Lots of pavement, but...

...we managed to find some mud towards the end.

Today's San Jose Stay Fit walk was 12 miles around Lexington Reservoir. Coach Luap (not his real name) was once again unable to attend due to being a good husband, but he did show up to see us off so it's going to be a bit harder to heap blame on him for anything that goes wrong.

We start with the ever popular porta-pottie picture, here with Hteb Yram (not her real name) and Coach Truc (not his real name, but it would be pretty good if it was). This has to be one of the prettiest porta-pottie shots so far - it's great to see this reservoir so full for the first time in years.

Meanwhile, Uidualc did some stretching while Coach Werdna provided advice. "Make sure your arms don't fall off" he very helpfully advised.

We lost a bit of time while working out whether we needed to put chains on or not. (I really think that these "ICY" signs are a bit out of season by now.)

One odd thing that happened at about this time was that a woman stopped her car in the middle of the road and started yelling at us for walking on the wrong side of the road. We always walk facing oncoming traffic, and so far, this has worked out well. For some reason, she felt we should be walking with the traffic. Maybe she considered it more sporting for the drivers who enjoy sneaking up on walkers/runners. (Please let me know if there is a sane reason for walking with the traffic coming at you from the back, assuming similar shoulders and such on both sides of the road.)

In any case, not long after she went by a Highway Patrol car came up to us. The obvious first thought was that she had called the cops and there really is some sort of rule about this. Uidualc yelled "Run for it!" which gave us all a good laugh (short of being chased by a rabid velociraptor, none of us are running anywhere). And there was no need - the patrolman smiled and waved and went on his way. The woman is clearly a lunatic.

A self portrait of us in this mirror hanging along the road. (Yes, finding us in this will require significant imagination.)

This small waterfall was far more impressive in person than this picture shows.

Most of the way around the reservoir required us to walk on paved roads. There were some minor hills, but other than being screamed at, it was not very challenging. And then finally we found ourself on a dirt trail that had several seriously muddy spots. This made my shoes giggle - they seem to thrive in this sort of thing.

It was a great walk. It was cool but often sunny. The only thing I can think of to blame on Coach Luap is that wacky woman, but honestly, she provided a nice diversion on one of the more boring stretches of the walk, so I can't even complain about that. The porta-pottie could have smelled fresher I guess.

That's it - move along...