A year ago I told myself; I’m going to start running again.
Then I tried to go for a run and my left knee hurt like a bitch. Seriously after two years of incredible back pain, surgery and recovery time and now my knee fucking hurts? What the fuck body? That was the beginning of three months of physical therapy for old lady knee (cartilage damage in my knee) That was three months, the end of last winter and into the spring when I couldn’t hike and I couldn’t run. I could barely limp around work; and I walk a lot at work. It’s a half mile just from the parking lot to get to the marketing office! It fucking sucked to be so injured, but silver lining, I found a love for mountain biking. ( and then I crashed terribly and lost some of that love)
Flash forward to March 2018 and the hiker in me was back with a Merrel booted vengeance. All winter long, I had been out hiking up Mt Baldy. The Devil’s Backbone was a gorgeous site on a winters morning with no one on Old Baldy but myself. As of March I had already hiked nearly 300 miles so far in 2018. Think I will reach my 2018 goal of 2018 miles by the following December?
Yes, that is correct, I said 2018 miles! Training for Mt Whitney in just over a week is a great way to get to this lofty goal, especially when I find myself hiking nearly 40-50 miles a week right now.
Flashback to 2015; I summited Mt Whitney for the first time. Training for my first ascent of Mt Whitney took a lot of time, dedication and a lot, and I mean a lot of miles hiked. Five years ago I was in the best shape of my life. I ran half marathons and trail ran up to fifteen miles some day training to hike the highest mountain in the continental United States. Even being as fit as I could possibly be at thirty-two years old not one step of the twenty-two miles up the Mt Whitney Trail was easy.
This year my New Year’s resolution is to hike the year; Yes, that means over 2,018 miles! We are once again going to summit Mt Whitney this July ( In one week! Am I ready?!) and that means I had to train to hike a lot of miles between short winter days and the hot summer ones! Planning to hike over two thousand miles in 2018 is a big endeavour but it’s never to early to start, as I did just the first week in January with this awesome snowy hike to one of the highest places in our hometown of Big Bear Lake, California.
Yeah, it is really that gorgeous. Days off were meant to be spent hiking up miles of trails to see views like this all the way across the valley to San Gorgonio at 11,503 feet. On this chilly winters day, I love to just stare at Old Greyback across miles of wild mountain wilderness.
It’s absolutely gorgeous on these mountain trails out here in our national forest after a few days of fresh snow fall. Hiking up deserted mountain trails on January days like this get me so excited for all the hikes, trail runs and mountain biking to come in 2018!
So how many miles are you planning to hike this year?
Comments
Wow, such amazing pics! Unfortunately, Iowa does not offer much in terms of hiking (at least not in my immediate area). I’ll be doing plenty of running/training, though, as I have my 8th marathon happening in October.
There is no hiking to speak of here in the Chicago suburbs and you are giving me FOMO! I’m excited to follow your journey up and down!! Please share tons of photos.
Mounting hiking is no joke. My hip is still talking to be from my recent hikes in the Appalachian Mountains. Unless someone has tried it, I’m not sure they would realize how strenuous it is. Good luck your with 2018 goal. I second Wendy’s request, I want to see all the pictures. Thanks for linking!
I read this and initially thought you were in Montana – we also have a Mt Baldy and a Devil’s Backbone. The views are a bit different though!
I don’t track my hiking miles consistently, though I keep thinking maybe I should. 2,018 miles is a great goal!