A Bikini? What? (plus camping, tequila, running, cup therapy, barrel racing...)

As usual, a lot's gone down since my last normal post on Tuesday evening. Wednesday was a day home with the kids. It was hectic and harried but even with that I managed to get my healthy meals and snacks in. It helps when I have homemade red beans in the fridge. I pop those in the microwave, slice up some avocado, add in a pile of pico de gallo and voila, healthy and wholesome lunch.

Wednesday evening was the board appreciation dinner for my mother's club. It was my final official event as a co-director and I had a great time celebrating. I definitely indulged on the food and drink front, having skirt steak, baked potato with fixings, a couple glasses of wine and a chocolate lava cake dessert. Yum! Here I am with Alison and Michelle, who are going on to serve their second year of co-directorship.

Alison, Me and Michelle.

I'll miss the socializing as well as the feel-good that comes from helping out, but I'm glad to have this time commitment off my plate. Especially as I'll be gearing up for Santa Cruz training and I'm making some career/growth changes - so I need all the time I can get. I'll be telling about the career stuff soon because it's related to this whole weight loss thing.

On Thursday my mom had surgery so I had the day off. She did great, thank goodness. After visiting with her in recovery and before a late afternoon appointment I barely had time for exercise. So I stealthily changed into my running gear at red lights and did a quick 22 minute run before my meeting (which was the type of meeting where running clothes are perfectly fine). Then I was off to the gym for a fast-paced weight training session - back/biceps/PT exercises - before picking up the kids. My pullups are coming along, I was able to do 2 sets of 4 without having to bribe the devil inside me. Friday had to be an early morning workout because I was leaving for camping right after work. When the alarm went off at 5:30am I had to really talk myself into getting up. The thing that always works is to mentally walk through my day, trying to find another time to exercise, and when I get to the end and it wasn't possible, I imagine how I'll feel having skipped out on my chance to exercise in the morning. Imagining my future disappointment gets me out of bed almost every time.

It was weigh-in day so I hopped on the scale. Woah - 139.6 pounds!  I'm back to my happy weight, under 140. That's a nice way to start the weekend. I arrived at the gym and the 6am spin class had just started. I noticed an empty bike so I decided to join in for 25 minutes instead of riding alone in the gym. The music was pumping and it was a fun time! Join late, leave early...that's how I roll. In the gym I did chest/triceps before heading to a 7:30am physical therapy appointment at Sport and Spine.

My PT - Kate Reiber, DPT - suggested we try myofascial decompression using cup therapy on my back.  Cup therapy is "a novel form of manual therapy that combines eastern technology with western medicine based principals, orthopedics, and sports medicine." I have pictures, but they are not for the faint of heart so I'm linking to the ones that might make you nauseous. Consider yourself warned. Here's one picture, and here's another.

It was a bit uncomfortable for the first few moments after she did the suction but it quickly passed. She had me do some stretches while I had the cups on and the thought made me nervous but turned out to be barely uncomfortable. An easier image is how my skin looked a few minutes after she took them off.

Post cup-therapy.

Kate did a good job of explaining how it works, though all I can recall is that having the muscles sucked up into the cup does something to release somethingorother and make things better.  Yeah, well, I'm no DPT. The evening before I'd gone shopping for some camping stuff and somehow or another I came home with a bikini. No time like bikini-time to have big red circle spots on your back!

Wait, did I just say bikini? Yes I did. Don't ask me what universe I'm living in buying a bikini but what can I say? I'm getting more comfortable in my own skin, more comfortable with my imperfect body. I'm not saying I'm confidently rocking the two piece but the fact that I planned to put it on in public, with a bunch of people around (as opposed to only one or two friends), is like an alternate universe to me. So of course I took a picture when I got home from the store.

A bikini, what?

Please keep in mind this picture doesn't really show the wrinkly extra-skin phenomenon on my belly.  I'd have to take a close-up of my mid-section with a better camera but in person it's pretty obvious, especially when I hold my abs in. If I relax and pooch my stomach out it's a little less obvious, which is what I tried to do at the river. It's not easy, I'm so used to holding in my abs all the time.

After a full day of work on Friday I hit the road for camping. We went with my buddy Michelle and her husband and two kids. Miguel and them caravanned up earlier so they'd have more time to set up camp. There was a reservation snafu and we ended up camping at the Cloverdale KOA instead of Guerneville, but we were still plenty close to the Russian River so that was fine. I arrived just in time for some campfire action. Michelle and I enjoyed some mixed drinks with her favorite adult beverage, tequila, as well as making s'mores, eating chips and cookies and otherwise letting loose a bit. We finally hit the sack a bit after midnight.

Unfortunately Myra woke up cranky with an unexplained fever.  But we always pack kiddie med for just this scenario.  We dosed her up and after breakfast headed to the beach.  She played for a bit and then slept in the shade the rest of the day.

My angel girl.

Turned out we happened to show up on the day of the Healdsburg Water Carnival. How fun!

Did somebody say "races"??

The river and beach were super-crowded, which of course made me more aware of my bikini debut. Oh well, at least they're all strangers, right? In any case, we had a great time.  Myra seemed to be happy sleeping off her fever while the rest of us played in the water and lounged around in the sun.  There were no gasps or pointing when I donned my bikini and after Michelle and I polished off a bit more tequila I felt almost completely comfortable. Though I did have to ask Michelle about 10 times if I looked decent. She was very reassuring. I felt most comfortable lying down but even walked around a bit while telling my self-critical inner voice to STFU.  Picture time!

Great, right?  But here's a picture that shows more of my flaws.

Ah, gravity. Not a bikini body's friend.

Yes I just posted a picture of myself in a bikini on the internet for all the world to see and possibly judge. But you know what? I'm ok. I'm not thrilled, but I'm ok. I'm happy enough with myself overall to handle it just fine. And besides, all my body will do is age and get more and more wrinkly so I might as well get to loving it now. I'm not saying I'm over my tummy tuck fantasy, that's still alive and well, I'm only saying I want to love my body as-is, today. I've come so far in this area.  So far.  Hell, I'm wearing and posting pictures of myself in a bikini, I'd say I've practically aced the self body-love test.

So I'm checking out some of the festival booths when a woman asks me, "Do you want to be in a barrel race?".  Excuse me, did you say race?  I'm in!  No seriously, I was a bit hesitant but after a few questions (most importantly, do I have to try and climb back on the barrel if I fall off - no) I signed up.  And after some encouragement I managed to get Michelle to sign up too! Later the guys were so impressed they joined in on the fun! This day was turning into a banner, "Things I would never have done before losing weight" day.

Michelle and I were up first in the ladies round.  Pictures, you need pictures. [note: no way in hell I was getting on that barrel in a bikini in front of a crowd - I slipped my t-shirt back on for that].  Here I am getting ready to start.  Michelle is on the barrel to my right but she's blocked by the volunteers so you can't see her.

Wine barrel racing.

And here I am about 5 seconds later!

Yep, that's me in the water already.

As you can see, I fell off pretty soon after we started.  That darn barrel was just so wobbly! But Michelle was a rock star, turns out she's a previos barrel-racing state champion! Kidding, but guess what? She won the round! Here she is after her big finish.

Winner winner!

 And then it was the guys' turn.

Miguel and Erik on the barrel

That's Erik in the white hat and Miguel is on the barrel to his left. Unfortunately Miguel lasted about as long as I did - I guess our kids don't have good barrel racing genes - but Erik came in 2nd place! Their kids have a promising barrel racing future!! Oh my gosh, all kidding aside, what fun! I remind myself that I make the choice to have this life every time I turn down that unplanned snack or skip dessert. It's not deprivation, it's a choice to have something that's more important to me than extra calories.

Back to the campsite for dinner, chili dogs and salad. And the evening was another s'mores, chips, tequila party. Michelle is just as serious as I am about her diet and fitness and we were both having fun letting go of all that for a couple days. She knows as well as I do how important it is to indulge now and again.

Bottom's up!

As an aside, she also wore a bikini at the river and she looks amazing! I was in good bikini company that's for sure. Hot mama!!

Around midnight we all climbed into our tents, and up bright and early with the sun. Myra's fever hung on but we kept her on the Tylenol and Ibuprofen cycle and she seemed to be having a good time. Erik cooked up bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast. I had my normal cereal plus his cooking. What a meal! And then it was time to run. I'd planned a 3-miler and Michelle was up for it too.

The only road in sight was basically a series of hills. Oh well, I can run up hills, right?  After some walking and the dynamic warmup we started our run. We ran up and over the first hill and then started running down...and down...and down.  Oh crap, we have to run back up all this!  So after almost a mile running downhill I suggested we turn around, otherwise we might not make it back up.  Check out the elevation profile!

Full Garmin stats here.

Michelle kicked some major running butt, she was rocking it up that hill.  This was only the second time she'd run without pushing a stroller. I didn't even attempt to keep up with her, though she was nice enough to wait for me a couple times so I didn't slip too far behind. We wrapped it up just as the sun was breaking through the morning cloud cover.

Post run smiles!

Back at the campsite and we took the kids on a walk so the guys could pack up. At the camp playground we ran them through a little workout - squats, jumping jacks and whatever else we could dream up. That was fun. After we were done Marek yelled to his buddy P, "Now let's go play!". Wait, so squats and jumping jacks didn't feel like playtime? Oh well, they'd seemed happily up for the exercise drills so we must be doing something right.
Back at home and I put together a healthy sandwich for myself. I was putting away the food when I came across a bag of Doritos with a few handfuls of chips left.  I had some and then reminded myself that the camping trip was over and put the rest down the garbage disposal. The leftover marshmallows met the same fate.  Miguel had bought a HUMONGOUS bag of Kettle chips at Costco and I even had a few of those before I reminded myself that I actually don't like them that much. They are the Sea Salt flavor and I find them kind of boring (Salt & Pepper flavor is more my speed). So I wrapped up the bag and put it in the garage so he can take them to work.

So I'm sure my weight will take a serious jump after this weekend but hopefully I can get it back down to something closer to last week's weight if I stay focused for the next five days. I don't think I have any social plans and I need to write out my Olympic tri training plan so those two things should keep my eyes on the goal.

Oh, before I close, I finally ordered a RoadID bracelet.  It arrived on Friday so I wore it on the trip. Karen had one on the backpacking trek and after our almost-getting-lost experience I decided it was time. I plan to wear it whenever I'm out running or training by myself. It's a tiny bit snug (size small) but Karen said hers is too and she barely notices she has it on, that it's better than to have it moving around like a bracelet. I got used to it really fast and also barely noticed it. Now if running actually ever does kill me, instead of just feeling like it's going to kill me, at least they'll have a head start on IDing my body.

That's all I got.  Sorry for the super-sized post, it's been a busy few days.

Pre-Race Sleep (or lack thereof)

A quick share... Runner's World magazine has a great article up - Why You Shouldn't Freak Out About Bad Pre-Race Sleep.  And I love the video of several elite marathoners discussing their pre-race sleep plan, "which in many cases includes, yes, not panicking about bad sleep."

Is it Me or is it Hot in Here?

I have to warn you, I've eaten about 50 dozen handfuls of tortilla chips prior to writing this post and my daughter is currently fighting sleep, screaming in her bedroom while I pray to the toddler sleep gods that she falls asleep soon.  Soooo, this may be a slightly snarky, sarcastic, bitter post.  But hopefully not. 

So I got home from the backpacking trip on Saturday.  I had an internal debate with myself about exercise on Sunday, "maybe I should get some rest."  But I knew the hike down wasn't really all that much work and that I had no reason to skip exercise altogether.  So I compromised on a 3 mile run.  Any day now I plan to start training for the Santa Cruz Olympic triathlon (not to mention the Nike half), which means 3 mile runs will soon be a luxury I can't afford.  Better get it while I can!

The run was great, a relatively flat out-and-back route from home.  Miles 1 and 2 included some very mild inclines and were around 9:45 pace.  But Mile 3 was mostly mild decline so I pushed it for a time of 9:17...cool!

The rest of the day I felt happy I'd gone on a run, as usual.  So I took the kids to a birthday party.  They were serving grilled hot dogs, the big fatty kind but thankfully had a few tofu hot dogs for vegetarians.  I'm not a veg as you know but I checked out the nutrition stats and they were much better than the others so I opted for that, figuring you hardly taste the hot dog anyway, it's mostly a vehicle for the condiments right?  The hot dog was good and I had that with cut up fresh fruit and a small serving of Chinese chicken salad.  Later I indulged in an ice cream cone, sugar cone and all (as if the other cones aren't also sugar cones, eh?).

Miguel had some friends over after his soccer game to watch sports.  They'd grilled carne asada and whatnot so I ended up basically snacking on that for dinner.  Up bright and early Monday to start the new week.  Too bright and early given I've been going to bed much later than I should be and I've had to get my workouts in first thing in the morning the past two days because of after work commitments. 

So yesterday morning I was up early and hit the gym.  20 minutes on the upright bike followed by a fast 5 minute treadmill run with chest/triceps for strength training.  The local fire station is being demolished so the firefighters are in a temporary shelter thingy.  What does that have to do with anything, you ask?  Well, well - on Monday morning there were no less than three of our local firefighters exercising in my gym.  Needless to say I was slightly more entertained than usual.  I swear, appearance must be factored in when hiring because more often than not, firefighters are easy on the eyes, at least in my neck of the woods. 

Anyway, I finished up my routine and went about my day.  The only cool thing about the morning workout is how good it feels all day knowing it's done.  But after work I was seriously dragging.  Normally after work I exercise and get a sort of second-wind boost from that, and it carries me through the evening.  But an AM workout doesn't have that advantage and I was dragging come sunset.

I also had PT on Monday and Kate said something interesting.  My range of motion was much better and she commented, "So a few days with much less sitting than usual and you're doing better."  I'm starting to think the sitting is a bigger part of the back problem than I ever imagined.  Where's that "stand up and move" app I need to remind me to get off my tuchis at least every hour?

Anyway...During the day I'd cooked red beans in the slow cooker so dinner was that with some rice, avocado, pico de gallo - you know the drill.  And, like a dork, I again stayed up too late.  Up (late) for another AM gym visit.  This time I ran outside, doing a little route I have tracked in the past so I know it's 3 miles.  I ran it in 28:47 and was happy with that.  Back in the gym for legs/shoulders/PT exercises.  I think my back is slowly getting better, I did my whole routine with nary a twinge of back pain.   

I also made it to part of a WW meeting today, except I was so late I missed almost all of it.  And I can't find my weight log/notebook anywhere!  The last time I remember having it was a different WW meeting 1.5 weeks ago.  It has all my little mental notes in it and if I've lost it I'll be so bummed out.  Of course I'll have to get over it and start a new one but still, it's a bummer if it's gone. 

Ok, well, kid #2 is now crying for some mysterious reason so I'm off to investigate that and put myself to bed shortly after. 

Backpacking in the Desolation Wilderness 2013

Thursday morning I was up at 5am to make final preparations for the annual trek with the lady friends.  One of my favorite things about this annual outing is that I don't have to do anything other than show up with my pack and my food.  The other more experienced trekkers do all the planning and permit gathering and just tell the rest of us where to be.  They also tell us lies like, "should be an easy 4 miles in."  But I'm ok with lies, keeps me from getting scared off.

I showered and packed my breakfast and coffee for the road (it felt a bit too early to eat) and luckily I was ready to go come 6am. Gwen, er, I mean, Geri (sorry for the inside joke) and Heidi (or is it Heather?) picked me up and away we went.  I was quickly brought up to speed on the status of the trip so far.   See, three of the members of our group hiked in the day prior, on Wednesday...I'll call them Group I.  Wednesday evening (the evening before we left), Geri had received a disturbing series of texts from Group I - "The hike in was terrible, took us over 7 hours to get here, trail is like a maze, we tried to leave you notes and signs, look for them, and follow true north."

True north?  We're not professional navigators here people.  We don't even have a compass (note to self, buy a compass - and carry a map - both of which Group I had).  These texts almost caused Geri to bail.  What should have been a three to four hour hike took seven?!  Anyway, we were going for it, no turning back now. We are not the type of women to be turned back by a challenge.

Neither Geri or Heidi were on the Yosemite backpacking trip last year so we spent the rest of the drive catching up on, well, everything.  I had my cereal and coffee on the drive and got the scoop on the ladies - Geri just graduated from nursing school and Heidi is becoming a Yoga guru.  All three of us are launching in our own way so it was fun to share mutual excitement about the future. They also shared some funny stories from backpacking trips that took place before my time. 

Of course I told them about my weight loss journey and shocked the heck out of them.  Geri in particular made me laugh out loud, "When I saw you I was all, 'great, here's another hard body, look at those legs. I guess I'll still give her a ride anyway'."  Of course she tells me this after I told her I haven't always looked like this.  We all had a good laugh about that, "I guess I'll still give her a ride."  Ha!

Anyway, it must have been around 9am when we arrived at Wright's Lake in the El Dorado National Forest, our jumping off point.  The area is just gorgeous and the weather was great, a bit on the warm side with a whisper of a breeze.

We made some final adjustment to our gear, which thankfully resulted in me shaving 5-10 pounds off my pack (which was a whopping 47 pounds when I weighed it the night before) and then hit the trail a few minutes after 10am.  (note: Heidi is wearing an SF Nike Marathon shirt - she's done the full marathon four times!)

Geri, Heidi and myself

We quickly made (and recovered from) a navigational error.  Apparently Group I made the same error but instead of recovering after a half-mile in the wrong direction like we did, they went 1.5 miles.  Oops.  But they'd left us a note on the sign telling us to go the other way.  Whew!  About a mile or so later we got lucky and noticed another note they'd left for us, this one just sitting on the ground at a fork in the road.  The wooden sign post had been knocked down and if we hadn't seen their note we'd have gone straight, instead of left.

Apparently they'd put a stick on it to hold it down but the stick was gone.  They also formed a letter G out of some sticks and somehow thought we'd notice that?!  Thank goodness they also opted for a bright orange sticky note.  When I asked them how in the heck we were supposed to notice stick-formed letters on the ground their response was, "we told you to look for signs." I couldn't get over how funny that was. 

Anyway, I was just happy we saw their notes and we carried on in the right direction.  I munched along the way on my trail mix.  Trader Joe's has quite the selection of trail mixes but in the end I went with Rainbow's End, a mix of raisins, roasted peanuts, roasted almonds and m&m looking chocolates. Yum.  I marveled at how I ate the trail mix as needed, when I felt hunger, and didn't feel any urge to eat more than I needed.  

Rainbow's End Trail Mix

We hiked through just gorgeous terrain, shifting at times from marshy meadows with ponds to being surrounded by pines and manzanitas to barren outcrops of granite as far as the eye could see.  

Along the way we ran into a trail volunteer...John.  We picked his brain about the route for a few minutes and he gave us some good tips, "you'll think you're going the wrong way, you'll think you're climbing a drainage area, but keep going" and "the trail will look like a dead-end but keep going anyway."   John is 74 years old and has been volunteering out here for 6 years.  What a dream to be so active and involved at that stage of life.  I had to take a picture with him because I found him so inspiring.

John was out for a six or so night trek all by himself (plus a walkie-talkie thingy).  After our chat with John, we carried on and before too long we entered the Desolation Wilderness. 

Geri, Heidi and I - still smiling!

The hike from here was challenging, both because of elevation gain and technical trails - narrow, rocky, steep - but we were up for the challenge.  

Heidi and Geri reaching the top of a tough climb

We had a rough idea of how far we had to go since I was wearing my Garmin, but weren't 100% sure because of our slight detour at the start.  But taking a look back at Wright's Lake, where we started, sure made us feel we'd come a long way.

Wright's Lake off in the distance

It was getting close to noon when we came to a large outcropping of granite with what seemed like peaks on all sides of us.  We knew we had to climb up but we couldn't see an obvious trail.  I trekked up the most obvious path to check it out but it got super steep and narrow and seemed like a drainage rather than a trail.  Plus is was getting so narrow it was practically unpassable so didn't seem like it could be the way.  I climbed back down and we decided to sit down for lunch.  I'd packed a PB&J sandwich for lunch and had that with some trail mix and water.  After a bit of time in the shade (which was not easy to come by amongst all that granite) we searched for the trail.

We were looking hard for trail cairns and using Geri's phone to identify true north.  After about a half-hour of searching, and finding no trail cairns or obvious trails, Geri became convinced that what I thought was a drainage must be the trail.  So up we went and sure enough, it was the right way.  It got quite narrow but was never altogether unpassable (why John's advice hadn't clicked - "the trail will look like a dead-end but keep going anyway" - I don't know).  Come to find out, Group I spent one and a half hours at this same spot trying to figure out the way.  That made us feel better about our half-hour.  The rest of the trek was almost all climbing.

Geri and Heidi cresting after another tough climb

Geri and I rocking the backpacker look

 

Desolation Wilderness is appropriately named.

It wasn't long before we were hoping to find Lake Gertrude every time we came over a hill.  And finally, just before my Garmin struck mile five, bam - there was the lake.  I let out a big Woo-hoo! And heard a trio of Woo-hoos in return from Group I.  They were SO happy to see us because they'd been worried we'd get lost.  Fortunately between the notes and tip to stay north and the tips from John, we avoided the seven-hour nightmare they experienced.  We made it in a total of 4 hours, 21 minutes - including all stops and lunch.

My Garmin route - you can see where we made a wrong turn near the start, and where we walked around a lot around the middle.

 And here's the elevation profile from our trek in.  Looks like fun doesn't it?

Elevation profile, Wright's Lake to Gertrude Lake - Desolation Wilderness

Full Garmin stats here.

The Ringleader (aka Karen) and I - boy was she happy to see us!

Angie, Heidi, Erin and I

Karen and Geri reviewing where we were.

Let the fun begin!  Actually, we needed to relax so after setting up our tents the next order of business for Group II was a siesta.  I was happy to rest my head for a while.  It was a warm afternoon so napping wasn't easy but I'm pretty sure I drifted in and out of sleep.  We got up a couple hours later and had dinner.  I'd packed Trader Joe's Indian Fare for my dinners, Madras Lentils for the first night, Punjab Eggplant for the second.  I mixed ready-made brown rice in with the meals for an easy hot, yummy, and filling instant dinner.  After dinner we watched the moon rise and the sun set and goofed around taking group pictures.

Geri and Erin under the moon

The Whole Crew:  Heidi, Geri, Angie, Me, Karen and Erin

Fires are not allowed in Desolation Wilderness (which is so sad because Angie is a master fire builder) and the mosquitoes were pretty brutal being we were right next to the lake so we packed it in early.  Up bright and early and making coffee and oatmeal for breakfast.  We made a plan to check out Tyler Lake, which was just over the hill according to the map.  Angie had an allergic reaction to something so she had to stay at camp.  The rest of us packed some snacks and hit the granite.

You can see Wright's in the bottom left, Gertrude near the top just right of center and Tyler next to that.

Tyler lake is a bit larger than Gertrude.  We all took a dip to cool off.

Erin, Heidi, Karen and Geri next to Tyler Lake

Karen scoping out Tyler

Karen and Erin taking a dip in Tyler lake

Me and Heidi - happy campers!

Garlic Naan, Swiss cheese, salami, avocado and hummus- YUM!

After lunch we spent some time exploring around our lake.  Karen and I ended up swimming across Gertrude, so refreshing!

Camping next to Lake Gertrude.  Can you spot our three tents?

Turns out Heidi is a heart lover just like me.  I told her about the nature-carved heart I found on the Yosemite trip last year.  So when we spotted a heart shaped cloud we whipped out our cameras!

Love is in the air

After that we all sat around playing a new-to-me card game, Golf, which was super fun.  And then we coaxed Heidi, a serious Yoga girl, into some impromptu Yoga.

Warrior Pose

Mountain Yoga!  (L to R) Karen, Me, Geri and Heidi

Geri, me, Karen and Heidi

It just doesn't get better than this.

And before too long...we cross paths with another heart, which I have to share.

Follow the signs.

After all that work it was time for dinner!  My appetite was kind of low during the whole trip, I packed way more food than I needed.  Here I am preparing my Punjab Eggplant with brown rice mixed in.

Karen popping in for a taste.

After dinner we put on some music and danced for a bit before taking a walk to watch the sunset.  The sky was lit up with beautiful orange and yellows.

A sunset chat in Desolation Wilderness

I'm all bundled up but it never got really cold at night.

Karen and I spent a few minutes chatting about how beautiful the area is and how few people get out and explore such areas.  Moments like this fill me with gratitude that I made that decision to change, and that I keep making that decision every day to stay the course.  As has been said before, it's not always easy, but it's worth it.

We hit our tents by about 10pm with a plan to rise early and pack up to avoid trekking out in the heat of the day.  Unfortunately I'd got a bit sunburned on my back and whatnot which made sleeping a bit tough.  Up around 5:45am making coffee and breakfast and then packing up.  Here's one last picture of my wee tent (it's a two-man and my buddy Joy and I slept in it all across Europe in the mid-90's, love this tent), which is perfect for me.

My home away from home.

The group just before heading out around 7:45am.

(L to R) - Karen (who didn't quite beat the camera timer), Erin, Geri, Me, Heidi and Angie

Although we were moving at a pretty quick pace I was still able to take in the beauty of it all.

And Heidi spotted another heart in the granite!

Follow your heart.

And then, before you know it, we're seeing people again as we approach civilization. The entire time we were out there we only saw two other people who came in the middle of the night Thursday night and left early Friday morning.  Other than that, we had the whole place to ourselves.  We made the hike down in 2 hours and 12 minutes!  Back at the cars and off with the packs and the boots and a quick dip in Wright's Lake to freshen ourselves for the drive home.  Whew, what a morning!  I felt so good that I'm pretty sure I was ODing on endorphins.

We caravanned into Placerville to stop at Mel's Diner for lunch.  During the drive to lunch I got a little overwhelmed with the beauty of the trip and I actually got teary.  The warm air was blowing my hair, Jack Johnson was singing to me and I just felt so full of life and love and gratitude for all the beauty in the world, for my family and kids, for my body and nature and music and food and, and, and - just everything, up to and including the wonderful women I'd been lucky to trek with.  I used to carry an extra 90+ pounds everywhere I went, now I'm fortunate enough to temporarily manage 40 or so just for fun.

I'm feeling the need to get up on my soapbox for a minute so bear with me.  This is your life, live it.  You give up a day of your life in exchange for each 24 hours, make them meaningful, live them fully.  Stop putting off your dreams and goals, start grabbing them, start reaching out and taking the future you desire. Don't wait until Monday, start today, now. It's all up to you, don't let bad habits and lack of faith stand in your way, you don't have to see how you'll get there to start, just take the first step and keep taking steps and soon you'll find the journey is the way.  Life is rich, nature is free, get out there and soak it in.  Thank you for listening.

The beautiful trip was winding down but before that, food!  At Mel's we all shared a couple orders of onion rings and I split a veggie burger with Heidi.  Delicious.  Oh, and I had a small Oreo shake because it sounded like a great treat after all the sweat and hard work.  I had to beg the waitress to let me order a kid-sized shake, how sad is that?  I told her I'd pay for the adult size but bring me the kid size.  In the end she charged me the kid size, which of course was still huge.

Sweet!

Angie and I sharing a smile.

And that was it.  We all shared hugs and a few more laughs and then hit the road for home.  I think I fell asleep for a bit in the backseat.  I got home to find Miguel had taken the kids to the Russian River with some friends for the day so I had the whole place to myself.  I unpacked, started laundry, did a little grocery shopping (and bought a compass!) and started writing this post.  What a fun few days.  I can't wait for next year.  Between now and then I hope to learn more about topo map reading so I can put that compass to good use next year.

p.s.  If you have any questions about backpacking or this trip feel free to send me a message either through my FB page or email (at the bottom of my FAQ page).