Welcome

Hello. I got inspired by a teammate to commermorate this whole experience in a blog.

Basically I am going to hike to cure cancer. I am raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is a cause that is very personal and relevant to me. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me because of what I have been through. Every experience I have had has made me a better person. When I was diagnosed my immediate thought was, "I am going to die." After a couple weeks of feeling sorry for myself and moping around, I decided this wasn't very productive. Cancer has inspired me to reprioritize my life and live to the fullest everyday. It would have been nice to learn all if these life lessons in a less life-threatening manner, but I am glad I learned them.

On to happier things. We had our kick-off event about two weeks ago and I SUPER excited! I wasn't really sure what to expect when I got there. And there were tons of people there. But I am happy about how small our team is. 31 people is just right. You don't want to have 200 people out on a hike together. Then you can't really enjoy nature. Everyone on the team seems pretty scared of the entire endeavor of raising funds, as am I. But I figure I have a little over four months. I'll figure something out. Sell my soul.

I went home and started looking over all the training materials. I have set my goal to hike Angels Landing at Zion National Park. I figure I might as well shoot for the moon. This is supposed to be a killer hike but it looks doable and beautiful as well. We are going to be going on a bunch of really cool hikes on the weekends too. The team does a group hike every Saturday morning and then we train on our own during the week. About half of the hikes are in the East Bay Regional Parks which is even better for me. The regional park system out here is awesome with dogs and this will give me a chance to scope them out before I bring the dogs there to cause mischief. I have been training with the dogs everyday after work. Every other day we go for a 2 hour hike at Wildcat Canyon. Then the other days we go to Point Isabel or Point Pinole. I am going to start riding my bike to work again now that the rain seems to have stopped. I really have to build up my endurance for this crazy goal of mine.

Sadly I had to miss the first team hike in Tilden Park. I was out camping with the dogs and friends at Mackericher state beach in Fort Bragg. It was a lot of fun! I didn't do the toughest hike ever but I did do it with a 20 pound backback on. Ken and I are training to backpack the Lost Coast in August so I need a lot more practice carrying a loaded backpack. I have been carrying a pack on my hikes with the dogs but it usually only has a water bottle, dog treats and my purse in it. We spent a lot of the weekend wandering around the beach with the dogs, playing in the woods, hiking, and collecting sea glass (my new passion). If anyone knows other good places to find sea glass, let me know. I totally went into treasure hunting mode and didn't want to leave the beach. Ken was dragging me away at the end.

This Saturday I'll meet about half the team for a hike at Redwood Regional Park. Hopefully I have some exciting photos to post afterwards!