Hiking

[Catrin]

That sounds lovely, Catrin. As with Emily, I think my hiking is over until the fall, unless we are on vacation. Too many tics and too many people i know with re-occuring Lyme Disease.
I am sure I will miss being in the woods before fall, though, and just spray myself with Deet and hike at least once!

I don't really have any other options outside of kettlebells, and I prefer woods to pavement when I can do it. I do try to get in a couple longer walks during the week by parking roughly a mile and a half from work and walking both ways but I don't much like the hot pavement/sun combination. So I have a large can of DEET bug spray and shower as soon as I can afterwards - hate to use it but I would hate Lyme worse I suspect. Hopefully I can try out a free TaiChi class soon - I've hopes it will work for me since it's all standing, unlike yoga.

No repercussions from yesterday's hike at all, so I will likely do some kind of metabolic workout with kettlebells tonight. Tomorrow will be too hot to walk the long way from work back to my car (mid-high 90's). I will do that in the woods, perhaps, but not in downtown Indy where there is no shade. To me, especially in the VERY large state park we hiked yesterday, it's always cooler deep in the woods and there is always a slight breeze, regardless. I also seem to tolerate the heat better than some might, which is a blessing.

[Crankin]

Yes, it sucks to be walking or running on pavement, with no shade, when it's hot. Some hotter weather is approaching here, as well as humidity, so I even alter my riding to either early AM or very shady routes, which thankfully, are not hard to find here. I am just thankful that here in New England those hot, humid days usually come in short spurts of 2-4 days and are not for 2 months. You are right, it is always cooler in the woods!

[emily_in_nc]

It's not only ticks, though, for me. On the last couple of hikes we've done, the spiderwebs have started to be much more noticeable than in the spring. If you are the first hikers on a particular trail for that day, you can get a faceful of spiderwebs. I just really hate that sensation. And flies. Lots of flies following and plaguing us relentlessly (deer flies, house flies, etc). We've used DEET, and some trails/forests have been worse than others for insects, but coupled with heat, it's just not that pleasant to hike unless you get lucky with the early morning temps and can get out at a decent time. I do agree that the woods are cooler, and I love them, but....

I'm hoping we still get to some places we can hike this summer without some of these issues. The farther west we get, the more likelihood of that there is, I suspect.

[Catrin]

Interesting Emily! I've never seen spiderwebs crossing the path or flies on trails in Indiana and I've been to a lot of them. Ticks, gnats, and a few other flying insects when close to water. I DO try to not think about rattlesnakes, but that's avoidable and while I know they are around, I've yet to actually SEE, or hear, one. What state are you currently in? I'm just curious. Hopefully Shelob isn't lurking back in your woods...

[emily_in_nc]

We are in Missouri at present, but we dealt with spiderwebs on hiking trails in NC all the time. It's mostly a hot summer phenomenon. If you are on trails that get a lot of use, it's much less common since the first hikers of the day will clear them all out just by walking through them. We encountered them on a hike we did in Hot Springs, Arkansas recently, but only on the first few miles, where we were on a trail early in the morning, and no one else had hiked it that day, obviously. It was pretty overgrown and full of webs. Whoever is in front bears the brunt of those. We had flies mostly on southern hikes, even back in the spring. Alabama was particularly bad for flies, as I recall, and we've had some deer flies and house flies here in MO. Could be that the further north you get, the less these problems occur, or maybe it's a matter of how urban you are. We have been in some very rural areas, lots of farms around, etc.

Rattle snakes I never worry about except out west, as that is the only place I've ever heard or seen one. But there are copperheads in the south, and water snakes as well, if hiking near a river. I always watch where I step! I've seen a couple of black snakes on the trail this spring, but they get moving pretty fast if they sense you approaching!