Red Top Mountain Dayhike

Another weekend, another hiking trail! This past weekend we went to Red Top Mountain. Located in Lake Allatoona, you have some pretty lakeside views throughout the hike. Like many other state parks, you have your choice of trail and length. And like us, we went with the longest one we could find which would be the Homestead Trail.

The trail length is a moderate 5.5 miles but only has a 250 ft elevation gain. However, I felt like we had a nice combination throughout the entire hiking of small, semi-steep uphills followed by downhills. It's very well marked and is packed dirt the whole trail. At the trailhead, it said was a four hour trail - we did it in 1 hour, 40 minutes.  We think the 4 hours applies more to families than a seasoned hiker.  Anyway, let's enjoy some pictures!

Hiking in the woods - beautiful and serene

A scenic outlook about 1.5 miles in

Our trail map. Pictures taken at the gray pin dots

Backpacking adventure!

This past weekend, my husband and I went on our first backpacking hike. For a trail choice, we went with Raven Cliff Falls in Helen, Georgia.

This is an easy out and back trail with a total distance of 5.5 miles. All the books say five miles, but run keeper had it being a bit longer. What I love about this trail is that you follow a creek the whole way so you have some smaller and pretty falls you can stop at along the way for lunch or a swim. The swim is key during a Georgia summer.

For camping, this trail is great for groups and all skill levels. There are spots from the parking lot to the falls so you have a lot of choice on how far in you want to be. All sites have firepits and logs already set up from previous campers. There's even a bathroom in the parking lot so if you don't go far, your could avoid going in the woods, but that is more for the wussy camper.

Anyway, below are a few pics of the adventure and of raven cliff!

Our first backpack meal!

Tent Sweet Tent

Our runkeeper map of the hike to the campground

Weekend hiking - Kennesaw Mountain

And now for the hiking side of the blog! I can't tell you how happy I am to get to write about this passion of mine. My god, why did I ever wait this long?

Anyway, last weekend I went to Kennesaw Mountain. I had only been once before the weekend prior and loved it so much I brought him back. Kennesaw Mountain offers a variety of trail lengths from one mile to a 17 mile loop. We did a six mile loop down to pigeon hill. I highly suggest this area to locals who want to just get out there. It would be a great trail to test new gear since if things go wrong you can easily get back to the starting point. Maybe i'll be back out there soon with some hiking poles...

View from Kennesaw Mountain

Top of Little Kennesaw Mountain - Love the cannons

Hiking down the trail back to the visitor center

Piegon Hill - definitely a hill, not a mountain

Bonus! We saw deer really close on our loop back!

One bento, two ways

So when you go to awesome bento sites like Adventures in Bento Making (http://www.aibento.net/) or Ohayo Bento (http://www.ohayobento.com/index.html) I always notice the boxes. They always seem so nice, so fancy, so perfect for bentos. And I felt like I was at a disadvantage with my lack of boxes. So today I'm here to show one meal done two ways: in my bento and in Tupperware for the hubs. Check it out and I hope be inspired!

Being Souper

I love soups! My husband, not so much, but my lunches are for me! And with my new awesome bento box it is even easier for me to enjoy them during lunch. The challenge is that I love cream soups which directly conflicts with the 4-hour body diet.

So my new challenge to myself is to find soups that are 4-Hour friendly but I enjoy. My top two lately have been:

Edward & Son's Miso soup - This one can be found in most supermarkets (because if my Kroger has it, so does yours) but it hides in the organic section. It has 7 grams of Carbs and you can make with hot water from your office coffee maker. I'm also a sucker for Miso Soup

Gazpacho - There are like a million different ways to make this, but either way you blend it (ha!) it's just veggies in a food processor. Tomatoes can get your carb count up (I saw from 4g to 7g on the web per serving) so make sure you incorporate plenty of other veggies like peppers and cucumbers so you don't end up with more carbs than you planned. 

Cool Cucumber Soup - It's hot in Georgia so I need some more cold options. This is the most cheater of the soups because of the yogurt but I've learned to let Greek yogurt slide into my diet because it's very high in protein (for 9g of carbs, you get 23g of protein) and it is a perfect sour cream substitute. I use the Healthy Foodie's recipe for this soup.