New Hiking Partners!, Tuning Up the Bike, And Shin Splints

59*, 30.11 in and steady barometer, 36% humidity, VAR 5 mph wind, fair

This weekend has been busy for me. We not only cleaned house from top to bottom and put up new curtains, but I took the dog and a neighbors kid on their first hike with my husband (who normally doesn't join me on these types of outdoor excursions). We had a good time (even though I have a shin splint from exercising so much more lately) and I learned some new wildflowers:
Cutleaf Toothwort, Spring Beauty, and Rue Anemone, alone with seeing plenty of wildflowers I already knew like trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit. What a great place the dunes are for spring wildflowers!
Here the Kid is studying poison ivy, something he didn't know how it looked.
Enjoying a healthy trail snack.
Contemplating...
It was a short hike as I wanted to make it fun for all 3 of my companions so that they wouldn't be discouraged from coming again. The kid is very excited to go on his next hike and I am glad to be able to share my love of nature with a youngster who hasn't had much experience with the outdoors.

Today, Sunday, after dreaming about buying a touring bike in my sleep, I just had to get my bike out. I tuned it up, oiled and tested it and even pimped my ride a bit with a basket so that I can go to the farm when I want and carry my produce home easily and comfortably. I've never tuned up a bike before...I'm mighty proud of myself for doing it myself. And if you want to feel freedom.....the first ride feels fantastic and it didn't aggravate my shin splint at all as I use different muscles to peddle then to jog, hike or walk the dog. The high I felt after the short ride was fantastic to say the least...I was floating on a cloud.

I spent the rest of the sunny day weeding the garden, cleaning house, and icing my shin splint down. What a good weekend :)

Changing!

I feel like changing. For the past few weeks I've been mulling it over in my head and my new fitness buddy, Brandi, has convinced me that I can feel more energetic and fit more fitness into my life. I have to walk her 3 times a day to keep her happy and its an energetic walk with her. Not meandering along slowly with this pooch. I look a little better in the mirror to me, perhaps that's in my head, perhaps it's not but its kind of jump started something. I find myself less willing to consume gads of junk food and soda pop at work or at home. That stuff is becoming less important, especially as I get closer to that 30 mark. I see people all around me with diabetes and all kinds of health issues. It's scary really!

So I am going to make it a point to try VERY hard not to put bad things in my body. I'm doing pretty good so far this week. After all, I am hoping to increase my trail conditioning this year and to achieve better timing when backpacking and hiking--to stretch myself and become the best me ever. :)

Hike your own hike and good night!

Share the sence of wonder.

There are those who live in families who are not very in-tune with nature. They are raised half blind, not seeing the wildness and wonder around them because they have been taught that such things are insignificant. Raised like that, you just don't know how to look and observe. When the closest they get to nature is a round up sprayed back patio its like a life half lived and incomplete.
My neighors 10 year old son reminds me a lot of my little brother (now in the NAVY) and with his mother's permission I am taking him hiking and showing him what I know and have learned as a forester and from my own studies and observations of the woods, fields, marshes, and streams. Nathan is 10 and he's excited about his first hike, next weekend. He's seen pictures in my house of the trails Mr. Hyper and I hike. I've taught him about the 10 essentials and told him to bring a note book and pen so that he can keep a journal of what he learns. I've showed him the beaver dam in his own back yard and a robin's nest with 3 pretty eggs within that was in easy view of his back patio he'd not noticed. There is a spark there. I can see it. The boy is realizing there is more to life then he ever dreamed about. He's begging me to take him backpacking. I told him latter, after we do some day hiking and it's warmer--His mom, a good friend of ours, is OK with it all--
I'd like to give a kid an opportunity I never had growing up. I never even KNEW backpacking existed until I was 17 or 18! But when I realized there was such a thing I knew that's what I wanted to do. The older boy doesn't show much interest at all, he likes golf and school and that's about all. And the girl is far too young for hiking (not yet 2 years old) so Nathan will go hiking with us. I challenge everyone out there to take a kid hiking :) Just don't forget the ten essentials!

A walk into history.

33*, feels like 27*, 70% humidity, SW 7 mph wind, cloudy, WINTER STORM WATCH , FLOOD WARNING

The day promised to be beautiful so I could not stand to remain at home, I had to go out and do at least a little bit of exploration! I did not know exactly where I was going to go today, just that I was going to go along hwy 12, through the dunes area and pick a spot that was open for walking as some places are closed in the winter. I stopped at the first place not 20 minutes from my house yet I had never really stopped to explore it before because I know the trail is not long enough to tide me over. Still, with my recovered injuries, I think a small hike is what I needed, though the soul was willing for much more! I took the Bailly Homestead/ Chelberg Farm loop with the little spur trail to the historic Bailly Cemetery, about 3.4 miles all together.
I was surprised at the amount of snow here, it would of been possible still to do some snow showing, at least in the beginning of the hike before the air started softening the snow. Even so, the hiking was not hard as the path had been trampled by others passing. As I came to the Bailly homestead site, I startled some deer who had been grazing in the grassy area. They had cleared spots of grass from under the snow. I watched them bound off then set about exploring the historical buildings. There were some cabins in which Bailly used for his fur trading business. Bailly was the first non-native settler to this area.
This was his house (or at least a replica of it)
The trail then led me through a mixed age forest. There were gigantic oaks, dying off and lots of younger trees. Mostly deciduous with a lot of sugar maples, and a few coniferous evergreens scattered here and there.
I came to the spur off shoot trail with a sign that said "Historical Cemetery" but to my surprise, it was unlike any cemetery I've come across in the woods of Indiana, or anywhere for that matter. This is the Bailly cemetery, the resting place of the first settler here.

The place reminded me of some kind of odd fortress and it sent my imagination reeling.
I could only wonder what kind of person would be so great, so loved, to have such an edifice built for him. Or perhaps he was just rich and eccentric? I'm going to have to satiate my curiosity come summer, when the ranger station is open and perhaps buy a book about the local history here and find out the in depth story to this.
I back tracked along the spur back to the trail, and followed the loop over bridges, up and down stairs, through thicker but soft snow in classic dunes terrain that I've come to know and love.

After a while, I started seeing signs of fencing and farming. And I started seeing these sap collection buckets. I peeked inside, and the sap doesn't seem to be flowing today, though I would think that with today's warm up it would have been.

I came to the Chelberg farm, Swedish immigrants. This place is home to some working farm animals and I was greeted first by this overly friendly barn cat. He's obviously a well loved (and fed) fellow and insisted on making sure he got petted.
Not far from the Mr. Stripes, I saw some work horses. Big dark horses, but friendly.

The trail leads you right though the little barn.
The Chelburg farm. I think it is a neat place indeed!

I did wish the trail was much longer, but for all that I did not get bored. It was very neat seeing these past relics and on such a pretty day too. My leg, thanks me for not going further. though it does not hurt so much, it aches now. But I'm sure with time it will go away.

Thanks, Charlie.

31*, feels like 22*, 78% humidity, S 10 mph wind, fair

I met a new friend this morning, early. His name is Charlie. Charlie Horse. I'm sure someone out there must know him. He came over unannounced and uninvited but made himself known real fast. I had to shout and jump out of bed to handle the surprise visitor. But that's OK, because I'm not usually up before that magical time right before sunrise that I enjoy so much but just can't seem to wake up for anymore.

Yes, I really am a morning person. Morning is my favorite time of day but since I get home latish from work, I tend to sleep in or I wouldn't get near enough hours of sleep every night. So, having been rudely awakened, I couldn't get back to sleep, I decided to go for a walk instead to enjoy the morning.

The first thing I noticed when I headed out was that the air temperature was notably more mild then it has been for a while. And had there been no wind, I wouldn't of needed hat and gloves to keep comfortable. The snow was soft, not crunchy and hard.

I walked through the neighborhood to the bike rail-trail and walked along the county line to Hobart section which heads south and is quite short, I think around a mile tops. I walk through the snow, past the baptist church and the corn field behind it, past a big red barn, lots of those oaks that hold onto brown leaves all winter, and snow covered marshes. I came to a spot that seemed very pretty this morning. there is a creek that runs through a marshy spot which the trail looks down over through the trees. Everything but the moving water was covered in snow with grassy snow island clumps dotting the middle of the stream. There were about a dozen ducks swimming around in circles, quacking and chatting to one another as the golden glow of the sunrise reflected off the water. It was quite a sight, and of course I had decided not to bring my camera along with me this time thinking that there wouldn't be anything worth taking pictures of. So I stood there, leaning against the railing along the trail, absorbing it all in until the golden glow faded off the water. I called it a morning and tuned around, walking back home the way I had come.

Morning walk

The big fishing pond not quite frozen.

Frozen beaver pond.

Abandoned bird nest in the honeysuckle brush.

Cold and windy. Trail flat and paved. 40 minutes.

Critters noted:
Cardinal, Blue Jay, Juncos, Sparrows, grey squirrel, domestic cat, domestic dog (With no owner in sight,I picked up a sturdy thumping stick just in case).

Trip Report Part 3

Sunday Morning

It was pitch black outside. If there was a moon out I could not see it through the trees though I saw a few stars. With my headlamp, I resumed the trail feeling OK and ready to hike. It was 4 a.m. according to my watch, Chicago time. I followed the trail blazes stopping at each tree to locate the next with very little difficulty through the forest down then up a gently graded hill until I reached a stream where I stopped to filter water as I was out and to try to eat some breakfast. I managed a piece of string cheese and a small handful of dried berries. After nearly losing pieces of my water filter into the stream, I packed up and headed to the trail again which promptly crossed the stream. Here I lost all traces of blazing. But to my left, was obviously a trail. This had to be it as sometimes the trail curved around without warning and you had to be eagle eyed to spot it.

The trail widened out, and was obviously well used so I continued down it. It was kind of rocky, steep and the footing tricky in the dark but I figured I was making pretty good time, much better then I had been yesterday. I passed some gated dripping mine, where I could hear the echos of water trickling in the darkness, startled a couple of birds from a conifer, and a pretty big rabbit got out of my way in a hurry. After a while I thought I saw lights ahead, you know the gentle glow of a lamp inside tents. I was excited. Perhaps this was camp! I was rather proud of myself for finding it in the dark. But as I neared, I saw that it was only my light reflected back at me from reflective rectangles on a gate that crossed the trail. There was a sign that had a little hiker on it, so perhaps this was still the trail? I KNEW I should of gotten my map out, but I didn't. Lesson learned. I walked a little further and the hill bottomed out in a graveled and very wet parking area nestled at the base of cliffs and between forest. It was very cold down here where the chill had settled. There were 2 pick up trucks, a blue one and a red one. The red one obviously belonged to someone with off road vehicles so crossed that one off the list of possibly being one of our group's cars. The other might of been Mataharihiker's, but it was only a guess. I had no idea what her vehicle had looked like. I set out to wait a while, my knee was hurting anyway, so I laid out my blue pad, propped myself against my pack and tried to take a nap.

Being too cold to nap, and the cold ground making my injury ache, I stood and walked about a lot. I watched the sun rise, as the sunlight colored the rocks and yellow leafed trees but it never reached down where I was. I longed for the touch of the warm sun rays. I questioned myself whether I should keep walking to the road the parking area was attached to, several times. Once I heard a car pass somewhere down the hill. I took off my cold wet boots and changed socks, tried to warm up and debated on getting into my sleeping bag or getting up and going to the road. But that question was answered for me when a white van drove up.

There were two men in the front seats who pulled onto the grass and got out. I struggled stiffly to my feet.

"Are you just coming or going?" The driver asked. I hadn't asked them their names, I wished I had as soon as they had left me.

"Actually, I have no idea." I told them. "I'm kind of missing my group. I got hurt yesterday and had tried to catch up this morning and took a wrong turn"

They looked at one another making a silent, psychic decision. They offered to help me, and I showed them my map, where a logical place for someone to find me from the group would be. "We have cars parked here" I said. "I can wait for them there, someone from my group will be sure to go there." It was the historic town site. Settled, they grabbed my gear and threw it into the van shoving hunting gear aside to make room. I climbed in beside my gear behind them, amid a cooler full of drinks and food, and guns all over the place. They turned the heat full blast, I guess my chattering teeth was loud enough to wake the dead. If you have a few hours to wait for your friends, we could go to lake of the clouds for some drinks and food" they offered. I laughed, "no thanks, they would hate me if they were searching for me and I was out having a good old time in town"

"Do you have enough food and water?"

"yes. Plenty" I said as the driver took us onto Victoria road and drove like a maniac. Every bump we'd hit we'd nearly hit the ceiling with our heads.

I asked them where they were from, they were locals and they plied me with questions about seeing any game, them asked if I had a gun, and if not, why not.

"She's probably one of those vegetarian types who's against hunting" the passenger said, a thinner, dark haired man with a hawk nose and sharp eyes.

"I've no problem with hunting" I told them. "I've wanted to learn to hunt for a while."

"Its us hunters who keep this place funded you know" he said. "Its us who care about this place. Still, you should carry a gun. There are bears"

"The bears are shy, they are hunted here" I told them, not worried about bears.

"That doesn't make a difference if you get between mom and her cub. In fact just last week sometime a hunter was in a tree stand, up went cub, mom climbed up after him and killed that guy."

In no time at all, the driver navigated us into territory I recognized, past a familiar clear cut. and to the town site where they grabbed my gear and propped it against the closed visitor center. The driver reached up into an apple tree and plucked an apple for himself, took a bite, proclaimed it pretty good and plucked a couple of them for me which I would of loved had I had a decent appetite. I offered gas money, which they declined, saying that they would hope others would do the same for them, and they took off. They had bird and rabbit to hunt and they had been eyeballing the clear cuts when we drove past.

I stretched out my wet gear on the wooden porch, where there were hundred of dead lady bugs scattered, and the sun beamed perfectly down on me and my stuff. It felt so good! I took a couple bites of apple and tried to eat some more food. I managed half a tortilla with some mustard spread on it. I was enjoying my warm spot and meager lunch when Prosecutor drove up with Dhutch as a passenger. Prosecutor had a grin on his face. I guess they were glad to have located me. We talked a few minutes, and he explained the change of plans for the night's camp. He talked me into being dropped off with him a mile from the nights camp. It's only a mile. An easy mile. Much better then staying at the shelter here. OK, I was convinced. I let him zip me away from my sunny spot. We met Mataharihiker at another road exit, picked her up and dropped her off at her car, perfect timing!

For the most part, the mile WAS easy, would of been a quick jaunt up a nicely graded hill for one with two nicely working legs. It started out flat, then wound its way up and around an oak covered hill. For the most part it was well blazed, though I did have some downed trees to climb over and hidden rocks to watch out for. By the time I made it to the top, Prosecutor had already set up his bivy and tarp in the best spot on the hill. I came into camp and he was ready to go back down for a beer run.

Alone, I set up my tent which took far too long, and threw my stuff in. I tried to rest, but the ground made my leg ache, so I stood and walked around instead. Mataharihiker soon joined me up on the hill and took her time "farting around" as she called it, putting up her hammock shelter. I watched her out of curiosity. Two hikers not related to our group came through camp and talked for a few minutes. They'd been out for 6 days, retirees that didn't have to worry about going to work the next day. Lucky bastards. Soon enough members of our own group began to show up. Mugsy was first. "Cockapooooooooo!" I called and he stampeded into camp ahead of his trail partner Chinmusic who was glad to see me and greeted me with a pretty good hug. I don't quite remember the order in which people showed up, but everyone was together perhaps for the first time this entire trip, in camp. Prosecutor started a fire, and it started to rain and get cold and windy. Though I wanted to hang out and socialize, to hear Randall's crazy story telling, the wind and damp and sitting on the ground was just too much for me. I went to my tent and listened from there for a while. I ate a snickers bar to warm up, and snuggled in for the night occasionally waking to loud laughter and roaring from something Randall was saying.

I spent way too much time in the horizontal, and got up early Monday morning. I packed up and skipped breakfast and got an early start after watching the sunrise from the hill and as soon as it was light enough to NOT get lost. I knew I would be slow and I cursed several times when I kept stepping into holes hidden by fallen leaves. Still, I must not of done so poorly as I was still the first to the car shortly followed by Chinmusic and Mugsy and everyone else except for Mataharihiker who likes to take her time in camp.

We said our good byes, packed up and squeezed into vehicles. It would be a long ride home, but it gave me plenty of time to reflect on this crazy trip.

Trip Report Part 2

Saturday Morning:

I got up before first light and began to pack up inside my tent as I had crap sprawled out everywhere in hopes to dry some things with no luck. I packed things wet. Outside the tent, others had already gotten up as early risers. The stars were out. It would prove to be a nice sunny day for us. I ate a granola bar for breakfast that REALLY sucked and that I will never buy that brand ever again in my life, finished packing up and hit the trail before anyone else. I stopped at a near by stream to pump water before continuing on. The trail this morning was very tricky to find. You would be on it one moment and not on it the next. Blazes were few and far between with lots of downed trees, broken marks, and lots of game trails criss crossing the hiking trail. I had to do a LOT of backtracking. The trail was not especially steep, but it was difficult footing none the less, that wore me out after a while. The footing was made more treacherous by all the leaves hiding things that wanted you to break an ankle and everything was slick. It was interesting the different things the trail took me through. Sometimes it went through these relatively flat areas where I could go into cruise mode, sometimes, there was lumpy ground, with large puddles to trudge through and lots of downed trees, other times it was strait up hills or down them, along ridges, and along rocky bluffs with views, where I ran into a couple members of our missing group, Hubcap and Chinmusic with his most awesome trail dog Mugsy. One place the trail turned into a very rocky section, and climbed over the bottom of what looked like a rock slide area. The rocks were loose and this is where I tweaked my right knee and fell pretty good. Here i had to sit a while to let the shock of that go away and to wrap my quickly swelling and bruised knee with an ace bandage. I took some pills, some pictures of the crime scene, and forced my way on. It was just shortly after this in a wooded semi flat area that I paused for a moment that a couple of our group caught up to me. Dhutch stopped for a smoke and I took the time to take my pack off and guzzle water. They hurried on and I started again soon after. More and more group members passed me up as I was going a snails pace now, it had to be less then a mile per hour it seemed like.
The trail returned to nice views, crossed a couple streams that I was hoping would be Gleason Falls where everyone had talked about stopping for lunch. No one was stopped there so I continued on until afternoon. Really dragging, I stopped to try to eat something and forced down some dried berries, a piece of cheese and part of a tortilla. It helped some, but I still was going a snails pace. I finally came to a bigger stream and saw most of the group there, either filtering water or exploring the side trail to the falls. I SO wanted to see the falls, I'd been looking forward to them all day but as I dropped my pack to filter water I knew I did not have it in me to use the extra energy it would take to walk up there and back with the way my knee was feeling. At this point I had quit having fun and I wanted only to get to camp. It couldn't be much farther NOW, I said to myself. A few more miles at best....
Those last few miles seemed like hundreds of miles. Hill after hill of poorly marked trail and backtracking. Everyone was way ahead again until I came down a steep hill and saw them crossing a road bellow to a clear cutting area. I called to them bellow and Randall answered, he was drawing an arrow in the road to direct everyone the right way through. I hurried down the slick hill falling only once to catch up to a few at a stream filtering at the bottom of the hill. I followed with then through the clear cut which nearly killed me as I could not bend my leg and climb over the trees very well. I held off cursing a lot, and just gritted my teeth as Jimmy waited for everyone to get through. This last part was what really did me in that day. I knew then I would likely not make it to camp as they all hurried ahead again. I kept lying to myself to keep me going. I'll stop at 4:30 and find a spot, I lied. I'll stop at 5. I'll stop at 5:30 unless I smell camp fire. It's just one more hill.... I could go no farther and it was getting close to sunset so I found a rare but tiny flat spot that was mossy and looked comfortable enough, sheltered from wind. As I pulled out my tent, I realized I was on solid rock under that cozy looking moss. A solid mass, that would hold no stake. I dragged my tent further back butting in between two trees where I could at least get a few stakes in. At this point I didn't care any more. I threw everything inside, changed into dry clothes, tried to eat but barely got anything down again and guzzled more water. It was almost dark when JimmySan showed up at my meager camp. He offered to carry my stuff for me to camp, to convince me to join the group telling me it was .9 trail miles according to his GPS over a stream and a couple hills. I just couldn't, besides, no body carries my gear but me. Could you imagine the grief I would get from Trail Talkers if I allowed anyone else to carry my gear? No way! So Jim went on his way after I told him I'd get off the trail in the morning with Mataharihiker and Dhutch and planned to get an early start to not keep them waiting for me.
It was a warm night, at least and I was comfortable so long as I kept my legs propped high on my pack all night. At one point I heard an animal scream, then coyotes yipping right outside the tent. Soon after some kind of bird started 'laughing' and sounded almost like a hysterical woman. The pills for the pain made me nauseous so about 4 am I had enough, packed up and set out to make it to the real camp.

48 minute walk with a small pack on.

Weather was pleasant, not too cool, not too warm. The path was wet and muddy but not enough to be a mess. Mosquitoes were bad. The morning started out with a light fog but that soon lifted.

Critters seen include grey squirrel, ground squirrel, woodpeckers, a stray tortoiseshell cat.

On the AOTM website PCT webtrail, I have passed the first marker- "The majority of thru-hikers (those who hike the entire distance end-to-end) begin their journey near the Mexican border in the spring, and end on the Canadian border in the early fall. Hiking in this direction allows hikers to negotiate environmental conditions such as snow, runoff, and intense heat. In Southern California, the biggest concern for hikers is the temperature, which can range from 80-100°F. Springs and seasonal water sources begin to dry up in April or May, and the distance between water sources increases. Other challenges in this section of the PCT include flies, poison oak, and rattlesnakes."

350* from the neighborhood sledding hill

48 minute walk this morning. Drizzly, barely cool enough for a light jacket.
Animals seen:
Cottontail rabbit
ground squirrel
Sapsucker
Robbins
Blackbirds
Finches
Blue jay
Cardinal
Sparrows
2 bicyclists
1 neat caterpillar

Quick 45 minute walk today.

Using the America On The Move web trails, I have just left Campo CA on the PCT.

From the AOTM website: "Campo, California is a small town located only one mile from the U.S./Mexican border, and marks the southernmost point of the Pacific Crest Trail. Clinton C. Clarke, a successful oilman and avid Boy Scout, dedicated much of his life to preserving the area now known as the Pacific Crest Trail. His initial plans began in the 1930s, and after many years of hard work and millions of dollars spent, his vision came into being. In order to form the trail, which runs from the northern border to the southern border of the United States, Washington’s Cascade Crest Trail, Oregon’s Skyline Trail, California’s John Muir Trail and the Tahoe-Yosemite Trails were linked together. Clarke’s goal was to incorporate the best scenic areas while preserving the area’s natural wilderness."

On my walk I ran into 1 deer, 1 woodpecker, lots of small birds, 2 people on horseback, and a man with his dog.