I’m interrupting the tranquil narrative of last October and November’s European excursion. And what could make me do that, you ask?

A spur of the moment bucket list trip….to Morocco! J has always wanted to climb Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa, in the Atlas Mountains. It’s way shorter than its gigantic sibling, Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania – which is what, of course, started us off on this crazy mountain climbing binge we’ve been engaged in for the last 13 years. And it seems a particularly good choice given that I grew up in North Carolina and the Atlas Mountains were originally part of the Appalachian Range. Who knew?

So when we saw KE Adventures had somewhat reduced its price for an 8 day trekking adventure, and our calendars looked relatively clear….what was to stop us from signing up? Of course, there is that little detail about the trip starting in four weeks and the fact that we had hardly been training to climb an almost 14,000 foot mountain, four days of trekking at altitude (13 mile days or so), and some with a LOT of elevation gain….

It’s back to the stairs for me. And the ten mile clay loop in Clermont tomorrow.