Yogi and Boo Boo Bear

Back out on another hike with my mom and the energetic twins. This time we opt for a 4 mile loop trail. By the way, I have no idea if taking 6 yr olds out for moderate 3-5 mile hikes is safe and not bordering on child abuse. My mom doesn't say any differently, so I guess it's all right. Anyways, if you have kids then you are probably used to what I'm about to say, if you don't have kids like me, then this is what you have to look foward too. ;) We start our hike and not even 2 minutes in, the twins start with their never-ending barrage of questions. "Where we going?(in the woods), How long will it take? (4 miles), How long is that? (not long), How long? (aaarrggghh!!) Who lives out here?" (wild life), and on and on." In an effort to keep them entertained, I made up a story of how Yogi Bear and BooBoo Bear live out in these woods. We will be passing by a large outcropping of rocks that I can cleverly disguise as "The Cave." Well, the story back fires and leads to more questions. "Will we see Yogi? (No) Why not? (he's hibernating) Will he eat me? (I wish..., my mom then nudges my arm and tell me to behave). Anyways, around the 2 mile mark, we find the rock croppings and go off trail to climb, slide, and jump from rock to rock. After a 15 min break of exploring "Yogi's Cave," we decide to hop back on the trail. It occurs to me that this is probably a good time to teach these rug rats some trail ettiquette. I tell them that the first rule of hiking (for their purpose) is to NEVER LEAVE THE TRAIL. I show them where to look for trail markers to make sure they are on the right trail, and that its important to drink their water. When we finish the up hill ascent to the parking lot, would you believe the twins wanted to continue hiking? It was almost 7:30pm so I knew we didn't have that much light left, so I said maybe next time. hmmmm...You think I can get a 10 miler out of these boys next time? Just joking!! So don't go calling DSS (department of social services) on me. :)

aaaahhhh... to be young again.

So the beginners hike that I plowed thru the other day, I decided was a great hike to take my mom to. She wanted to exercise and I wanted to be outdoors. I think the compromise worked our well. After work I drove to her house and was all psyched to get in a good workout. As soon as I walk in the door and hug hello, I hear my name being shrieked followed by bubbles of giggles. Then I see them bounding in the room wearing identical, apropo, "I'm Annoying" t-shirts from what ever kids cartoon is popular right now. My mood drops as I start to realize, this is the day my mom is babysitting the twins. Almost as if she can read my face, my mom goes, "its alright, the twins are going with us and they can keep up." Before I can even get a BUT out, she assures me these six year old balls of energy, who are so excited to be going hiking by the way, can keep up with us. I sigh and resign myself to the fact that I probably won't get in the work out I had wanted. My mom quickly tries to dispel my disappointment by thrusting some sort of "healthy" shake in my hand and telling me to hurry up and drink it before we leave for our walk. "Its a hike", I remind her as I'm staring at this congealed pink frothy drink in my hand. Now my mom is known to NOT tell you what your eating for fear that you WONT eat it. With good reason by the way. I'm on to her tricks by now, so I ask her whats in it. She smiles and tells me to try it first. Alarms go off in my head and I'm recalling an earlier conversation we had last week about a smoothie concoction she "invented" with eggs, milk, fruit and what ever left over vegetable she has in her crisper. I know if I don't want to hurt her feelings, I should suck this down now and ask questions later. After slurping down this peach flavored smoothie about 3/4's of the way down, I finally have enough nerve to ask whats in it again. She tells me she blended up milk, a couple of peaches from her garden, an egg white (belch), a carrot, and a zucchini. I feel my stomach gurgle and tell her I can't finish the rest b/c honestly, (and I was being honest) I don't like hiking on a full stomach. We pile in the car after I make sure everyone has adequate water and we get to the trail. I opt for the 3 mile loop instead of the 5 mile loop b/c we have the twins. My mom says to just hike like I would normally hike and they will keep up. I groan but realize she has given me the green light to go and hike my own hike. So I do and darn it if those twins didn't keep up! Even while we were going up hill. They were running along, giggling like they had all the energy in the world. Man, to be six and full of energy again. My mom, whose usually a talker, was barely able to keep up and was unusually quiet. All I could hear from her was alot of huffing and puffing while she was trying to catch her breath. So overall, I was really impressed with these little six year olds and my Fifty-eight year old mom. I got in my hike the way I wanted and everyone had a great time. When I left the house, the twins asked me, "When are we going hiking again!!!" I think I converted another two. :)

Back to the Basics

You never truly know how far you have come until you go back
to the beginning. This is probably true for so many things, but for this purpose, lets keep it outdoors. ;) So today I took my novice hiking buddy to a trail I used to do back in the day. It was the first local trail I mastered and even learned to trail run on over 8 years ago. I remember the hills being so steep, the trail being hard, and me being winded and having to stop every few steps. WOW have things changed. I didn't expect to powered through the hike at full force AND not loose my breath. (Maybe the 5am gym workouts are finally working!) I felt that compared to the last hike that
literally kicked my ass, this was just the opposite. Don't get me wrong, it was still a hike, we were dripping with sweat after our first loop, but felt like we could still do more. We opted to just do another 2 mile loop and then called it a day. Talk about a hike that gives you the confidence to keep doing this. I guess after hiking a section of the Appalachian trail, everything else is just cake ;) Kidding of course, but man did it feel good to kick this trails ass! The trail we did led to an old 1800 rock house. Well, really it's just rock ruins now, but still pretty cool to come around a bend and see it. The elevation gain was less than 500 feet and the terrain was still rooty, rocky, and in some places muddy, but it was a great beginner trail. It was really nice to get back to the basics and to see just how far I had come. You can't see it, but I'm laughing at myself for thinking how hard that trail used to be. I guess we all have to start somewhere. :)

Scuba in Aruba

For our Anniversary we headed to Aruba for some diving and relaxation. Lots of sun, lots of Balashi (Aruba's Beer) and lots of relaxation. The island is 12 miles from Venezuela, very dry desert like terrain, and roughly 20 miles long. It has a combination of the Netherlands and South American cultural feel to it.
We went on two dives with Unique Sports. The first was the Antilla Wreck dive. This German freighter was scuttled on May 10, 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland during World War II and is one of the largest wrecks in the Caribbean (400' long). Its covered by tube sponges, coral formations and tropical fish. At one point we were in the center of huge school of silver fish. That was pretty cool. I also saw a flounder sliding on the ocean floor, I didn't realize how flat they actually were.
The second two tank dive we did was probably my favorite. It was Malmok Reef Dive. This reef is located just south of the Antilla. We saw a ton of brightly colored sponges and coral, which attracted all kinds of fish and barracuda (or at least I thought it was a barracuda). It ended up being a trumpet fish. hahhaa! I followed a huge parrot fish for a while and schools of colorful tang fish were everywhere. By the way, the photo to the left is of my boo. He was a great dive buddy. He always made sure he was close by and within my reach. I was the one always going off on my own and wildly snapping photos. :) Overall, I liked both dives and can't wait to do it again this December when we head out to Antigua!! Don't worry, I not trading in my trail legs for some sea legs, but I can sure see how someone can fall in love the ocean.

Dog Heaven

After my unexpectedly tough hike yesterday (a bit sore in the calves today), I wanted to take it easy but still do something outdoors. We decided to take the dogs to their favorite pond. As soon as I pulled out the leashes and retriever toys they went nuts! Pacing back and forth to the back door and whining for us to hurry up and eat our breakfast. They were ready to GO! We piled into the car, took a short ride to the pond and as soon as we opened the doors, they were gone. The dogs bounded out and dove right into the cool water. It was only 8:30 am, but it was already a hot 80 degrees so I'm sure the water felt refreshing. We tossed the retriever "chuck it" frisbee around for about an hour and "thing 1" looked like he was in heaven. He didn't want to stop, even though he was chirping like a bull frog from being exhausted and out of breath.
It was a nice relaxing morning spent with my loved one and my hounds. As I type, I can see the hounds in the backyard napping in the sun. What comes to mind is that phrase, " a tired dog is a good dog." They look so peaceful and quiet right now. We'll see how long that lasts. :)

"Barney" Flashback

I have to admit, today I was kind of bummed I didn't have a backpack trip planned. Can you believe I missed my pack!
Instead I opted to take a friend to Crowders Mt. for a 5 mile hike. She was so green to hiking that it reminded me of what a "barney" hiker I used to be. Hahaha! Like when I used an Eastpak school bag to lug around ridiculous amounts of bottled water that I never got around to drinking. Or when I wore cotton t-shirts, cotton socks, and sneakers. I always came home with blisters, I was constantly twisting my ankles on roots, and the drive home in a soaking wet t-shirt was no fun. Wow... those were the days. Makes me wonder why in the world I stuck with this sport. I learned a thing or two along the way, like discovering wicking t-shirts, sock liners, and how good boots can make all the difference between a good and bad hike. By the way, for those of you that didn't get the "barney"reference; "Barney" is a word surfers call truly green, newbie surfers. Vocab I picked up from my years spent growing up in SoCal.
So my "barney" friend and I make it to the mountain and are on the loop trail right at 8am. The first 1/2 mile was gradual to get you warmed up. Then the trial went up for a 1000 foot ascent for about 2 miles in three humps. After several small breaks, I take a photo on a huge rock overlook. My friend in her cotton t-shirt and huge school backpack tells me she is feeling fatigued in her legs. She's already gone thru 3 of her 4 water bottles. I tell her that we are 1/2 way to the view where we can take a 20 min break, just a couple of rock scrambles to climb, then once on top, it's mostly down hill for 2 1/2 miles. Thank goodness that I got to stop along to trail to wait on my friend, because it gave me an excuse to catch my breathe. I felt like my heart was going to burst! I really need to up my cardio thru out the week to increase my heart rate.
Personally, I like a couple of rock scrambles thrown in my hikes. My novice friend?...not a fan of the scrambles. She was literally crawling on her hands and knees in some spots, and wasn't sure she could make it over the others. I told her it was 10% physical and 90% mental and that I knew she could do it. We finally reach the top and were rewarded with an amazing view. I had brought two 20 oz. water bottles in my REI hip belt and had only gone thru 1/2 of one of them. So I offered the other 20 oz. to my friend. She downed it in about 5 minutes. We pushed on and climbed down some never ending stairs. Only 2 1/2 more miles to go and the terrain from here is pretty gradual, flowing, and rolling small hills. I powered thru this like a champ. Huffing and puffing, but strong legged and fast. I look behind me every now and then to see where my friend was and to make sure she was ok. For the last 1/2 mile we take it slow to cool down. Over all it was a great hike, but a lot tougher than I initially remembered. I will surely be back to concur this mountain again. Oh, and my friend, when I dropped her off, the poor thing got out of the car so stiff, but she was grinning. Looks like I converted another one. :)

AT = Certified F.O.O.S.H

Not sure what is happening to me, but I am starting to feel like my old self again. Just got back from another backpack trip and it was GREAT! We hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail (AT) from Hot Springs, NC and I felt like a foosh! (fat out of shape hiker) hahaha! But you know what, I was grinning from ear to ear b/c I was HIKING THE AT!! I won't lie, it was tough. We started the hike along the French Broad River and it was pretty much flat for 1/2 mile. Then it started going up, up, and up after that. This picture was taken from Lovers Leap outlook, (river below.) We backpacked with Rock Star and Cubby, who were really good at waiting for us and not making us feel like total losers. We started hiking around 2pm, after a thunderstorm (which we waited out at the local outfitters) and hiked about 6 and 1/2 miles b/f we set up a stealth camp site after Tanyards Gap. We were exhausted. After dinner we went straight to bed and tried to sleep through another thunderstorm. The next morning we made breakfast (oatmeal and left over beef jerky) and Cubby tried to tell us that he thought a black bear came into camp. He maybe on to something, b/c SS7 had thrown an apple into the woods earlier that night. Anyways, we hit the trail at 8am. It was all up hill til Rich Mountain. My goal was to get to the tower atop Rich Mountain, which was an additional 1/2 mile up hill side trail. Totally worth it. We were rewarded with an amazing "smokey mt." view. Took a 30 minute rest break and split a protein bar a liter of water with Double S7 (or SS7, as in Slow and Steady 7 miler). It started to sprinkle and from the look of the clouds, we knew the sky was about to open up on us. We hiked the 1/2 mile back down to the AT, hiked down to the connecting trail (Roundtop) and hiked the last 4 miles back down to Hot Springs. Yeah, it rained on us, but boy did it feel good. We got back to the car, changed into dry clothes and flip flops, then headed to the Paddlers Pub for our reward. " A giant buffalo burger." We topped it off with some bunny track ice cream from Sweet Imaginations cafe and went home some happy campers. Total mileage for this trip was 14 miles.

Quotes and Dreams....

After endless days of commuting on the freeway to an antiseptic, sealed-window office, there is a great urge to backpack into the woods and build a fire. ~Charles Krauthammer
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~John Muir
We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down. ~Robert Sweetgall
The TRAIL is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for. ~ unknown

Just a few quotes I found inspiration in. :) I also found a great website called http://www.trailjournals.com/, and every time I read a persons thru-hike journey of the Appalachian Trail, it makes it that much more alluring to one day hike it. Big dreams, I know. But all great accomplishments start with a dream. :)

Physical Assestment, better than I thought :)

Woo Hoo! thats exactly how I feel right now. Well, minus the soreness setting in my legs, calves, shoulders, and neck. :)
I was really worried I couldn't do this 12 mile backpack , (six in, six out), because it has been so long since I've been out on the trail. But as usual, my body totally surprised me. Man, muscles are resilient, lungs on the other hand, need some work.
Started the first day in the afternoon, (3:30pm), in the heat, (92 degrees), and with a threat of a thunderstorm looming in the sky. Caught a sprinkle or two on our six mile ascent, but luckily no lightening. Yep, thats right, six mile ASCENT, as in straight up the entire way. It started out with a 1/2 mile of narrow, steep, stairs along a waterfall, which were a thigh burner and energy zapper. Then, we huffed it up three mountains, one taller than the last until we made it to the Murray Branch campsites. We set up our tent and had some Trader Joes trail mix and a freeze dried dinner (Chili Mac by mountain house, which was pretty good) around the camp fire before passing out. Too hot to sleep in my bag, I curled it up and made it into a perfect pillow and dosed off into zzzzz-land. The next day we awoke at daylight, packed up camp and ate breakfast on the trail, (cliff bars). All down hill with just a couple of PUDS, YEAH!. When we got to the waterfalls at the end, we decided to take a refreshing plunge in the icy water before changing clothes and loading back up into the car.
I came and breathlessly conquered South Mountain. Even though the ascent was tough, it allowed me to gage where my fitness level was, and surprisingly, I didn't have the heart attack I expected on the trail. It gave me the confidence to plan another hike, and to get my butt back into the gym to train my lungs to keep up with my legs. :)
Being outdoors isn't only physically cleansing, it's also spiritually cleansing. While I'm sweating out all the toxins from my body I'm also clearing the clutter from my mind. And, I learned my muscles can take more than I give them credit for.

I so suck.....

So I was just noticing that I haven't blogged in over 7 months. I totally suck! I've gone on vacation TWICE. Time to get my ass back in gear.

With renewed motivation and determination, I've decided to go backpacking this weekend to give me something to write about. And to gage just how far off the hiking wagon my body has become. The neat thing about the body and your muscles, is that they learn and adapt fairly quick. So good bye to sucky sweetpea and hello to starting over sweetpea. Off to hike!