20 Miles of Naturestuffs or I Went Backpacking!?!

An appreciation of nature is not something I was born with - it's something that was learned through experiences with the Crow and through the encouragement of good friends. Warning - I'm still new at this nature-stuff. 20 miles of backpacking over three days didn't sound like something I could physically handle. I'm an urban hiker - dirt hills and I are not friends. But I'm making it a point to challenge myself - physically and mentally, so it was time I finally took the good Capn up on his years-long offer of a backpacking trip.

So on a sunny Friday afternoon, (honorary roomie) Jesse and I drove to Point Reyes to meet up with the Capn and his buddy Nick. With my filled to the brim backpacking backpack (that just sounds weird together) and Giants hat, our merry gang of dudes set off from the visitors center parking lot. Immediately, I was taken to a different world. It's not very often that you see rainforest, green hills and rocky coastline on the same day. It was…awesome. In the forest, one of my first sights was a banana slug that I nearly stepped on. I had never seen one before and thought it might have been a bear booger.

A Banana Slug in the wild…yeah, we thought it kinda looked like a penis too

I'm still trying to figure out why UC Santa Cruz picked something so gross as their mascot?….damn hippies! After a little over five miles we arrived at our camp for the evening just as the evil fog started rolling in. Our campsite was back in the middle of nowhere - and smack-dab in the afternoon sun. The Capn tried to take a quick nap but was roasting in his tent. Luckily, I had beginners exhaustion on my side and got to take my nap. Through fart jokes, interesting meals (I finally got to check out dehydrated food and I must say - I'm not impressed) and camping stories, we had a nice relaxing evening in the woods.

The next day was the big hike. I could barely get out of bed because I have weak calves (yeah, that's it) but the gang forced me onwards for our trek to the coast. I was able to get these kick-ass shots….

Fallen tree…no f'ing problem for our gang! 

Beautiful!

…before I realized my camera was having technical difficulties. Unfortunately, I also started having technical difficulties around this time due to the crappy food I ate the night before. I may love ramen but that doesn't mean my stomach does. The last 8 miles of hiking was irritating due to a pissed-off tummy. Luckily, I was with three guys who enjoyed nature shots and I'll be able to get plenty of visual reminders from their pictures. It turned out, I wasn't the only one on the trip who was uncomfortable. Nick somehow pulled his groin and was hobbling about as slowly as I was. We had stopped for lunch at this pretty bridge when we were suddenly inundated by a swarm of post-teen hikers - in their matching hiking boots, tu-tus and hipster hats. Someone in our group pin-pointed them as a church group and we all said "Ohhhhh", as if that explained everything. Once we got our laughs out, it was a grueling uphill to camp. Of course, we got the campsite that was in the middle of overgrown grasses and weeds and swarming with mosquitos. After watching my fellow hikers get eaten alive through their clothes, I retreated to the tent (we all did to avoid the mosquitos) and talked to everyone through our tents.

The last day was full of jokes about "man-stink" (funny because I felt like I smelled the worst) and all the things we would eat on the way home (mmm, burgers and pizza). I walked the last few miles with Nick so he'd have a hiking buddy (ok, I wanted to make sure he didn't pass out from his groin pull, but he was a trooper). We came upon that church group that ran into us the day before and found many of the girls wrapping their knees and ankles together…1/8 of a mile from the parking lot! Seriously? They couldn't wait the 3 minutes it would have taken to go over the hill into their parked van. The church director looked just as irritated as we felt…and was glaring at our barely concealed snickering. We heckled all the way to the "finishing line" and a very proud Capn Dick took a victory picture of me.

Still trying to figure out if this is a look of exhausted delirium or relief at seeing a bathroom

So I did it! Not only that, I kicked ass (and only bitched a little)! We clocked just over 20 miles in 48 hours and besides my exhausted walk to the bathroom, it really wasn't that bad. Hell, I realized I'd (surprisingly) do it again…maybe next year…and not in mid-summer. It really changed my perception of what I thought I was physically capable of - what else can I do? 

Lessons learned: 

• Wear wool socks!
• DON'T eat dehydrated meals. I was very happy with my ramen, oatmeal and Clif Bars. Even the Capn agreed it was sandwiches and chips next time
• Bring moleskin for blisters and TONS of bug spray in case the camping people decide to give you the shittiest, most mosquito-occupied campsites
• Laugh a lot and take a bunch of pictures
• But still…bring pepto-bismol!

Forcing Myself Outside, Or How I Learned to Love Bingo

I haven't become a complete hermit. I go to work, the gym, Tar-je (Target), game night with the gang and the other night, drinks with friends. When you're bummed about life, it can be a chore to even get out of bed but I'm one of those people that has to do something EVERY DAY or the entire day was a waste of my life. However, I have a loose definition of what "something" entails. Example: Friday all I did was go to work, have a three hour text conversation with my sister and my buddy, drink an entire bottle of wine and watch the Giants game with roomie Tom. That's it! I didn't cure herpes or balance my checkbook or even catch the rogue mouse in our apartment.

I will get you…you little bastard!

Still, if I look further I actually did the following: made money to provide for my well-being; planned a future project with my sister as we discussed psychological reasons why some people should not get married; connected with my buddies regarding a upcoming and much looked-forward to trip to see them; bonded with my roommate and friend who I don't see as often as I like and partook in enjoying a bottle of my favorite wine in a safe environment. Not so minuscule now huh? Damn perception! I took this realization to my Saturday which involved more wine drinking, more baseball watching and spending time with people I enjoy seeing. Did I have a bunch of stuff I could have done at home? Of course…especially catching that damn mouse….but it's become more important to me to develop experiences than to finish watching every episode of Top Gear (U.K. of course - there is not another one!) and scrub our fake hardwood floors.

Quite possibly one of the funniest shows ever…and I don't give a crap about cars!

I met up with my friend Colby for pizza dinner and drinks in my old neighborhood (I miss the Inner Sunset so damn much) and headed to one of my favorite bars to watch the Sharks-Kings playoff game (that's hockey for anyone who gives a shit). Unfortunately, when we arrived it was full of tool-bags there to watch some UFC fight. We lasted one drink before it was obvious we needed to hit the road. Luckily, Colby asked what Tom was up to and I knew Tom was at a bar that was doing a bingo night. That sounded fun…right? The answer is hell yeah that's right! The Riptide is around the corner from my apartment (you know, in case anyone wants to stalk me or anything) and is the go-to place when Tom's friends are in town which they so happened to be. Colby and I wandered in around the end of the bingo game and everyone was already pretty drunk. I had to help Tom with the numbers he missed because he was too busy spontaneously dancing (it's just something he does…he's single ladies!) and trying to figure out how to get a drink at this very distracted dive bar. Every single person in there was playing bingo - even the bartenders! I remember looking at Colby at some point and asking why the hell we didn't just come here? I had more fun in 15 minutes at the end of a bingo game than 35 minutes at one of my supposed favorite bars. We spent most of the rest of the evening together before sending the beyond drunk gang to their show at Ruby Skye (boo!!!). 

Still, I wore my leather jacket and didn't look like the pasty zombie that has become the norm. Hell, I even got a little sunburn on my nose! I was out and about for the majority of an entire day that didn't involve sweating my ass off in a gym or sitting in cubicle cleaning other others mistakes. That is a win baby! Now I just have to snag one of my Mom's bingo daubers for the game in two weeks…..

May Goals - Getting Sh*t Done

I've found a new desire to get even more done than my OCD tendencies force me to do. Luckily, I think I can do this and it's forcing me to become more social and begin to (slowly) get back out around other people again.

Social:

• Go visit my buddies in Pittsburgh, PA - sometimes you just need to hang out with other people who still find Family Guy and fart humor funny. Don't judge me!!

Oh Pe-ta!

• Drive to Reno to spend some quality time with my cousin (this may be a carry-over to June goal based on time constraints).
• Go to Off the Grid again. I miss food trucks and Horchata flavored Kettle Corn - maybe Tom will even get some next time.
• Host my friend Ashley and her friend for Bay to Breakers. Which pretty much means drinking, eating pancakes and watching people run in costumes.

Run dudes, there's a hipster in a Donkey Kong costume after you!

Financial:

• Up the autopay on my car. Will have it paid by the end of next year - woo hoo!
• Set up auto-transfers to savings - only have two accounts now to fill, more on that later.
• Pay the credit cards off. I got a little overzealous last month but that's ok, luckily I love ramen.

Physical:

• Finally going on a 3 day backpacking trip to Point Reyes. This will be a test of my endurance which I'm sad to say, has not improved as much as it should. I'll have a full recap on this in a couple of weeks.
• Begin training in Couch to 5k. I am NOT a runner but I feel this unexplained need to start pushing my body beyond my comfort zone. Luckily, I have a few friends who have expressed an interest in doing a race with me. Sweet!
• Up my gym time and yoga frequency. Zoe and I got our asses kicked in yoga the other night and with Tone being very busy and me stuck at work, the gym has been nonexistent in April. We're looking to change that (Tone has to get ready for bikini season after all), so we're looking at a 3x a week 1+ hour gym time, 2x a week yoga and running for me. 

Miscellaneous:

• Finish clean-up music project. Ever listen to your old mix-cd's (or tapes, I won't judge) and cringe? I had that experience when trying to relive the past 10 years of my life through music. It's time to clean these cd's up before they stop selling cd's anymore. It's a huge project but luckily I have roomie Tom to help (and cringe).
• Research cruises for the fall/winter. I still want to take a Caribean cruise before the end of the year. I said I'm gonna do it and damnit, this will happen!
• Post here 2-3x a week. I promise, I'll get my humor writing back but first I need to get my actual writing chops back. Even good storytellers lose their way sometimes.

Reasonable list, now just to force myself to do it all. Thanks for keeping me accountable!

What goals do you have for May? List in the comments.