Long Distance Hikes

Ever since Boo, the dogs, and I completed the 20 mile, 3 day hike from Max Patch to Hot Springs, I've been itching to do another long distance hike. There are two that I think would be great to try out over a 10 or 7 or 5 day period. The first one is the 76 mile Foothills Trail. It is a woodland path along the Blue Ridge escarpment of the southern Applachian Moutains. It goes from the Oconee State Park in South Carolina to Table Rock State Park in North Carolina (or vice versa.) From what I have read, it sounds like a great beginning to long distance hiking/backpacking trail, and one that my dogs can travel on with me. We would go from SC to NC, starting with the gradual terrain and leaving the tougher, higher climbs for the end of the trail. I am looking forward to trying it out sometime in 2009, maybe Spring.

The second long distance trail is the 70 miles through the

Great Smokies National Park in North Carolina. Its a bit tougher and higher elevation and I've read the rangers are pretty strick in enforcing the 7 day policy through the park. I know you have to register b/c you can only camp at the designated shelters (no stealth camping) so the shelters are what would dictate the mileage for each day and NO, the shelters are not quite spaced out 10 miles apart. That would be too easy!! hahaha!! On this hike, some days we would do 6 miles, and some days 15 miles. So its a bit more of a challenge for us novice long distance hiker wanna-be's. Plus, the GSNP does not allow dogs, so this hike would be just Boo and Me. Considering our longest hike we've done so far is roughly 20 miles, I've got some lofty dreams of doing the Foothills or GSNP. But I am confident we could do it because, we (me, Boo and the dogs) make a great backpacking team. So it there will lots of gym time to get in better shape, and a few real hikes sprinkled in this winter to get us ready for a nice long distance hike sometime in 2009! Wow, its not even New Years and I've got a new year resolution/goal already.... hahhaha!! I suppose I'm so excited at the prospect of doing this, that just the planning is motivating me. :) Til next time, GET OUTDOORS!!

Kings Mt. Hike

I was very surprised when just a week ago my dad expressed interest in going on a hike. WOW!! I thought, it was a chance to convert another one! I was sooo excited. So I knew, THIS hike had to be a good one for my dad to keep interest. Well..... imagine my luck when my boo suggests taking my parents to Kings Mt. for two VERY good reasons. First, it was a nice easy hike with just a small amount of uphill on a well maintained trail. Secondly, it is a Military State Park where and my dad is huge US history buff. PERFECT!! I have the best Boo ever! So on Sunday my parents, boo, the dogs, and the little rug rats my mom sometimes babysits for ventured out to Kings Mt. for a 5 mile hike, picnic, history lesson, and family time. Here is some info on Kings Mt. from the website "Thomas Jefferson called it "The turn of the tide of success." The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7th, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, SC in May 1780. The park preserves the site of this important battle. This battle—fought by 1,000 plus militiamen—without orders, formal military training, uniforms or provisions, and with no promise of pay. English Col. Patrick Ferguson, is credited by most early historians with having changed the course of the Revolution in the South, and may have even insured that the original number of colonies in these United States of America would be thirteen, not ten."
The dogs (thing 1 and thing 2) led us along a beautiful trail where the leaves were bursting with all kinds of colors. The weather was a cool 65 degrees, so we were all bundled up in our fleece jackets. The trail had a nice gentle grade, soft rolling hills feel to it and the it was mostly down hill. After walking 4 1/2 miles we finally get to the spur trail to climb the .6 miles up to the top of Brown Mt. I was so proud at how well my parents did. We finally reach the top and because it was such a clear day, the the views went on for miles and miles. We took it all in for a few moments then had a nice picnic of my dads favorite snacks; sausage, cheese, sourdough bread and GORP! (Ok, so the gorp was my fav.) After everyone enjoyed the picnic, we headed down Brown Mt. and back to the trail to take us to the ranger station. The trail going back was a bit more challenging because we were hiking a lot more ups then downs. So we took it a bit slower, which was fine with me. It gave me time to look around and really enjoy being outdoors. I snapped some great photos of the "naked" trees that had lost all their leaves. On the way back, we came across a tree that looked like it was struck with lightening. My mom was the first to noticed that the burn markings looked like a giant black bear. I took a photo of it and it DOES look like a black bear. We finally make it back to the ranger station and learn there will be a short 30 min. film about the history of Kings Mt. We decide to look around the museum until the film started. After the surprisingly interesting museum tour, we entered the dark theater and almost immediately my Boo and my mom fall asleep. Suffice to say, neither are big history buffs. hahhaha! The rest of us enjoyed the film and I learned a lot. All in all it was a great day. I got to share my love of the outdoors with my parents, we learned some history about the revolutionary war, and the best part... My dad said "the next time we come back we should do the lake trail." Important words here were "THE NEXT TIME" hahaha! I converted another one. :) Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!!

Family Bike Trip

We had so much fun on the first trip down the Virginia Creeper Trail that Boo and I decided to invite my parents to enjoy the bike ride. We were actually supposed to go last weekend, but the weather was terrible, (rain all day Sunday) and the horrible "gas scare" saga was continued. But it actually turned out for the best because this past weekend was absolutely the most perfect fall day for this trip. It started with a phone call on Saturday to remind my "always late" mom to make sure she is ready to go by 8am. Not wake up by 8am, but be dressed and READY TO GO by 8am. She is notoriously late for everthing. I'm surprised we are even related because if I am on time for something, I think I'm late. I am notoriously early for everything. Hahahaha! Makes for an interesting childhood. ;) Anyways, so we show up at 8 on the dot and she is, of course, still getting ready. I bust into her room to hurry her along and see that she is bundled like she is going skiing! Layers upon layers of clothes, ugg boots, a sweater, AND a coat. I'm like "mom, what are you doing? I said it was going to be brisk, not blizzard." I had wait for her to change. In the mean time, my dad is nowhere to be found. He dropped off the twins my mom sometime watches back at their house. Boo thinks it would be cool to see the little rug rats biking down the trail, so we decided to pick them up along the way and take them to VA with us. After only getting lost once, we FINALLY make it to Whitetop VA and the bike rental shop. The nice lady tells me she remembers me b/c I have a good personality about me. Blushing, I thank her for compliment and for keeping our reservation so late. We start handing out the bikes and realize there is only one childs blue bike and one childs purple bike. Problem is we have two BOYS who refuse to ride on a purple bike. The tears start streaming and I think... here we go...... We have to convince them to share both bikes and trade off at each stop. I try to distract them with the reward of Ice cream as soon as we finish the trail and that purple is a way cooler color than blue (they don't buy it). Finally get everyone going. Boo, my dad, and one of the twins takes off for the trail head, which is 1 mile from the bike rental shop. I wait on my mom, who hasn't been on a bike in like 20 years, and the purple biked twin. Mom starts out a bit rusty, but gets the hang of it. We are about 1/2 mile away from the trail head when the purple biked looses controland crashes right on the pavement. My mom, who has forgotten how to stop a bike, jumps off to help the now screaming twin, and comes to a tumbling fall. ( I think, wow, we aren't even to the trail head yet, can this crew make it 17 miles?) I use tough love and force the whiney twin back on the bike. I tell him to follow directly behind me and to use his hand brakes. Mom finally gets back on the bike and we make it sloooooooowly to the trail head. We stop to zip up the jackets b/c it's a brisky fall afternoon and my mom, once again, falls off the bike and tumbles to the ground. She then starts to pick apples off the apple trees at the trail head. I yell over to her and she braves the bike again. We are FINALLY off, down the 17 mile trail to Damascus for our reward of ice cream. I pray that no one will get fatally wounded and try to enjoy my trip. Boo holds up the front with my dad and blue bike, while I take up the rear watching my mom and purple bike closely. As it turned out, my mom only crashed 3 times. Once with each twin and once on her own. Both twins crash only 2 times, once with my mom and once with each other. Oh.... and purple bike.... he got stung by a bee, but he was a trooper and kept going once I reminded him of the ice cream at the end. We stop about mid way for a picnic and by then, everyone has worked out all the kinks and are pretty confident on their bikes. The last half flew by pretty fast and we finally make it to the ice cream shop. It was definately a nice reward, we pedal thru town like pro's and get to the shuttle for the ride back up to the car. The twins, (who are 6 by the way), are having a hard time keeping their eyes open. On the way back home, we relive our biking adventure and how it was one of the best things we have ever done. I just smiled deep down inside, knowing that everyone (after all the ruckus) experienced the peacefulness I feel when I'm in the outdoors. I'm so glad I was able to share this with the ones I loved. Til next time GET OUTDOORS!

Yard Work....

So last weekend was supposed to be fun. Thanks to the gas scare in our area (no gas in most stations due to the hurricanes), we were forced to stay home for fear we would be stranded somewhere with no way home. It ended up being a very productive weekend. We had a tree company come and take a few dead trees that didn't make it through the drought. They also thinned out or "topped" up most of our trees so more sunlight was able to seep into our backyard and finally let our poor hollys, that we have been trying to grow as screeners in the backyard, get some light. Well.... Boo took the "forced IN" weekend as an opportunity to do some serious yard work. We rented a tiller, bought hay, seeds, pine needles, and mums and went to work! We tilled up the bald patches of ground (which was about 1/4 of my yard and let me tell you, tilling is some seriously hard work!), we sprinkled LOTS of seeds around, covered it all with hay/straw, watered it, and said a nice prayer to the Grass Gods to please, please let the little seeds germinate and grow. We transplanted about 9 big monkey grass plants (picture on right) 2 fire shrub bushes from the back yard to the front yard and insulated them with pine needles. We then planted a couple of burnt orange colored mums (perfect for fall) in my two big containers at the front door. Believe it or not, that took ALL DAY to do.

On Sunday we took the tiller back and bought more straw, mums, and some needed hardware for our closet system. Seems that our closet system, on my side, no longer wanted to stay bolted to the walls. (Boo blamed it on too many clothes... oops) So, after another trip to Lowes, we finally get back and finish up haying the yard and watering everything. The extra orange and wine colored mums were transplanted in a container in front of the garage and in a small flower bed next to the garage. Boo gets an idea to "trim" up the holly bushes in the front yard. Well.... he basically gave them a "high and tight" crew cut like they were signing up for the military! I about cried over one of the holly's . It seriously looked like a bunch of sticks. He said he had a design in mind and wanted to try something. I think he was in some power trip/ testosterone fog with the chain saw and just hacked away to his hearts content. :) (Tim "the tool time" Allen would be proud.) Hopefully they will grow back soon. While he cleaned up, I went inside and pulled out all my fall decorations and put them out around the house. We finally get the energy to tackle the closet project, and I weeded through all my clothes and tossed/packed things I didnt' wear or were too summery. Eventhough I didn't get to do anything super fun this weekend. I was still outdoors most of the time :) and it is definitely fall in the Sweetpea household. Til Next time. GET OUTDOORS!