Hike 5: Codorus State Park

Hike number five was just under 2 miles.  It was a brisk day with windchill around 9 degrees.  My mom and I headed to another local trail at Codorus State Park.  This one travels around Lake Marburg and passes by an old cemetery.  As you can see from the headstone, it is pretty old with one person laid to rest there who fought in the War of 1812 and was defending Baltimore when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner.  Most of the original headstones have worn smooth or are broken, but there is a large marker in the center listing all the names of those who were interred there.









It was a chilly hike along the one side of the lake, but when we rounded the edge of the lake, the wind was no longer an issue and the sun was warming us up.  There's still plenty of ice around even with the slightly warmer temps we've been having.













You can see from the photo of the lake that we're in drought conditions here.  The lake is drained in the winter, but this is lower than I've ever seen it.
My husband skipped this hike because of dealing with a nasty cold.  We both missed hiking this weekend because of rain and needing to take some Boy Scouts to a merit badge college.  We'll have to try to get a short hike in this week with the dogs to get caught back up again (my mom managed to get her hike in)

Pre-Hike Hike

In just a little more than a week, we'll be hitting the trail again to finish the Maryland section.  It will also be my son's first backpacking trip.  We hiked a local trail this past weekend (Game Day Sunday obvious from the photo) to work on breaking in his new hiking boots.  I'm slightly concerned about this trip with him.  There were comments like "This downhill is killing my knees!" (it was about a 6 inch elevation change- when he stepped down off a rock) and "Wow, I think we've gone about 3 miles so far, my legs are killing me!" (we hadn't even gone a half a mile).  Our first day is about 11 miles.  I'm just hoping I can bring a lot of Snickers bars because he is going to turn into a monster ever mile or so.  Luckily we've figured out his food for the most part.  He likes Ramen noodles and he likes the Mountain House Mac & Cheese.  We still have to try eggs in the form of a burrito (Mountain House eggs with cheese rolled in a tortilla), but he won't starve, and I'm comfortable that he'll have enough protein.  I'm just hoping that we can find enough to talk about to keep his mind off how much walking he's doing.  I don't think I know enough about Minecraft to get the job done.
As for me, I'm slightly worried about my hip/butt injury.  I've been seeing a chiropractor, and I'm down to just one visit every other week.  But I still have pain on hills and with added weight.  I've been doing squats daily (really, Mom, I have) to try to build up my butt muscles.  This last hike we did I was pain free, but I also wasn't carrying my pack, and it wasn't too strenuous.  But I'll be taking my Vitamin I (ibuprofen), and I'll also be trying out some Salonpas pain patches per the doctor's suggestion.  So now it just a matter of finalizing food, packing the packs and getting some decent weather.