Final Day on Tri-County Challenge

    The feet hurt as soon as they touched the floor this morning. I hobbled to my clothes for the day and got ready. The more my feet moved, the better they felt, and the more hope I acquired for getting through the day. I was exhausted after not getting in until late, but excited for it to be my last day on the trail. 

    My husband dropped me off at the same spot he picked me up. For the last time, I was starting in the dark with headlamp ablaze. As I entered the woods, I thought about the conversation I had the night before with my father about hunting season and my potential for being shot. Luckily, it was only bow season and water fowl rifle season. I figured the bow hunters had to have precision aim, and I wasn't going to be near water fowl without being near a roadway as well. So, I felt pretty safe, but I was still in orange. 

    Again, my trail media was once again mixed between trails, boardwalks, roads, and highways. I enjoyed walking through the woods where I found lines attached to trees as part of tapping for maple syrup. It reminded me of collecting sap when I was younger to help my grandpa's sister's husband make syrup, and growing up with the homemade syrup. I had received a jar in July while staying at my mom's because we ran into the son, who continues to make small batches for friends and family. I miss homemade syrup.

    Anyway, I eventually made it to Middleville, MI, where I had made plans with my in-laws the night before to meet for lunch. I made it in before anyone else, found myself a pavilion with picnic tables, and proceeded to take off my socks and shoes before laying on the bench to rest a bit. Eventually, my family arrived, we got take out from a nearby location, and enjoyed our food under the pavilion. With everyone present, we wandered along the cement path about a mile before my husband and his dad returned to the car, while my mother-in-law (the Awesome MIL from the AT) continued on for about 6-7miles. 

    It is always fun hiking with MIL as she absorbs nature, and reminds me to take it all in. We didn't chat as much as we did on the AT, but I still enjoyed her company. It helped me make it through the middle part of the day, and keep going to the finish line. The men met up with us to whisk MIL away, but we planned on meeting up at the finish line and then meeting friends of mine at a brewery. 

    So, alone I took off to finish what 3 days prior I had taken on as a challenge. I wandered through backroads along swamps, reminding me of my childhood joy of walking through those swamps. For the last 4-5 miles, I had to force my brain not to think about the pain that was ever increasing in my feet. I had just completed 115 miles after all. The pain did cause me to look at my watch more often and made the end feel extra long. As I turned the last corner on the map before my end, I gave a little cheer. I was going to make it, and what an adventure it had been. 

    Nearing the next county, I found my husband and his parents navigating the terminus and trying to find a safe place to park the car while I completed my walk. My husband walked the last 100 steps or so, as his parents welcomed me in to the finish. I was ready to collapse, but happy to be done. What an accomplishment. 

    I got in the car after switching into my sandals, and we headed off to Thornapple Brewing Company for dinner. My friends, who used to grow hops in southern Michigan met us there. It was a great celebration of my accomplishment. 

    Once home at my in-laws' place, I pulled out my certificates and patches, and made sure to take a photo commemorating the accomplishment. My feet looked solid, but also had red blotches that made me a little concerned. They hurt, but that was purely from exhaustion after the 4 days and 120 miles. I rubbed them down and asked them to take care of me in a day or 2 as I had signed up for the 5k at Kalamazoo College's Homecoming weekend. They did carry me the distance, although not very fast as my leg muscles also had been overworked, and I forgot to ask them for extra support. 

    With this completed, I had no other plans for the trail this year. So, I packed away my stuff and readied myself for the winter months and trying to figure out what has been causing my nausea/vomiting and emotional variations, as I had not had either during the past few days nor while doing the triple crown of Michigan. Maybe anxiety has a part in both? Doing day hikes with a safe place to stay and lots of support made doing incredible things easier. This lead me to thinking maybe I need to adventure with the safety of an automobile vs camping out in the woods alone. So, I started looking at road trip adventures for 2022, especially after the trip home from Michigan where we were able to cross off 2-3 more states for my mom.  

Part of Preparing is Leaving

The itinerary is completed (although, tweaking of it is still occurring). Important people have been notified of the adventure (i.e., family, close friends, some support people). Gear has been reviewed (some testing will need to occur). Food is being mentally planned. Now, it’s time to tell my job and patients I am departing. 😬

Wow, I never knew how hard that last part was when you love your job & coworkers, & you’re not sure if you are returning to the job. When I headed out on the Appalachian Trail (AT), I was employed by REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated, for those who don’t already know about REI), and I planned on returning there after my trek. With the Colorado Trail (CT), I was done with REI, but knew my REI family would always be with me. As I prepare for this journey, I am uncertain of my future. This time, I am leaving my job solely to repair and possibly rethink my desire and drive to be a nurse. 

In 2013, I left my job at REI because I had done/learned everything I cared to about retail. I was beginning to miss “my crazies,” as I referred to my residents from the mental health group home. That’s when I knew it was time to pursue something new, possibly in the realm of caring for people. I have had some form of Wilderness Medicine certification off and on since 1993. My favorite has been the Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification. As I was leaving REI, the outdoor school had just come to the Denver store, & I looked to work with them using my wilderness medicine knowledge. Unfortunately, I was also burnt out on the retail sector of my life. So, a position with the outdoor school never came to fruition. This passion for medicine/first responder along with the book, Three Cups of Tea, conversations with one of my instructors from my WFR course, and an application attempt to be an instructor for Wilderness Medical Institute being rejected, I realized nursing was the way to go.

I have now been a nurse for 4 years. My first job was working overnights in a level 1 trauma hospital on a medical/surgical floor specializing in trauma and oncology cases. As I mentioned in another post, I worked that job for a little over a year before moving to my current clinic. July of 2017, I started with the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute (CBCI) in an outpatient clinic setting where I worked with hematology/oncology patients. It didn’t take long to fall in love with the patients, coworkers, doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, coordinators, administrative people, and research nurses. After a year and a half, I was helping out in the infusion center, with which we had merged, as a charge nurse recommended by my coworkers. When that started to get boring, and I was beginning to feel a little burnt out, I was approached by a coworker about joining the research team. So, in the hopes of refueling my love of nursing and the job, I signed on with the research team, and met a whole new group of wonderful people. Unfortunately, that did not help rejuvenate me in my profession. I found myself starting to become mechanical/businesslike with my patients. They deserve better than that, and thus my rational for heading out on my journey to recover and reconnect to the caring, loving nurse I know is inside me. 

So, I guess that is why this journey’s departure is a little harder than the AT or CT. This time, I am certain of my relationship with my husband, but uncertain of my relationship to the profession of nursing. I spent so many years preparing for this career as a nurse, and I know there are many directions in which I can venture. At this time, I just need to step back, reconnect to my heart, mind, and soul, and hope for the answers that will provide me the best joy and be of the greatest service to the people with whom I interact. That is why it is so hard to say goodbye to my CBCI family, but who knows, I may very well return to the clinic a better nurse. So, stay tuned to stories/entries from the trail, as I work through the many ideas I have regarding what/who I want to be when/if I ever grow up!

Marshall Pass visit

This past weekend I did the work needed to go visit Kasey and Liz on their hike. After letting my drivers license lapse a couple of years ago, I finally got around to taking the road test that I needed to get it back. Many thanks to Holly for picking me up and letting me borrow her car for the test. I then contacted our friend Dawn to borrow her car for the weekend. Many thanks to Dawn for letting me use it all weekend. I knew that they were supposed to be getting a resupply on Marshall Pass sometime this weekend, but their cell service was way too spotty for them to let me know exactly when they actually got there. Thursday is when I finally knew that I'd be able to make the trip up and it turns out that is when they made it up there so they didn't even get my text to them that I was coming. 

Marshall Pass summit

With all the prep work done I headed up after work on Friday. I left work an hour early to make sure I could get up there with some daylight to spare. The final 12 miles of the trip was up a bumpy dirt road and I had no access to Google Maps to make sure I was really headed the right way. Luckily there aren't too many turn offs so it was easy to find. When I made it to the top of the pass there was initially no sign of humans, plenty of cows though. I got out and started hiking up the trail to see if I could find a place to camp. Not far up I saw a cabin across a swamp and then I saw a woman in a skirt. Who else could that be, but my Kasey. I called across and she got all excited to see me. I ran back to the car and found the side road that led to the cabin. Their official resupply was from another friend, Dick, and he had already cooked them dinner and fed them beer, 2 bottles of Chimay and some boxed wine if I recall correctly. I settled in and they warned me of all the cow patties scattered about the camp. It turns out this area is a cow camp and there are many cattle roaming freely about. It wasn't too long before the sun set and we headed to bed.

View from the cabin as the sun set against the hills.

In the morning the girls were ready to get moving again as they had been there since Thursday. I had originally planned to stay at the pass all weekend because I thought they'd be getting there Friday and want to take a day off. That didn't stop me from asking to tag along for their hike on Saturday. I had everything that I needed to camp including a large enough pack to carry my stuff so I packed it all up and joined them hiking in my worn out road racing flats. Lack of proper shoes wasn't as bad as it could have been. Some dirt got in, but because I can slip them off and on very easily emptying them was not a problem and I only had to do it a few times. Getting to hike with Kasey gave me plenty of time to catch her up on happenings at home and I got to hear about many of their adventures from the past few weeks. 

Hiking behind my best gal in an inspiring aspen grove.

The scenery was gorgeous and constantly changing. We had lots of pine forest, but would then open to fields with grand vistas. We also went through a couple of nice aspen groves. We were almost always going either up or down, but most of it was not too steep. There were a couple of places with a steep descent and some of them quite rocky which was the biggest challenge for my shoes. We saw quite a few mountain bikers including one through biker. There were also quite a few motor bikes out, especially towards the end of our day.

A panorama along the way

We finished our planned 11 miles around 3 o'clock at Tank 7 creek. There were some dark clouds rolling in accompanied by some loud thunder as we reached our destination so we got our tent up as quickly as possible. Luckily all we got were a few sprinkles as the storm skirted around us. A couple of other hikers came by a little while later and had to stop to dry out some of their gear as they had caught the brunt of the storm about a mile back on the trail so it must have just missed us.

Our valley home for my one night out.

We had fun hanging our bear bag, although we were more afraid of the marmots and chipmunks than any bears although Kasey did locate some scat that could have been from a bear. We also spent more time than was practical attempting to build a water diversion system on the uphill side of our tent in case it rained. Fortunately it didn't rain because I have my doubts about how well it would have worked. We headed to bead before the sun was down. I was pretty tired and fell right asleep.

Kasey and Liz

In the morning we were up around 6:30 and after a quick breakfast we had camp torn down by 7:00. We said our goodbyes and each departed on our own way. Me back to the car, the girls further south moving ever closer to Durango. I had an uneventful hike back and made pretty good time. She is having fun out there, but has been missing me and I've been missing her so it was good to see her and catch up in person.

Love & support delays

We are moving along the trail very well and meeting tons of people.  It is an amazing journey of struggle and fun all at the same time. 

When we planned this trip, we figured on 10mile days.  Who knew we are way more amazing than that!?  We are currently 2 days ahead.  So, what is one to do?  Take really short days, right?  Well, ... that hasn't worked out right either.

On 9 July, we traversed about 15miles to the base of a big climb for the next day (2500ft in 4.8miles).  The idea was to conquer the horrible climb and descent and keep the day short.  Unfortunately, we ended up conquering the whole trip by 11am.  So, we decided to go a little further.  Then, we missed the unmarked trail for the lake we were planning on sleeping at for the night.  Thus, we plugged on for a total of 12miles for the day.  This mistake put us even closer to our 14 July destination & in the dilemma of figuring out what to do...hot springs for 3 days or a day in Buena vista.  Due to catching a friend we made on our way to Twin Lakes, & his friend taking him to Buena Vista, we found our way in to town.  Those two were easily convinced to hang in town & thus we have a ride back to the trail tomorrow morning, afternoon, or whenever they finally get their drunk butts together to head for the trail.  Still, we have the problem of being early to meet our drop.  I guess we will figure it out & have fun doing so. 
These are the simple pleasures of the trail.  It is an amazing journey.  I am extremely thankful for all the love & support.  The little changes and extra days in towns has been fun and educational.  It is all part of getting to know the state of Colorado!  Thank you! 

Well on her way

I have been getting some "I'm OK" text messages from +Kasandra Robbert  throughout this past week and yesterday I finally got to talk to her on the phone. She sounds good.

 They made it to Kenosha Pass a day early, but Kasey broke a tent pole that morning so they've decided to hang out an extra day while they wait for a friend to bring her a new tent from REI. 
We did have a scare this week. The Lime Gulch fire started Tuesday night, and did so about 2-3 miles north of where they were camping. I heard about the fire on Wednesday, but thought it was in a different area. Thursday morning I decided to actually looked it up and realized it was very close. I spent the whole day looking at different maps of the trail and the fire. I learned that none of the maps were accurate enough to ease my mind. I finally got a friend to Email me their latest GPS coordinates and I got a text from Kasey so I knew they were out of the danger zone. They have since closed most of the trail that she hiked on the first 2 days. The other fires don't appear to be in their path yet. We'll pray that a new one doesn't block their way to the finish.

Mike

in the beginning

So, begins another journey! This one shorter than the last, and yet somehow so much more needed! It is funny how odd this feels as I prepare to head back out on the trail. I'm worried I am royally screwing up! My backpack feels way too heavy. I'm not sure I have enough food to get me through the days, although I have plenty for dinners the next 3 days! I'm worried about not having anywhere to camp despite having the whole wilderness. Despite my friend and I agreeing not to feel responsible for each other, I have to confess I feel a little responsible or concerned. At the same time, I'm thankful to have her with me keeping me tame in the beginning. No 16mile start day this time, and yet some how, I still feel like I am too ignorant to actually be able to do this hike. I know that will go away after a week...hopefully. It just feels so strange. Maybe 10yrs between long trails is not such a good idea! oh well, the one worry that is the same this time, is whether my husband will be okay. That worry only grew stronger after his bout of cancer. Maybe this hike will help that worry go away. I know he can take care of himself. I just worry that he will be okay! After all, we look after each other and have for almost 15yrs now! :o) Here is to peace & wellness. I hope to post as often as possible. I come off the trail to run the leadville marathon and hope to post then. This trail is not as populated as the AT and thus not as many known facilities. So, we will see what happens.
May everyone live their dreams every day! blessed be!

Wishy Washy

Today, I am hiking the Colorado Trail...or so I think!

Tomorrow, I am going to go an exotic vacation with my husband...or so I think!

Finally, I have decided it is time to give back to the community. So, instead of hiking the Colorado Trail this summer, I am going to help build/repair some of our major trails. American Hiking Society has what they call Volunteer Vacations. Basically, you pay money to go stay in the woods and build/repair some of the most beautiful trails in our country. I am looking forward to being what I always referred to as the true Trail Angels of the Appalachian Trail...the trail maintainer! It should be rewarding.

When I looked at the Colorado Trail and where my life is at the moment, I realized now is not the time. In another 4 years, I will be hopefully hiking the PCT, and right now I need to work on my finances to make such a journey easier. So, to be able to help maintain the trails and possibly in the future be a crew leader for such excursions would be a dream come true.

Every day is a journey of adventure. I meet people of all walks of life from my bus commute to my retail position. They all inspire me and touch me in some way whether they know it or not. I look forward to giving back to the world the true goodness of my heart! It is always obtained by helping share nature with others!