Hike 1 of 52: The 52 Hike Challenge

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions anymore, but I do make goals for myself to try to accomplish in the coming year.  One of those goals is to try to hike every week at least once.  So I signed up for the 52 Hike Challenge.  
There are three different challenge options.  The first is just committing to hike 52 hikes (1 for each week of the year) anywhere you like to hike.  The second option is the adventure series and the third is the explorer series.  I opted for the Adventure series.  





It asks you to complete these 17 specific types of hikes within your 52:

• 5 Waterfalls (even if they are dry)
• 1 Forest (if not possible, go to National Park/ Site)
• 1 National Parks, Monuments, Preserves, Recreation Area or Historic Trail
• 2 Hikes to bodies of water: Lakes, Rivers, or Ocean
• 1 Stewardship hike (pick up trash or join group to help with a restoration project)
• 1 Group hike (if you are regular to one group, visit a new group to meet new people)
• 1 Introduce someone new to hiking (on an easy trail)
• 1 Sunset or Sunrise hike
• 1 Hike from your Bucket list (somewhere you have always wanted to go)
• 3 Reflection hikes (journal at the beginning, middle, and towards the end of your challenge).

The weather here, as with much of the East Coast, has temperatures in the teens.  My area hasn't gotten too much snow, really just about an inch with the "Bomb Cyclone" that came up the coast.  Still, those temps in the teens have kept me in the house. So, I missed the First Day Hike because of the weather.  This made me more determined to get the first hike of 52 accomplished. 
Because the temperature was supposed to rise to the 20's (balmy compared to the weather we've been having), my husband, mother and I planned a short hike.  So yesterday we headed out to Cunningham Falls State Park to do a short mile hike to Cunningham Falls.



I don't think the temperature ever reached 20 degrees.  And I'm pretty sure my husband asked me 5 times if I was sure I really wanted to hike.  But I was/am determined.  So we headed down the trail.  I wanted to get a look at the waterfall frozen.  The trail is only a 1 mile round trip trail.  I'm horribly out of shape and didn't want to push it- plus it was cold. 
It didn't take long to get to the falls.  It was cool to see it frozen, though it wasn't as spectacular as some other ones I've seen photos of. We took a few photos and then headed back towards the car.  We all said we could have gone longer, but the other trail option was more difficult with steeper inclines.  Since I'm so out of shape, I felt it was best to stick with the easier trail.



It felt great to get outside.  Hiking definitely helps clear out the brain funk when you're stuck inside in the winter.  I'm looking forward to the next hike

Me on "Little McAfee Knob"

Hiking Catoctin

The last hiking trip was nearly 2 weeks ago, on March 15th.  I haven't blogged at all since then, with (sort of) good reason (that's a story of another blog post).

Anyway, we decided to travel to Catoctin Mountain to try out one of their trails.  This is an area that is not too far from the actual Appalachian Trail, and it's and area that is equidistant between the members of our hiking group.  It also has the most rugged terrain we've hiked so far- closer to the terrain we would encounter on our trip in October. 

We opted to go on the 5 mile round trip hike that took us from the parking lot at the Visitor's Center onto the Falls Nature Trail that leads to Cunningham Falls (also known as McAfee Falls to locals) then on to the Hog Rock Nature Trail to the Blue Ridge Summit Overlook and back down the mountain to the parking lot.  My mom and I both had our packs along to try them out for the first time, and I also had my new "Indiana Jones" hat on for a trial run. 

We started out on the trail easy enough, but it didn't take long for those hills to start killing me.  Basically, I think everyone on the hike realized they had some more work to do to be in trail shape. My pack, which is the new anti-gravity Osprey Aura 65L, was comfortable.  The added weight killed me, but that was because I'm just not in shape and not because of the pack.  I love the pack.  However, my "Indiana Jones" hat isn't going to work for the trail with a pack.  The back of the hat hits the top of the pack and, quite frankly, it drove me insane.  So my son now gets to wear the hat whenever he wants to without having to share it with me (except now he's realized that my cousin has the same Mothman hat that I do, and now he plans on wearing my Mothman hat, which is the baseball cap I planned to use- I can never win).  And I discovered that if I already didn't think hiking poles were essential, I would now.  They really do help take the strain off of your joints, especially on the downhills, which really are worse than the uphills just like everyone says.  In fact, my cousin ended up using my son's poles (he got tired of them) and she has since decided she needs a set of her own. 

My husband and his hiking poles

My cousin (left) and myself

My mom and son and their poles

It was a gorgeous day- our first real taste of spring after getting hit with some snow earlier in the week.  The views from the summit were spectacular and Cunningham Falls was beautiful as always.  I definitely want to hike here again, and there are a few other trails that we haven't been on yet, though I hear they have pretty steep uphills.  As it was, my son, who has a fear of heights, was pretty nervous near the summit.  His exact words were, "I'm pretty sure there's an 80% chance of dying here.  I've been looking, but I haven't seen any skulls yet."

Despite the abnormally high chance of death, the aches and pains and feelings of discouragement, I enjoyed the hike.  I think that was something we could all agree on.  And I was extremely proud of my son who managed the whole difficult 5 miles without too much whining- I'm pretty sure I whined more and tool more breaks than he did.