More Hiking in Barboursville City Park

Mike and I hit the trails yesterday at the Barboursville City Park. There are more trails than we were aware of and we spent over 2 hours exploring new ones. We hiked 4.56 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes. We burned over 929 calories according to MapMyFitness. This is a wonderful application that you turn on when you start a trail or walk and using GPS it will record your speed, altitude, route and calories burned.

Mike and I had a wonderful time and we came back with so much energy. I love it when the endorphin kick in and I feel exhilarated.  I took some pictures to share. I love my new Motorola Photon. It has wonderful aps, fits in my back pocket and takes pretty good pictures. No more lugging my camera around when we hike.

This tree was about 65-70 feet high and was twisted and hollow like this all the way up. It was very unusual.

Last week I mentioned about finding goldfish in a tank in the middle of the woods. We intentionally went back to it so that I could get a picture. Isn’t this a great find?

Mike has a love for huge trees. He was really excited to find this one. I had him stand next to it so that you could see its true size.

When we came out of the woods after about 2 hours Mike climbed up on a rock to take a break for a minute.  Then we started the long trek back to the car on the main road as the trail we took yesterday didn’t circle back around.

I love our little walks in the park. I think hiking is really good for a marriage. You are all alone in nature and you have to work together to find your way back out again.  It is great exercise too but you are having so much that you don’t seem to notice.

Easter Hiking

On Sunday Mike and I went hiking and Geocaching. We love the Barboursville City Park here in WV and have hiked it often but while geocaching we were introduced to a trail that we had no idea existed. This was an amazing workout and I can’t wait to do it all over again. We actually found a huge man made water tank that had goldfish in it in the middle of the woods really far from anything else in the park. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of them. However, I did get these.

We hiked about 40 minutes straight up hill and then another 80 going round and round the hillsides of WV. I love living in this state.

We found one geocache that we were looking for and this is the treasure that we found.

Last week I worked out at least 2.5 hours per day. I went hiking twice with a co-worker and on Friday we included her 5 year old in the hike. I was shocked how well he hiked and how he never gave up.  He was such an inspiration and I loved how inquisitive he was while we were out there.  On Friday he and I found this tree. It was amazing to me that we found this tree with rings of thorns on Good Friday. It took my breath away. One of my friends over on Facebook helped to identify this tree as a Honey Locust Tree. Isn’t this amazing?

Do these pictures make you want to get out and experience nature and start moving more? I hope so. I feel so much stronger since I have been working out. You can feel this way too.

Geocaching at Barboursville City Park

There are lots of pictures over on Facebook of my adventures yesterday while geocaching with my husband. We must have hiked over 4 miles total and climbed many hills but we had a wonderful time and I felt so much better after getting out in the fresh air. Come on over to Facebook with us. You know you want to.

Geocaching With Libby and Rosie

Last Saturday I didn’t keep Caleb during the day but I did get him in the evening. Saturday morning I went geocaching with Libby and Rosie. I will explain what geocaching is for those who have never heard of it.

People hide Caches in various places all over the world and then document where to find them on a website. www.geocaching.com. You can go there and put in the zipcode of the area where you wish to geocache and all of the ones that are hidden there will appear. There are more than 700 hidden within 25 miles of my home.

You need a handheld GPS and you enter the coordinates that the website gives you and you begin your search. When you find the Cache you open it and enter your name into the notebook inside it and you can leave and take trinkets from the container.

Libby and I have gone twice before but her sister Rosie had never gone. We all had fun but boy did I pick us caches that were deeply hidden in the woods. Those of you who are not familiar with WV let me just say we have deep woods and mostly hillside. There were times that we were literally on our feet and using our hands to crawl up the side of the hill. I definitely could feel the burn of the hike in my legs.

We tried to find two different caches and unfortunately we could not. I came back home and found that other people claim that the coordinates for the one are incorrect and they have provided the correct ones. Mike said he will go back with me to find it.

Libby and I want to go back again next month and try to find more caches that have been hidden with the Mamie Thurman theme as we did before. These are the pics from our morning on Saturday.

Do you see the hillside below? That is an example of the hillsides we had to climb back up to get out of this ravine. It was very steep in many places. We definitely got a workout yesterday. The women in this picture are Rosie and Libby looking for the cache.

Libby was the adventurous one and she didn’t let a little thing like a creek with water in it to prevent her from looking for the cache.

As we were leaving the Little Creek City Park in South Charleston, WV, Rosie took this picture of Libby and I. As you can see I am wearing my hiking backpack. It contains my camera, first aid kit, cell phone and a snake bit kit. I never go into the woods without this backpack. Thankfully we have never needed the firstaid kit or snake bite kit but I feel happier knowing that I have it with me.

Geocaching in Milton, WV

Mike and I haven’t been geocaching much this summer because it has been horribly hot. Adding to that my horrible issues with poison ivy and I have been avoiding weeds and the woods as much as possible. Last Sunday Mike and I hit the road again geocaching but intentionally stayed out of wooded areas. We had the best time. For those who have no clue what geocaching is let me explain.

Geocaching is where you look for hidden treasures (caches) that others have hidden. Using a handheld GPS you enter the coordinates that you get from www.geocaching.com and then follow the GPS until you get to that area. Then you begin to look for the hidden cache. When you find it you add your name and date that you found it. Many of them have little trinkets and toys in them. If you want to take a trinket you have to leave a trinket.

When you return home you can simply go to the website and enter that you found it. You can also upload pictures of your find as well. Here are a few of our pictures from last Sunday. If you have an I-phone like my son does you can simply enter that you found it from your phone.

Now for those who are concerned with disrespecting a cemetery you have nothing to worry about. The cache was not hidden inside the cemetery. I found the old headstones so beautiful that I stood at the fenceline and took the pictures.

Now the outhouse is another story. hahaha I did not look inside it to see if it was a functioning outhouse or just a cute storage shed. This cache was hidden on private property and the owners of the property gave permission for the cache to be hidden there. The directions on the website even tell you where the owners say to park to find the cache. The home was a distance away from the outhouse and was a beautiful log cabin. I would guess that this outhouse is really functioning as a shed. But then again this is WV and you just never know.

Geocaching in Kanawha County

Libby and I went geocaching again this morning. It was quite a change from last weeks adventure. Last week we had to wear thermal underwear. Yeah, I know that was oversharing but it was true. It was in the 30′s last Saturday and today we needed t-shirts. It is supposed to reach 72 today. I love spring.

This morning we geocached in Kanawha County. We live about an hour away from each other so we met in the middle to hunt. Our first two caches were hidden inside Little Creek City Park in South Charleston. I had never been to this park and was very impressed. I hope to go back with my grandson to let him play and hike when he gets a bit older. I can’t wait.

OK, OK , OK I will get back to this morning. One thought of Caleb and my mind goes off on its own. I swear I can’t help it. Being a grandma is wonderful. ::::::::::sigh:::::::::::::

This is Libby with our first cache. It had lots of toys and trinkets inside. We had a nice little hike to get our blood pumping. Going in wasn’t too bad but coming out was a nice little incline.

The second one caused us to hike in and climb a steep hill to a rock overhang. If you go for this one watch out for the poison ivy. Dead vines were clinging to all of the trees. Just because the vines are dead doesn’t mean that you won’t get the poison ivy. Trust me on this. I am highly allergic and love to hike.  This is Libby at the second cache.

While going down the trail we stopped to enjoy the scenery along the way. I don’t see how people can’t enjoy hiking. With scenery like this how could you not?

After these two inside the park we went to other areas in South Charleston and located three more. I took this pic in a lovely little hidden spot that had someone not hidden a cache there I never would have noticed. This was carved into a rock cliff. It is also a clue to finding the cache.

The last two caches I did not take my camera and I am kicking myself for not carrying it to the last one. It was on a steep hill and I didn’t figure I would enjoy hauling it with me. The cache was hidden inside a plastic skull and the person that hid it was very creative. They had attached plastic spiders and worms all over the dead tree that it was hidden near.

I really enjoyed my morning and you can definitely say that Libby is not a quitter. Despite having two prior surgeries on her knees she never wanted to quit. The last one caused us both to have to stop frequently to rest on the way back to the car. I will definitely be feeling it in my old grandma bones tonight but I would not have missed my morning adventures for anything in the world.

Mamie Thurman

On Saturday I went on an adventure with a good friend from work. We both share a love for ghost hunting and I wanted to introduce her to Geocaching so we combined the two things. What is Geocaching you ask? Geocaching is a wonderful adventure of looking for hidden caches all over the United States. All you do is go to www.geocaching.com and put in your zip code and you will find hundreds of hidden caches in your area.

 

The website will give you the GPS concordances and you simply enter them into your handheld GPS and go out in search of the hidden cache. I have over 700 hidden caches within 50 miles of my home. I can search for years before finding them all. The website will tell you the level of difficulty the cache is so you can judge if your children would be able to participate in that particular find.

 

Back to telling you about Saturday. In Logan County, West Virginia there is an old story of a woman named Mamie Thurman who was murdered and her body was dumped along Old Mine 22 road. She had been married to a member of the local law enforcement but was having an affair with approximately 18 of the prominent men in West Virginia at the time of her murder.

 

You can read all about her story of the murder, who was framed for the murder, how her body was removed from the cemetery and is now missing and all about the many scandals of Logan, West Virginia. Back in 1930s, Logan was a booming town and many millionaires lived there. It was also heavily populated with the mob and crime was rampant. Imagine if you can that it was during prohibition and there were speakeasy’s everywhere. You can read all about her story here.  http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/4478/murder1.htm

 

First we went to the cemetery where she had been buried because we had the concordances for a hidden cache. Unfortunately, because of all of the hills and rocks the GPS could not register and we did not find the cache hidden there. I was really amazed at how poorly this cemetery had been maintained. Back in the 1930s this was where the elite buried their loved ones. Now it is evident that it is just a place where local teens party and ride their 4-wheelers. The mausoleums were empty and many of them were filled with empty beer cans and bottles. Graffiti had been sprayed on them and it was sad to know that people had chosen to be buried there and that they were being so disrespected this way.

 

 

 

Next we went to find another cache. This one is told to be where Mamie Thurman’s body was believed to have been found. Libby and I stopped along the way and ate our packed lunches. Then we began searching along Mine 22 road. When we finally got close to where the cache was we parked our car and got out and walked. We did get some funny stares from the men who drove by. This area is mainly trafficked by mine trucks and the miners on their way to and from work. They must have thought it odd to see two 40 year old plus women walking along side the road with a GPS and a camera.

 

We found the trail that led to the cache and then we used the GPS to tell us when to stop along the trail and look for it. We quickly found it under some rocks. We left a small toy and took a patch that said, “Logan County” on it. We also signed the log book. We walked around and talked about where Clarence must have gone so long ago to dispose of her body and what could have possibly actually happened to Mamie Thurman. This is a picture of Libby with her first Cache find.

 

 

After we had walked a bit we found this mural on a very large rock. We had walked past this several times and never noticed it. It was shocking and still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

 

 

Check out the view from this location. Back in 1930 this view was not here. Several years ago the Department of Highways blasted out a large portion of the mountain to put in Corridor G. This view is what the result of that was.

 

 

I can’t say that we experienced anything ghostly. We really didn’t expect to really. The only odd experience that I had was once I had returned home I discovered that my camera battery had been drained. Usually I can take more than 800 pictures on a battery charge and Saturday I only took about 35. Many people have their own beliefs about Mamie Thurman and claim to have seen her spirit walking along the mountaintop where her body had been dumped so long ago.

 

I hope that she is at peace somewhere. Her murder was unbelievable in the way that it had occurred. If you read her story and have your own ideas on what happened to her please share.