Since the hiking team fell apart, plus my heel pain,  my hiking became irregular. Thinking of finding a substitute exercise, I tried Yuanji Dance once and random dances at home. But the temptation of returning to the old days, when hiking three or four hours is the weekly norm, is irresistible and irreplaceable.

 

It is the third Saturday today, the only Saturday in a month that all trails are open to the public. The valleys and mountains here are so widespread in magnitude that even the most frequented destination still have some trails untrekked. At 8:40am after breakfast, my husband and I headed for the new trail, a strenuous one full of rugged gravels and steep slopes.  A nearly four- hours' hiking, after months of hiatus, turned out to be challenging and tiring in the end. When I walked down feebly a steep downhill toward the finishing, I sensed the sharp pain in the left knee. But I was mostly overwhelmed in the journey with the fulfilling sentiment, when I stood at the top overlooking the glistening city beneath, to see the blue sky, white clouds, and gliding vultures above, to witness the earliest spring sight of the new grass shoots basking in the morning sun. When every open pore of mine after sweat was caressed by the soothing crisp breeze from the valley, I felt like in a heaven.

 

It was just fantastic to immerse ourselves in the serenity and tranquility of the nature,  a moment that we relished of being away from hustling life for hours before we have to come back to.