Paloma- what falls?!

                                 

So, we went to Any Mountain the other day to check out their hiking gear and such. We had just ordered our brand new Camelbak backpacks and were getting antsy! Anyways, we asked the workers there where they go hiking and one had mentioned the Palomarin Trailhead to Alamere Falls so we decided to look it up on the AllTrails app and possibly hike it. We looked it up and off we went. Instead of our usual Saturday we took this 8 mile hike on a Sunday, which was definitely our only mistake. Every inch of the way is an incredible view!

This trail was a lot easier than my previous Mission Peak trips because there is a lot less of an all-at-once elevation gain. It was 8 miles and my kids both kept up very well.. in fact my son (in that first picture) was skipping and running almost the whole way back! I’m trying to get them started on this outdoorsy thing at a younger age than I did! My diabetes was doing pretty good, though. I checked it constantly and only got low once! Which is a lot better than my 2 previous hikes! The past couple months have been a bit difficult controlling my blood sugar as my NPH has stopped working and I’m waiting til October for insurance! And with only 100 test strips and a third of a bottle of Novolog I’m sure my blood sugar will continue to get out of control til October lol…  so my hiking might be a bit more dificult. Anyways… here is one part of the falls and ooo-wee it’s purdy!

This shot was on the way back… walking frantically before complete sunset and utter darkness lol 🙂

We had a blast! I’d love to hear from fellow type 1 diabetics, though, on your experience and how you treat your low blood sugar on the trail, etc! Email me!

Second time’s a charm? Made it to the top of Mission Peak!!

Alright so my first attempt at Mission didn’t really go as planned.. we wanted to go all the way to the top but we didn’t because of lack of water and some type of blood sugar raising thing. I went through all my liquid glucose shots and @ $2.00 a bottle I had only brought 2 with me plus other bars and such.

This time however I brought 4 just in case and used 3 of them plus food. It’s the darn NPH… I keep forgetting to change my dosage in the morning! Regardless, we DID make it to the top. It took us two hours but we made it! It has such an elevation increase that your legs are dying the next day! To be honest I thought I was dying while I was still on the trail, too! lol. We took a lot of short breaks which definitely helped. One thing that made this trip up harder than the last was my blood sugar. I was so excited to go hike Mission Peak that I had forgotten to do my insulin shot for breakfast.. I was in such a hurry! When I checked my blood sugar right before taking off up the peak it was really high so during a lot of the hike up I was way out of breath. Which I had no problem with the last time.

I love this trail because of all the crickets jumping around everywhere! Almost every step you take sends a cricket flying off about 3-5 feet away! And there are tons of squirrels… I love squirrels! The animals and bugs here are so cool… I’ve never seen most of these bugs before coming up this trail. It’s crazy how many there are. On the way down we were so excited that we had made it to the top of the peak that we were walking pretty fast. We almost stepped on this super cool snake! Unfortunately, this part of the trail is SUPER narrow … so after jumping because I was so thrown off guard by almost stepping on the snake I thought I was going to fall off the side of the peak 🙂

This tree looks so awesome to me. It’s all by itself with a cool shadow and with the right camera it would be such a cool shot!

Hiking is definitely my newfound favorite thing to do. It’s so peaceful and adventuresome. It’s really the gateway drug of outdoorsy stuff 🙂 This was only my second time doing a REAL hike but wow I had a great time. The second I’m done with the hike I want to do another! Don’t let your diabetes get in the way of doing new things like this. Just make sure to monitor your blood sugar, bring adequate water and food/glucose and bring a partner to join you!

 Lol… we look exhausted here… which we were for sure 🙂

Diabetes schmiabetes! First hike partially up mission peak!

So… I thought I’d make this blog to connect with all my fellow type 1 diabetics out there. I’ve always felt like I was completely held back by my diabetes… always afraid of everything that’s outdoorsy or far away from my home. I’ve finally -just recently- started doing some things I’ve been terrified of doing- hiking and kayaking! And soon I’d like to be able to do mulitiple-day hikes far from civilization w/o being worried I’m gonna die! 🙂 I want to get as healthy as I can so I can enjoy whatever age I can get to! My first hike was about 2/3 up Mission Peak in Fremont. I didn’t complete the trail- but wow was it amazing! My blood sugar dropped about 3 times during the hike because I had forgotten to lower my NPH dosage that morning… That along with an outtage of water made me turn around for safety.

Mission Peak is such an unappreciated trail! It is fascinating every step of the way and wow can you feel it the next day. 😉 Everywhere you look there’s either an amazing view or cool creatures to watch. The one thing I really like about Mission Peak is the abundance of benches to rest at. Very helpful when you’re testing your blood every 5 seconds to make sure that funny feeling is from all the excersize and not from your blood sugar dropping 🙂

So- do any of you have any tips on hiking with type 1 diabetes?? What are your must-haves when hiking? What do you raise your blood sugar with on the trail?