Bash Bish Falls

Yesterday after my 8 mile run, I came home and my sister told me she wanted to go hiking. I was totally up for it, since I love the outdoors and I need more hiking trips in my life. She did some research and wanted to check out Bash Bish Falls in Mount Washington, Massachusetts. The hike to the falls is only a half mile out and back, so a one mile easy hike seemed totally doable, even after using up most of my energy during my earlier run.

It only took about an hour to get there. It is interesting because the hike starts out in Copake Falls in Taconic State Park (which is in New York State) and on the trail you cross into Mass! It’s pretty awesome.

My sister and I also discovered that this park has cabins for camping right across the creek! It was so cool, I would love to camp there sometime! Seeing the cabins made me miss camping.

Eventually we ended up at the falls! It was gorgeous!

There were actually people swimming in the water under the falls, even though there were signs posted all over the place that said swimming was prohibited. A couple of young guys even  JUMPED from the top into the water. They were CRAZY!

It was such a lovely day. It was pretty hot and humid though, so a swim would have been really nice. Too bad we didn’t bring our bathing suits!

The trail was an easy hike. There were people walking it in flip flops! I felt over-prepared with my hiking boots and camelback. 🙂 I did enjoy wearing my new boots though! They were comfy for the short hike.

We spent about an hour total walking to and from the falls. It was nice to spend some time with my sister!

As soon as we got into the car and drove out of the parking lot, it started sprinkling. We timed that hike perfect. It then started to lightning and thunder and we were driving through a downpour! We could hardly see out the window to drive down the narrow dirt roads. Thank God for GPS! We ended up pulling over near a General Store to wait out the downpour.

Imaging if were still on the trail during that? Eeek.

Eventually it cleared out and we headed home. It sure was an adventure!

I came home, exhausted, sweaty, and starving. I wanted to keep dinner simple and healthy. I toasted a sandwich thin and threw some roasted veggie bruschetta and shredded cheese on it. It was sooo delicious and satisfying. For dessert I had some of my mom’s five cup salad and some Edy’s light ice cream. Yum!

Lunch and other random things

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you all are having a great day. I’m still mourning over the loss of all my blog posts, but we all must move on I suppose!  Yesterday afternoon I had a doctor’s appointment, so before that I went up to LL Bean to see if I could return my hiking boots that were giving me major blisters on the back of my heel each time I hiked in them. Thankfully, LL Bean has a 100% guarantee and they let me exchange them for these! I wanted the low-cut pair since they were more comfortable on my feet than the hi-cut model. And I got them in 8 1/2 wide, so they fit my feet better, so hopefully they won’t slip when I’m hiking up a mountain.  I guess I won’t know until I’m actually hiking up a mountain. 🙂

I also had a gift card with some money left over on it and I got a new pair of Smartwool hiking socks. $15 for socks is expensive, so I’m glad I had a gift card, I would probably never buy them otherwise!

So last night  I went to the gym to go for a run, since it was crappy weather outside. I ran 5 miles in about 45 minutes, give or take a couple of minutes. For some reason on the treadmill I never pay attention to my time!  When I’m running outside I feel like I’m running slower than on the treadmill, but in reality I’m running faster. Weird.

This morning for breakfast I had some oatmeal and a chocolate whey protein shake! I’m trying to cut back on eating oatmeal every day, since I think the nut butter and other toppings are adding additional calories where I should be cutting them out. I’ve noticed since I’ve started eating it every day my weight has gone up a couple of pounds. But maybe it’s a combination of running more and getting hungrier? I have no idea.  I think I will limit my delicious oats to about 2-3 times a week. On the other days I’m going to stick with my Special K Protein cereal and soy milk.

In my oatmeal

• 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 tablespoon of Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter.  Yum.

I always use water to make my oats, not soymilk. Although it may be tastier with milk, water cuts out unnecessary calories, and it still tastes good to me! 🙂

For my morning snack I had some non-fat vanilla yogurt and strawberries in a mug.

For lunch I tried my new organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup from Sunflower Natrual Foods in Woodstock. I also put in some crushed Special K crackers. This soup was DELICIOUS. I seriously have to look for this soup at my grocery store becauase I want to buy it again. It was so creamy! AND only 110 calories for 1 cup of soup! I ate 1 cup and saved the rest. 😀

After eating my lunch, I headed upstairs to pick up my bib for tomorrow’s workforce challenge. I’m super excited about the race. I heard it is going to be really crowded. And HOT. The forecast for tomorrow is 82 degrees.

I might head to the gym later tonight to do some weight training/biking, but I’m not sure. We’ll see how I’m feeling after work! I also plan on doing some yoga. I’m not going to run tonight since I’m saving myself for tomorrow’s race.

Sunday Adventures in Woodstock – Take 2

Ok, so, since I lost every post I’ve made, I feel like I should at least try to make up some. I feel like my last post about my trip to Woodstock was great and I want to try to write it up again for those who might have missed out. So here’s the shortened version, with pictures!

Sunday my sister, and my friend Brendan and I decided to go hiking in Woodstock, NY for the day! Before our hike we stopped at a natural foods store in the village called Sunflower Natural Foods. It was so cute! It reminded me of the HWFC in Albany, but more hippyish!

I got some dark chocolate with Sea Salt. It was yummy.

We began our hike here at the bottom of Overlook Mountain.

About a half hour into the hike, my heels started to hurt and I could feel blisters coming on.  This has happened to me before in my current hiking boots.  So Brendan and I switched socks and I put on a blister pad and on we went.

About a half a mile from the top there were ruins of an old hotel, which were really creepy! It looked like something out of Ghost Hunters!

The view was spectacular from the firetower!

Overall, it was about 4 miles total! It was really fun. And a good workout!

After hiking we were starving, so we headed to this place called The Red Onion in Woodstock.

I got a glass of Sangria to drink! I deserved it after hiking 2 miles up a mountain. 😀

Because I was starving, and salad just wouldn’t cut it, I ordered the  half portion of Seafood Risotto! It was delicious. The seafood included Mexican White Shrimp, Diver Scallops, Calamari and Mussels with Fresh Herbs.

For dessert, Brendan and I split some chocolate mousse cake with raspberry ice cream, which was to die for!!

The Red Onion was pretty expensive, but it was quaint little restaurant. The food was really good! And we got to sit outside on the front porch!

A very fun day indeed. And that is the shortened version of my Sunday in Woodstock. 🙂