I Climbed A MOUNTAIN!!!!

About a month ago my friend Lisa found out that they had an extra climbing permit to climb Mt. St. Helens. She was talking about putting it on craigslist or something like that when I piped up and said I'd buy it. (Not really sure what I was thinking...)

Training to climb a mountain is a bit different than what I'd been doing for the 1/2 marathon and the triathlon. It requires you to actually get out in nature and hike. I also discovered that climbing stairs is a GREAT way to train for such an event.

Now, Mt. St. Helens isn't a very tall mountain anymore. It did lose about 1,000 feet 31 years ago. It's still just over 8,000 feet though and it is still a challenging climb.





I was all kinds of excited the morning of the climb. I could hardly contain myself!

What surprised me was how much snow was still on the ground. We hiked through snow nearly the whole way to the summit.

As we got close to our lunch spot I started to get discouraged. I could see the summit and it was just so far away still. I was tired, hot, thirsty and hungry. My asthmatic lungs were also having trouble breathing the thin air.





There was a short moment where I had to sit down. I shoved a handful of trail mix into my mouth, took a swig of water and cried... just for a minute. After saying a prayer, I wiped my tears away and put the pack back on my shoulders. I was fine after that!




Reaching the summit of a mountain was a very emotional experience for me. I never in my life thought I'd be able to say I'd climbed a mountain! Lisa and I had a crying, hugging moment before we turned to enjoy the amazing view before us on ALL sides.


It took us about 7 hours to get to the summit and 3 to get down. Since there was so much snow on the mountain we got to "sled" our way down! It was wet and cold because we didn't have any snow gear, but it was much faster than climbing back over all the rocks.





Looking back, it was something I will never forget. It was worth every ounce of pain I felt, but it's not something I need to do again in a hurry.

Lisa and I are already planning our next adventure!

Alaska Adventure

Several months ago some girlfriends and I were planning a girls weekend. Since I was going to be gone, Eric decided he'd take the boys camping and made campsite reservations. Then all my girlfriends realized we had planned on Father's Day weekend and they couldn't go after all.

I wasn't too bothered because I figured I could go camping with my men. Then I was informed that I wasn't invited because it was a "boys only" camping trip... Fine. I decided I'd go to Alaska and visit some friends! Now that you know WHY I went, I'll share my adventure with you!

My plane landed in Anchorage on a Thursday evening at about 11:30pm. It was still "sunset". Talk about strange! Because Alaska is so far north, it never does get dark in the summer time. It got to be twilight, but then the sun came right back up. This made for very late bedtimes the whole time I was there. It just never seemed like bedtime!

On Friday I spent most of my day with my friends the Capaldos. We walked around "the lagoon" and then went for a drive on the scenic highway. This is when I realized just how beautiful Alaska is. It's breathtaking!

I also spent some time on my own that afternoon wandering downtown Anchorage. It's a really small city with a lot of fun quirks.














Saturday I spent driving farther out the scenic highway with my friends the McDonalds. We went as far as Portage where there was a lake that had iceburgs floating in it! WOW! It was incredible!


We also stopped at a wildlife reserve along the highway and the Eagle River Nature Reserve. Even though we didn't spot any large animals, we saw plenty of small birds and lots of beautiful flowers.

Sunday I attended church with the McDonalds and we spent our afternoon shopping for souveniers. Before heading home the McDonalds took me to the local pizza joint. The Moose's Tooth is very popular up there. Everyone I talked to said to make sure I went there before leaving town. They brew their own beer (which was great) and their pizza was unlike any other pizza I've ever had.



















I was sad to leave and I can't wait to go back with my whole family. If you've never been, go! You'll be blown away by the amazing beauty Alaska has to offer!

Triathlon

So now that it's nearly 3 weeks later I thought I should probably write about my experience in my first triathon. (Gimee a break, I lead a very busy life.)

As with any other race day, I woke up having barely slept the night before and well ahead of my alarm clock. I bounded out of bed and anxiously checked and rechecked all my stuff to make sure I didn't forget to pack a single item. Eric helped me load my bike onto the bike rack and I was off to pick up Tina (the one who talked me into this mess!).

Unfortunately Tina had overslept and had only been awake 30 seconds when I pulled into her driveway. She was ready in a snap though having packed everything the night before. After loading her bike on the rack we were off.

As we drew closer to Blue Lake we noticed lots of other crazies on the road headed in our same direction with bikes hanging off their cars too. We started to get more excited! When we arrived we were struck with just how many of these crazy people there were. I mean really? Who wants to get up before dawn on a Saturday to do a triathlon? Apparently we do. *rolls eyes* So we proceeded to get the bikes off the car, grab our stuff and join the crowd of crazies.

After having our race numbers and ages uncerimoniously drawn on our legs with giant Sharpies we found our bike slots. At this point I really started to freak out. I realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do next. As I looked around I realized that everyone else was laying out their stuff under the bike so they could change quickly after each event. Okay. Sure. I can do that.











Then we donned our wetsuits and made our way to the water. I was so nervous. I said to Tina, "I changed my mind. I don't wanna do this anymore. Let's go home." To which she laughed. Finally they called our age division and we went through the gate. They counted us down and everyone jumped into the water at once.



This is when everything I practiced and trained for went right out of my head. (Awesome timing.) I dove into the water headfirst without taking a breath first. Yeah, you know what that means. Lots of water up the nose. Brilliant. That's how the rest of the swim was for me. I spent my whole time being kicked, hit and choking on water that was washing over my face everytime I tried breathing. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life! I just wasn't expecting what it would be like to swim with so many people.









Tina and I keep a pretty similar swimming pace so we finished together. It took me quite a while to change because I was having trouble getting my socks on. My feet wouldn't get dry. I finally got completely changed and hopped on by bike and followed everyone else. Tina was nowhere in sight. I was on my own.












I was pretty confident in the cycling portion of the race because my Dad had built me a sweet bike. It begs to go faster! Tina says I flew past her on the bike, but I didn't see her until later when she yelled at me as we crossed paths again. I felt pretty awesome after finishing the bike race.


That didn't last long once I started running. I was pretty pooped. I ran the whole first mile, but had a wicked side ache the whole time. I finally stopped to walk a while, and ran/walked the rest of the run. 3.1 miles is a long ways after you've swam and biked.

I finally rounded the last corner and spotted the finish line. It was a glorious sight!


As I ran across it I heard family and friends cheering for me. I felt so relieved that it was over, but I also felt a great sense of accomplishment. I had done a whole sprint triathlon! Not everyone can say that.


The icing on the cake came when we waited in the looooong line to get our results. I was only looking at the total time it took me because I wanted to know how close I came to my goal (1:45). I had done it in 1:48: 23! Not bad for a first timer I thought. Then Tina was looking at her results when she yells, "Jess, look! You got THIRD PLACE!" I said, "Shut up. I did not." She answered, "No look, really! That numer there indicates your division place! You got third in our division!!!" To which I responded, "HA! I can't believe it! I guess we're staying for the awards ceremony!)

We did, and indeed I did win third place in my division! I got a cool medal and everything! It was a special division and there were only 7 people in it, but by golly I got THIRD PLACE and a medal!



My complete results are as follows:
Overall time- 1:48:23
Swim time- 21:58
Bike transition time- 5:52
Bike time- 40:34
Run transition time- 2:55
Run time- 37:03

I am proud of those results for my first triathlon. However, I know I can do better. Much better. I'm anxiously waiting for the next time I get to try again!

Hiking Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park is the biggest state park in Oregon. I think it's also one of the most beautiful! Even in the rain. I believe there are 10 waterfalls and you can hike a loop that takes to past each one.



On our scuba camping trip we hiked a smaller loop that took us past just a few falls. We had small children with us that tend to complain after walking only a mile. Our loop was about 3 miles and we saw 3 waterfalls.





Twin Falls was the first one. I didn't get a great pic of it though.





North Falls was the second and biggest. We actually got to walk behind it and the kids thought that was really cool.









We stopped for a snack/water break at the halfway point. Some of us ate our snacks so quickly that we had time to goof around.


















My brother-in-law, Dave was particularly hungry though.




The final waterfall was Winter Falls. This one was just after our farthest point on the hike.



I also captured a few pictures of the plantlife. I didn't have much time because the kids were running ahead and I didn't want to get left in the dust (or mud).




I think this one is my favorite picture of the scenery. Butt Crack Rock???? We all laughed when we passed it.

Scuba Camping

Have you ever heard of "Scuba Camping"? Probably not since I think it's a unique term that our pastor made up after hearing about a camping trip one of our church groups went on. We got rained on really bad and came home with our cars full of sopping wet camping gear and looking like drowned rats.

Scuba camping can be a totally miserable experience if you're not prepared for it. Here in Oregon we try to always be prepared for such a camping trip.

To prepare for scuba camping you'll need your normal camping gear in addition to a pop-up canopy (or two, or three), five or more very large tarps with rope and/or bungies to tie them down with, extra tent stakes, several golf umbrellas, rain coats and rain boots.

To be the most effecient when setting up your scuba camping site, you must work as a team. Setting up one tent at a time so it remains as dry as possible while the rain pours down on you. The most important thing is to get the rain fly on your tent as soon as possible. This will ensure that the inside of your tent stays semi-dry.

At this point it would also be wise to take one of your very large tarps and drape it over your tent. This is to make absolutely sure it doesn't start raining INSIDE your tent.

The next step is to create a covered cooking/eating space. Set up your canopies close enough together so that you can drape your other very large tarps between them. This will create a no drip zone if done properly. Make sure you stake and tie everything down securely.

You also need to keep an eye out for low spots in the tarps where the water might collect and put your structure in danger of colapse. I advise finding a large stick and emptying these spots on a regular basis.

Now you can "enjoy" your scuba camping experience! If you'd like to be warm, try and start a fire. Hopefully you were smart enough to leave your wood in the car so it stayed dry... Roasting marshmallows by a fire always lifts the rained on spirit.

(Golf umbrellas are great to cover both you and your camping chair!)