First Two Hikes

Met up with Kimberly and knocked out a good loop at the land trust, we decided to try to walk every trail this year over there.  I didn't take many photos because I have done that stretch before a few times.  But we did go further on the Railroad Bed trail than I have before and ran across a really cool bridge.  It looked rickety but was very solid and the wood was hard, like metal.

Saturday, Matt and I did 7+ miles at Flagg Mountain, the southern terminus of the Pinhoti.  Though we did not complete the 5+mile trail section there due to lack of shuttle car, I feel like we have BEEN to Flagg Mountain now.

Let me talk about the location a bit.  It's down at the Clanton exit off 65, about an hour north of Montgomery.  Google maps and Waze will do turn by turn, but once off the Interstate, there's no cell signal, so a cached or paper copy of the directions is good in case your phone craps out, which Matt's did and we drove around until we got a connection again.

There is one sign at the next to the last turn.  The last turn looks like you are driving to your chainsaw-centric death down a long, winding, red mud road with views to the left of some heavily logged land.  Matt's car weighs about 700 pounds with us, our gear, and a full tank of gas.  We thought we were going to live in that mud puddle until summer sun dried us free.  But it dug deep and surprised us both almost as much as the huge deep swath of red clay we found ourselves floating on.  I was glad we had shelled out for new front tires just last month!

The trailhead is clearly signed, so just keep driving.  It's out there, is an oasis of gravel parking, has a picnic pavilion (no trash) and a kiosk with the only printed map of section one I have ever clapped eyes on.  Even the official Pinhoti trail map starts at section 3.  Section 2 is still all road walk.  In Swedish, kiosk is pronounced 'shosk' and I spent some time pondering if the English word 'shop' came from that.  Welcome to my scattered thought process, you should see what I filter out.  I'm actually writing another blog post for a different blog along with writing this one because why not embrace the fact that I am a non-linear thinker.  Which makes me a JOY to talk to IRL, no doubt.

From the parking area, we walked down the trail to the trail register and took the trail UP to the tower.   It's a new trail, and not flat yet so walking was tilted and very steep in places.  We decided to take the road back to the parking area and just restart the trail.

Flagg is the southernmost mountain in the Appalachian range over 1000 feet high.
There is a big push to move the southern terminus of the AT to here.
It will never happen until the road walk sections have been moved to a trail.

We took the road back to the car and the trail back to the turning off.  That was 2.55 miles.
It was cold, but the trail was steep enough to keep us warm!

The first mile of trail is up and down, then it turns lovely and while it still goes up and down, it's milder and easier, I was almost bummed to get to our destination for this hike-the shelter at mile 2.2

The shelter is on the hill up above a wide, shallow creek.

I loved this rock work on the trail!
It was getting dark and my camera died immediately after this pic, so use your imagination for the next bit.

Around a mile from the parking area is an intersection with a sign pointing back to the CCC cabins.  So we opted to take that route thinking we would avoid that steep first mile.
hahaha

The trail went up and up and then past the CCC cabins-which really were worth seeing-and then up and up more and there's the tower again!  We managed to climb Flagg Mountain twice, the second time to...avoid a climb.  And there's a drivable road that goes to very near the top.  We walked down that twice, too.  The second time I jogged it.  Cause I'm a badass.  Really, I just want thigh muscles and downhill is easier on my cardiovascular system. 

Anyway, it was a hard hike but we had a great time and I am stoked to knock out another section as soon as it warms up!  We did not see anyone else all day.

The northbound rest stop on the way back up 65 has devils food Zingers, which are worth checking out.

Summery October

I passed the biometric screening.  BP was 97/70, LDL cholesterol was at 113. Glucose was still high at 97.  I need to look into that and my still falling HDL levels. They want them at 50 or higher and this year they were at 36, though I have never tested higher than 40.  Waist was 33. so my weight wasn't a factor.  I don't smoke, so-other than low HDL, I was fine.

Karen's kitty died Wednesday morning, so we bailed on walking and met up to be sad.  Then we ate lunch and walked anyway.

Thursday was field trip day and that went fine.  Friday we were supposed to meet Andrea to walk but she had to work, so Matt and I walked at Duck River.  It was so pretty!  And SO damn hot.  We drank our liter each AND sucked down the 12 ounce Zevia ginger beers I brought as a surprise and cut the walk short.  We walked 3.04 miles out and turned around for a total (somehow) of...5.8 miles. 

Sea Lab, art class in December and then...only ONE more field trip left for me to plan.
EVER.  Sea Lab should count as 5 field trips, is all I am saying.

Duck River:

rat snake

Saturday, we walked Richard Martin end to end for the full 11 miles and then went to Sugar Creek, thinking it would be dry like it is here and that we could find a few geodes.
It wasn't dry-it was barely low-and we only found a couple geodes, but the water was like ice and we didn't stay in long.

The kids went to the Zombie Ball Saturday night.  Other people were instrumental in making that happen, I wasn't even around all weekend,  SO thankful for friends and big brothers!

40 and 41/52 and quick update

Hike 40 was a 28 mile loop at Mt. Rogers with Chan, though it took us 3 days of walking.

Hike 42 was 3.1 mile lake loop at Indian Boundary Lake.

I set out at the first of the year to hike 52 hikes, mostly on different trails, to walk 1000 miles and to camp out 30 nights.

It's the middle of June and I am ahead on my 52 hikes, I hit 400 miles this morning, so I need to walk 6.66 miles a day the rest of the month to hit 500 by the end of June.  HA!  I have camped out 14 nights. So...sort of on track.

It's HOT.  Melty and uncomfortably hot.  If the summer continues at this rate, I will be WAY behind because I really don't like being sweaty.  We walked last night at the track and between the bugs and the heat, I was done at 2.5 miles and did my walking on the treadmill this morning.

Headed out to swim this afternoon, the kids are staying with friends for a couple days.  Chan has mostly lost interest in backpacking more, so I will be planning my next trip solo.  There's another route I want to try.

Got my Obsidian box in yesterday.  Summer camping quilt, trekking poles, wool hoodie, backpacking food, cookie mix (that was odd) and a full size set of the sunscreen I really like. It will all get used at least.  The box was awesome-it's triangular this time.  The last box fell into pieces during shipping and they had to resend me all the small items.

Not much else in the news arena.  Matt's on the new job, Jake's still working full time.  He just bought a car off Matt's old boss.  So now he has AC and a CD player among other things that will make life better for him.  He drove to Atlanta last weekend.

When I was his age, I was pregnant with him, so I am glad he can blow through $200 at Six Flags and only come back with a slight sunburn and a hideous hat and that his biggest whine is having to get to work an hour early twice a month for meetings.  That's how it should be at 20.  Not pouring canned corn into a measuring cup so there would be enough for later and eating it cold to keep from using the stove and running the power bill over $30.  I don't ever want the kids to go through that,

Anyway, that's the update!

39/52, Wheeler

Last recorded hike was 24/52

25 was April 30th at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, we hiked the Rock Garden trail at Charon's Garden and the Tower Trail.

26 was Tent Rocks on the 1st

27 was hiking on the caldera on the 2nd

28 was looking for dino tracks outside Mesilla, NM the 3rd

29 was backpacking at White Sands the 4th

30 was hiking back out! the 5th

We also did a mile+ walk around the Carlsbad Living Desert Zoo

31 was the walk into Carlsbad Caverns and around the Big Room and back out on the 6th

32 was walking to the highest point in Louisiana on the 7th

33 was backpacking to Alum Gap the 15th

34 was the hike to Ranger Falls on the 15th as well

35 was hiking out and the extra hike to Suter Falls on the 16th

36 was the Lake Trail in GA the 24th

37 was walking around Paradise Gardens and then the Marble Mine Trail the 25th

38 was Richard Martin end to end on the 29th and

39 was today, 9 miles at Wheeler.

*whew*

I have a sort of arbitrary way to split hikes.  If it's a worthwhile hike, it's its own hike, even if it's the same day as another hike.  If I walk a couple different places, but the total is 5 miles or less, I will lump them together.  So Ranger Falls at 5 miles RT on top of the 4 miles to get back to Alum Gap is 2 different hikes.  But the 4 miles out and the less-than-2 mile hike to Suter Falls is just one.

I am at 352 miles for the year, 'need' to be at 500 at the end of June to get caught up.  That's an average of nearly 5 miles a day every single day in June.  hahahaha  Hmmm, I wonder if I can do it? We walked the 11 miles o the RM trail in under 4 hours, today we did just over 9 miles in 3 hours. It's not an all day thing any more to get in double digit mileage.  It's just...boring!  I keep trying to drum up hiking buddies, but no good.  Karen can commit to once a week, Andrea just after work and she's only able to walk 2-3 miles.  Melissa is too far away and works all week now, so...I guess I need to just buck up and go on my own, though I know I have friends with free time who claim to want to be in better shape.  Oh well, words vs action.  Karen and I outlined all of our 'fears' for hiking alone today. Then rated them.

1. animal bite
2. falling, particularly with ankle or head injury

Other people ranked pretty low as we are both aware that crazed killers will drag you down an alley, but don't really care to lurk behind a tree on some random trail.  Trail-based attacks number in the single digits over the span of a decade.  A woman is raped in the US every 107 seconds.  That's what everyone fears, right?  What your family worries about and other women and husbands and fathers who don't want you hiking alone. That you will be raped in the woods because it happens ALL over at the rate of 33 times an hour all day every day.  Once every 5 minutes somewhere in this country a 911 call is made and a rape reported.  Think of how many never tell.  It's terrifying.  1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted, 1 in 4 of those, before she's 18.  These are things we need to talk about, but these are not things that need to keep women out of the woods.

Hypothermia, getting lost and rain in general are other considerations.  It was kind of interesting to lay everything out there and see that at the end of the day, we are mostly worried about comfort.

Anyway, that's me all caught up.  Tomorrow is an exciting day that's not a hike!  Chan has a list of places she wants to go before she starts work in 2 months (ack!) and we are knocking off the first one.

Lists! and 24/52

Today I was supposed to be off hiking, but Karen has a foot issue-that's 3 now.  Friends with mangled feet/ankles.  This month!

So I am home instead getting a jump on planning for a camping trip in May.  So far, I have laundry pellets, which is what I call detergent in tablet form, and toothpaste on my shopping list.

That's good enough. No need to overprepare.

I have not updated in a while, and since I use this blog much like a diary, I don't like to go toooo long between posts or it leaves gaps when I look back later on.  And I have no idea what I was doing.  The whole 'where were you the night of the 5th?' gives me hives.  And people that can answer-so suspicious!!  They have a manufactured alibi!  No one knows that.  Also, that book I read something like 2-3 years ago where the cops did not suspect the mother of foul play because she kept the space behind the toilet clean.  That haunts me.

got behind these guys the other day, we tried to go see the cranes take off several times this past winter, but never did make it.  They call it off due to weather at the last minute or, if the weather clears, they will leave out ahead of plan.  They take off at sunrise, so it's hard to get up and get 2 hours away with no notice!

Sunday, I managed to get Matt and Ben and Chan to go on a walk with me.

We walked past the bridges and then backtracked to add more mileage.

seed pods floating in the sky, as high as we could see.

Buttercup is highly toxic.  It can blister the skin if picked and causes internal bleeding if eaten.
Affects livestock, dogs and humans.

Bluestar

On Monday, we went to B'ham and did the Golden Flake tour

Afterward, we went for a picnic, but the kids were really...not into hanging out.
So we left after half an hour and made a quick thrift store stop to get shorts for Ben.  He is HARD to fit.

Chan took this one.

My thrift store find!

I have lined up several field trips for next fall.  I will be infinitely glad to be DONE with field trip planning.  Like, so glad that I may never take more than one person with me ever ever again. hahahaha!!  Can you imagine?  "I am going hiking. Only ONE person can be there at the same time. Please draw lots to see who it has to be.  If it is you, dress according to the weather and don't try to fake sick."  At least with just one person, they can't bail because of a puking kid.  If homeschoolers threw up as often as their moms claim they throw up, we'd be put in tents and poked by the CDC.  It really IS an epidemic!  hahahaha!  Or heck, breaking feet among hikers.  I have been having sympathy pangs all day.  A friend's photo of her foot with THREE broken bones keeps popping up making me queasy.  Oh, I don't ever want to be without my good sturdy self again.

So, that's all the news.  Same old, same old around here.  Oh, the neighbor has started shooting guns ALL DAY LONG, 7 shots at a time for hours on end.  You think it's done, start to relax and BLAM BLAM BLAM. It's his new thing when the chickens are not here. (because the noise would scare them and cause a stampede, which sounds hilarious, but not for the chickens on the bottom) I swear, the man thinks he is the only person on the planet.  Ugh, there it goes again.  Like I said, same old, same old.  Penis trumps brain, common sense and common courtesy in a southerner once again!