Do you ever get to the point where you just don’t want to see another notification, another text, phone call, email? I certainly hit my limit recently. Full-on stressed out over small things. I really needed a reset. Enter a place with hardly any cell signal.
Getting outside always helps me, but spending hours where you can’t be bothered is glorious. Don’t get me wrong, I can and do turn on do not disturb, but it is not the same. And no, I don’t leave my phone at home- safety first, friends. So being out where the signal is intermittent is a pretty great feeling. Highly recommend.
I went to a spot known as “jump rock” and it was absolutely stunning in the morning light! Spolier alert- I did not jump. This is a popular area because the swimming hole is less than a mile hike from a parking lot. There was SO MUCH GARBAGE. 😭 I picked up a lot of it. But there was enough to make a day out of cleaning up the area. I saw 3 pairs of shoes left behind. One was a pair of hiking boots. For the record, can we please get people to stop leaving their hard lemonade boxes and bits of broken glass? I suppose I should also say that if you have to 💩, dig a hole and do your business at least 200 feet away from water, and then cover it up. (My only rant, I promise. 😂)
Since it was a longer day, we took a jet boil and had lunch between trails. I had Elk Ragu Pasta from Peak Refuel. And let me tell you, it was so much better than Mountain House. 43 grams of protein and it didn’t leave me feeling like I ate a bag of salt. I said what I said. (not sponsored, I just like their food. Open to being sponsored though, hint hint 😏)
Then it was on to the Martin’s Fork Area. There are two rock climbing walls that you can access from that parking lot and trails. I am still nursing a wrist that isn’t 100%- and I don’t know what I did to make it angry- so no real rock climbing. 🧗♀️ But you know that I couldn’t resist scrambling up a few premium boulders to get some yoga pics for the ‘gram.
This is a perfect example of how yoga has helped me in “real life.” While some people think of yoga as a way to passively relax, there is a lot of active mobility and range of motion that you can work into. Like most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. For me, I don’t care if I can ever do the splits, but I do want to be able to hike and climb and move freely while living.
Overall it was an absolutely blissful outing, even if the crazy amounts of tree pollen had me sneezing my head off all day. I look forward to the next adventure. If you are looking to plan an adventure along the Sheltowee Trace, you might check out the trail maps at sheltoweetrace.org. And remember to leave it better than you found it!
MoveMint Yoga 