Practice Hike #2 - Dunes

Well, mom and I did our second practice hike in November. We hiked trail #9 at Indiana Dunes State Park. It was a lot of hiking in SAND!!! I had forgotten my boots, so I had to buy new hiking shoes, which I actually love more than my boots. They are much more comfortable on my ankles. The weather was warm, especially for November. The sand took a toll on my body, I was exhausted and really had to push myself to keep going. We took some sweet/savory chex mix with extra raisins added in, it was good, but I think we can come up with a better mixture. We also picked up some jerky at Bass Pro Shop while I was picking out my new shoes. The Maple Ham jerky was AWESOME, and the traditional beef was good too. I think jerky will provided a good source of protein on the trail. When we got home, we made our first meal in a bag... Knorr Chicken flavored rice with a bag of diced chicken. We boiled water in our walmart grease pot, but on the stove! It was strange eating out of a ziplock bag, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. I think having some sort of structure, like a cozy, will help. Instead of a cozy, we used oven mitts! The rice could have cooked longer, it was a bit chewy and too watery. The bagged chicken tasted a lot like tuna, so I'm going to have to get over that. I think if the chicken tastes like tuna, I'd rather just have tuna! We're going to need to get a good idea of what meals we'll want to eat on the trail, so hopefully next time, we can try our alcohol stove and do some more cooking.