Family reunions are always fun, and we had a good group there, including some extended family members. We had people coming from six states to celebrate my sister’s birthday a bit late, and my Step-dad’s birthday. The hiking that my two brothers and I did was more of a quick afternoon get-away, starting pretty late in the day. The days are so much shorter in October, but the weather was perfect for a hike. The Catskills are a pretty area, but are not nearly as rugged as the Adirondacks. The trail to connect to the main trail was a little confusing, and coming back near dusk, we missed part of the trail and ended up finally just guessing where to go. By the time we got out, it was nearly dark. You would think that three guys all fairly experienced in the outdoors would have brought at least one GPS receiver between them.
My other workout occurred this past Sunday, when I did a 19.5 mile round trip hike to North Carolina from Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It was further than I was supposed to train, but it felt really cool to hike all the way to NC and back. The weather was gorgeous, and many miles of the walk were along a beautiful and remote beach. Hiking to the NC border and back was another event that I wanted to do to celebrate surviving cancer for five years, and of course I wanted a photo at the border. Just as certainly, both sets of batteries for my camera, which I had recharged only a week ago, were totally dead. They did last long enough to get this photo of the entrance to False Cape State Park, about four miles into my walk:
The hike is very flat, as this is essentially the Outer Banks of Virginia. The first four miles go through Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, with many views of marshes, sloughs, ponds, and water-filled ditches created by dikes. There is almost always wildlife to be seen: a variety of turtles, ducks, geese, herons, egrets, rails and other wading birds, seabirds, deer, gray fox, coyote, raccoon, and snakes. There are also supposedly bobcat and there are definitely feral hogs, although I’ve never seen these species. I’ve seen wild horses on at least a few occasions.
Once out of Back Bay, you come to False Cape State Park, which has to be one of the most remote beaches on the east coast, since it is a four mile walk or bike ride. This too has a variety of wildlife and environments, but the way I went, you come to a beautiful beach after about a mile and a half. From there it is a straight shot of nearly five miles to the North Carolina border, all pristine beach. On my entire walk through False Cape, I saw one other person until I got to North Carolina. There is a large fence at the border to keep cars out of Virginia, because people actually drive something like 12 miles up the beach from Corolla, NC to get to their huge beach homes at the border. I imagine beach property is a lot less when there aren’t any roads, but it still must be incredibly expensive.
I did the hike back entirely on the beach, which was nine miles of walking. I saved a couple miles by not going through the marshes and trails of the park and the wildlife refuge. When I was nearly back to the parking lot in Back Bay, there was a friendly couple fishing in the surf. When I told them I had just walked 20 miles, they reached into a cooler and produced an ice-cold Sierra Nevada pale ale. It was one of the most delicious things I ever drank.
After the nearly 20 mile walk, I took a long ice water bath. I am now trying to recover from sore muscles and blisters, and will do more conventional marathon training in the coming weeks.
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