Dead Neck Trail

I have been following a page on Facebook called Hike like a Woman. A few weeks ago she started posting about a Summer challenge to get people outside and started collecting sponsors. Each week on Monday she posts a challenge and if you complete it you can post a picture on her page. If she picks your post you can win cool hiking gear or discounts to hiking equipment companies.
So far she has done things like collect trash from a trail, plan a hike but hike a little farther than your plan and this week it was hike a new trail.
I am new to hiking but am falling so in love with it. I have the stereotypical thought in my head that I should be in the woods and climbing a mountain to be officially 'hiking".
Don't ask, I don't know where that came from.
Last night I was able to free up a few hours and decided to Google. Let's see someplace we haven't seen before. As it turns out I was able to include so many of my favorite things in one hike.
I brought Lilly and we hiked about 1.5 miles. Not long after the start I just took my shoes off so it was also my first barefoot hike.

I'm sorry to say but we broke the law yesterday as well. Yes, I saw the signs. I also know my co-workers would not be hiking this trail to ticket me. I used a leash to keep her on trail and I carried out my dog poop. I was at least a respectful law breaker. Oh and the 2nd rule never got broken.



I wasn't really thinking until we started to reach the end but the sand made this more of a workout than I expected. Lilly seemed grateful for the break too so as soon as we hit the opening to the beach so rolled and rolled. When she does this snorting and wiggling it always makes me giggle. She is such an awesome dog.

I decided to take the beach route back to look for ocean treasures and allow Lilly to swim if she wanted to. It is way out so I let her roam off leash for a bit. It lets her stretch her legs. Tonight she was really too tired to go far. It ended up being about a 3 mile hike on sand and once we got to a place where I could see the parking lot we just sat. It was beautiful and calming to just lie in the sand and listen to the ocean. I stayed to watch the moon brighten and the sunset turn red over my shoulder.
On my way into work this morning I was thinking that this might be a cool trail to do on snow shoes. I love the beach in Winter. It was pretty open and exposed but I think with the right gear and weather it would be breathtaking.
I have some pretty wild snowshoe dreams for a girl who doesn't own any. ;)  We are going to fix that problem this Summer for sure.