Hiking

[Catrin]

Gotta say I LOVE REI! One of the reasons I originally went with the Merrill Moab shoes was the price, they were $50 less than the Solomon's. REI is having a sale this weekend - so when I took the Merrills back (my foot is recovering from them, thankfully), they were having a very good sale on most of their hiking shoe brands - including Solomon. I only had to pay $5.50 to exchange them - saved almost $50! And, some lucky woman will get a very good price on the barely broken in Merrills at the next REI yard sale. Good all around and the Soloman's feel downright yummy on my feet! They combine features of trail runner and light hiker - and will be just fine on pavement for me.

[Crankin]

I may have to check those out.

[Catrin]

I may have to check those out.

These are the shoes. I've the "Peacock Green" version. My local REI has this currently on sale for just a little over $100, normal price = $145. Apparently my feet simply prefers Salomon's foot-bed/lasts over Merrills and certain other brands.

Hiked 4.45 miles this VERY humid morning after no dirt hiking for at least a month due to weather & muddy conditions. There was still mud but we were able to get around most of it. My knee did great, very stable with the 2 sticks, and my foot did better than I expected. A bit of metatarsal pain now but that's almost impossible to avoid - my boots (here - purple/pink version) have done almost miracles at making it possible for me to hike as pain-free as I do. I WILL add that my boots, same model, are even more expensive than they were last year, so I'm glad that I pulled the trigger when I did.

I think 4.5 miles in 1 hour 50 minutes is pretty good with all of my 'bits- especially since we were talking pretty much the entire time. We weren't doing it for time, so that's a bit of a surprise. It was so humid that I did take a Saltstick tablet afterwards - I should have probably taken one before I started as well but didn't think about it. I DID use bug spray, especially with all of the rain we've recently had - and yes - bug spray with all of the bad stuff as it's the only thing I've found that works. I always shower as soon as possible afterwards - and while not the main reason getting the bug spray off is one of them.

[Crankin]

Bug spray with the bad stuff is the only way to protect myself from tics/Lyme Disease, which is a huge problem here. I also appreciate keeping away mosquitos. I tried all of the natural repellants when I first moved here, and nothing else works for me. Glad the hike went well!
Yes, soon hot and humid today. We were going to do a shorter hill ride this morning, but we got outside and changed the plan to a shady loop of 20 miles, with one small climb.

[Eden]

Catrin - have you tried lemon eucalyptus? It's marketed under a couple of names, I've purchased Repel from REI. For me, it actually works on mosquitos better than anything I've tried. I've been out near dusk around shallow water and not been bitten, which is amazing. I can see them swarming around, but they veer off when they get too near. It's quite incredible to watch. We've usually very few ticks out here, so I can't speak to it's effectiveness against them. It's not effective at all against biting flies and the little gnats that don't bite but are annoying in their determination to get into your eyes and nose. They seem to enjoy the scent… but, it doesn't melt plastic or destroy your clothing and it has a relatively pleasant, if fairly strong odor.

[Catrin]

Thanks for the recommendation Eden - I will keep it in mind. While we do have a large number of mosquitos, I'm actually more concerned about ticks - and where I hike there are usually quite a lot of ticks for some reason - last time I literally had to rip one off my throat before I gave up and went back to the "bad" stuff. I think they fall out of the trees here

[OakLeaf]

Bite Blocker does repel ticks as well as DEET. BuzzAway Extreme (not the regular BuzzAway) uses a similar formula. What they fail at is the Asian tiger mosquitoes. Just like any other insect control, nothing works on all species (and if it does, it probably works on humans too ).

I just got some essential oil of lemon eucalyptus (from PlantTherapy, recommended to me as very high quality essential oils) and added some to the bug spray I bought. We don't really have Asian tiger mosquitoes at home (yet, thank goodness, and may they stay away), but there are a few places we go where there are "pockets" of them. So I'll find out whether it works on them, if not I'll bring my picaridin based, toxic "inert" ingredient laden, repellent as backup.