Get Outdoors

Final Hike 2019

Such a beautiful day New Years Eve 2019 was so we decided to get out of the house for a local hike.

We headed off to Pony Pasture, a location which is very special to us, and hiked for about 4 miles. It was a fantastic way to close out a year that tested me in ways I never imagined. It was cleansing in a sense. Nature does that to you and I encourage you to get outside as much as possible.

Happy New Year. May 2020 bring you every happiness possible!!

***********
Along with the beautiful views along the trails we came upon this adorable Christmas tree in the middle of our hike. Clearly it was left for someone’s puppy.

Our Day on Lake Gaston

Originally we were heading out for a long holiday weekend of camping but due to the events of the past few weeks I decided I wanted to stay at home for the earlier part of the weekend so from Wed – Friday that is exactly what we did. We stayed home, cleaned out closets, cleaned carpets and enjoyed the pool.

Saturday though we had promised to visit friends who own a home on Lake Gaston (on the Virginia/NC border) and Guy thought it was best for me to get out of the house and do something different so early Saturday morning we headed to the Lake. It is just a three hour drive and holiday traffic was our friend so no delays were to be had and after stopping for a quick breakfast we arrived to a beautiful day, beautiful home and beautiful lakefront to enjoy for the next day and half.

We had a fantastic time just watching the kids (and a few adults) enjoy all the water toys while we caught up, had some drinks, enjoyed the fantastic sunny weather and just relaxed. We also were taking out for a boat ride (video below) to see the lake as I had never been there before. Anyone who knows me knows that boating is one of my favorite things and I would do it every weekend if possible so I jumped on the chance to go for the ride.  I was not disappointed 🙂

New Places To Explore

The Virginia Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries just opened two new Wildlife Management areas with walking trails and guess what? They are within 20 minutes of our home!! This is so great as there are really no places to hike or take the dogs for a nice long walk anywhere near us.

Well if you know us, you know we had to check them out as soon as we heard so we headed to one of the two last weekend and it was fantastic. The Duncan Wildlife Management Area is where we went and while it only has one of its trails open currently the map showed there are several more planned. The main trail is gravel covered and very wide, perfect for puppies on a leash who like to zigzag like ours. Biking would also be easy here as you have plenty of room to pass others without interfering with their walk. It has a large pond area and a large meadow near the end and was almost completely flat so not strenuous at all. It will be a very “buggy” walk though the summer so while we will go back, probably will not until after bug and tick season. Here are a few photos from our walk.