Gena and I recently celebrated our fourth anniversary. It's not that we set out to do it but we noticed that every year we do something harder. In 2007, after graduating P90X, we decided we wanted to get into backpacking. Looking back at the calendar, each anniversary since has been celebrated by some crazy outing into the wilderness that could have caused many fights and bickering.
In 2008 we were fascinated with the Eagle Creek area so we decided to trek up Tanner Butte and come back down via Eagle Creek. We had read all the maps and a few write-ups from other hikers. We hit snow part way up the hill but were able to track to the top of Hamilton just off the topographical map. The problem with this was that we couldn't find the trail once we got to the top!
In trying to find the trail, we hiked cross country knowing what elevation the trail should have been at. When we got there, we could find no site of it. Gena's dropped one leg through the snow at one point and her pack spun her around backward, twisting her knee. We had to continue. As the sun went down, we had to stop and sleep on the side of the hill. We found a down tree to lean against, dropped a tarp, and laid our sleeping bags out, feel kicked up on the log like a lazy-boy recliner. We were tired, miserable, and injured. While spraying bug spray on myself, I got Gena in the eyes. There was never a fight.
Still eager to hike all the trails around Eagle Creek, we decided to hike Eagle Creek to Eaton Ridge and return via Wahtum lake in 2009. First day was great but rain hit hard first night. We had a new, slightly larger tent that didn't keep us dry when I didn't set it up right... funny how that happens!! So day two we were soaking wet. Still adding gear to our inventory, our rain gear was not sufficient. Day two we decided to press on until we hit too much snow. Fearing a Tanner Butte incident, we decided to turn back until we had the right equipment and skill. We were cold, wet, and tired. There was never so much as an argument.
With more and more family and friends wanting to join us on hikes, we wanted to learn the waterfalls of the Columbia Gorge. In 2010 we set and planned an over nighter that would let us see many of the upper area of the Oregon side of the Gorge and day two would be many more shorter hikes to falls that can be easily accessed from the old Historic Columbia River Highway. We had known we were sick so we understood feeling a little fatigued on the trail. We wouldn't learn until after the hike that we both had walking pneumonia; which we now affectionately refer to as "backpackers pneumonia."
2011 was to be a bit more exotic: a snowshoe trip around the Breitenbush Hot Springs area. This time we would not be snowed out, we would walk on top of the snow! A great idea if the trails are marked well or we already knew them fairly well. Plan A: Fail. Plan B: Fail. Plan C: Modify. We had packed heavy in anticipation of foul weather. We found the on-again, off-again snow too thick in spots to find the trail, too thin in spots to keep us from falling through even in our snowshoes. We modified our plan and hiked over 2000 feet up a fire road to get to Crown Lake. Along the way we left non-essential gear on a tarp in the middle of the road on top of four feet of snow. We made it to the trail head to find the trail itself too dangerous and turned back. We had to make it to Breitenbush in time for check-in and dinner or we would have to spend an hour in the truck driving out for dinner.
We may have been seriously hurt on a couple of these outings but we weren't. We could have had the kind of experience that pushed us right out of hiking, but we didn't. We could have found the limits of our friendship and our marriage, but we didn't. Each of these trips has made us closer, stronger, more.
I don't think that's why we do this sort of thing, it's just fun for us! We have both lived a sort of life that prohibited this sort of thing for far too many years. For Gena it was a life-long lack of fitness. For me it was the management of time and money. These are sad excuses to not be able to live the life you want.
Each of us has the ability to envision the life we want to have. Where many of us fall short is plotting the points to get there and executing that plan. It has taken years for Gena and I to build the skills and equipment necessary to live the life we want. Along the way that vision has changed; there was a lot of things we didn't know we would want when we started. This has affected our sport, our relationship, and our life. We love that we get to help other people get in shape so they may find thier own dreams and chase them down.
Links:
Our First Snowshoe
Seaside to Indian Beach Hike
Elk Meadows Hike
Timberline Trail #600 Hike 2010
Three Sisters Hike 2010
Eagle Creek: How to Poop in The Woods
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