Longest Hike Yet

Last Saturday we hiked out longest mileage day with our packs and learned some valuable lessons. We planned to hike about ten miles on the Des Plaines River Trail. The trail runs close to the Des Plaines River through Lake County, IL and Lake County up to the Illinois Wisconsin border.

We used two cars parking one at the furthest point north we planned to hike. The original place did not have parking so we had top go up a further two miles than we planned. So we drove back to our starting point and started hiking. The trail is mostly gravel without much elevation.

Yes, a bunny rabbit crossing the trail

 

By the time we passed over on the Lake-Cook Road bridge and got into the woods we realized our first mistake. The bugs were all over us and we brought no bug repellent of any kind. Opps - a feast day for mosquitos! We longed for those open places in the sun for relief. Stopping to do anything, we were in a mass of bugs.

 

 

 

Then we ran into several detours, one that we estimate added another mile to our hike. A large property blocked the path so we hike out to Milwaukee Road around the property. We stopped at a convenience store hoping for bug spray, but no such luck.

 

 

We would have been fine at ten miles and doing ok at twelve miles....but we found fifteen a bit long.

 





Rest break and still happy at 12 miles!

 

The last three miles was drudgery and difficult. About a mile out from our car we ran out of water. So we did make fifteen miles which we are proud. But we learned several things, plan better for the mileage, bring bug repellent, rest more often (which without bug spray we could not do), make sure about water and water resupply and make a good stop for lunch.

 

 

It was difficult walking the next day, but this morning we did our usual three mile morning walk with our packs. This is one learning experience with many more to come. 

 

On a "Real" Trail

 

We did not do as much hiking on our vacation as we hoped. However, we did a six mile hike on the Mid-State Trail. This trail runs mostly north and south Pennsylvania. We stayed at R.B. Winter State Park which the trail runs through.

We hiked three miles out and then back with our packs. Finally we hiked a trail and not a flat service around our neighborhood. As noted in most of the AT blogs we follow, PA has lots of rocks and this was true on the portion of the Mid-State we hiked.

The trail elevated most of the first three miles with lots of PA rocks on the trail along with some good tree roots and limbs across the trail. In many places the tree limbs were close to the trail and Michelle hiking first received all the spider webs.

The trail uses orange blazes and was well marked. As much as going up a rocky trail coming back down was interesting too. When we started the bugs were few and far between. About 2.5 miles in we passed standing bog/pond and the mosquitoes had a field day from then on. A lesson learned, always bring the bug juice along!

Michelle decided I should lead the way back down the trail. Ya gotta love spider webs across your face.  We both enjoyed
some "real" hiking. I was surprised to be sore not in the expected places, but at the top of my legs. I felt it every time I crossed my legs, moved them driving the car and other times - a complete surprise. But we finally hiked!