THE WEEKEND!! SUNDAY STYLE!!!!:)

6:30AM RISE AND SHINE IT'S HIKING TIME!!!!! Sunday Hike to be exact!!! Not Saturday!!!!:) BUT that doesn't mean breakfast is different!! Walked to Woodstock and again on the way got the usual: water, cookies, and gum!! Same stuff in my bag as last Saturday!! Figured if I survived last Saturday with what I had, why add anything!? Especially since that would make my bag heavier and possibly tire me out quicker IF we got lost again!!;) So arrive at Woodstock and have another delicious breakfast!! SCRAMBLED EGGS, POTATOES, TOAST, AND WATER!!!! Packed a pbj and some bananas in the pack and Matt, TIM, and I were off for our hike and to meet up with the rest!!! Same as last week we met the others at SouthHill and headed off on Tehri Road, same direction and path!! However, this time we weren't exiting Tehri Road at the GAP, BUT we passed the GAP, passed the Chai shop we stopped at on our very first hike and continued on Tehri Road!! Different to our first hike, this time it was CLEAR as day!! Absolutely beautiful out!!!:) Walking down Tehri Road with the view on our right was simply stunning!! The rolling hills and clouds placed ever so perfectly around the hills was amazing!!! We passed the Himalayan Weaver's shop and took a side trail off Tehri Road and onto NATURE'S TRAIL!!!:) There was a stop along the trail that was a scenic overlook and it was perfect!! Standing on it you could see down the valley for miles!! After that we entered LEECH trail!! It wasn't called that, but might have well been with all the freakin leeches we saw!!! Cookie had the best technique and that was SCREAMING her lungs out when she saw a leech climb up her boot!!:) Everyone else was more calm and simply grabbed the leech and threw it off!! Both techniques worked equally!! One more louder than the other!!;) I thought I had all of my leeches off, but you'll find out if I missed any!! And since last Saturday leeches don't really freak Matt or me out anymore since we had a BILLION on us sucking our skin!!:) Our first checkpoint on the hike was Magra!! Made that with ease in the first 2 hours!! There was a small village there, not too big and a lot of mud around to walk through!! After Magra it was pretty similar trail throughout to Thatyur!!! Matt and I saw our EVER so helpful road that lead us to our lost adventure last weekend!!! Took a picture of it and never spoke of it again!!:) We passed these two girls playing in the water on the way to town and we continued asking them if we could take a picture, but they kept saying NO NO and kept playing in the water!! They really enjoyed that water!!! SUNDAY CONT...

August 8th, 2009....a date that I'll always remember

SATURDAY MORNING!!!! HIKE DAY!!!!:) ALARM GOES OFF 7am!!! Wake up and head to Woodstock for a BEAUTIFUL DAY of hiking ahead!!!;) Stopped on the way to pick up the usual: 3 waters, cookies, and gum!! Arrived at Woodstock at 7:45 ready for some delicious breakfast!! WHICH IT WAS!!! French toast!! EGGS!! BREAKFAST POTATOES!! AND WATER!! Sooooo yummy!!! Matt and I waited at Woodstock until 8:10am for anyone else that may be arriving for the hike, yeah no one!! So we hiked to SouthHill to pick up Nicole!!! Who of course was ready to go, and I wouldn't be surprised if she waited outside from 6am, unlike her 10 minutes that she said she did!!:) Seeing last hike she was on the dot with the waiting time!! HA!! We head from SouthHill to Hanifl Centre where we meet the Wiebe's!!! Dave and Cookie of course were coming along!! They wouldn't miss a hike EVER!!! It was funny, when Dave was coming down Cookie was still walking around the corner, so all we saw was Dave first and we're like ooooh Cookie didn't make it, Nicole was very saddened, and then we saw Cookie and she SCREAMED "OH YAY"!!!! A very happy reaction!! We hiked the same route as our very first hike down Tehri Road, except the difference this time, is when we arrived at "The Gap" we went West down a hiking trail right off the Gap!! So we turned left, went down this very slippery (as Nicole can attest for) cement trail and I found several shortcuts!! Granted not TRUE shortcuts, BUT I made them shortcuts!! And after 5 attempted shortcuts I got another NEW nickname, this time Shorty!!;) So now I have: Petey, Steve the Pirate, and Shorty!! HECK YES!! After my last shortcut of basically sliding down mud and very THORNY bushes I gave up on finding new shortcuts!!!:) Even though this trip was predicted to be a 4 hour hike we thought it would be easier getting to Tatur than it was to Rajpur, just because 3/4th of the trail was nature and gravel, instead of PURE cement like Rajpur was!!! Our first checkpoint we were heading for was a little town called Mazatan, which Dave and Cookie knew from their last trip to Tatur!! On the way we passed these trees that we SWORE came out from Dr. Seuss!!! They were straight up and down with the littlest of branches sticking out, but looked very unique and cool!! We hiked through the trails and on our way we passed many cow farmers walking their cows up the paths!! And of course when we walked behind the cows we scared them and made them run ahead so the cow farmer had to go chase them!! WHOOPSIE!!:) We arrived at Mazatan and the first thing we saw was a SCHOOL!! AND this time the school teacher was real cool about us talking with her and her students and taking pictures!! They used the oldschool chalk and chalkboard slates!! It was real cool!!:) The elementary students were very shy, but once we started taking pictures and showing it to them they opened up!! Then we passed the jr/sr high students and they were doing advanced algebra outside!!! And were very well behaved and focused!! EVEN with a BEAUTIFUL valley in front of them!! I know I couldn't focus if I had that view as a classroom!! We walked through the town and felt like giants, cause their doors were very small and it seamed like you could palm the door!!:) It was awesome!!! Cookie "The Pathfinder" talked to some locals and found us a way up the hillside to our next checkpoint!!! We went one way, while Dave though he could find a quicker way!! Of course with the Pathfinder on our side we found the fastest route!! So we had to wait for Dave, I went up the hill to look for him and that view was AMAZING!!! Our hike cont...