Give Me A Tail Wind!: Mt Stone

Earlier this year I made the goal to summit at least two peaks this year. After squandering my time in Utah (I lived there for 4 years and didn’t see ONE national park!) I am determined to take full advantage of the beautiful places to see and hike in Washington.

Luckily for me, my friends enjoy getting out and getting dirty in nature too. :)

They are also extremely understanding about hiking with someone who doesn’t really know what she's doing and is pretty out of shape at the moment.

This weekend we met in a local parking lot at the wee hour of 5am in order to beat at least a little bit of the heat.

(In case you didn’t know, July 5^th is the official first day of summer in Washington).

This summer has been particularly (relatively) hot. It was due to get up to 100 degrees, so we wanted to be as far into our hike as possible before enjoying everything the sun gave us.

I started off being a little worried about how I would do on the hike due to my foot injury and not being at my normal level of fitness. I was hiking with several extremely active people and didn’t want to drag the group down. That, and Josh had already tried to summit Mt. Stone twice before and had to adjust is plans to fit the group he was with and I didn’t want to make “it comes in three’s” the motto of this trip.

Josh, Drew and Randy post hike. It was VERY hot.

It didn’t look good when at an hour and half into the trip I had to ask to stop and rest for a minute. I do want to make a point of saying that NONE of the group acted frustrated or made me feel bad for needing the break. But Josh adjusted our pace just slightly and all was right in the land.

I just hate not being able to do what I think I should (or used to be) be able to do something.

Yes, my arm is fully extended in order to give Drew bunny ears.

(On a side note, I have just realized that I have a completely distorted view on how tall I am. I did know that Drew was super tall...although it took about a year for me to realize that fact. I also new that Josh and Randy were taller than I am...I just didn't realize that I am like a Hobbit standing next to them.)

This might shock some people but I’m used to being able to push my way through almost anything with sheer stubbornness.

My motto is: “Both feet in, and make up for a lack of skill with sheer enthusiasm and stubbornness.”

I’m getting better at not being so stubborn…I swear.

By the time I die I might be good enough not to totally submarine myself so often.

I love being outside.

LOVE. IT.

I love the feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere with no other people around other than the ones I purposefully choose to be with.

I love the feeling of pushing myself physically to reach a goal.

I love getting dirty because I’m out having fun and getting closer to the world. (I have an amazing tolerance for dirt. That’s probably why I don’t mind long distance relays, gardening without gloves and grubby children.)