The last training walk of the season!

Saturday's 12-mile final training walk

Saturday morning, we headed out for our final training walk of the season! Hard to believe the the Immediate Impact Walk is THIS week!!

It was a really nice day, filled with lots of stairs, laughter and reflection.


Listening to the safety speech, and getting ready to head out.


Ah, Lion Street Stairs - okay, just ONE more time!


From the top of (the first part of) the Lion Street Stairs!


The Plum Ladies!

For the last three years, Linda has brought us to this very special place during the last training walk of the season. It's a beautiful labyrinth in Lands End overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The labyrinth is made up of rocks, and is such a site to see. Linda had suggested that we each bring a special memento to leave in the center. It was meant to be a special place of reflection of what we had been through and accomplished together this season.

Unfortunately, when we approached, we discovered that the labyrinth was gone - it had been destroyed by vandals within the last few days. We also learned that this is not uncommon, and that there is a group of volunteers who work tirelessly to recreate it, and care for it.

Those few volunteers (two or three people) were there when we arrived and told us what had happened. Since we were a group of 20 or so, they asked for our help. The rocks that they needed came from the beach - down the path, and down a flight of stairs from where the labyrinth is. We were happy to help out, added a few extra steps and stairs to our 12-mile walk, and did a small part of helping to restore this beautiful site.


The empty space where the labyrinth usually is


a view of the trail down to the beach where we each collected two or three large rocks to bring back to the labyrinth spot


the pile of rocks that we collected


leaving our special momentos in the center of the labyrinth


a moment of reflection


on a clear day, you would see the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, we saw dolphins swimming in the ocean. It was an equally magical moment.

After we had our moments of reflection at the labyrinth spot, we continued on through Lands End, back to the Presidio.


climbing more stairs on the Lands End Trail


the view towards the top


the Golden Gate Bridge on an overcast day


the sun starts to come out. I never tire of this view.


Saturday's stats

After our walk, we had our annual "Walk-Luck" Potluck! We received our Immediate Impact Walk Goody Bags, filled with all kinds of goodies for the event. We also received our event t-shirts, designed by Linda! They are beautiful!


Goody Bags!


Linda, modeling the event t-shirts!


One of the healthiest pot-lucks I've ever seen! Several salads, yummy chicken, a few healthy dips, and not a dessert in sight!


Picnic-ing!


Beatrice brought some beautiful bags to sell as a fundraiser! Great job, Bea!

Update!

Catriona walked back to the location of the Lands End Labyrinth this morning! The restored labyrinth has been built - it was completed less than 24 hours after our visit! AMAZING!


The restored labyrinth Sunday morning