Mountains to Sea Trail Archives

Week 7: It’s the Week 7 Stretch!

– – Training Week 7 began on Monday with a quick kickboxing and upper body weights session before loading the car and heading for the beach!

Why? Because I needed a change of scene, wanted to spend time with my girls, and had hotel points that were expiring 🙂

Training shouldn’t be torture, but doing the same thing in the same place over and over again can be just that – so I decided to shake things up for a few days.

Tiny liittle bit of beach view from our lodgings.

I arrived too late at our lodgings to do much but get settled in and cook dinner.

By the time we were finished, it had gotten pretty cold on the beach.

It IS still February!!

So, I had to wait for a beach walk until Tuesday morning.

I did some quick yoga, then went out for an early beach hike before the girls woke up.

I went North (away from Myrtle Beach) about 3 miles and then turned around, for a total beach walk of ~ 6 miles.

After breakfast, we braved the (horrible) beach traffics to get to Brookgreen, a wonderful sculpture garden, arboretum and Nature conservancy that sits a few miles South of Myrtle Beach proper.

Peacock statues guard the entrance to one of the main paved paths at Brookgreen.

Brookgreen has a couple of very short unpaved “trails” but we stuck to the paved garden paths to see all of the outdoor exhibits.

The girls at Brookgreen Gardens. Aren't they pretty??? — The girls at Brookgreen Gardens. Aren’t they pretty???

We only walked a couple of leisurely miles before stopping for an outdoor lunch at one of the restaurants on the grounds.

That said, if you were determined to get a workout in, you could certainly plan a much longer route to get a longer hike in during your Brookgreen visit.

Wednesday I let the girls sleep, did some yoga and was out early again – this time for a bit of a longer walk.

It was about 10 miles by the time I was done and perfect weather!

I did learn that one should NOT walk long distance in water shoes – even with a “hiking” sole – because I ended up with a huge blister on the bottom of my big toe 🙁

During my walk I saw an Irish Pub, Molly Darcy’s, right on the beach and thought the girls might like to go there for lunch.

Bonus being we could walk there and wouldn’t have to drive in the terrible traffic…but, no. They didn’t want to walk but we ate there anyway, and it was pretty good. 🙂

There was a bunch of stuff in the air and we couldn’t figure it out – then I realized that Myrtle is a few weeks ahead of us weather-wise, and I checked my car.

Sure enough, my car was covered with yellow dust. It was The Pollening.

That said, it was our last night at the beach, and the sunset was gorgeous. Perhaps partly due to pollen 😉

The next morning, the girls left before sunrise to get home in time for work, and I did a quick beach walk (about 3 miles) to say goodbye before checking out.

My plan was to check out, zip back down to Brookgreen (the ticket is good for 7 days) and get on an early tour of the historical and Nature preserve parts of the garden that you don’t normally see.

The Brookgreen Silent Cities Tour

The tour started from the promenade near the Welcome Center.

There are a few tours offered at Brookgreen that take you to places you don’t get to see with your general admission ticket.

The tours change seasonally – mostly because some of the places are inaccessible during wet weather.

We boarded an open-sided short bus (stop it!) and took off away from the paved garden area.

Our guide narrated local and Brookgreen history and wildlife as we went.

Fox Squirrels

I was surprised by a fox squirrel – a creature I’d never seen before – staring at me from a tree limb as we drove along.

It was huge, and seemed a lot more intelligent than a regular squirrel….

Fox squirrels, the largest of all tree squirrels, are the true life ROUS's. — Fox squirrels, the largest of all tree squirrels, are the true life ROUS’s.

Described by our guide as a cross between a squirrel, a fox, and a raccoon – because who really know what goes on in those woods at night? – the Fox Squirrel is a relative of the common gray squirrel, but about twice the size.

An adult Fox Squirrel can grow between 20-26 inches in length (tail included) and can weigh up to 2.5 pounds.

Stopping at an English-style walled cemetery.

Aside from Rodents of Unusual Size, this tour focused on the two cemeteries dating back to the 1700’s – one English style, and one slave (Gullah style) cemetery – encompassed by Brookgreen lands.

Alston family tree chart outside the cemetery walls.

Our first stop was at a walled, English-style cemetery from the 1700’s that had been restored by the Huntington’s when they purchased the land.

The original Alston family (previous landowners) were the primary inhabitants.

Alston family descendants also have a right to be buried there, and we did see a headstone from as recently as 2013.

There were three kinds of graves in this cemetery: the kind of headstones we see mostly these days, “table” memorials, and raised vaults.

Our second stop was a slave cemetery, unwalled, and we followed a short natural trail through the woods to where some of the graves had been uncovered.

Some of the visible headstones from the slave cemetery.

Some of the earliest graves were unmarked save for a metal plaque or just a sack of tabby (old time cement made with oyster shells) without a name – and some with the words “Go Back” inscribed.

According to Gullah tradition , once buried, deceased loved ones would “go back” to where they were originally taken in Africa.

The mourners would never again return to the grave after the initial burial.

And since there would be no spirit there to visit, there was no need for a long-lasting memorial.

That said, there were some hand-made headstones there, and some more modern memorials where descendants of these slaves also had a right to be buried.

No longer following Gullah tradition, these headstones are like you would see in any modern cemetery.

Along the way back, we stopped by the Waccamaw River, across from Sandy Island, home to one of the last existing Gullah communities.

Sandy Island can be access from the Intracoastal Waterway and the Waccamaw River.

Brookgreen is hoping to work out a deal with the community there to allow tours to visit from Brookgreen, but they haven’t worked it out yet.

We returned the way we came – but faster! – back to the Welcome Center.

Informational plaques outside the English cemetery.

I had hoped to get done with the tour and then go across the street to Huntington Beach for a quick hike before heading home.

I had a quick pack lunch outside Atalaya Castle.

But the tour took 2 hours, so I had to settle for a quick pack lunch outside Atalaya Castle before hitting the highway. (You can take tours of the castle, which I’ve done in years’ past, but didn’t do this time.)

So, I guess Thursday was basically my “rest” day.

Friday morning I led a great group of hikers on one of my favorites routes – 9.3 miles on the MST on the Eno river, from the Pump Station trail all the way to West Point on the Eno park and back.

It was a beautiful day, and a great group!

I was ready for a good long hike after a light exercise day and long hours driving Thursday.

View of the Eno River from the rocks along the Eagle/MST Trail.

Saturday was a kickboxing and upper body weights day in my home gym – partly because the weather took a big dip to the colder side, and rain was predicted for most of the day.

It felt good to use my “El Supremo Butt-kicker” muscles again after a few days away.

Sunday morning it was back to a little bit warmer after Saturday’s cold rain, so I had a big group signed up to hike part of the the Company Mill trail in Umstead State Park and some of the MUT.

It was a pretty short hike, but I added 15 lbs to my pack to make it a strength-training hike.

My beach walks were all flat with no added weight.

The extra weight was especially needed because all of my beach hikes earlier in the week were flat, with no added weight!

What a great hike, with a good group of hikers – many newcomers, so that was wonderful to see, too 🙂

So that’s it for Week 7! You did it!

It’s time to take a look at your goals and see what progress you’ve made.

Just think about what you've done! — Just think about what you’ve done!

Everyone should be improved somehow from where you started – even if it’s only that you’ve stuck with an exercise plan this long!

Think back to how hard it was to make yourself do SOMETHING every day.

How scary was it at the beginning to take your first longer hike – especially if you were hiking on your own for the first time? But you did it!!

Week 8 is coming up – the last week of the Awesome training!!

You’ve come this far – it should be a piece of cake! Well, okay, maybe no cake.

Just focus, focus focus….. and some longer hikes 🙂

TAKEAWAY LESSON: Training towards a goal is a planned process, but you should be able to respond to changes in weather or location without giving up your training entirely.

Just keep going – but safely, of course.

If you’re new around here, but you still want to do the training from the start – you can!

Take a look at my 8 Weeks to Awesome Training Plan post, if you want to see what this hike training is all about.

To Track Your “Awesome” Progress at Home Click Here!

Track your progress towards your fitness goals!

You’ll get instructions and three printable trackers:

- Your Hike Plan Worksheet
- Daily & Weekly Workouts
- Weekly Meals tracker

Happy training! LJ

I hope you’ve found my Training Log ramblings to be helpful- or at least amusing! 🙂 To see more of them go to my Training Log.

You could also take a look at my other Fitness and Wellness posts, if you want to see more of my fitness, diet and asthma care articles.

Thanks for stopping by – see you next time! LJ

Hike the Mountains to Sea Trail at Rolling View in Falls Lake

Most recently updated June 23rd, 2023

Estimated Reading Time: 11.5 minutes

The Mountains-to-Sea-Trail (MST) is a simple hiking trail that spans almost 1200 miles across North Carolina, from the Great Smoky Mountains in the West to the Outer Banks on the East Coast.

Even though I’ve known about the MST for a good while, I didn’t really start hiking it on purpose until this past year.

Lately more and more people have been moving to my local area, and the easy-to-get-to hiking trails have become really crowded – especially on the weekends.

So I’ve had to look a little bit farther away for new trails – and that’s how I started paying more attention to the MST.

As of January 2019, 669 miles of the trail were completed, and even more have been done since then.

That’s just over half of the planned MST miles that are now completed in multiple segments across the state!

With temporary routes (for the unfinished parts of the MST) on backroads and bicycle paths, hikers can now follow the MST all the way across North Carolina.

One of the longest finished segments goes ~60 miles along the Southern shore of Falls Lake, just to the North of Raleigh near Wake Forest.

Even 60 miles (out of 1200) is an epic hike to most of us – but never fear!

You can hike smaller sections of the MST to make it an overnight backpacking trip, a day trip, or even just a few hours on the trail.

Today, I’ll tell you about the MST, and how you can hike my favorite local MST section (so far): MST Day Hike #22 at Rolling View in Falls Lake Recreation Area.

Continue reading Hike the Mountains to Sea Trail at Rolling View in Falls Lake

Week 7: But Wait – There’s More!

Most recently updated February 26th, 2022

– – Training Week 7 began with That Man and I taking advantage of the last forecast day of mild, Spring-like weather with our first bike ride of the season.

We biked about 25 miles on some of our favorite local greenways, including the American Tobacco trail.

Some of our local greenways have fun tunnels!

A gorgeous day, and lots of other people were out enjoying it, too.

Biking hits a different set of muscles than hiking, so I was worried I would be sore the next day – but I wasn’t! The training must be working 🙂

Sunday morning it was back to a colder and rainy weather forecast, but I had a big group signed up to hike the 6.5 mile Company Mill trail in Umstead State Park before the rain set in for the rest of the day.

Monday I was planning to just do some kickboxing and weights, when Lenore posted a hike at Umstead so I signed up … but, it was not to be!

Work intervened, and I ended up doing the kickboxing and weights, and also a short urban hike with That Man in the cold sunshine later.

Which was probably a good thing to do on Valentine’s Day anyway 🙂

Tuesday we were back to the MST at Falls Lake for a 9.3 mile hike with a small group from the trailhead on Baptist Rd to Little Lick Creek Bridge and back again.

View from the middle of Little Lick Creek Bridge.

A great hike, as always!

That said, my ankle started hurting badly on the last half of the hike, even though I didn’t remember doing anything to it….

I was relieved when the hike was over, so I could go ice it and put my foot up!

Hiking a bridge on the Loblolly Trail in Umstead State Park.

Wednesday was to be my Strength-Building hike for the week, and I had a good crew signed up for a 6-7 mile hike on Loblolly trail in Umstead State Park.

Technically the Loblolly Trail is an out-and-back from the trailhead to the edge of the park, but I add on a portion of the Schenck Forest Loblolly and the Reedy Creek Greenway to create a 6.5mile loop.

This route is primarily natural trails with a portion of the compacted dirt multi-use trail and paved Reedy Creek trail.

The Loblolly route is not as rocky as the Company Mill Trail, and has less elevation gain, though there are a couple of long uphill climbs.

But even with ankle compression – and a sleeve on my opposite knee that was hurting from compensating for the ankle – it was just too painful to continue more than a mile or two.

Fortunately, I had a group of strong hikers who were familiar with the route, so they were able to continue on without me.

I went straight to the pharmacy to get the strongest ankle brace I could find – and more ibuprofen 😉

Between that and rest in the meantime, I’m determined to be ready for my next posted hike!

Thursday was going to be a kickboxing day, but I opted for some heavy core yoga work and arm weights instead, to keep from stressing my ankle.

I tried an urban walk, just a few miles, on Thursday evening, and found that there hadn’t been much improvement – so I decided to try something different.

Friday after more core yoga, I made an appointment to take a session in an Infrared sauna.

I mainly wanted a sauna to work up a sweat to take the place of the cardio workouts that I can’t do until my ankle is healed.

But, Infrared is very different than a traditional sauna, and I also discovered that the Infrared sauna has a lot more to offer than just a good sweat.

Before we get into the benefits, let me explain exactly what an Infrared sauna is.

The use of sweat bathing or “hot air baths” were a part of Chinese, Native American, and Eastern European culture, and have been used all over the world for centuries.

Traditional Saunas | Traditional Finnish Saunas — Traditional Sauna

These traditional saunas use heat or steam to create an atmosphere that will raise your core body temperature by raising the temperature of the air inside the sauna.

The appeal of saunas in general is that they cause your body to react as if you’re exercising, with sweating and an increased heart rate.

Infrared saunas use infrared light to heat your body without changing the air temperature around you.

Infrared saunas are built using three different sauna therapies:

- - Near IR impacts the surface of the body, namely the skin.
  - Mid IR affects the muscles, and
  - Far IR permeates far into the body to reach the organs. (ref)

Benefits of Using an Infrared Sauna

1. DETOXIFICATION

Sauna therapy, especially far IR, is excellent for detox. By using an infrared sauna, you can rid your body of built-up and dangerous mold, chemicals, and heavy metals.

2. CIRCULATION

Mid IR sauna therapy improves circulation and can give muscles a greater degree of flexibility, increased range of motion, decreased stiffness, and less joint pain.

3. REPAIR AND REGENERATE CELLS

Near IR sauna therapy promotes faster cell regeneration and tissue growth, which speeds up the skin’s healing process. By activating heat shock proteins, infrared sauna therapy also repairs cellular damage in the body.

4. LOWER INFLAMMATION

Near IR consists of extremely short wavelengths, which lowers inflammation. The short wavelengths can improve the quality of your skin and diminish the appearance of unwanted blemishes.

5. BOOST IMMUNITY

Near IR sauna therapy increases blood circulation and oxygenation in blood cells, strengthening the immune system, improving cellular health, and aiding in muscle recovery.

6. WEIGHT LOSS

Studies show that a single far IR sauna therapy session can burn up to 600 calories. In cases of patients who must remain sedentary, a sauna could be used as a substitute for traditional exercise.

8. ACTIVATE MITOCHONDRIAL ACTIVITY

There is evidence that heat exposure is very healthy for your energy-producing mitochondria.

9. INCREASE BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR (BDNF)

The Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein in your brain that helps keep your brain young and healthy. Studies show that heat exposure can help boost your levels of this all-important protein in your brain!

In some studies, people who used Infrared saunas experienced an improvement in their asthma symptoms.

Improve Wound Healing and Chronic Disease

Infrared saunas are unique in that they can help to improve wound healing – though you shouldn’t use one with an open wound.

Specifically, research out of NASA has shown that infrared light significantly increases tissue growth and cell regeneration due to our mitochondria readily accepting infrared light (ref).

This increases the cellular activity needed for wound healing.

In the study, wound size decreased by as much as 36%, and cell growth was enhanced by 150-170%.

Harry Potter's scars — Infrared sauna can help with healing wounds and scars.

The young woman who helped me at my local spa said that she had scars on her abdomen from several surgeries, and that the Infrared sauna made them heal and disappear very quickly!

Several studies have looked at using infrared saunas and found some evidence of benefit, in the treatment of chronic health problems, too, such as:

- - high blood pressure,
  - congestive heart failure,
  - dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,
  - headache,
  - type 2 diabetes and
  - rheumatoid arthritis

However, larger and more-rigorous studies are needed to confirm these results. On the other hand, no adverse effects have been reported with infrared saunas.

Cost for one 45 minute session at my local salon is around $40, though you can get discount packages.

If you try Infrared Sauna and really like it, you can even get one for your own home at relatively small expense.

I went for another short urban walk with That Man on Friday evening – around 2-3 miles – and found that there was some improvement in my ankle already!

Was the improvement due to the Infrared sauna treatment? Hard to say, but it probably didn’t hurt.

So, I think I’ll do a few more sessions in the Infrared sauna – at least until the ankle is a lot more healed up.

Who knows, I may see some other improvements as well 🙂

Week 8 is coming up – the last week of the training!!

It might be difficult with my bum ankle, but I’ll find a way. If I can do it, so can you!

Perhaps I’ll go back and read my article on training back from an injury and take my own advice 🙂

And focus, focus focus…..

TAKEAWAY LESSON: Training towards a goal is a planned process, but you should be able to respond to unplanned events like injury or weather changes without giving up your training entirely. Just keep going – but safely, of course.

I hope you’ve found my Training Log ramblings to be helpful- or at least amusing! 🙂 To see more of them go to my Training Log.

You could also take a look at my 8 Weeks to Awesome Training Plan post, if you want to see what kind of training I’m doing.

Thanks for stopping by – see you next time! LJ