Gary, Gus, and I went to Pilot Mountain for the weekend. Left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday. Set up camp Friday and hung out a bit. For dinner we made corn over the fire with the husks, a Mountain House Turkey Tetrazzini and maybe some fruit? and I think we might have gone to bed early-ish for a 6am wake-up to start hiking the next morning.

We got up, early Saturday, and started on our hike. I wasn’t expecting so much up hill. I mean I knew we were on a mountain, but I was expecting sections of up hill and then flat areas, but there were some really long sections of continuous up hill, and the trails were very rock-ey.

At the top of the mountain there were stairs. LOTS and LOTS of stairs. Steep, many, and by the time we got to them, it was nice and hot out.

The trail was longer than we were both expecting, and we were all exhausted towards the end, but the view from up top was pretty.

Back and camp, we rested, showered, and took a short nap before cooking dinner and then going to bed early-ish again.

On Sunday, we did two shorter trails, maybe 2 miles. Since these were already at the top of the mountain, we had more stairs but it wasn’t AS bad since they Were shorter trails.

Today, Gary and I went for a hike on yet another section of the Mountains to Sea Trail with a couple friends.  We don’t feel as worn out as the first couple of hikes . . .  4.2 miles, 309 feet elevation gain.  There was this big bug on my head that one of my friends saw, and Gary whacked it off my head (photo below).

It is tick season now . . . there was a baby one on one of my friends that he saw at our resting point.

When I got home, I combed through Gus, every bit of him and found a good number on him – took about 30 minutes.  Luckily I had bought a tick twister before the hike – though a lot of them were already dead (thank you frontline).

If your dog is outside or goes hiking with you, our vet said they can get frontline every 20 days instead of every 30 days.  Gus is due for another dose then.

When I came inside to shower, there were 2 ticks on my back, and one on my hip.  I’m not sure if they got on me when I was finding them on Gus or on the trail since I was wearing a pack.

Gary was able to get the off me with the tick twister that I had gotten at Petco before the hike.  REALLY glad I did, it worked really well and am going to get another one or two of them for each of our packs and Gus’s backpack.

It works well because it surrounds the tick and instead of with tweezers where it could squeeze them, it pulls the tick out cleanly when you rotate it.  I think it took them longer to get to Gus’s skin because he has so much hair.

SO . . . if you are going hiking, make sure to check yourself and your dog for ticks after.  Pack a fine toothed comb and a tick twister, and make sure your pet is on some sort of flea and tick protection.

On the weekend, we went camping and hiking with some friends.

We walked on two different sections of the mountains to sea trail, both sections about 5.5 miles long.  The Saturday hike was about a 516 elevation gain, and the Sunday hike was a 418 elevation gain.  It’s interesting how different all of the trails look as you walk them, and even when you turn around and walk the same path, how different they look.

The Sunday hike had more flowers and such, while the Saturday hike section didn’t have any.  I like the small graveyard we passed.

April 6th was the first weekend Gary and I went camping together.

It all started when we were watching an episode of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and two of the characters pretended to be dead to avoid from being found by one of the fathers who just got out of jail. So they were hiding on the roof of the building in a tent, and I casually mentioned how we should go camping sometime. Apparently Gary has been wanting to go for a while but I guess I wasn’t ready at the time.

The opportunity arose and now we have a new hobby. Which is nice to get out and away from the computers and work – hiking is good exercise, and camping is a nice way to be simplistic for a weekend.

The first weekend we went was fun. We started off with a small very inexpensive 4 person tent to see if we would even like camping. Of course we didn’t realize how cold it was going to be that night (32 degrees!). We were freezing and getting up in the middle of the night for a walk to the bathroom house – though fairly close, was not close enough. Some people were sitting in their cars since the gates lock at 8pm. I don’t think a lot of people realized how cold it was going to be.

We made our first meals over the fire and learned some things we should have brought, and what things we already bought that we were happy we did.

We walked on a 2 mile trail that was close to the camp site. Totally doable.

Two weekends later, we had since upgraded our tent to a 6 person tent which is also 6’2″ tall (no more hunching over like in the last tent), purchased hiking boots, a travel crate for Gus (so he can sleep in the tent as well), and a few other camping upgrades.

We went on a 3 mile hike on Saturday, and a 6 mile hike Sunday(!). And let me tell you, it was supposedly a “moderate” up hills, tree roots, rocks, etc. it wouldn’t have been so bad if Gary hadn’t needed to make it back by a certain time to make a flight that day. On top of a moderate 6 mile being a little more than we should have tackled having been our 3rd hike. It was a nice sense of accomplishment After we stopped being sore a few days later. Gus did just fine with his own backpack of water. Though definitely slept well (like we did) that night.