Napa Valley River Trail

Sat. 11.15.08 mike, ella and I went to the napa valley river trail today. why have I never walked this before? I found it to be a delightful walk :-) -- we parked in the park hidden back behind the college by the water. it ended up being a 1 - 1/2 hour walk for us. the first loop brought us next to the river and then around the small soccer players; passing the 10 year old bmx riders on a really neat dirtway they made for them, and then the small motorized airplane site for kids. it made me wishing I had a young boy or tom boy -- and made me think of setho boy at those ages!! we did that motorized airplane thing for a bit with him. and there was a small girl named bonnie on the bmx bike -- so cute! well there is still time for zeke and maggie :-) after that loop the trail brought us along the river. very peaceful and enjoyable. out away from civilization and hardly any passerbyers. although by the picture you can see at one point there was a 'harbor' like neighborhood across the river. we kept going until the path ended -- which was by (below) the Imola st bridge. eventually this trail will bring you into the town of Napa by trader joes and the new outside amphitheater. and I think they have plans to bring the trail from american canyon up to here! that will be fun! so, for todays purposes we crossed the railroad tracts at the end of the trail and walked up to the home depot shopping center on Soscal. we had a nice break and lunch outside at applebees. (nice reward for a good walk :-) and then walked back.
it was flat and therefore not much of a 'lung stretch' but after the brisk walking i could feel it in my thighs and hips ( i am not getting any younger and really need to keep limber with these walks -- with or without the longer goals I have). by the end, ella -- as usual -- had her christmas trees ears -- fur filled with little brown burrs - and the added affect of yucky brown water on her legs and underside.
we discovered that there is a river to ridge trail which i intend to check out soon! it takes you from this river trail up to the top of skyline park. which means the trail runs by the outside of the college; crosses over Soscal and runs along the fence line of napa state hospital and then uphill into skyline. skyline park was where I did a lot of preparation for my Yosemite hike. i hope to check this out with seth as he has walked it with me in the past and this is the one thing outside that i enjoy with seth as well. so this was approximately 1 and 1/2 hours -- maybe more? and not sure how many miles -- i need that GPS soon because then I can clock my miles and ya never know how many treasures of cache I am missing out on in these areas!!
and oh my gosh -- the weather was the best you could ask for!! a really warm november fall day! although I did think of and pray for all the la/sb fires and those affected by them -- we need rain and cooler weather for that reason and california drought reasons!
smoking -- sorry friends -- i had a few this week :-( one day after work I just felt I "needed' one! and had a few through the week! but maybe after a few good hilly walks I will really want no more?!! don't hate me just keep encouraging me to stop this most ridiculous habit! i didn't even want to mention it but i need to be accountable, truthful, and blogging my progress - or lack there of!
and is a nice surprise that mike wants to walk now -- in fact he had been walking more than me the past month. in the past because of his hard working days he wasn't interested. he started his new job this week. he likes it. he is supervisor for job sites with a company called Tru green. he won't be doing the hard physical work and therefore looking forward to hikes/walks on weekends.
till my next walk . . . .