Hiking NY: Return to Warsaw Falls--Creek Walk

Another belated post considering I did this about a month ago....but nonetheless here are the beautiful pictures from my first creek walk! This is at Warsaw Falls in Warsaw, NY where you may remember I went with Bradley in this previous blog post and hiked a trail that led us to the top of the 80ft tall waterfall. I knew I wanted to see it from the bottom, so me and new hiking friend Courtney went there last month and it was amazing! The perfect way to cool off on a hot summer day.

Hiking NY: Backpacking in the Adirondacks (Algonquin, Boundary, Iroquois, and Wright)

Slightly belated, but a couple of weeks ago I was able to return to the beautiful ADK region with a new hiking buddy Courtney for some more backpacking adventures! We started at the Loj parking and hiked a few miles in to our campsite by Wright mountain. We had the pleasure of passing thunderstorms keeping us wet the whole time, but thankfully they moved on as we set up camp and we are able to stay semi dry as we cooked dinner. I got to use my backpack's rain cover for the first time!

McIntyre waterfall right by our campsite! So lovely to fall asleep listening to it.

The next morning we got up bright and early, and after a hearty breakfast we grabbed our day bags and hit the trail for a full day of peakbagging! We were so blessed to have straight sunshine the entire day. It made for exceptional views and severe sunburn (on my part, despite applying sunscreen 3x). Couldn't ask for a better day.

We decided to do the peaks in this order: Algonquin (second highest peak in NY), Boundary (above 4000' but not considered a "high peak"), Iroquois, and Wright.

The "trail" going UP

We reached the summit of Algonquin around 10:30am and enjoyed a chat with the summit steward about the surrounding views, and our plan of attack for the unmarked trail ahead to Iroquois. Thank you Tyler! After the obligatory summit selfies, we continued on for the next 2 peaks!

Looking back at Algonquin as we summited Boundary and Iroquois.

Looking back at Colden (my #2/46, read about that harrowing experience HERE), and Lake Colden on the right.

Leaving the summit of Algonquin to follow the last few trail markings on toward Boundary/Iroquois.

The summit of Iroquois marked by a cairn! We took a much needed snack break, then turned around and retraced our steps back over Boundary and Algonquin.

Once we got to the junction for the trail to Wright, this steep slide was the first thing to greet us. I honestly didn't think I had it in me, but after some encouragement from Courtney we ponied up and did it! Wright was very steep, and I honestly think it was the hardest summit of the 4 we did that day.

Views from Wright summit. Colden in the back

Debris from plane wreckage on the summit (a crashed flight from the 1960s)

Our legs were jello going back to camp that evening, and we came to a mutual agreement that we would be useless the next day! We had originally planned to move camp the next day and attempt to summit Phelps, but we smartly decided to save that for another trip! We packed up camp late the next morning and enjoyed a delicious post-hike lunch at the Hungry Hiker.

Check back soon! My next trip to ADK is NEXT WEEK. I'm taking Bradley for his first time there! Wish us luck.....

Homemade Rain Barrel

My garden is behind my garage, and the faucet is nowhere near it. I got tired of lugging a watering can back and forth, so hubby and I got the supplies recently to make our own rain barrel!

I got most supplies at Home depot. There were a couple rubber washers we got at Ace Hardware. Otherwise a pretty simple faucet setup with thin mesh netting stapled over the opening to prevent bugs and debris from gooping up the water. We put an overflow hole at the top.

After a 2 week drought, we got rain the night we put this in! A couple rainstorms later and it's beyond filled. I could easily connect a couple more to the overflow and fill those too. Happy garden!

Hiking Date with Hubby at Letchworth State Park

I guess I inspired Nick with my new love for getting out into nature because he volunteered to go with me on a hike! We have a great new family who moved in right next to us, and the oldest girl is our new babysitter!!! We went on an evening hiking date to Letchworth for our first time using her. The boys loved her!

It was a hot one, but nicely shaded in the forest. We took my usual loop in the opposite direction, branching off from the gorge trail into the forest. We came up on the train tracks just in time for a train to go over the bridge above us!

I brought my camping stove and dinner with us for the full experience. Yum! We found a nice outlook over the gorge for our break.

No pics of the falls on this trip--I've taken many already! Check out this post for some beauties.

He had a great time and actually enjoyed himself. I'm very proud he was able to handle the 6.2 miles without issues! He's looking forward to our next excursion.

Family Trip to Oklahoma

Another Pierce family road trip in the books! We recently drove to Oklahoma to see our family for a few days. Due to all the Covid chaos, we kept it simple with no restaurant dinners and only seeing family. We were pretty much the only people wearing masks around...but not surprising considering how their numbers are rising again! But I digress.

We got there on the evening of Brad's 11th birthday, so I opted to postpone his party for the next day to allow more family to be able to come and celebrate with us. My lovely mother provided dinner our first night, as well as hosted the birthday party! Bradley was very excited to get lots of money from family, as well as his first phone from us! Don't worry--it's an old hand me down, and like I told Brad: it's locked down tighter than Guantanamo Bay!

The heat was out in full force, so we spent ample time in my brother's pool. It's not really summertime until you get a sunburn!

The highlight of the trip was reviving our annual July 4th tradition at my dads of dinner and fireworks!! We haven't done it since 2015 so we were very happy to get this chance once again, especially since most of the displays in our area of NY had been cancelled.

Our last day there, Brad got the pleasure of going with his papa Gary out to a shooting range and shooting his first gun! It was a 22 Ruger, and per his target he actually did pretty good!

We left early the next morning and arrived home 2 days later after driving a grand total of approximately 2800 miles!!!! Cuddles was happy to see us.