April Training, hiking, hiking, & more hiking

Well April has been a busy month. Lots of training, lots of fundraising, and lots of planning for my inaugural fundraiser at the North Bend Bar & Grill on Sunday, June 6th. On top of the Shasta preparation, I also made a huge life decision and quit my job in order to pursue a dream of mine - starting my own venture that could potentially help millions of people with their careers. If I've learned anything in my life so far, it's that life is a gift not to be taken for granted. One day it is here, the next day it could be gone. We all get one shot to live our lives - to pursue the life we have always imagined for ourselves. I decided it was time to stop waiting, and time to start living. We each have a vision of what we want our life to be. For me, it is to inspire and help as many people as I can to reach their full potential and purpose in life.

It has been difficult waking up in the morning without the structure of a corporate job. But my work with the Breast Cancer Fund and preparation for the climb has helped by giving me a near term goal on which to focus. And focus I have... Brian, Truck and I climbed four different mountains this month in preparation for the climb.

Our first was Mount Defiance at 5584 ft via the Ira Spring Trail (off exit 45 on I-90 just before Snoqualmie Pass). We weren't planning on making it to the top of the mountain due to the extreme snow cover, but we were hoping to make it to Mason Lake at 4750 ft (6 miles roundtrip, 2550 elevation gain). Once again we had 20 lbs of kitty litter in our packs along with our extra clothes, snow shoes, water, and 10 essentials. Thanks to Mother Nature, the trail was covered in snow, sometimes knee deep. I had checked the avalanche warnings at www.nwac.us prior to our departure, and this was one of the few mountains that was in the green/yellow zone (which means avalanche danger is low to medium). While I felt like I was starting to get into pretty good shape, 2.5 hours of hiking in ankle to knee deep snow took it out of me. With my legs feeling like Jell-O and my knees starting to ache, we decided to turn around. As my handy Garmin 405 CX watch would later show, we turned around 300 ft short of Mason Lake. While it was a bit disappointing (especially when I needed help carrying down my 20 lbs of kitty litter to avoid my knees from giving out), in the grand scheme of things, it was a great day - crystal clear views of Mt. Rainier, fresh snow on the trees, sunshine in April, and hiking with my two favorite partners. You can't be that!

Our next adventure was Rattlesnake Ridge, a 10 mile ridge behind our house that we have wanted to hike for years. The knees were pretty sore so, thanks to some advice from my hubby, I decided to go without weight in my pack for this trip. 4 hours later and 3200 ft in elevation gain, we descended to the parking lot off of exit 27 on I-90 (Snoqualmie, WA). It was a beautiful day with amazing views of the Snoqualmie Valley!

Finally, this past weekend we headed down to the Columbia River Gorge along the border of Washington and Oregon for some camping and hiking. It was an incredible time of year to go... green covered cliffs falling straight down into the wide waters of the Columbia River. We camped at Mary Hill State Park (boy that was a windy night) and then climbed Dog Mountain on Saturday. With the climb up Shasta nearing, it was time to up the kitty litter to 30 lbs. With all the other goodies in my pack, I was probably saddled down with about 40 lbs of weight in my pack. Today was going to be a big test. Could I make it up the nearly 3,000 ft and 4 miles with

all this weight in my pack? The answer - YES!!!! Absolutely exhausted at the end, it felt great knowing that my training was starting to pay off. We celebrated with some chili and a hot shower at Beacon Rock State Park.

Wanting to simulate the conditions of the climb on Mt. Shasta (where we will have to hike two days back to back), we decided to climb Hamilton Mountain on Sunday. Reluctantly I put 'The Beast" back on (this is my nickname for my backpack with 40lbs of fun in it), and we headed up the mountain. My knees and legs were definitely feeling the pain... they started burning about 2 minutes into the hike. This was going to be a tough one. We gave it a solid 2 hours and a 1,000 or so feet in elevation gain and called it good. It took us a little over an hour to get down the steep terrain with our tired legs. Once at the car, we were wishing someone was there to drive us home :)