1. Live
No need for further numbers on my list, no expectations.
1) Climb The Nose (need to become a better climber first)
2) Run a marathon (did a halfer)
3) Scuba the Great Barrier Reef
4) Climb Mt. Rainier
5) AT Thru-hike haha
No worries; we're here to learn.
My ink trail.
Why wait?Originally Posted by Jim Adams
There are places. For that!
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
My list will be complete when they are digging my grave and I come sliding in sideways with my shoes on fire , hair smouldering , totally spent and I get to say “Holy **** what a Ride” with an ear to ear grin....
Watch my kids grow up healthy. Thats it. Everything else takes a back seat. I'd love to climb everest...but watching my kids be happy is far more important.
death is an illusion. i have a long wish list of things to do in the afterlife.
#1- thru hike the AT
My list is simple now:
Hike - whenever I can for however long I can.
And in between those times: Stop and smell the wildflowers, watch the wild birds, and paint, draw, or write about what delights and inspires me.
~*~
I was misdiagnosed with MS about 10 years ago. The doctors have been telling me for over twenty years that I have 'fibromyalgia'...what I have finally realized I have is a Chronic Lyme Infection...and the insurance companies do not want to hear that.
When Lyme struck me down so bad that I lost my vision, balance, the feeling in my hands and feet, and a host of other troubles...I looked over my life of 40 years (at that time) and realized that I had been spending all my time trying to make other people happy. I was a good wife/mom/sister/daughter/aunt/friend/worker etc...but I had been putting off my dreams for years. I raised three awesome kids and have two phenomenal granddaughters. My mom and dad are getting older, they are going to need me in the not so distant future.
I did my very first small section of the AT in the Whites when I was 15 or so. I went over the summit of Mt Madison barefoot. I spent 4 days and 3 nights in the Whites hiking with my local YMCA group and the 'bug' hit.
Part of my struggle to recover after the MS/Lyme scare was to start walking and then hiking. My best friend used to hold my elbow to keep me from falling down on the trails...and she held my pack for close to two years because I couldn't tolerate pressure on my shoulders.
Fast forward: with my buddy I've section hiked a goodly section of the AT in Massachusetts. Hiked a good section of the North-South Trail in Rhode Island, and hiked quite a bit of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and Robert Frost Trail in Massachusetts. What we discovered from all that hiking is that: She cannot go beyond 5 days due to foot pain...and I may blister, but due to the nerve damage in my feet...I can keep going, albeit slowly because I do not always know where my right foot in particular is in relation to the ground. We had planned to thru together around this time. But an impending divorce for her and the knowledge that her feet just cannot go the miles changed our plans to do our thru-hike together.
I have dreamed of an AT thru-hike since I stood on Mt Madison all those years ago...a barefoot teen gazing out over the mountains and following the trail with her eyes.
I turned 50 last year and evaluated where I was at. I have accomplished almost all of the things I had put on my bucket list when I turned 40 and got the news that I did not have MS...but instead was infected with Lyme.
I battle constantly to stay healthy. I'm in the midst of experimenting with alternative treatments for my Lyme infection. So I decided that I'll attempt the Long Trail this year, and if all goes well...then I will do the AT in a couple sections.
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