You know I’m not a newbie when it comes to Run Fast Eat Slow cookbooks! Here’s a “throwback” picture to 2016, for I think a social media contest to win a copy or be a test cook? I can’t quite remember. But it got me to don an apron and run out in public with a mixing bowl!

I was work towards my fall running goals (fast mile, anyone?) I’m using the Run Fast Eat Slow cookbooks for meal planning. Last week Friday, I cooked up their Bison Chili before setting up for the trick-or-treators.

I may have cooked this recipe before, or maybe it was another bison recipe from their books. The meat was on the expensive side, for sure, but I wanted to try it. It was a one-pot wonder! I used the food processor to ‘chop’ the onion and bell pepper – any shortcut I could get. Toss in the can of beans and the can of tomatoes. I like to think even with the sprinkle of shredded cheese and dollop of sour cream, this is a healthy meal! Even more- the energy sustaining grant I needed! For Saturday I had planned a long hike to celebrate our first wedding anniversary!! We headed to Pinckney State Recreation Area to hike the Potawatomi tail.

Now, there’s actually a funny story about this… so good in fact, I think it is worth sharing on my blog. For both entertainment purposes and for memories.

Our first date was a hike at Island Lake State Park. We both enjoy hiking and at some point early on I shared that I wanted to do the full Potawatomi Trail loop, around 17.4 miles, but no one ever wants to hike that far. In the fall of 2022, we did the hike! However, we were having so much fun that we had hiked 4 miles in the wrong direction. We had to back track, which brought our total distance to just over 23 miles. We had people on standby, in case we needed to be picked up, as it was. There were a few warning signs…

  • First, the roads we crossed on the map were all accurate up until a point, “hmm that’s weird, this street isn’t on the map, oh well.”
  • The afternoon sun was on the wrong side of us for were we should be on the trail. The map has the note “serious hills” for the bikers and as were walking, “this is what they call serious hills?!”
  • And my friend Kari was hiking from the opposite direction to meet up with us, but we never ran into her.

I had packed us a bunch of snacks. Danny had said, “we don’t need all that!” Well, I’ll tell ya we ate all my snacks! I was already tired but as long as we would get back before dark, was all I cared about! The dog was with us – he did far better than us! – still pulling on the leash. At one point I took the leash for Danny to realize how much the dog was aiding him up the hills! We did get back to the parking lot before the sun went down, checked the dog for ticks, and texted the family and friends we had made it! Seriously, we had so much fun! (And I got a compass for Christmas!)

I had my older Garmin watch, at the time, and was worried about the battery dying, that I ‘ended’ the hike, then restarted it, so not to lose that work! Here’s the first part.

Here’s a picture from this year, to see where we took the wrong turn in 2022. There’s an arrow point straight ahead, but in the smaller print, it says “Pinckney-Waterloo” trail. We should have turned left at Marker 12.

We returned the next year in 2023 to do the full trail, without the Waterloo section. This time, Danny proposed to me at the start! There was a bike tri-trail challenge going on (50 miles!) and we had to frequently step aside to let the oncoming bikers through, but I didn’t mind.

Last year, we had a bit going on with a fall wedding (I baked my own cake!) and did not hike the Potawatomi trail. I wanted to arrange a group run prior to the wedding but there wasn’t enough time to do it all! As our anniversary approached, several people asked what we had planned. We decided we wanted to hike the Potawatomi trail and invite friends and family. I put a call out on social media. I wanted to use the occasion to encourage people to get outdoors, enjoy the fall colors, and possibly to challenge themselves. We challenge ourselves to run a half-marathon (or marathon) – both far distances – how is that any different than going out for a long hike of ~17 miles?

On Saturday, we had a few people join us at the start of the hike and turned back at certain points or finished at their parked car along the trail. We also had friends join us from the end of the trail, hiking towards us. We added the extra “W” at the end (between map Markers 4 and 5), which was something I was planning to skip. I feel like there’s no ‘added value’ from those horseshoes, just adds distance, however it was a lot of fun hiking with our friends and catching up – no regrets! It put us at 20 miles for the day. I felt great!! I’d like to think the Bison Chili provided us the energy to sustain us. No blisters either! The ankles/calves were a little tight the next day but no pain.

DateMilesAscent (ft)Total Time (h:m)Moving Time (h:m)
October 8, 202223.21,2978:418:03
September 16, 202318.52,0816:575:52
November 1, 202519.92,4037:056:12

(I think the Garmin elevation isn’t always accurate, but I’m curious to see how it compares year over year on the different paths we take, grain of salt! And interesting to see our Total vs Moving Time when we had to step aside for bikers…)

My husband and I have this theory that if you can run/walk a half marathon, for say, 2 hours with your heart rate moderate to high, that translates to a lower to easy heart rate for a hike of 4-6 hours. Thinking if you can sustain a higher heart rate in your current shape, you should be able to sustain a longer time period at a lower rate. NOTE: I HAVE NO SCIENCE ON THIS!! None! I asked zero doctors. I did zero research (yet). It MAY NOT correlate. STILL: What do you think? Might it work this way?

This theory of ours comes from our own personal experience. We trained for a half marathon, Spearfish Canyon in South Dakota, then did some big long hikes in Glacier National Park, Montana! We trained for a half marathon, Bayshore in Traverse City, then did some big long hikes in Hawaii! What do you think?

I hope to continue hiking this trail once a year. And I plan to continue encouraging people to join us! This just might be my favorite trail in all of Michigan!

Note: I do see my cardiologist doctor once a year.