Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve Green Trail

I am finally caught up with blogging our hikes.  This Sunday marked our 10th hike of the 52 hike challenge.  We chose to head out to the Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve to do one of their trails.  We have gone to this place a couple of times.  It has several trails to choose from that allows you to tailor your hike to your preferred length and difficulty.  I was happy taking our usual trip around the Swamp Trail that follows Swamp Creek, but my mom and husband wanted a longer hike (I'm still worried about the shape I'm in which is mostly roundish), so we ended up deciding to take the Green Trail which is longer and a little more difficult.  It branches off of the Swamp Trail and heads up on the ridge.





The weather was sunny but a little brisk at 40ish degrees with a steady wind.  I brought Lucy along on this hike to keep working on her hiking skills.  There were a lot of blow downs in the area, including one that was nearly impassible.  Luckily (I guess), there was another hiker coming up behind us who had been through the trail before and knew how to get around the tree.  Lucy learned quickly how to jump over the fallen logs.  It got to the point that she was trying to go off trail to jump random logs.  There was one blown down that was pretty high off the ground and was two separate trunks that she nearly flew over using one trunk to springboard over the other.






Though she learned to enjoy log jumping, Lucy seemed to be quite skittish on this hike.  Tree branches moving or snapping freaked her out.  It was like she was waiting for them to grow teeth and attack her.  Walking in deep leaves freaked her out too, though later she was chasing leaves that blew across our path.  She also doesn't like mud, so she cleared mud puddles with huge leaps.
Oh, and she doesn't really like stream crossings.  She dislikes them so much, she willingly used a fallen tree to cross the water.  Hopefully she gets over that, or trips to the beach and kayak rides are going to be really interesting.





Despite not really wanting to take the longer hike, I was glad that I did.  I've managed to lose a little over 13 pounds, and it's made quite the difference in my hiking.  I'm able to do hills without stopping every few steps.  I'm still fighting through aches and pains from my hip, knees and foot, but it's manageable.  Hoping to plan some backpacking trips once the weather gets a little warmer.  In the meantime, I'll keep building up my endurance, and then come home and crash- much like Lucy.

Easter Hike Looking for Sascrotch

Over Easter weekend, my family and I went on a 3 mile hike out at the Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve.  This has become one of our favorite spots to go for a relaxing hike and it doesn't hurt that the Appalachian Brewing Company Biergarten is on the way home.

We took the Swamp Trail again because it travels along the creek.  My 3 year old grandson was along for this hike, and he has a love for water.  Or more specifically throwing things in the water.  The skunk cabbage was growing tall with all the warm wet weather we had prior to the weekend.


My grandson loves to hike.  He has his own hiking pole, and he's always talking about going for a hike.  Sometimes he brings "noculars" to look for wildlife, sometimes he has a compass to look for treasure (he joined a scout geocaching adventure once) but no matter what, he always enjoys himself.  When he was getting a little tired, someone mentioned Sasquatch.  From that point on, every fallen tree, every foot print larger that his own and every clawed up stump was the fault of.... Assquatch. Also sometimes called Sascrotch.  Either way, hearing him say it sends me into hysterics.  But that's because I think I have the soul of a 12 year old boy.
Our hike turned into an Assquatch hunting expedition.  My grandson was certain he (Assquatch) built the cool suspension bridge we had to cross.
As we did before, we ended our hike at the Appalachian Brewing Company Biergarten for one of their tasty brews.  This time I had Hoppy Trails, and I was feeling pretty Hoppy around halfway through.  Seriously.  My mom drove home.
This weekend we have a 2 day trip planned with an overnight and hopefully all goes well.  It it does, I will have finished MD and most of WV.

Christmas in March, Hiking the Hill and Mmmm Beer

This past weekend was all about the outdoors.  Saturday we headed to REI to spend a lot of money get some new stuff.  March is dividend time for REI members.  For those not in the know, if you pay $20 one time, you become a lifetime member of the REI co-op.  This lets you return items for up to a year after purchase even if you've used the item (even hiking boots), and you receive dividends from certain purchases once a year.  This year my dividend was $58 and I had a $25 gift card and I had a 20% off coupon. Christmas had arrived in March.
My husband found a new hiking hat, and I opted for a pair of Darn Tough hiking socks and a sleeping bag liner. I'm hoping to use the liner for a summer bag to save weight.  And I LOVE the socks.  They are definitely as great as everyone says they are.
On Sunday after some outside chores, we went on a hike.  My brilliant husband (don't tell him I called him that), suggested trying a new place to hike that wasn't too far away.  So off we went to Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve.  They have several trails to choose from, and most of the trails join each other which gives you the option to make your hike as long as you want it.  We took the Nature Trail to the Swamp Trail that followed Swamp Creek with all its little water falls then took the Quarry Trail.  We were supposed to pick up the Nature Trail to go back to the parking lot, but we somehow missed the blazes and ended up following the road back to the parking lot.  The terrain wasn't anything too strenuous- definitely not the AT, but enough to get your heart rate up in areas.
We all loved hiking the area and will definitely add it to our go to hike locations.  Added bonus, we headed towards home and managed to hit the Appalachian Brewing Company's Biergarten for a pint. 

It was the perfect way to end a great weekend.