I've been home for almost a week and now that the fog and fatigue of travel and jet lag have abated I feel I ready to review my time hiking in Ireland. Unfortunately internet access wasn't readily available during our trip. That combined with the painfully slow process of typing out blog posts on my Zune, limited the number of posts we were able to produce while on the trails, but hopefully this overview along with our previous posts, will give folks an idea of what it is like to hike in Ireland.
As mentioned below, I was joined for much of the hiking portion of this trip by my friend Jaime, who hopefully will have a chance to drop in and leave some of her own thoughts on hiking in Ireland. Together we hiked portions of the Wicklow Way, located on the east coast of Ireland, just south of Dublin and the Dingle Way, located on the west coast of the country. People from western Washington will likely feel very much at home in Ireland, especially in places like the Wicklow Mountains. The weather, the feel of the air, the landscape even the plant life, feels very much like hiking in the Cascade foothills. During those first couple of days on the trail as we worked our way north from Glendalough to Dublin, only the cars driving on the left side of the road and the accents of those people we met, reminded us we weren't back home.
The Trails: Both the Wicklow and Dingle ways are well signposted and marked. Posts with a yellow walking man silhouette and an arrow pointing in the trail direction, were plentiful and as far as I can remember always accurate. The trails themselves were in good condition, although boggy/muddy/mucky in places where farm animals also used them. By going in August, we happened to be hiking when wildflowers were blooming along the trail and roads. We were treated to beautiful displays of orange and red blossoms nearly every day. Finally, Because Ireland doesn't have the same "right to roam" laws England does it's waymarked ways are forced to use paved roads...a lot. Most of the time the road walking is on quite country roads, but there are still cars to avoid and even a quiet paved road can be murder on your feet in hiking boots.
The Landscape: The Wicklow Way has ascents and descents aplenty. If you love hiking high hills only to descend immediately down the other side and then repeat this pattern a few more times throughout the day, then the Wicklows are the place for you. Interspersed in all these hills and valleys are some great views of lakes, streams and waterfalls. The Dingle Way trail prefers to go around the hills instead of over them, although it does have it's own monster climb up Mount Brandon. However, aside from this steep ascent and knee busting, boggy descent, the rest of the way is largely made up of flat or gently undulating hills. The Dingle Way also offers several miles of beach walking (Ireland's best kept secrets are it's beautiful golden sand beaches), which feel wonderful on your feet after days of paved roads and rocky paths. The Dingle Way also offers great views of the Atlantic Ocean and a whole host of bays, islands and spectacular cliffs.
The Weather: I used to think Seattle had changeable weather, after visiting Ireland, I now know what "changeable" really means. It rained nearly everyday. It was windy nearly everyday. The sun shone nearly everyday. A typical day found me dressed in capris, with a short sleeved shirt and being quite warm, while the wind blew around me and I reached for my rain jacket for the third time that day. Thankfully the landscape of Ireland allows you to see the rain coming towards you, giving you time to decide if you want to put on your rain gear or just get wet (you'll probably also be able to see the sun break following the rain). The temperature was never hot (it likely never got above the low 70's) and I never felt particularly cold. The weather for the entire trip can best be described as mild, and yet with all the rain, clouds and wind, I still managed to come home with a decent tan...go figure.
The People: The Irish are some of the friendliest, kindest most helpful people I have met while traveling abroad. From the first Irishman we met, Mick who picked us up at the airport and took us to Glendalough, to Gill, the hostess at my last Bed and Breakfast in Fanore, I don't think I met a single unpleasant person. It was hard not to slip into conversation with people. Whether it was on a train, in a pub or at our B&B everyone was ready for a chat and soon you were exchanging names, handshakes and learning all about the christening they had just been to or how they know everyone in the pub. A few of the great friendly folks we met: Mick-airport driver; Betsy and Ann-two elderly ladies returning from a christening in Dublin (we talked to them for the whole 4 hour train ride and covered just about every topic possible), John-Junction House B&B Owner in Camp; Kent and Allison-newlyweds from Wisconsin on their honeymoon who were staying at Junction House as well; Finbar/Diedre and Hugh/Maureen-two couples we met at a pub in Castlegregory who seemed to know everyone in the pub...even the priest; Gill-owner of Orchid House B&B in Fanore who was a wealth of walking information and helped me reschedule my surfing lesson and assisted me in hailing my bus back to Galway. This is just a few of some of the wonderful people we met who welcomed two tired, exhausted American girls into their homes, pubs, cars and restaurants and made us feel welcome and ensured we had a good time.
The Animals: While you don't have to worry about bears, cougars, coyotes or snakes when hiking in Ireland you do have to worry about the most fearsome, unpredictable and scariest of all animals...the cow. You may laugh. You may roll your eyes and think I'm joking. I am not. You may have noticed the Cow vs. Angella/Jaime count on our previous two posts from Ireland. That was no joke. That was an accurate tally of how many times cows scared us shitless and had us hiding behind stone walls, trespassing on property and running for stiles and fences. Keep in mind we are not talking about bulls here, we are talking about COWS. Two encounters with very, VERY aggressive cows left us city girls wary and nervous around them. Cows behind fences=good. Cows blocking the path in front of you with no way to go around=bad. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have sheep. Both the Dingle and Wicklow Ways cut across miles and miles of sheep pasture. You get to see more sheep than you ever wanted to see (and their poop as well). But since sheep are very skittish, you aren't likely to get very close unless you come upon one sleeping. Other animals seen on the trail include horses, donkeys and farm dogs (some of whom will chase you down just to be petted). I didn't see much in the way of wildlife.
The Guidebooks/Maps: For both the Dingle and Wicklow ways we primarily used the guidebook published for each by the Rucksack Readers. Overall they both provided us with accurate and reliable directions in a bullet point format. It would've been nice if the books told you how far it was between each bullet point, but that's the only suggestion I'd have for them. To supplement the guidebooks we also used the OS maps that corresponded with the Dingle and Wicklow ways. These offered us a better idea of elevation and we could visual distances better on them. Even though the trails are very well marked, I'd definitely take along a guidebook or OS maps, as each shows slightly different versions of the trail at some points and having the maps and books allows you to see what route would work best for you.
I think that covers most of the hiking aspects of the trip. It really did turn out to be a fun trip, even though we didn't make all the miles we planned. I look forward to returning to Ireland and revisiting some of the places I didn't get to spend enough time in! :)
Angella
ps. Pictures will be added soon!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Frightening the Baby Deer in Iowa
This weekend, I visited Illinois and Iowa for my college roommate’s wedding. Fresh off my Ireland trip, I flew to Chicago, IL on Thursday to meet another friend, drove with her 4 hours on Friday to Cedar Rapids, IA (plus another 1.5 hours north later on for the rehearsal dinner!), attended the wedding on Saturday, drove back to Chicago on Sunday, and flew back to Seattle late-ish Sunday night.
And oh yes, I also hiked.
My friend and I hadn’t been talking for a while, just enjoying the comfortable silence and the scenery when all of a sudden we heard loud thrashing in the grass seemingly right next to us. We gasp and freeze and about 10 feet behind us, a fawn, still with spots(!), hops out into the trail. I’m not sure whose eyes were bigger as we turned to stare at each other – the baby deer’s or ours. All of us stood still for a moment more before we turned and headed into opposite directions.
Thank goodness it was only a deer. . .
:-)
Jaime
Friday, August 13, 2010
Walking Sticks Go On Wee Walk
Yesterday Jaime and I took a rest day in Dunquin, location of filming of Ryan's Daughter, and took a ferry/zodiac ride over some very choppy water to the deserted village on Great Blasket Island (abandoned in 1953). The old village site is full of old ruined stone cottages that are fun to roam around. There is also a 4 mile loop trail which Jaime hiked. After returning to the mainland, we visited the Blasket Center, a museum devoted to the generations who lived on the island.
While all this was happening my poles were on their own adventure unbeknowst to me. A taxi driver mistakenly picked up my poles at the B&B when collecting another guests luggage. The poles were tracked down this morning in the taxi still and were delivered to our B&B in Feonaugh.
Hiking wise things are going well. The weather is holding and there are rumors of a heat wave coming. The views continue to be amazing and we've seen a fair amount of clochains and ruins. We haven't had any further run ins with cows thankfully. Tomorrow we do Mt. Brandon (cue music of doom). Our BBs continue to be lovely and the Irish are very friendly and helpful, always ready for a chat.
Ireland by the numbers:
Falls:3
Richard Armitage Sightings:0
Pints of Guinness: 5
Miles hiked: Jaime 96 Angella 92
Sheep: one and one half bazillion
While all this was happening my poles were on their own adventure unbeknowst to me. A taxi driver mistakenly picked up my poles at the B&B when collecting another guests luggage. The poles were tracked down this morning in the taxi still and were delivered to our B&B in Feonaugh.
Hiking wise things are going well. The weather is holding and there are rumors of a heat wave coming. The views continue to be amazing and we've seen a fair amount of clochains and ruins. We haven't had any further run ins with cows thankfully. Tomorrow we do Mt. Brandon (cue music of doom). Our BBs continue to be lovely and the Irish are very friendly and helpful, always ready for a chat.
Ireland by the numbers:
Falls:3
Richard Armitage Sightings:0
Pints of Guinness: 5
Miles hiked: Jaime 96 Angella 92
Sheep: one and one half bazillion
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
From the Emerald City to the Emerald Isle
Hello! A quick check in from the 1/2 of We Trip We Fall currently hiking in Ireland. We've been hiking for 5 days a quick overview:
Day 1: Glendalough-Knockree on Wicklow Way Trail 17 miles. Anyone who is familiar with hiking in the Pacific Northwest would feel right at home hiking the Wicklow Mountains. Everything looked, felt and even smelled familiar. Pine and fir forests, cool-ish weather, similar elevations. Being the first day, we were a bit slow...ok really, really slow on this one. It took us 10 hrs to complete. But in our defense we had a lot of hills to climb and valleys to descend into. The weather was also crazy. Rain for 5 minutes, roasting sun for 5 minutes followed by gale force winds. Repeat that sequence for 10hrs and you have our day. But really beautiful views (pictures to come later).
Day 2: Knockree-Dublin Wicklow Way Trail 14 miles. More of what the previous day had, only we were much quicker arriving at Marlay Park by 3pm (the end/beginning of the Wicklow Way). Caught a bus to the train station and a train to Tralee. Met two wonderful ladies, Betsy and Ann on the train and proceeded to chat with them for the entire 4 hr ride.
Day 3: Tralee-Camp on Dingle Way 11 miles. This hike is on the west coast of Ireland, think farmland instead of forests. Deceptively easy day started out well with lots of sun. All went well until the last 2/3rds when the path became extremely boggy, very rocky and I fell and turned my ankle for the second time this trip. There were also cows.
Day 4: Camp-Annascaul Dingle Way 11 miles. This was the easy day we needed. We were in Annascaul before 3pm, arrived in full sun. Unfortunately it was all road walking so our feet were killing us, but we made good time and saw some great views. Annascaul is a really cute town. No cows.
Day 5: Annascaul-Dingle on Dingle Way 12 miles. A lot of road walking today as well, some great views of Minard Castle and the coast. Road walking was broken up with significant time spent crossing pastures...lot's of cows. We arrived in Dingle at about 3:30 foot sore (I have a big blister on my pinky toe) and amazed at how many people there were.
Ireland By The Numbers:
Falls: 2 (one spectacular fall into sheep poo/mud)
Cows: 2 Jaime/Angella: 0
Richard Armitage Sightings: 0
Sheep: One Bazillion
We are starving...time to round up dinner (we are constantly dreaming of food, which has been delicious so far) more later.
Angella and Jaime in Ireland.
Day 1: Glendalough-Knockree on Wicklow Way Trail 17 miles. Anyone who is familiar with hiking in the Pacific Northwest would feel right at home hiking the Wicklow Mountains. Everything looked, felt and even smelled familiar. Pine and fir forests, cool-ish weather, similar elevations. Being the first day, we were a bit slow...ok really, really slow on this one. It took us 10 hrs to complete. But in our defense we had a lot of hills to climb and valleys to descend into. The weather was also crazy. Rain for 5 minutes, roasting sun for 5 minutes followed by gale force winds. Repeat that sequence for 10hrs and you have our day. But really beautiful views (pictures to come later).
Day 2: Knockree-Dublin Wicklow Way Trail 14 miles. More of what the previous day had, only we were much quicker arriving at Marlay Park by 3pm (the end/beginning of the Wicklow Way). Caught a bus to the train station and a train to Tralee. Met two wonderful ladies, Betsy and Ann on the train and proceeded to chat with them for the entire 4 hr ride.
Day 3: Tralee-Camp on Dingle Way 11 miles. This hike is on the west coast of Ireland, think farmland instead of forests. Deceptively easy day started out well with lots of sun. All went well until the last 2/3rds when the path became extremely boggy, very rocky and I fell and turned my ankle for the second time this trip. There were also cows.
Day 4: Camp-Annascaul Dingle Way 11 miles. This was the easy day we needed. We were in Annascaul before 3pm, arrived in full sun. Unfortunately it was all road walking so our feet were killing us, but we made good time and saw some great views. Annascaul is a really cute town. No cows.
Day 5: Annascaul-Dingle on Dingle Way 12 miles. A lot of road walking today as well, some great views of Minard Castle and the coast. Road walking was broken up with significant time spent crossing pastures...lot's of cows. We arrived in Dingle at about 3:30 foot sore (I have a big blister on my pinky toe) and amazed at how many people there were.
Ireland By The Numbers:
Falls: 2 (one spectacular fall into sheep poo/mud)
Cows: 2 Jaime/Angella: 0
Richard Armitage Sightings: 0
Sheep: One Bazillion
We are starving...time to round up dinner (we are constantly dreaming of food, which has been delicious so far) more later.
Angella and Jaime in Ireland.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Inaugural Hike - Tonga Ridge!
We Trip: 1
We Fall: 0!!
Other notes of interest:
Vermin: Chipmunks
Wildlife: none seen, although we did hear that last year one of our team members (who shall remain anonymous) was possibly attacked by a flying bear, or a bear thrown at her by Sasquatch. Or possibly it was a grouse.
Mosquitoes: YES!!
Three quarters of team We Trip We Fall set out on the foggy morning of August 1 to kick off the Hike-a-Thon 2010. Being girls, and being a weekend, we were naturally about 1 hour late leaving civilization to head out to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. And, being girls, we also had to take an extra stop at the Skykomish Deli and Liquor shop to pick up the Green Trails maps (175 and 176) for our hike. Much to my dismay, that stop did not wind up with any procurement of alcohol, even the celebratory kind for after the hike!
Angella, Jaime and I (Jess) hit the trailhead at about 10:30. Our goal was to hike along the ridge and do the 6.5 miles round trip and not attempt to make it all the way out to Sawyer's Pass. We slowly trudged up the trail for the first mile and a half or so which seems to contail the entire elevation gain of about 400 ft. About half way up we knew we were in the right place because of this:
We also noticed that a lot of the trees on the way up looked like they had been knocked over and then bonded themselves back together and kept right on growing. We figure there must have been some event that happened at some point to cause this since it occurred at approximately the same height on all the affected trees.
After we got to the top, we caught our breath and started out on the ridge. We were really hoping that the fog would clear up so we could really get a nice view from the top. Alas, between the fires burning out there and that stubborn fog, this is pretty much all we got to see.
However, we did get a couple of glimpses of the "zombie sun" that peeked out once in a while. Again, we assume the "zombie sun" was because of the fires. All day long there was that weird orangey glow from the sun. And all week since then we've had these amazing sunsets and as the sun itself approaches the horizon it turns this fantastic shade of orange-red. But I digress.
Our resident cartographer was intent on trying to find the spur trail that would lead south down to one of the local lakes (without the map next to me I can't remember the name of it, sorry) so we could gage our place on the map. However, we ended up at a crossroad in the trail. The sign posted on the tree in the center said "<= Deception Creek". We then determined that instead of doing our 6.5 mile round trip, we had indeed hiked all the way to Sawyer's Pass! Knowing how we all drool just a little at our James Sawyer from LOST, it was fitting and approved by all.
We found a nice log to sit and have lunch. And for the mosquitoes to lunch on us. Our trusty leader dug through her first aid kit and found some fabulous bug repellant that worked like a charm! And also made us smell like Thai food. But well worth it!
We then celebrated my birthday (AUG 1!!) with some vegan vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles! (Thanks fearless team leader!)
Sorry, no photo. They were too yummy.
Our hike back down the ridge and back to the trailhead was uneventful. There were no signs of any flying bears or Sasquatch. Not even a grouse. We ended up safely back at the car at approximately 1:00 and ended up hiking 9.4 miles in total!
Tune in for more adventures in WA state and in Ireland!!
Other notes of interest:
Vermin: Chipmunks
Wildlife: none seen, although we did hear that last year one of our team members (who shall remain anonymous) was possibly attacked by a flying bear, or a bear thrown at her by Sasquatch. Or possibly it was a grouse.
Mosquitoes: YES!!
Three quarters of team We Trip We Fall set out on the foggy morning of August 1 to kick off the Hike-a-Thon 2010. Being girls, and being a weekend, we were naturally about 1 hour late leaving civilization to head out to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. And, being girls, we also had to take an extra stop at the Skykomish Deli and Liquor shop to pick up the Green Trails maps (175 and 176) for our hike. Much to my dismay, that stop did not wind up with any procurement of alcohol, even the celebratory kind for after the hike!
Angella, Jaime and I (Jess) hit the trailhead at about 10:30. Our goal was to hike along the ridge and do the 6.5 miles round trip and not attempt to make it all the way out to Sawyer's Pass. We slowly trudged up the trail for the first mile and a half or so which seems to contail the entire elevation gain of about 400 ft. About half way up we knew we were in the right place because of this:
We also noticed that a lot of the trees on the way up looked like they had been knocked over and then bonded themselves back together and kept right on growing. We figure there must have been some event that happened at some point to cause this since it occurred at approximately the same height on all the affected trees.
After we got to the top, we caught our breath and started out on the ridge. We were really hoping that the fog would clear up so we could really get a nice view from the top. Alas, between the fires burning out there and that stubborn fog, this is pretty much all we got to see.
However, we did get a couple of glimpses of the "zombie sun" that peeked out once in a while. Again, we assume the "zombie sun" was because of the fires. All day long there was that weird orangey glow from the sun. And all week since then we've had these amazing sunsets and as the sun itself approaches the horizon it turns this fantastic shade of orange-red. But I digress.
Our resident cartographer was intent on trying to find the spur trail that would lead south down to one of the local lakes (without the map next to me I can't remember the name of it, sorry) so we could gage our place on the map. However, we ended up at a crossroad in the trail. The sign posted on the tree in the center said "<= Deception Creek". We then determined that instead of doing our 6.5 mile round trip, we had indeed hiked all the way to Sawyer's Pass! Knowing how we all drool just a little at our James Sawyer from LOST, it was fitting and approved by all.
We found a nice log to sit and have lunch. And for the mosquitoes to lunch on us. Our trusty leader dug through her first aid kit and found some fabulous bug repellant that worked like a charm! And also made us smell like Thai food. But well worth it!
We then celebrated my birthday (AUG 1!!) with some vegan vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles! (Thanks fearless team leader!)Sorry, no photo. They were too yummy.
Our hike back down the ridge and back to the trailhead was uneventful. There were no signs of any flying bears or Sasquatch. Not even a grouse. We ended up safely back at the car at approximately 1:00 and ended up hiking 9.4 miles in total!
Tune in for more adventures in WA state and in Ireland!!
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Beginning
The calendar has turned once again to August so that must mean it's time for another Hike-a-Thon in support of the Washington Trails Association. This year, as the title of this blog indicates, Hike-a-Thon will be a team effort between myself and three others. Members of We Trip We Fall 2010 include: Cari (Wieben) Nebel, Jaime Weber, Jessica Guthrie and myself, Angella Wieben. Cari, Jaime and Jessica are all new to the Hike-a-Thon this year so I'm excited to have them join in the fun and give it a go.
Even though we will be raising money as a team and supporting each other as a team, our team will actually never hike all together this month. Cari and Jessica will be pounding the trails here in Washington state, while Jaime will spend the first two weeks of the month hiking in Ireland. Following Ireland Jaime has mentioned possible hikes in either Iowa or Illinois as well as some shorter urban hikes back here in Washington. I will also be joining Jaime in Ireland, but will be extending my trip for three weeks, about two and half of which will be spent hiking.
We all have a busy August ahead of us and will be dropping in here as often as we can with updates on the trails we have hiked, funny stories and of course photos of our adventures. If you'd like to support a member of the team, simply click on their name above to be taken to their fundraising page on the WTA website.
Thanks for checking in, we'll hopefully have more up soon about our first hikes of the month!
Angella
Even though we will be raising money as a team and supporting each other as a team, our team will actually never hike all together this month. Cari and Jessica will be pounding the trails here in Washington state, while Jaime will spend the first two weeks of the month hiking in Ireland. Following Ireland Jaime has mentioned possible hikes in either Iowa or Illinois as well as some shorter urban hikes back here in Washington. I will also be joining Jaime in Ireland, but will be extending my trip for three weeks, about two and half of which will be spent hiking.
We all have a busy August ahead of us and will be dropping in here as often as we can with updates on the trails we have hiked, funny stories and of course photos of our adventures. If you'd like to support a member of the team, simply click on their name above to be taken to their fundraising page on the WTA website.
Thanks for checking in, we'll hopefully have more up soon about our first hikes of the month!
Angella
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