Hiking

[emily_in_nc]

I just put up a blog post on one of the excellent hikes we did recently (actually, three weeks ago now, but my blog is behind the times):

http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...charlton-trail

[Catrin]

Nice, thanks for the link!

Well over 90 today, and it also happened to be the day for the local Pride Parade and Festival (over 100K show up every year). SO THANKFUL for all the lessons I've learned on how to deal with the heat from both riding and hiking. In the end I walked about 6 miles on pavement in the heat - as well as just hanging out in it for hours. Frozen hydration pack, and a huge bottle of Salt Stick Buffered Electrolytes in my hydration pack. I've pretty good endurance for the heat, but was flagging seriously by the time I got back to my car after ~6 hours in the heat. Drank almost 2 liters of water, and shared some of my electrolyte caps with someone I knew who seriously needed it as well as taking some myself. I suspect more people were drinking alcohol in the heat than water, but was thankful I handled it the way I did. I'm not going back outside again today.

To give an idea of how hot I really was, after walking the ~2 miles from the festival back to my car, I stepped into a lovely ice cream place I know across from my parking lot. It didn't feel any cooler inside the store than it did outside. I really wanted ice cream but was afraid it would be too cold, given how hot I was. There is a fancy term for combining ice cream with hot coffee (they cool the coffee off a bit first). Premium coffee from a local roaster over a nice serving of craft Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream was perfect. Not too cold, not too hot, and it breathed new life into my overheated body until I could get home. Pity I can't end my hikes out in the woods in such a wonderful fashion It also passed for lunch, I figured that was a better choice than festival food in the heat...

[emily_in_nc]

Mmmm, that coffee + ice cream drink sounded like a perfect ending to your day in the heat, Catrin! Glad you did okay. Too few folks know how to deal with hydration in this kind of heat.

[Catrin]

Mmmm, that coffee + ice cream drink sounded like a perfect ending to your day in the heat, Catrin! Glad you did okay. Too few folks know how to deal with hydration in this kind of heat.

I only know from my long bike rides on country roads in 90+ degree temps :-)

The drink is called affogato and looks like this. Well mine was in plastic and the coffee poured from a plastic cup after they brewed/cooled it and it wasn't mint chocolate chip ice cream but you get the idea. Coffee was very strong. Wonderfully refreshing - far more than either ingredient would have been solo. Sorry for the size of the image, as it is from a link I can't change the size.

[Pax]

That looks delicious!!

Glad you stayed well hydrated. I've seen many young people at pride chugging beer all day in high heat, always wonder how they manage that, I can't drink enough water let alone drink beer!

[Catrin]

That looks delicious!!

Glad you stayed well hydrated. I've seen many young people at pride chugging beer all day in high heat, always wonder how they manage that, I can't drink enough water let alone drink beer!

Yes, I saw many young, and not so young, doing that. There were quite a few ambulances close at hand just in case, and there is always shade in that park where the festival is held.

It WAS delicious, so much in fact that I might have to either make it at home OR make a "rule" that I can only have it at that location. It's really hard for me to get to them when they are open so that might be safer

[Crankin]

That looks really good.