Considerations for Retirement

When thinking about retiring and where to locate yourself, what are your considerations? What are you looking for in a lifestyle, what is the cost of living, do you have aging parents or children that need your support? Most of us equate retirement with saving for it and planning for its financial implications. While having money to support oneself is a necessity, it does not have to be your primary focus. Your non-financial planning is just as important as making sure you have enough to live out your life gracefully.

Where should I live?

For many this is a question never previously thought of. You’ve worked hard, raised a family, have a home and thoughts have not strayed far from those 4 walls. 

Once you’ve freed yourself from work and obligations the world can be your oyster, if you wish. There are many places that offer low cost of living, temperate climates, quality health care and are welcoming to retirees. 

What do I like to do?

With work taking up so much of our days for years on end you may have let activities go by the wayside that you loved dearly. 

You may wish to live an outdoors lifestyle with the ocean or mountains nearby. Perhaps you’re a foodie and relish farm fresh fare and eating out frequently. 

How much do I need to live comfortably?

If you’re staying within your own country, different areas have different costs of living. It may cost 6-7% less by living a couple of miles down the road in a different state.

If you’re thinking of leaving the country research places with low tax rates, lower general costs of living and what health care may be.

Give thought to utilities; some places may necessitate air conditioning and others heating. How are property and income taxes? What are the costs of goods and services? Groceries? Do you need a car to get around? 

There are many international destinations that have expat communities. With many low cost, good health care and temperate climate destinations these places attract many expats.

Do you enjoy the hustle and bustle of city living with shopping and nightlife or a more laid back lifestyle? 

Maybe you find your fulfillment being surrounded by friends and family members. You are content with what you’ve worked so hard for. 

 

Retirement is so much more than a number, it takes planning to know where you will be happiest and live your life to its greatest potential. Having a good financial plan in place, an agent to help you with costs associated with an area and resources are a step in the right direction. Whether to spend your days where you are, a lower cost of living state or another country is up to you! 

 

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

To be honest, we love Winter. Everything about it! The cold, the snow, the activities….So far it’s been pretty good. We’ve hiked, skinned for turns, visited with friends, skinny skied, and paid for groomers. The only thing we would want more of is more snow and more free time to enjoy it.

We got our first real snowfall just after Christmas and we’ve been making the most out of it whenever we can. Weekdays are an early start with walks at 4:15a so that we can spend some time together and weekends we’re spending as much time outside as we can.

It’s been fun, we’ve been exploring some smaller local mountains which we didn’t know were around. Mt. Gunstock, Mt. Rowe, Hedgehog Mt. (spectacular views), hiking around the ice climbs of Rumney, skinny skiing up to Franconia Falls and days on the hills at Jay Peak and Gunstock. Heck I even entered a race at my husband’s networking event. 5 women and I won! Not bad, not bad at all.

It seems that every time it begins to snow we get all excited, geared up and go out on long walks around our little city. When snow is falling it is really quite beautiful. It’s also when we plan all the things that we would like to do with our lives.

Here are some photos, I hope you enjoy them.

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Road Trip!

This year is the first time in the 13 years we’ve been married that we’ve taken a vacation. Strange considering that both of us spent years travelling full time; before we met, separate…

Source: Road Trip!

Road Trip!

This year is the first time in the 13 years we’ve been married that we’ve taken a vacation. Strange considering that both of us spent years travelling full time; before we met, separately and then together for fun and then work. It’s been nice having a place to call home. Our vacations have mainly been hike-cations. Living so close to the White Mountains we have endless days and years of hiking in front of us. Earlier this year we went out to Park City for about a week of fun. What a great reminder of how much we love to travel. As soon as we returned from Utah, we began brainstorming of somewhere new to go. My husband has been wanting to take a motorcycle trip. Not one of those overnight sorts of things, he wanted to do a major trip with lots of mileage. All I could think of is, “Ow! My aching butt!”

I’m not sure what it is, yet our thoughts and desires want to take us North. Continually North. Somewhere, somehow one of us came up with the thought of taking this motorcycle trip to Nova Scotia. Neither of us had been there. Initially my thoughts were to ride the Harley up there and then explore. 11 hours just to get there, and car travel is faster than motorcycle travel. There’s the high speed CAT, which when I originally looked was no longer running.

As is often the case we spoke about the trip here and there, knowing we were going and until July that’s about as far as it went. My husband started panicking that we were going in a month and hadn’t planned anything. Oh yeah, we were going to be there over a holiday weekend to boot. Some time well spend in front of the monitor showed that the high speed CAT from Portland, ME to Yarmouth, NS was back online; 5.5 hours sure sounded much better than sitting on the back of a bike for 11+ hours. We booked the CAT.

A little more than a week out we had the ferry booked and finally our arrival and departure night on NS booked. Having never been there before we thought it smart to stay in town, which proved to be a good idea.

Looking at the map, I suddenly realized how freaking HUGE Nova Scotia is! I thought it was going to be maybe triple the size of Martha’s Vineyard. What a shocker it was to see it side by side to Maine. This might be a good time to tell you that we thought we were going to make it over Newfoundland for a few days as well, perhaps even getting up to Greenland. We had 9 days in total and two of those were going to be spent travelling to and from NS. What were we thinking????

2 days before leaving we discovered that the one place we really wanted to go to; Meat Cove; was first come, first serve on their cabins, sans electricity or bedding. We had to pack the tent, sleeping bags, and pads. The weather showed that we may encounter rain and colder temperatures, Gore-tex and layers also had to be packed as well as clothing, and showering gear, all on the bike. Thank goodness for compression sacks and dry bags! Gore-tex uppers and bottoms, wind jackets, leather jackets and long underwear in a dry bag on top of the trunk. Compression sacks with sleeping bags, mattress pads, hats, gloves, tent and poles in the trunk. A small travel bag for each of us in the saddlebags. Once on the ferry we found we were lighter packed than anyone else, some of whom were spending less days out.

We arrived after dark with a lot of fog. Fortunately our hotel was within a mile of the ferry. The next day was foggy with drizzle. That’s ok, we were prepared. Most everyone else headed toward Digby as there was a big rally happening. Our plan was to go counter clockwise. The fog lifted here and there to scenes of tremendous beauty. Granite rock outcroppings, the Atlantic, quaint fishing towns abounded. Our goal was to get to Cape Breton Island for the majority of our time. After 3 long days in drizzle, wind, rain, sore buts and scenic beauty we reached Cape Breton. This island; it too is huge!

The first day we had to find shelter mid-afternoon as the rain was pelting us sideways, in the face and it was bone chilling. Great time to stop for lunch and a warm beverage. NS has some good coffee! It was also easier to find GF food so I could eat. French fries. French fries with everything. I’ve never seen so many potatoes in my life.

There’s this mountain we need to get up and over in order to reach our destination for the night, Smokey Mountain. It’s steep, hairpin turns this way and that, and the direction we’re riding keeps going up, up, up. It’s raining and terrifying and the reason I chose to go this direction on the island. I don’t even have a picture, that’s how terrified I was. Once down we find ourselves in a lovely coastal village for the night.

The next evening we find ourselves at what feels like the top of the World, Meat Cove. Honestly, I just love saying, “Meat Cove”. We’ve booked the last of the cabins; really an enclosed shelter. 7 kilometers of dirt road with more than it’s share of potholes and waterbars. Nerve wracking on a bike, is putting it lightly. We settle in, enjoy the view over the cliffs, down to the beach, find an obscure boardwalk to a few mile adventure, and a sunset cocktail. Rumor has it that Meat Cove has some of the best seafood chowder on the island. We’re going to find out. It’s good and the company is better. A scout for the Canadian National Rugby team joins us for the meal. Conversation, laughter and an invite to share a fire and wine ensue. We go to bed late, it was a good evening.

After coffee, breakfast and a hike we’re sad to leave and yet we’re off. There are highlands, actual highlands here. We now want to go to Scotland and trek in the highlands there. High plateaus, ponds, trails, scrubland, lonely places. All of this tugs at our hearts and makes us happy. We only have a few days until we leave. We don’t want to leave. The people, the rhythms of life, it draws us close. Unfortunately we have to continue on. We’ve two days before we have to catch a boat home.

The beauty we’ve seen is much more than we expected. The thing about travelling is that there is always a new favorite place to want to go back to and more places, nearly never ending to explore. We say we’ll be back and we mean it. It’s hard because we want to go to the next new place and then the next. One day when we’re old and are losing our minds, we’ll have incredible memories of this and stories all true to go along.

The next adventure is calling.

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Foraging

Like clockwork, there are many things I look forward to year after year. One of my favorite would be hiking for wild blueberries. This is something that started in my childhood, in the back forested area of my family’s camp on Lake Winnipesaukee and developed into a yearly celebration hiking various peaks to literally enjoy the fruits of my labors.

This year was no different than many in the past. Toward the end of July my mind begins thinking of picking and the many things I can do with them. The past couple had us launching our canoe and paddling shorelines in search of old high bush berries. This year was a treat as I could hike for berries.  We had a few favorite picking spots that we would never share knowledge of as we wanted as many berries as possible; feeling rather selfish now that I wrote that. It is true, we would happily share our spoils just not our spot.

Mid-month we hiked to our favorite spot thinking that the berries would be ripe early this year with lack of rain and so much heat. They weren’t. Up again on what felt to be the hottest morning with the highest humidity and there they were in all their glory. Big, shiny, nearly black berries that burst full of warm sweetness in our mouths. 6.5 quarts and 2.5 hours later we were heading down the mountain with blue fingers and teeth.

Near the end of that hike we came across what we now refer to as ‘Blueberry Heaven’; the largest patch of wild, old high bush blueberries either of us has ever seen. Having seen that, all we wanted to do was get back up there for sweet pickings. Work, guests, life kept us for 3 weeks and we fully expected the season to be finished. That didn’t keep us from getting back to the peak on another hot and humid day. Over the rise and there they were, deep in a bog; endless blueberries. It didn’t take us more than and hour to fill 6.5 more quarts and our bellies. We now had enough to freeze, jam, pie, pancake, smoothie whatever and whenever we wanted for the year.

Look What Came in the Mail

I have these trail running shoes that I absolutely love. To be honest, I won them in a Facebook raffle. Having never seen or heard of this brand, I was somewhat skeptical; not even because of my ankle, just because I have a difficult time with getting a shoe that I love that fits appropriately. Someone once compared the way I want my shoe/boot to fit to ‘Princess and the Pea’. Sheesh!

The shoes are Dynafit. I know, I know, Dynafit make great AT bindings. I had never known them to be a running shoe company and they are. So the original pair arrived in the mail and would you believe they fit right out of the box. Super stable platform, interesting steel cable that runs around the mid-foot of the shoe and around the heel to securely lock down the shoe where you need it and still give the toe’s wiggle room. They are good on pavement and then as soon as they hit the dirt is where these babies really come to life! So there you have it, I love these shoes.

A couple of weeks after I received them was my birthday and my love gifts me what looks like a bag of sheet metal screws. Oh yeah, my enthusiasm was brimming over as you can imagine. The sheet metal screws were not sheet metal screws at all. They are Ice Spikes. You can imagine that I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the gift. He explained to me his concern knowing that I was running on snow and ice and would inevitably slip. He did his duty and screwed these things into the soles of my shoes.

Look at these things, they’re burley!

The very next day I took the ensembleout for a test run and that gift I wasn’t excited about took a turn. With the Ice Spikes in the sole of my shoes I can run on sheets of ice. He had obviously done his homework, and I heartily apologized.

Now, I’m telling you all of this because I kept the one pair for my ‘Winter’ shoe – if we get a winter this next – and got another pair for summer and wet because both pair are Gore-tex. That being said, I love this shoe; rain, puddles, dew, heat, dry, just about anything the weather can throw at me and they’re good! My feet stay dry, don’t overheat, they’re happy! They were nice enough that I actually put down the money for another pair, and that my friends is what came in the mail

There you have it; it’s my running shoe review.

Sawyer Pond

What a glorious day for a hike.

There are three direct(ish) routes to get to Sawyer Pond from the Kancamagus Highway. We’d just had a deluge, the temperatures were warm and there was significant ice and pack melt – like we’d actually had snow this winter…because of this we had one option that was easily accessible and the hike we chose was the longest. This is the story of our hiking lives; the longest hike, the hardest hike.

Snow and ice all the day long.

We’d had a relaxing Saturday morning and I was able to complete work that I’d needed to do. Without giving much thought to our distance we left home late and started hiking at quarter to one. 7.2 miles; that’s what our one way distance was supposed to be for the day and we planned on getting there and staying at a lean-to at the pond.

We got to the trailhead off of Bear Notch Road and headed out. There was no thinking I’d left my sunglasses behind this time. The trail is more of a work road. We were glad we’d packed our microspikes as the trail was still covered in snow and ice. The day was warm and sunny. The walk was unadventurous, even finding that the entire Junior Class from the Holderness School was out doing their 4 day/3 night solo. There were markers with notes and treats attached, and rigged shelters everywhere in the forest for the first 3+ miles.

Cool Mushrooms

About 3.5 miles in the trail turns abruptly to the right and becomes an actual trail. This is much more our style. The forest changed a few times from open beech woods, to small evergreens, to rocky wet slopes. It was cool to observe. There was not another soul on the trail and no human footprints to be seen in the snow. There was abundant signs of wildlife everywhere; deer scrapings, bear tracks, moose prints, birds calling… 2 miles further in we started looking for somewhere to make camp. It was getting late in the day, my ankle was hot, sore and getting tight from carrying a full overnight backpack. It took us a while as we were in the rocky wet slope area.

Feeling pretty light without my pack on!

We found a dry spot with water nearby and literally pulled the food bag out, hung it, left our packs out in the open and continued on to the pond. 45 minutes later we came to it and it was much larger than we had anticipated and absolutely lovely. The stream coming from the pond was high and we would have had great difficulty crossing it without falling in; a relief that we’d left everything to set up camp behind.

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We made it!

Going back always seems to take less time than going out. 30 minutes after leaving the pond we were back to our packs and looking to set up camp. Perhaps it had something to do with the sun setting.

Making dinner 

Camp up and organized, water boiling, a nip off the flask, eat and bed. We were tired. Just as we were falling asleep, the wind kicked up and continued to do so throughout the night. I would sleep hard and have super vivid dreams only to waken and hear layers and levels of wind howling. I remember at one point saying, ‘The wind is angry.’ It certainly sounded so. Tom soundly snored.

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Sunrise the next morning was glorious with pink, orange and red brushed across the sky. Once the sun was up the wind settled a bit. How I dreaded putting my boots back on. Amazingly they went on alright. Hot coffee, and oatmeal with our own dried fruit was welcome. Packed and off again.

We came across fresh, large moose prints criss crossing the trail for almost a mile. Large bear tracks too. Good thing for all that wind; we didn’t hear anything else!

A little difficulty walking for the first mile or so and then all was right as rain. Another gorgeous day walking in the woods, and another new hike in the books.

 

 

I realize that I am not the best blogger; in fact not what I would consider a good one at all. It took me a month to put together the last one of our trip to Park City….I shall endeavor to be better at getting these things out faster, while the adventure and thoughts are more recent.

Near the bottom

That being said, I’ve been jonesing for an overnight hike. It’s been a long while since we’ve done so and now that I’m feeling more confident it seemed like a great thing to do. Growing up so close to the White Mountains you would imagine that I had been to Lonesome Lake and I hadn’t. We decided that would be our overnight adventure; to Lonesome Lake in Franconia Notch State Park, NH.

The day started of cold where we live and we spent a nice morning, enjoying one another’s company, had a nice breakfast and then managed to get our act together and get moving. When we arrived, it was crisp, and clear. Not too many others in the parking lot so we slung our packs over our shoulders and started. We didn’t even get into the woods before I had difficulty shortening my trekking pole. Took care of that only to realize I couldn’t find my sunglasses. Back to the car. Not in there. I had them on my head all along. Sheesh!

Winter Wonderland

Hiking and happy about it!

There was snow from the very start which made my heart sing. We had micro-spikes on so it was fairly easy walking. The hike up is two long switchbacks before coming out on a level spot not too far from the lake. It’s rated difficult, and seemed to us to be a more moderate hike for the Whites.

Snow on the trees, on the trail; snow, snow, lovely snow!

The temperature was perfectly in the 20’s and made for great hiking!

View across the lake to the hut.

We arrived at the lake to see it was frozen and we could cross if we chose to go to the AMC Hut. We didn’t. There is a sign stating that it is illegal to camp anywhere within the Franconia State Park with a fine of $200.00. We had planned on spending the night out. Looking at the map, there were a few spots along the hike that would lead us outside of the Park and we were going to suss that out and find ourselves a ‘misty’ spot.

Using my pole as a self stick! Hee, hee…

About 1/2 mile past the lake we chose to ditch our packs somewhere deep in the forest. It was too early in the day to stop  and what the heck, we may as well summit Cannon Mountain while we were here and cross another 4,000 footer off our list. We grabbed warmer jackets, gloves, snacks, water and upward we went.

Snack spot.

Maybe we should have used our crampons.

From the next trail junction, it was .9 miles to the next trail junction and then an additional .4 to the summit. Once you pass the first junction, it isn’t long until it gets steep. Wicked steep. And icy. We’d left our hiking crampons in the forest with our packs. No one ever said we were super smart. I didn’t want to turn around because it’s easier going up than coming down. Besides, if it were truly that treacherous, we could always take the tram down.

There were a few people we passed who were on their way down. Some of them were covered in snow. All of them said, ‘It’s steep!’

It was difficult going, especially with no front points. I fell one time and started sliding and grabbing for anything I could get my hands on. A small tree made itself available to me. We weren’t going to let that stop us. Up, up, up we went. The distance felt like a long ways and at the same time didn’t feel like nearly a mile; our minds were preoccupied I suppose.

It was steep!

From the next trail junction it was basically flat until we got to the summit. There’s a fire tower there which you can walk up and check out the spectacular view, which we totally checked out. Another 4,000 footer in the books!

Near the summit of Cannon

After the pleasantness of the short end of the hike we had forgotten about the steep, steep going down. Probably a good thing. It was still steep, and icy and rather treacherous. I fell; again. Hit my knee hard on ice and slid again. Somehow the trip down the steep didn’t seem as long as the trip up the steep. We got back to our packs only find it was 2:30 pm. Too early to stop for the day. I didn’t really want to walk the nearly 2 more miles down from where we were, and I couldn’t justify stopping yet for the day. Decision was made to finish the hike.

Overlooking Franconia Ridge 

About 1/2 mile Claudia started protesting loud! I was beginning to have difficulty walking and realized that I had a 30 pound pack on my back. Of course my ankle wanted nothing to do with it. Well, we couldn’t stop so we kept going. There was no where to camp on the way down and besides, who wants to stop so close to the end???

View from the top of the fire tower at the summit

We made it back down to the car, changed our clothes and got ourselves big burgers and fries.

This view makes it all worth it!

 

 

I LOVE Skiing!

Just after the New Year, I found a little extra cash in our bank account. Needless to say when I came home the first thing I said to my husband was, “We’re going on a ski vacation!” Yeah, I hadn’t give much thought to my ankle – which has been named Claudia; that’s another story – and how it would feel or cope with the continued pounding going down hill or the forward position of my knee and how that would push my achilles beyond where it normally sits.

Condor side of The Canyons, lots of freshies

We decided to go to Park City, which is one of our favorite ski towns and besides it would be great to catch up with some friends while out there; booked flights, car, tickets, lodging. As the time to go approached I started growing apprehensive, although I didn’t realize it. I became grumbly and frustrated and needed to take a step back to realize that I was manifesting my worry in a non-productive way.

 

Up bright and early, and on our way!

It was a gorgeous morning in Salt Lake City when we landed. The mountains had received a foot of snow the day before and it was really just beautiful. Honestly, it felt like we were home; something I didn’t expect after being gone for the past 6 years.

It started snowing that night and continued. Over night we received about 9 inches of pure, light powder. Anxiety was hitting me hard. All of a sudden I wasn’t so sure about getting back on skis and flying down the hill. My stomach was in knots, and this really surprised me. I kept reminding myself that I had worked hard to not be scared, that skiing was something that helped me to feel alive. I couldn’t understand it. I hadn’t broken my ankle while skiing so I didn’t understand where this apprehensiveness was coming from.

First Gondola Ride of the week.

About to drop the cornice.

The first chair lift ride only served to exacerbate my anxiety to the point that I was on the verge of a panic attack and felt nauseous. The next lift was a gondola and I realized that I so freaked out because the hydration pack on my back had pushed me far forward on the chair and I felt out of control. As soon as I knew what was happening, I was able to focus on what was really important; making fresh turns.

Laughing all the way to the bottom.

It turned out to be a spectacular week, with lots of sunshine and snow everyday. We found new terrain as PCMR and The Canyons have merged. Heck, there is even in-bound back country or side-country as it is known now. That being said, we hiked, hiked, and hiked some more for 3 days straight. Better to have fresh than groomed!

Who would have guessed that Claudia rarely protested and I ended the week with far greater range of motion than I started with! I need to do this more often!!

“I swear, I didn’t see the rope.”

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We flew out on a mid-day and just had to get a few more runs in! The weather was warming and our last run was fun and buttery. Quickly back to our lodging and sort out of our gear and luggage in the car park.

Stuck!

Cold, clear and happy!

Hiking 4,000 Footers Again!

It’s been a few months where weekly I’m still finding improvement; better balance, longer endurance, less pain, more range of motion, foot moving more freely and best of all my two feet look the same again….FINALLY!  However this post isn’t about that, it’s about accomplishing a long sought after goal.

A month ago we went on my first overnight hike up the Tuckerman’s Ravine Trail to Hermit Lake Shelter.  It’s not a difficult nor long hike (about 2 miles); it was difficult and I did it! Since that time, I’ve been dreaming of finishing up the NH 4,000 footer peaks we started and had nearly completed BAB – before ankle break.  Over and over again I’ve been consulting the ‘White Mountain Guide’ and maps looking for a hike that wouldn’t be too long, too steep, too technical, too difficult.  With 9 peaks left finding this perfect hike was tall order.

 We decided to attempt not one, but two 4,000 footers; North and South Kinsman. With this in mind, we planned to spend two nights out.  As the weekend approached we found that we didn’t have the 2.5 days at our disposal and would have to do the best with 2 days, 1 night out.

The day before we ventured out it poured, and poured, and poured all day and long into the night.  On the drive up the sky was cloudy and in the distance we could see precipitation coming down right where we had planned on going.

In the parking lot the precipitation ceased, we changed our clothing, swung our packs on our backs and headed out.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.

It turned out to be a glorious day, clear and cold. With just over 1.6 miles to go to the trail junction, I said aloud, “This trail is wonderful; forgiving, not too steep and soft underfoot.”  Little did I know that was soon to change….Just past that 1.6-mile marker the trail quickly steepened with solid granite slabs to friction climb up; well that and a lot of boulders, large rocks and a lot of roots.

It is 3.7 miles from the parking lot to the trail junction to then another 1.3 each way to go over to both North and South Kinsman.  Somewhere around 2.5 miles from the start I admit I started wondering when we would get to the junction.  The going was steep with solid granite slabs and not many hand holds to help climb up.  I started thinking to myself that if going up was difficult; down would be rough and painful.  I couldn’t call it quits so I didn’t say anything, offered words of encouragement that we must be near the trail junction and just kept going.  At one point, my husband asked for a snack and I told him we must be close to the top so we should just keep on going instead.  (I don’t think he much liked hearing that)

Up and up we went and just at the trail junction came across someone asking us which way to the Kinsmans.  Obviously they weren’t in the direction she or we came from and left only one way to go.  From this point it was about 1.3 miles to South Kinsman and then to turn around and go to Kinsman Pond to spend the night.

By now there was a dusting of snow to be seen everywhere and it was quite chilly, gloves, hat and windproof jackets on.  There was a motorless glider enjoying the wind currents; swooshing not far above our heads.  We were on the Appalachian Trail and being a holiday weekend there were many others out looking to cross the same two peaks off their hiking lists.

Up and over North Kinsman where we enjoyed a fabulous view of the Franconia Ridge; if you haven’t hiked it you should, it’s world class hiking and views. We descended the North peak and kept moving to reach the South peak.  The going started getting slick as the rocks had become glazed with ice.  We headed up the South peak where someone slipped, fell and landed hard on his lower back and hip right in front of us.  The first thought in my head and out of my mouth was, “Isn’t is strange that the person who would fall in front of me would be the person who rescued me when I fell off the ice?”  Wouldn’t you know, it was my rescuer……

On the way back to the pond we passed numerous others headed in the direction we had just come from; each and every one informed us that there were no tenting spots left at Kinsman Pond and the one lean-to already had 4 people and 4 dogs in it.  Sheesh!

We started scoping out a flat spot away from the trail to camp for the night.  My ankle – now named Claudia as it has its own personality, was beyond sore. Back to the trail junction with nowhere to camp in sight and the only thing to do is head down and continue the search.  I did say down was steep, right?

Down we went, and yes, it was painful.  I didn’t say anything, kept moving and stayed positive.  I knew we’d find the right spot at the right time. The sun was drifting into the horizon and we continued hiking.  The impact of hiking down the steep was hard on my ankle, very hard.  Claudia was protesting, loudly.  On we went for what seemed like an eternity; looking hard for a spot to pitch our tent only to reject what felt like one after another.

Finally, as daylight was leaving Tom spied a spot, far enough of the trail to be viable; soft, cushy, just big enough to hold our tent and close to water.

I pitched the tent while Tom filtered water and got the remainder of camp together for the night.  Hot chai while we waited for our meal to rehydrate was most welcome!

The night was clear and cold.  At one point I touched my nose not realizing how truly chilly it was outside of my warm sleeping bag.  Sometime during the night it started to warm up; off came my hat and I was really toasty by sunrise.

I stayed in my sleeping bag as long as possible in the morning knowing we must get up and move on.  After a quick hot drink and oatmeal, we were off.  15 minutes later we were at the 2.1-mile spur and happily moving down as it was no longer steep.  It was a lovely morning with the sun shining brightly down upon us.  Not long thereafter we began to hear the sounds of people starting up the trail and cars driving along the road.  We knewour adventure was nearly over.

In all honesty I didn’t know whether I was ready to hike up 1, 4,000 footer and seriously doubted that I would be able to accomplish 2.  I did it!  I never thought I would be able to hike just over 7 miles in a day yet, and I did!  No stopping me now!