7.4 Miles and Venus Fly Traps!

June 26, 2013June 27, 2013Leave a comment

Today we hiked a 7.4 mile section of the mountains to sea trail, and let me tell you . . . I am SO glad it had rained the days before, because we opted to not bring Gus with us – and good thing.

This section of trail unlike any of the other ones we have done was grassy every other section. Some of the sections were overgrown with blackberry bushes and prickly vines, and full of ticks.

Every time we went through a section with tall grass, we had to do a tick check – which drastically slowed down our pace. I was smart since ticks seem to like me – I sprayed myself before we started on the trail so I (unlike past times) had none that I can recall on me. Gary on the other hand, had several each time we did a tick check, and our friend Elissa had one or two each time.

By the time we got to spraying Gary, the spray didn’t stick because of all the sweat.

We have decided that we are not bringing Gus on any hikes until tick season is over and the weather is cooler (beach or neighbourhood walks only for now) and I have decided that we are spraying before we start the trails and bringing the big can of spray in my pack.

Tips for Hiking During Tick Season

check for ticks right after the hike if there were no grassy areas check for ticks after each section if you are walking through grassy or overgrown areas
always have a tick extractor of some sort on a carribeaner easy to access. Mine now lives on the outside of my pack and my Patagonia Atom Sling Bag/Purse. I wrote about it earlier on a previous blog post (Tick Season Has Begun) and it has been SO GOOD to have on me and easily accessable.
I wear a headband for sweat, but it’s not a bad idea to have something for your head
spray yourself for bugs before you start the hike so the spray has time to dry. I wear long pants, so I don’t feel too bad about spraying the Off deep woods with deet on since it’s not touching my skin much
check your pack and your boots after hiking! we found a tick on the shoes – good to find them before they get in your car
this is a general tip for hiking (another post later about hiking tips to come) bring a spare change of clothes for after the hike and check yourself , your pack, and your shoes before they go in a plastic bag in the car. We found one on Gary’s boots, and Elissa had found one on her pack and her boots.
make sure you check for the tiny ones! the almost microscopic itty bitty ones that are just as bad if not worse as the larger ones you can see more.
check your back, your hair, your neck, everywhere!

So after the long hike, we had brunch, and then Gary and I went to the Farmer’s Market to pick up my venus flytrap plants that I had been wanting, and I also got another plant called a Drosera (sundew) plant that has little drops of sticky dew on the leaves, and when a bug lands on it, it cant get off.

So yay! I was able to put them in my terrarium and I think one of the traps has captured a fungus gnatt so far 🙂

Mountains to Sea Trail 7 Mile and Eno 3.5 Mile Hike

June 16, 2013June 16, 2013Leave a comment

This weekend we hiked 7 miles on Saturday on another section of the Mountains to Sea Trail, and Sunday we hiked one of the trails we had done before at the Eno.

I like how the one sections we hiked looks like a ghost 🙂

The section of mountains to sea trail was great. Not only was the weather nice, there were bathrooms half way! We don’t usually get that on our hikes (haha).

There was also the dam we stopped at and saw some people fishing, and one guy kayaking in the water.

There were a lot of trees down from the wind and rain we had earlier in the week. The mountains to sea trail had larger trees down than the Eno trail that blocked the trail a lot more than these photos (taken at the Eno)

We had done the Eno trail before, about two months ago, and it seemed a little more difficult then. We did basically the same trail but went the other way around the loop.

Still a few inclines and stairs but we definitely felt better this time around.

Mountains to Sea Trail Sections 6 miles + 6 miles

June 9, 2013June 16, 2013Leave a comment

This weekend we hiked two sections of the Mountains to Sea Trail. 6 miles on Saturday and about 6 miles on Sunday. It was pretty muddy from all the rain we had earlier in the week.

Pilot Mountain

June 3, 2013June 16, 2013Leave a comment

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.

Farmers Market & Errands

May 26, 2013June 7, 2013Leave a comment

I went from having no particular plans to nonstop running errands and getting a lof ot things accomplished this weekend.

This morning I had breakfast with my parents, then we went to the local farmers market.

Strawberries, blueberries, and some peaches are in season right now, along with all of the other vegetables that you can find at the farmers market.

I love the flowers and colour combinations at one of the booths there.

My mom was able to find some ferns that she has not been able to find anywhere else, and I was able to find some plants for the terrarium I just bought recently from Target.

We also checked out the garden section of the farmers market.

I found these amazing hanging globes, and they were 50% off, I bought one that I think will hang in the bedroom, or the living room, I haven’t decided yet 🙂

In the afternoon, I ran a lot of errands. Found some Tupperware containers for organization, went to Big Lots and got a four tiered plant stand, picked up some flowers, exchanged some of the Tupperware containers that did not fit, etc etc.

Overall, a busy but productive and fun day 🙂

Early Morning Hike

May 25, 2013May 27, 2013Leave a comment

I had a hard time sleeping last night, I woke up around 4 AM. We had already planned on going for a hike, waking up at 6 AM, but since I was already awake, I asked Gary if he would like to get up at 5:30 AM, since he wanted to start earlier anyway.

We were able to get on the trail at around 6 AM. Gus did not join us this time, because he is still recuperating from a hot spot on his neck.

We did another section of the mountains to sea trail, about 5.7 miles total.

I think, one of the neatest things we saw on the trail, was the rusted frame of a 1950’s car

We felt pretty good after completing the trail. A lot better than the first time we hiked.

Afterwards, we ran some errands, which included a trip to REI (yay anniversary sale! March 17th to 27th 🙂

Tick Season Has Begun . . .

May 11, 2013May 11, 20131 Comment

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.

Camping and 11 Mile Hike Weekend

May 5, 2013May 11, 2013Leave a comment

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.

Sunday Hike Before the Rain with AllTrails

April 28, 2013April 28, 2013Leave a comment

The weather forecast was being a bit flakey and waffle-ey for the past couple of days on when it was supposed to rain up until the day of the planned hike, and even today it couldn’t make up its mind if it was going to rain around 11, 1, or 3.

Good thing we went ahead and hiked anyway, because the weather was perfect and started raining at the end of our hike as we were finishing.

We had a really lovely view of the river for most of the first part of the hike, and then a nice walk through the woods under cover of the trees for some of the sprinkles towards the end.

We walked about 4 miles in about 3 hours with some water breaks. 464 foot elevation gain, and a generally nice social hike with our friend Elissa, though there were some steep areas we were all trudging up slowly.

There were some sections that we had get past some large rock/boulders but Gus was awesome and had no issues getting around. It’s so cute that he stops to make sure we are all following behind

We saw two deer in the distance in the woods, fish and turtles in the river, and a squirrel running across the path with something yummy in its mouth. Overall, more wildlife than our last hike which was neat.

I tracked our trail with an app called AllTrails, which seems to be the best one out there so far (been downloading a few to try out) and free is always a nice touch. I like that it shows you the trail (though further zoom in would be nice – I turned on the zoom feature on the iPhone which give a little extra), easy to search parks, easy to track trail, and seems to be the most intuitive so far. I have read that it seems to be a little on the inaccurate side in distance, and the trail / map we went on said it was 4.1 miles, where the app said we walked 3.5. Though honestly I mostly just wanted a visual track of the route we walked, not so much the distance. And for a free app on my phone I don’t expect everything to be accurate. I’m wondering if GPS coverage is also affected by cellular coverage. When we get into needing more accurate coverage, we’ll be buying an actual GPS device. I also like that it tracks how long we hiked. It’s easy to forget what time you started.

New Hobby: Camping and Hiking

April 8, 2013April 28, 2013Leave a comment

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.