Tomorrow JoJo and I leave for a 4 day 3 night section hike along the AT and I wanted to share what I will be taking along with me to eat. I plan on eating a big breakfast tomorrow AM before I drive to the trail head.
Well, we survived the night- it was just super windy but only a little bit of rain- and no holes in the tent from the acorn missiles! 🙂
It was a stunning morning too- just a little chilly-PERFECT camping weather!!
Today was a strange day- it started out really well- Kevin’s mom made us an awesome breakfast of French toast- then JoJo decided to be on her WORST possible behavior- not listening, barking at EVERYONE and just being crazy. It was very frustrating- I was especially disappointed when we visited one of our favorite stops -Miss Mollies- for ice cream. Miss Mollies is an awesome place that is super dog friendly, has a pretty big selection of food and ice cream- the best part? You can get ice cream for your dog- complete with a dog bone in it- it’s adorable! So we get there and they slide the ice cream out of the window for Jo and she jumped up and starts chowing down. It was so funny- but she is so not aloud to counter surf!
Kevin’s parents invite us to camp with them at Raystown Lake every year so I had the pleasure of joining them there the past few days.
They take their camper, but we always set up a tent somewhere- the campsites are pretty big and we always get one right next to the lake.
Trail Yoga was something I have heard about and always thought sounded cool. My previous yoga experiences have been a little strange though so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I signed up for this trip.
The first time I ever did yoga was at the gym I belonged to at the time – the class was fine until the end. We were laying on our backs with our eyes closed, focusing on our breathing. I suddenly feel a presence standing over me – I open one eye to peak out and see what was going on and it was the yoga instructor standing over me. He steps over me which puts him in a position I can only describe as straddling me. ‘WTF IS GOING ON???’ I am thinking as he bends towards me – he then takes his thumb and presses REALLY hard on my forehead with a completely greasy hand – probably from the sweat of the other people in the class – who knows. I am thinking, ‘This dude just poked me in my “third eye” – what the HECK is happening?!? How is this relaxing??’
I have taken my nephew camping since he was 3 – we started out camping in my sisters backyard. Then camped in my back yard. Then he said he wanted to camp in the “deep deep woods” so we spent the night at French Creek State Park. He LOVED IT! When we pulled into our camp site a few wild turkeys were walking around near the fire ring – it was so awesome, but they wandered off fairly quickly. We got the tent set up, made a fire and had a little dinner. He was fascinated by the bathhouse – I remember he went to EVERY stall and pushed on the door and was shocked that there were toilets in all of them. I told him to stand outside the stall so I could see his legs while I went to the bathroom – there were a few other people in the bathhouse drying their hair and brushing their teeth and stuff. I hear my nephew shout “WHO LET THESE SPIDERS IN THIS HOUSE??” I start cracking up laughing – my sister (his mom) is a bit of a neat freak and also his parents are not outdoorsy at all. I say “It’s ok, we’re camping so there’s gonna be spiders and bugs!!” We made some smores – I made the HUGE mistake of letting him eat as many marshmallows as he wanted. OOPS! He had a HUGE bellyache and I felt horrible!
Now that he’s 7 I decided to take him into the REAL “deep deep woods” in early July- a backpacking adventure!! I chose the Morrison trail as there were a few places to camp before you get to the reservoir in case he got too tired to continue and there was supposed to be waterfalls and cool giant boulders along the way. The Morrison Trail in Allegheny National Forest is supposed to be fairly easy as well so I figured we could handle it! Of course I decided to bring JoJo along – am I nuts to bring a hyper kid and a hyper dog backpacking??
This is my favorite Calvin & Hobbes of all time- I just wanted to share it as it always reminds me what I love about hiking- exploring–and snacks! Haha 🙂 Seriously this makes me smile every time and I have to wonder what adventures are in store for me!
Enjoy!!!
Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Since it was too hot to go backpacking and I cancelled the trip I was supposed to go on to do the MD section of the AT I was trying to find something else to do – I was 1/2 joking when I said to my dad “wanna go on a road trip to get the OH and IN state highpoints,” but he said sure! WAHOO! Last minute road trip!!! 🙂
So early Sat am we jumped in the car and headed out west. When we plugged the coordinates into my GPS it said we would arrive a little after 2:30- this made us very nervous because on summitpost.com it says the OH HIGHPOINT is only open until 3. We knew we didn’t have much time to spare. My dad wanted to take the turnpike most of the way but my GPS kept trying to redirect us off the turnpike. “I’M NOT GOING THAT WAY!!!! What is it @!*•! doing!?!???” I said “idk dad but it’s just gonna try to keep redirecting you- do you want me to put it on mute if you know where ur going?” He shouted “I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING TIL I GET THERE!!” Which I thought was hysterical- after a few more times of listing to my GPS say “recalculating” and a few more curse words from my dad, I checked the settings- somehow it was checked to avoid toll roads- ah HA! Problem solved- and it also reduced our driving time and said we should get to Campbell Hill at 1:45- much better!!!
Today my mom and I went over to check out the Hershey Gardens- I was especially excited about the butterfly house!
There wasn’t a whole lot blooming at the gardens honestly- a bunch of roses, a few dahlias (my fav), and a few other things here and there. It was still very pretty with a bunch of butterflies.
Kevin and I decided to check out some of the York County Heritage Rail Trail on our bikes today. I absolutely LOVE rail trails as you can usually cover some pretty decent mileage on flat terrain with amazing views. The trail is approximately 20 miles long and also connects at the Mason Dixon Line to the Northern Central Railroad Trail (AKA the Torrey C. Brown trail) which is a 20 mile rail trail in Maryland. I had done a portion of these trails in the beginning of the summer with my Mom, but there were sections that I had seen pictures of online that I wanted to check out – so we grabbed our bikes and headed out!
blisters and bug bites 