Things have been a whirlwind of travel over here lately: we had our 4th of July week trip to the Outer Banks, my trip to Turks and Caicos, our family trip to Pittsburgh, and then last week I was at “farm camp” for dietitians – more on that soon. 🙂
It’s not surprising it feels like the past month has gone by in a blur! I am home now and staying put for awhile, too, which will be nice.
I thought it would be nice today to switch gears away from the recipes and recap a friend date I had recently: hiking the Billy Goat Trail with my friend Jen!
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After my Turks and Caicos girls’ trip, I had a day and a half here at home alone (!!!!!!!) before flying up to Pittsburgh to meet Matt and the kids.
(When I originally booked my flights in and out of DC we didn’t know Matt was going to take the kids up to Pittsburgh, and it just felt easier to book a cheap one way flight up there vs. trying to re-book my entire Turks and Caicos trip.)
Also, getting a full day in my own house totally alone was very appealing, not gonna lie. I don’t even remember the last time I was alone in the house – it has certainly been years.
I did get a little work done while home, but mostly I decided to spend my time playing and relaxing, and that was definitely a good call.
It had been ages since I hiked the Billy Goat Trail, so I thought that might be a fun thing to do while at home, especially because it’s a bit of a longer hike and something that would be hard to do with young children in tow because there’s a lot of rock scrambling.
(Here’s a throwback post from hiking it in 2010 if you want a trip down memory lane – gosh Matt and I look young…!)
My friend Jen and I love hiking together (usually with our kids in tow) so I asked if she’d be open to getting some child care so we could have a mom’s day out on the trails. Thankfully she was in – what a treat!
We headed out shortly before lunch and grabbed some sandwiches from The Italian Store in Arlington to bring with us and enjoy while hitting the trails. Their Italian subs are delicious – this hit the spot.
On to the trails! The Billy Goat Trail is in Great Falls Park, and to access it you walk a bit on the C&O Canal. It was beautiful out there – so lush and green.
We hiked “Section A” of the trail, which is the best part in my opinion. 😉
The fun thing about this hike is that the majority of it is rock scrambling with beautiful views of the water. The last bit of it is in the woods, but for a lot of it you have views like this:
It was nice to be out there on a random Tuesday instead of a weekend – this trail is definitely popular and can tend to get crowded.
The recent times I’ve hiked it on the weekend we have run into a bottleneck of people waiting some of the bigger scrambles, like the one pictured below where I am making my way up and up!
We had a nice sunny day for the hike which was good as if the rocks are wet it can all get quite slippery, but on the flip side it was soooo hot outside. We were quite sweaty and happy to get into the shade during the last bit of the hike!
I always love this beautiful bridge you come across after you leave the rocks for the woods.
Such a fun outing with a good friend. Thanks again for joining me, Jen!
After the hike, Jen dropped me off at my parent’s house and I cleaned up and went out to dinner with my mom, which was also a nice treat. I had a really delicious Asian salmon with julienned vegetables that hit the spot.
It reminded me of my Maple Glazed Salmon recipe!
Have a great day, my friends, and see you back here later in the week!
I’m curious – would you rather hike in cold or hot weather? I’d def go for cold, so long as it was sunny and not snowing or super windy, that is. 🙂
