It turned out to be a long one.

Hello Tuesday!

How are you all?

I hope the week, so far, is treating you all good.

Peter and I took one of our (nowadays, rare) hikes over the weekend.

We’ll have to step up our hiking a notch going forward, it’s been a minute since last time we were out and about on a real hike.

This time around we decided to head for a true and tried state park, Sky Meadows State Park.

We have hiked there many, many times before. 

We know the trails fairly well, so off we went.

Sky Meadows is located about an hour from Reston in Delaplane, Virginia.

It is always nice there, and I am glad we have this gem of a state park just around the corner.

 

Lots of cows are grazing in, and around, Sky Meadows.

Peter's on his way to the trail head.

It was gray, windy and cold when we started this hike.

This pic does not even begin to show how steep this trail is.  IT IS!!

We had not planned to take a long hike.

No, we simply said we would walk up the steep hill and then take a short trail down again.

We did start with a hard climb, no surprise to us it'd be straining since we have hiked this hill many times before.

But said incline is so taxing, and long, and you do need a break every now and then just to catch your breath. We somewhat (and this happens a lot when you hike in known terrains) forgot how long time it really takes to reach the summit. Even though I hiked here a mere four years ago I had forgotten how steep, windy and long the climb to the top is. It is strenuous. But it is also very nice.

 

Here I am on my way up.

The views are lovely.

Here we are at the summit, red faced but in good spirits.

Once up on the top we sat down for a sip of water and just relaxed for a bit. 

Last time I was here was when my darling friend Monika visited from Sweden four years ago. That time I brought a picnic lunch for us. This time around we just brought plain water with us.

 

Me channeling a Karolina pose on the summit, haha.

Peter and I decided to take a different route down the mountain via the Appalachian Trail.

We hiked and hiked on the ridge line. And yet again we had forgotten how far it really is to reach the trail taking one down the mountain from the AT.

 

On the Appalachian Trail as we are hiking the ridge line.

We hiked and hiked.

And the trail was somewhat rocky and wet. There’s a lot of leaf coverage on the trails now in the fall. Sure, eventually we reached our desired trail down the mountain. That trail is so steep, much steeper than I remembered it to be … And longer than I thought. But, it is not that one has a choice, just go on.

 

On our way down.  And yes, hiking poles are a MUST!!!  They keep you safer as they stabilize you hiking on rocks and roots.  They are also very very helpful as you walk down steep hills.  I could not hike without my poles.

The woods are getting more and more golden.

Yet again, it is impossible to show the steep delcline.

Eventually the sun started to peek through.

And by then we were almost at the end point. 

It turned out to be a much longer hike than we had first planned.

It ended up being seven miles (11.2 km)

When we started the hike it was cold and windy, but that didn’t really bother us. When we ended it was sunny and breezy.

Even though we never planned for a long hike, we are so glad that it turned into one.

 

The sun!!!

We're almost at our car.

Country roads take me home ...

And since we did not bring lunch, we headed for a good burger at Fuddruckers, because we were so worth it ;-)

Have a good Tuesday!