Goal!

Hike Hard Part II is going to have to wait for another day because I have another post that just can't wait. On Thursday morning at my weight watchers meeting, I hit my goal weight. I have had success at weight watchers on previous attempts but I have never reached goal before. I have quit before I got there only to gain everything I had lost back (and more).

But not this time.

So now I have 6 weeks of maintenance and then after that, I will be a lifetime member and will not have to pay anymore. I don't even want to think about how much money weight watchers has made off of me, but you know what, it has been worth every single cent.

Ten years ago I never imagined that life could be this good.

To be continued soon - Hike Hard Part II

Moab Boot Camp - Chapter 2

HIKE HARD (PART I)

We did a lot of hiking and walking during our vacation. I spent quite a bit of time walking around Moab, checking out the stores, getting groceries, going out for dinner, getting coffee and goodies for breakfast (only for Tim, none for me - this was boot camp you know!) and hitting MacDonalds for my almost daily ice cream cone.

There are tons of hiking trails in the national parks (Arches and Canyonlands) and in the state park (Dead Horse Point) and just around Moab in general.

After our bike ride at Dead Horse Point State Park, we spent the afternoon hiking around the Rim trail and had some amazing views.

You know, when I was standing there, I was thinking I was way too close to the edge for my liking but in the picture, it doesn't even look like I'm close to the edge.

Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky

At Island in the Sky we started our morning by doing a couple of longer trails, Upheaval Dome Overlook and part of the Syncline Loop and ended our day with a few shorter hikes, Whale Rock, Aztec Butte and the Mesa Arch.

Upheaval Dome is a deformity where rocks have been pushed into a dome-like structure which may have been caused by a meteorite hitting the earth some 60 million years ago.

The Syncline Loop is a strenuous trail that follows the washes on either side of Upheaval Dome. It was a lot of uphill, downhill, then more uphill. It was warm, sunny and there wasn't much shade.

Another incredible lunch spot.

Whale Rock is a fairly steep climb up a slickrock trail that resembles climbing up the back of a whale with fantastic views from the top.

Tim on the back of the whale!







View from the top of the whale.

The Atzec Butte trail is a short steep trail that leads up a slickrock dome to some ancient Puebloan granaries. I found this very steep in parts and had some shaky legs at times. I eventually ended up on my butt sliding down some of the trail.

Things got a little tricky at one point!

The Mesa Arch is right on the edge of a 500 foot cliff, part of a 1,200 foot drop into Buck Canyon. The trail was an easy short hike and a perfect way to end the day. We asked a guy to take a picture of both Tim and I in the arch and he took the request very seriously taking quite a bit of time trying different angles and different lighting. We only really needed one picture but once he had the camera.....

Coming up next post - Amasaback trail (also known as Cliff Hanger) and Arches National Park.

Moab Boot Camp - Chapter 1

These past 2 weeks have been absolutely amazing and I have so many stories and pictures that I will have to post them in installments. The drive down was long and uneventful and it certainly is a long way from here to Moab, Utah. The motto of the trip was bike hard, hike hard, canoe hard and shop hard and I will start with the bike hard part of the vacation.

BIKE HARD

I would have liked to do more biking while we were there but time was tight. We could spend months down there and still wouldn't be able to do everything we wanted to do.

We spent our first night in Moab at the Red Stone Inn and headed out the next morning to a Bureau of Land Management campground - Horse Thief Campground - and I was extremely impressed with it. It had nice large sites with a picnic table, a fire pit and the pit toilets were absolutely spotless (and very warm which was nice in the middle of the night when I was freezing). We set up camp and then headed over to Dead Horse State Park for our first bike adventure on the Intrepid Trail system. There were a few technical parts that I had to push my bike over but on the whole, it was a pretty good introduction to riding on slick rock.

Beginning of Intrepid Trail

Views from the Intrepid Trail

The next day we did the Klondike Bluff trail. The guide book says:

The Klondike Bluffs Trail is a modest climb, but isn't too technically difficult. It's a good trail for someone who's in good shape, but is inexperienced in mountain biking. It makes an excellent first "slickrock adventure." Round trip, it's 9.6 miles on the bike and 1 mile on foot (bikes aren't allowed off-road in Arches National Park, so you hike the last half mile).

Modest climb? I guess the person who wrote the description was in better shape than I because I certainly did not expect it to be as physically demanding as it was. I wore my heart rate monitor and my maximum heart rate reached 192. I'm surprised my heart didn't burst out of my chest. I ended up pushing my bike through spots but I could tell by the end of the ride I was becoming more comfortable with the more technical sections.

At the beginning of the ride.

Couldn`t quite make it and had to get off my bike and push.

More uphill

A little worse for wear near the top of the trail.

The view from the top of Klondike Bluffs was incredible. It was a very picturesque spot to have lunch.

Coming down was a lot easier than going up, at least physically. Technically there were still a few scary spots but I made Tim go first so he could let me know when I should get off my bike or if there was an easier route I could take. However, I did have a little wipe-out when I hit a sandy part coming down - I was going a little too fast - but no serious injuries.




Next chapter - Hike Hard!

An Adventure Starts on Sunday

Today is my last day of work for 2 weeks. I will be taking a 2 week vacation to Moab, Utah to do some mountain biking, canoeing and hiking. I actually quite excited about this trip, I think the scenery will be absolutely incredible and I'm going to treat it as a boot camp. I am going to ride hard, hike hard and paddle hard and hopefully lose the last 2.4 pounds I need to get to goal.

We are leaving Sunday morning (so I won't miss my hockey game Saturday night!) and will drive until we can't drive anymore (for me that would be a couple of hours - gee I'm getting more like how my dad was everyday!). Tim will be able to drive for much longer and we hope to make it past Boise, Idaho for the first night. The next night should land us in Moab. We'll stay overnight in a motel and then go find a campsite for the Tuesday and Wednesday night. We're looking at staying at Dead Horse Point State Park and are hoping to do a couple of days biking/hiking before the big canoe trip. There are so many trails to choose from - it is a little overwhelming to choose but we're thinking of doing Klondike Bluffs, and Dead Horse Point and then there is the MOAB brand trails that look interesting. For hiking, there are some trails in Arches National Park and in Canyonlands National Park.

From Friday to Monday we are going on a canoe trip down the Colorado River. (Meander Canyon) We get dropped off and then picked up on Monday morning. It doesn't matter how far we go, we get picked up wherever we are so there is no pressure to get somewhere for a specific time. This will give us time to explore some of the hikes and little rivers along the way. By the time we get back on Monday, we will just want to find a hotel to sleep and clean up all our canoeing stuff.

We have to leave Thursday so that only leaves us Tuesday and Wednesday to do more hiking and biking. If I got to plan the whole trip, I would have made the canoe trip shorter and did more biking, but I'm not the only person on this vacation.
We leave on Thursday because we have to be in Cranbrook,BC by Friday night to attend the BC Honey Producers Association Conference. What a perfect way to end our vacation. (according to Tim.) We will be staying with a former coworker of Tim's and I hope to do some biking while Tim is at the conference.

Notice what isn't on our trip agenda? I'm going to the US for 2 weeks and what aren't we doing? That's right...shopping. There is no way I was going to miss shopping while we are there so I had to come up with a plan to fit that in. On Thursday we are going to have to drive, drive, drive to make it to Missoula, Montana and that leaves us about 4 hours from Cranbrook. That way we can spend Friday morning shopping and I think the stores open pretty early there. I want to hit Target, Ross Dress for Less and perhaps WalMart. Unfortunately there are no outlet malls in the area so I will just have to make do.



When I get back, I'll hopefully have some great stories and pictures to post!