The dog made me do it

For several years I have set loose goals for annual hiking and biking mileage. I’m not obsessed with these goals, but I get some satisfaction from achieving them. For a couple of years now I have wanted to hike 300 miles and bike 1,000 miles (the years of over 5,000 miles biking are long gone).

In 2014, I rode my bike 1,206 miles, but just before Christmas my hiking miles totaled only 288, with no plans (and seemingly no opportunity) to increase it. Then, my daughter asked us to dog-sit their golden-doodle. Echo is a rambunctious one year old and needs a daily walk. As a result, I finished the year with 321 miles of hiking/walking. Thanks, Echo.

Echo

I should note that no single hike or bike ride was exceptionally long so I failed to achieve my goal of biking my age in miles. I may have to change to the metric system.