntsville sometime, give this trail a try. It’s really fun.

After the hike we were tired and hungry! Hot showers and a big lunch fixed us right up. Then we hit the road home!

Running, canoeing, and hiking. Plus steak. I’d say it was a good weekend

• Did you race this weekend?! How’d it go?
• Last time you rode a canoe?
• Locals: Favorite hiking trail in the area?