Hiking Mishaps

On Saturday I traded in my long run for a hike with my sister instead.  It was a beautiful day so we decided to drive the convertible to a state park that is a little further than where we would normally go.

When we got to the park, we neglected to look for any of the maps that are normally posted near the trails. Instead, we just saw this sign and we picked a route and went with it. It was easy to find because there were yellow dots on all the trees along the trail to let us know which way to go.

This was actually the easiest part of the hike.

It was NOT an easy hike though. At one point it was straight up and very rocky. We even passed a few people who had to stop and take a rest along the way. There weren't any benches there but there should have been.

We finally made it to what was called "Lookout Point" on the Overlook Trail.

The view was great but I thought perhaps the trail continued.  There was a family already at the lookout and we talked to them for a bit. They told us that the trail did indeed continue up further.   The wife explained to us the trail continued up to the power lines and once we got there the view would be amazing! We walked on a paved road a bit before picking up the trail again.

The first part was very rocky and we had to watch our footing. The trail led us up a hill towards the power lines. We didn't think this part was very well marked and wondered if we were going the right way.

We finally came to this sign. This here is where the hike went all downhill (but only in the literal sense).  Our overlook trail had ended and we were now headed on the other trail but instead of turning, we continued to hike up the power line. I was pretty concerned because we didn't see any other hikers and the further we went the taller the grass got on the trail. Pretty soon we were wondering if it really was a trail. We conversed about what kind of animals could be up here. We would totally be okay seeing a deer but what if we saw a bear or a bobcat? What would we do. We both admitted that we didn't know what we would do. Do we remain quiet? Do we make noise? We came upon a pile of animal feces that was very large ( I never thought I would be writing the word feces on the blog), but it was so large that it had to come from a bear. Okay, now we were frightened.

We mentioned again about how poorly this trail was marked.

And then this happened. What? Clearly this can't be the right way. Why would this creek be in the middle of it.  Well, there had been a lot of rain lately so maybe it wasn't really a creek but just a piece of the trail that got flooded.  Nope, it was a full fledged creek and the current was roaring pretty good.  Okay so now we stood there debating should we try to cross it or go back? 

Neither one of us wanted to go back up the so called trail up the power lines where who knows what was lurking in the tall grass.  Besides, we could tell that beyond the creek and the No Access Gate, there was a road! But the creek was wider than it looked in this picture. We thought we could jump over it but the land close to the creek was very marshy and we were about to sink.  Lacey was pretty sure she could make it to the other side, but I wasn't so sure.  She thought maybe we should take our shoes off and just walk through it. I didn't even have to think about that one, I WAS NOT taking my shoes off. Okay, then we jump!

We both made it and walked a little ways to the road behind us. We had no idea where we were.

We stood on the side of the road trying to get a signal to check google maps, but of course no luck.  We were hoping that one of the people who drove by would stop and ask us if we were okay so we could ask them where the road led, but no luck there either.

We continued walking along the road until we looped back around to the lookout point we visited the first time.

We made out way back down the mountain, to the parking lot, and back to our car.  We were so happy to be done. We spent the rest of the afternoon at our local beach.  While we were there we were looking back at the pictures on our phone and I realized that the arrow on the Boiling Springs Trail was pointing the other direction. So yea, the trail that we were on really wasn't a trail. No wonder it wasn't clearly marked and there were obstacles.

And that was our story about our hike!  Ever have any hiking mishaps?

We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.

Weekly Wrap... August 5

As I was writing the title for this Weekly Wrap, I accidentally typed "July", and quickly pressed the backspace button!  Wow, it really is August already!  I've been seeing people on IG posting about the first days of school already. I thankfully have a few more weeks of summer left!

As far as summer activities go, this is what we were up to this week.

I got two runs in (one was uneventful and one wasn't), and a very exciting hike.  I went to the driving range in Sunday and I now have my own set of golf clubs so I hope to go more often.

I mentioned on IG on Wednesday that I ran 5  Hot and HUMID miles on the rail trail. Near the end of my run I wiped some sweat out of my eyes and my contact lens fell out.  It fell right on the  dusty trail.  Luckily I found it, cupped it in my hand and "hydrated" it!  Thank GOODNESS my eye doctor is located right along the trail so I could go and disinfect it. The bad part is that I had to walk nearly 2 miles only being able to see out of one eye and holding my contact in my hand while trying not to drop it.

Also this week Lacey continued to train for her next event. She's crossed over to the dark side and she too now decided to do a triathlon.

She is much better at the swimming than I am.  Her race is next weekend.


I wanted to do a long run on Saturday but opted for a hike and some beach time with my sister instead.

Oh our hike was very eventful and I'm not gonna lie and tell you I wasn't frightened at some points. I think I'll try to tell that story later this week.


Thank you to Wendy and Holly for letting us share our week with them!

Disney's Culinary Tour

One of the days we were at Disney we took a culinary tour at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  I stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge last year when I went on vacation with Scott but I had no idea about the culinary tour then. I wish I did because this was something I know Scott would have liked to do (he's not so much a parks person).

The culinary tour takes place at the African restaurant Jiko. We met our tour guide their around 4:15 pm and she shared a little about the restaurant and the African history that inspired it's decor. We then got to talk about the important stuff...the food!

Hiking the National Wildlife Refuge

Last week my sister and I had an opportunity to hike at a National Wildlife Refuge.  I admit we should have taken more photos of the gorgeous land and visitors center (which was more like an education center), but we didn't think about sharing it on the blog at the time.

There were many different trails on the refuge but I think the outer loop was a 10 mile loop.  We hiked on our own without a map and ended up doing 8 miles.

                                                  The refuge had this great boardwalk area.

There was also this great overlook that was up in a high tower. I know from the pic it doesn't look like it was up high, but it was.

Among all the wild life we did see, we saw this rather large turtle.  We thought maybe he needed a little help because it looked like he was stuck in the mud. In the end we thought it was better to let him keep on trying! 

                                           A great stretch of  paved trail to run on.

                                                Some fun things we saw along the trails.

We finally made it to the visitor's/education center.  We walked around and looked at the exhibits, grabbed a drink, and emptied some stones out of our shoes.  This was actually a great place to sit in the air conditioning for a while before turning around and heading back on the trail. 

What's your favorite nature trail like?

We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.

Weekly Wrap ...July 29

Greetings, and welcome to the Weekly Wrap! Things have been a little interesting here since we got back from vacation. 

The East Coast experienced monsoon like weather earlier this week, so that was fun waiting around in an airport to see if our flight was actually going to take off after many delays. About 7 hours LATER we were headed for home. Once we got home the weather did not stop. We had to prepare for flooding. I live up on a hill so I was not effected, but I helped my Pap prepare since he lives near the water. Thankfully his home did not flood this time. However, some of our running routes did, and our Island has been closed all week.  I've been walking around my neighborhood but no real runs for me this week.

Although we shared some photos on IG, we didn't do a recap of our trip so here is a quick highlight reel.

Horseback riding at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort. You can check out our post about it HERE.

                                         

                                                                         Park Time

                         Disney's Beignet  Dash Fun Run. You can Read about that HERE.


We also did a Culinary Tour that I hope to talk about and we did a nice long Nature Hike.

Also Lacey registered for something exciting and started her training this week so maybe she'll share more about that soon as well.   Lots of fun stuff coming up. Stay tuned!


                    Thank you to Holly and Wendy for letting us share our week with them.

Horseback Riding at Disney World

On of the days we were in Florida we booked a horseback riding excursion at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort.

We were a little worried because

Beignet Dash Disney Fun Run

This past week we were vacationing in Florida, and while we were there we decided to take part in one of Disney's new fun runs.

We had gotten information about the fun run just a few days before we were ready to leave and heard it was called the "Beignet  Dash" so of course we had to make fun running outfits.

I was told you could register ahead of time by phone, but quite honestly not a lot of cast members knew about the race or how the registration worked so we just ended up registering and paying when we got there.

Okay, so here are the details if you are interested in this race.

It's called the Beignet  Dash" fun run and it takes Place at Disney's Port Orleans French Quarter so of course there is a Mardi Gras theme to it. It takes place on Sundays.

We were told to be at French Quarter by 7:30 am for registration and the race would start at 8 am. When we got to Port Orleans French Quarter we were immediately impressed that the cast members there knew about the race and could direct us right where we needed to be.

The race was directed by the resort's recreation department (Erika and Carson) and they did a fabulous job.  We filled out our paper work, paid (they prefer cards or magic bands to cash), and were given a resort themed bib to personalize.

After some jokes and a description of the course we were off.  The race was only a 3K, but seriously that was the perfect distance for a fun run in this Florida heat and humidity.

We followed the path along the Sassaqoula river, ran through the Riverside resort, and crossed the bridge back to French Quarter.

 The route was clearly marked with fun run signs and there were cast members at each turn cheering for us.  Some of the resort guests may not have had any clue what was going on so they looked at us weird.


This race was was not timed, but as we crossed the finish line we were presented with a fun run medallion (and a bottle of water).

And of course no Disney race is complete without a character photo. This jester was so sweet and told us we just had to get a picture with him because he liked our outfits!

This run really was fun but what made it even better was at the bottom of our bib we had a ticket to redeem for  Mickey shaped beignets at the Sassaqoula Float Works which was right around the corner. We never got a ticket to redeem for food during a Run Disney race. I've always said that I thought that was something Run Disney should be implementing.


This is a pilot program for these fun runs and they do have them occasionally at other resorts.  Currently there is a week day run called the Derby Dash at  Disney's Saratoga Springs resort and there was the Southern Most Race that took place at Disney's Old Key West resort but as of right now that is less frequent.

So if you are visiting Disney during a non race weekend this may be a good way to get in a little Disney running!

We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.