Summer Trainings

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So!!! I've actually been busy lately!

    The first change in my life is that my roommate got a dog. This will  be my first time living with a large pet EVER. I'm allergic to cats, and we never had dogs growing up, so this is indeed a huge change for me!

Her name is Tonks and she is a BUSY, active lady. And while I may be adjusting to life with a dog in general, something I do really enjoy is our walks together, especially our long evening walks after the heat of the day goes down.  Whether we walk for a half hour or more, it's good exercise, is getting me acquainted with my neighborhood, and gives me a lot of peace of mind time.  It is also making sure that I am getting out of the house and moving a little this summer!

Another thing keeping me moving is my fundraising hike for CureSearch:

 

Please consider donating to this cause! I've pledged to raise $2,500!

This has been a bit of a challenge for me too! Not only am I doing some summer hiking, which this year has been pretty atrocious, I am also getting used to hiking in a group!   There is a wonderful group of people doing the St. Louis chapter of this fundraising hike, and we've been training together for a couple weeks now. I find hiking in a group difficult... I love hiking on my own, and have rarely hiked with more than one or two other people at a time. But these people are great and there's a really good feeling to the team effort of training together, pushing each other, and knowing that we're all going through the same thing!

We've started out pretty slow, but did some walking and hiking at Tower Grove Park, Creve Coeur Lake, West Tyson County Park, and tomorrow we'll hike at Castlewood. We are slowly working our way up in mileage and difficulty, and should do a few 20 miles hikes before tackling the big one!!!

West Tyson park was new for me... we did part of the Chubb Trail and part of the Flint Quarry Trail, combining for about 7 miles. While I've done more than 7 miles before, this was a TOUGH tough hike!!!! It started out in a light-moderate drizzle, but that was actually the best weather the whole time! It was so muggy and hot that I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my entire life. I was EXHAUSTED, physically and mentally by the end. I seriously went home, showered, devoured food, and passed out on the couch. The trail was gorgeous with lots of ups and downs and changes in difficulty, which made it both great and super challenging in the mugginess.  The trails were marked well enough when they crossed, but I only saw mile markers on the Flint Quarry Trail, not the Chubb. The rain over the past two days had made the trail incredibly, incredibly muddy and slick, which added to the challenge of the overall hike.

The "Ultimate Hike" towards children's cancer research

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So I've decided to challenge myself, in two different ways.

I will be taking part in this year's Ultimate Hike for the Cure.  It is an opportunity to raise a minimum of $2,500 towards children's cancer research while pledging to hike 30 miles in one day. The nearest area hike will be taking place on the Tecumseh Trail in Indiana. I will be attempting to raise $2,500 from now until about mid-November, though the actual hike takes place in early October. I hope you will take a moment to look at the cause (check out the Ultimate Hike website  and the Curesearch website for more information about the foundations and fundraisers).

I will be running my fundraising page HERE if you wish to make a donation online. If you can't make a donation, please consider passing on the cause on your own blog.  I am so excited to challenge myself to make this 30 mile hike, and the completely different challenge to raise this much money for a cause.  Thank you!

Again, my online Ultimate Hike fundraising page for children's cancer research is HERE.

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Took a hike on June 3rd, my father's birthday. We did the 8.3 miles at Lewis and Clark. Which apparently I have done more than any other trail.  Other than that, I haven't hiked since Israel. It makes me sad and I feel the difference in both my body and mind.  I can't wait to get back out there again.  St. Louis is suffering through weather in the 100s (it hit 108 this past week) and it is putting a damper on pretty much any outdoor plans.

Taking my break from my usual single-minded reading of Appalachian Trail memoirs, I am instead reading this:

Wild by Cheryl Strayed, about a woman's solo trip on the PCT (the author's website [and photocredit] is HERE ). Though I've usually been focused on the AT, I've heard quite a bit about the PCT as well (a married couple I saw give a talk at REI had hiked both and showed pictures and stories of their experiences on both trails) and it has caught my interest quite a bit. It looks beautiful and challenging in ways that are both similar and completely different from the Appalachian Trail. One day maybe I'll hike BOTH. I wish sometimes I could just walk away from my life here for just awhile and immerse myself in a thru-hike. Hopefully one day I'll see what life brings.

Laziness and Lectures

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So clearly I have not hiked or updated since my return from Israel (which was still amazingly mind blowing it is hard to realize I was there only a month ago). Returning to real life is always a hard reality. Teaching, parent-teacher conferences, paperwork (times a million), class, writing my final paper, moving to a new apartment, celebrating my 27th birthday... normal life seems to have taken over.

My allergies were pretty bad through most of April after returning, possibly because I was in Israel where my allergies were amazing and then flew back into the midst of terrible strong allergy season. They are still pretty bad,  but should be mostly gone (hopefully) by the end of May. I have so much hiking I want to do. Hiking still helps me de-stress, and I need that so very badly. Not to mention that stress makes me feel very unhealthy as I'm spending a lot of time sitting in front of the computer doing homework, not eating well, etc. Can't wait to get back out there.

On a side note, I was able to see Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (which I've read) as well as many other books which I haven't read yet (I've recently added his new book The Nature Principle: Reconnection with Nature in a Virtual Age to my reading list). He was speaking here in St. Louis thanks to the LUME Institute and other sponsers, and listening to him talk was fascinating. He had a lot of advice on what the educational world can do to bring children back to a sense of wonder with nature, as well as reminding us that children can learn math, science, social, and other developmental skills in nature as they could in a classroom. Very worth getting to see, a great opportunity. Made me really excited to start a nature group with families in my own class and bring my love of hiking and the outdoors to my students.

March 26th: Banias Falls Nature Walk

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I did not post about my days in Jerusalem because despite the fact that we did a TON of walking all over, there wasn't really any hiking to speak of. In case you are curioius, though, here is what our days looked like in between. These are only SOME of the things we did in Jerusalem:
 
Friday, Mar 23 – Jerusalem
Haas Promenade – Panoramic view of Jerusalem

Welcome & ice breakers with Israeli peers
Jewish Quarter – Old City walking tour

The Kotel – Reflections at the Western Wall
Machane Yehuda – Colorful Jerusalem marketplace

Saturday, Mar 24 – Jerusalem
Group activity & Walking tour
Political seminar – The Situation Today in Israel
Ben Yehuda Street – Pedestrian Shopping Center

Sunday, Mar 25 – Jerusalem & The North
Yad Vashem – Holocaust Memorial & Museum
Har Herzl – National Memorial

But after leaving Jerusalem, we drove up north to the Golan Heights and Sea of Galilee. The north of Israel is insanely gorgeous and a huge contrast to the South. It was incredible to know we had just left the Negev Desert merely days before and were now in a lush, green, rocky, mountainous part of Israel that looked completely unrelated. For a country the size of New Jersey, the amount of geographical diversity in unbelievable. I never wanted to sleep on the bus, no matter how tired I was, because of how beautiful it was.

    The Banias Falls nature walk was not at all difficult, but beautiful and the falls/rushing water was powerful and invigorating.  The wildflowers up north were in bloom all over, especially my favorite red flowers I'd been in love with since the beginning.

 

You started at the top and worked your way easily down into the valley, where a white-water river was raging powerfully. It was very noisy, you could hear it in your chest rumbling, and the water looked deadly as it rushed over the rocks.

Which lead to the waterfall...

 

This was the last hike we took. There was lots more walking, lots more city exploring and beautiful pictures, but this was the last nature-based activity we had and I was truly sad about that. I could have done three times the amount of hiking we did on this trip... not that I would have said that in the beginning after those first two or three days. But by this time, I would have done a repeat desert hike in a second. However, I also appreciated the other days where I saw some beautiful cities and learned a lot. 

I may post more about Israel, but these were the main hiking events during my ten day trip, and I thought it was worth sharing.

March 22nd: Sunrise Masada Hike and Nahal David Waterfall

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Wake up for March 22nd was at 3:45am. And keep in mind this was the day AFTER the 8 mile hike in the Negev Desert. By 4:30 we were on the bus and heading to Masada, not far away from Ein Gedi Field School Hostel where we had spent the night. It was still mostly dark when we arrived and started ascending Masada from the base using the Snake Path (the two other options being the easier Roman Ramp or a gondola ride to the top). Let me just say this is no easy feat. Once again, my self-image as somewhat in shape was challenged as I huffed and puffed and rested my way to the top. But the views were so beautiful in the pre-dawn light that it made it worth it.

 I don't know exactly how long it took me, but I didn't quite make it all the way to the top for the sunrise... but I was only one flight of stairs down from the top when I watched the sun come up over the Jordanian Mountains and the Dead Sea below. It was truly an amazing sight. And I still had time to get up the last flight to enjoy the sun climb over the ruins at the top. I was exhausted and exhilarated at the same time, and for not the first or last time when in Israel, amazed that I was even there and that this was even happening.

Masada was gorgeous, of course. Hike to the top and then lots of history lessons, which doesn't really count as hiking, but hey... the scenery was legendary.

 

After some history and walking around on Masada, we went back DOWN the snake path and had breakfast before heading to the Nahal David Waterfall  nature walk.  Which was not much of a nature walk. While it was beautiful and there was a bit of walking, it was CROWDED like a THEME PARK.  Waiting in line just to continue walking up steps is not fun. But then again, swimming in an oasis waterfall in the desert kind of makes up for that. It was gorgeous. After swimming for only a short while, we hiked up to the main waterfall event, took pictures, and hiked back down.

 I was exhausted that day. But it ended with this:

 

A visit to the Dead Sea at Ein Bokek Beach, and a night out on the town in Jerusalem (after a long bus ride on which I mostly slept) with the group. 

March 21st: Hike in the Negev Desert, Israel

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   This may have been one of the coolest experiences in my life. Possibly because I was in a part of the world I had never been before (and who knows when I will be again), possibly because desert is a far cry from what I normally find in Missouri while hiking. This hike was done in a (very) large group, which is not something I normally enjoy, but I found it both challenging at times (not wanting to be the last one up the big hill!) and fun.  We had both lots of interesting conversations on this hike, but also hiked maybe a third of it as a "silent hike," which I think lent itself to immersing myself in the desert most of all. This was about an 8 mile hike and not super challenging except for the very first climb OUT of the valley onto the top of the plateau cliffs. This was near Sde Boker, and I believe that area we hiked was called the Zin Valley (or Zin Wadi?).  The trip itself was such an amazing experience, but really busy and there wasn't always time to write down the exact details of where we were.

First we camped out near the Ben Gurion memorial site in Sde Boker, down below in the valley on Tuesday night, March 20th. There was a hot Israeli dinner, a campire, and lots of music long into the night. Not much stars, as the dust still lingering in the air from some windy days made visability not so great. It was COLD, and I heard Jackals for the first time that night, but it was a pretty amazing experience.

 

Then on the morning of March 21st, we woke up with the dawn, had a solid breakfast and packed up camp (which was then taken away, we did not have to take it on our hike, thank goodness) and started our hike with the hardest part of the whole day: the hike OUT of the canyon valley! It doesn't look so hard in the photos, but it was really steep and definitely showed me I was not in the shape I thought I was in. The view from the top was gorgeous.

click on the panorama pictures to see them full size.

Then came the long desert hike. It had some ups and downs, but once we were out of the valley, there wasn't anything too complicated. It was beautiful and barren and bright. There were both stretches of flat desert all around us and then suddenly more cliffs to look over and into the beyond... and a Bedouin tent.

 

Our stop about halfway through the hike was an oasis with a lovely waterfall, freezing water, and many many Israeli school children.

And then there was a very long hike back down what was half trail, half road, but still very breathtaking. There was even a brief point at the end of the trail to rest and take in the desert for the last time. 

There might have also been an insane camel ride, but that doesn't really count as hiking...