Where am I?

Where have I been? Hiking. Just haven’t been up north as much hiking 4000 footers very often.

I’m going to start taking this blog in a different direction. I have not changed but I’ve made some self discoveries lately. I didn’t realize the impact the year I spent hiking the 48 New Hampshire 4000 Footers really had on me. I went to the White Mountains with a goal. I achieved the goal I set out to achieve and along the way uncovered ME. The hiking posts will continue as this passion is going strong. I love sharing the photos and trail stories.

I’ve always had a love for the outdoors. This was inspired when I was young, in the Boy Scouts. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to be with a very active troop. I was also fortunate to have parents that supported the many adventures that were presented to me. I remember the payments being made so I could attend. It was a sacrifice for them. When I was 14 (ish) I traveled to Colorado and New Mexico. I hiked around a little in Colorado but more importantly spent 2 weeks hiking in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains of north eastern New Mexico at Philmont Scout Ranch. I explored mountains over 12,000 feet in elevation, roamed prairies and dried stream beds. I spent nights on working cattle ranches and days riding horses in fields. I came across bears while getting water. I fell on a cactus and whined as my friends tediously pulled the barbed spikes from my back with pliers.

When I was 15 I went the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill Virginia. It was the Diamond Jubilee Year (75 Years of Scouting). There were over 32,000 Scouts in attendance with an estimated 75,000 attendees at the opening and closing ceremonies. The Oak Ridge Boys played at the opening and the Beach Boys played at the closing ceremony. Its an experience I will never forget.

I was introduced to skiing when I was about 8 I think. I took lessons and fell in love with the sport. This became a passion for me. I would ski 60 times a season. Every weekend I would be on a mountain. I think this coupled with all the hiking and camping in Scouts is where my love of being out there really came from.

A very rich childhood and teen years with lots of time spent outdoors was initially thwarted by a back injury. In my early twenties I herniated two discs in my lower back. MRIs, pain killers and physical therapy was the prescription. I would spend weeks every year in extreme pain. When the pain wasn’t extreme, it just hurt. I would move carefully and aggravate it doing to the most mundane tasks. The aggravation of the herniation would result in muscle relaxers, pain killers and being flat on my back for a week or so.

This was the beginning of me losing track of ME…

In the coming days I’ll write about what I’ve been hiking since completing the NH48 and VT5. Lots of Monadnock, a return to the Moose and many miles exploring new to me territory close to home in southwestern New Hampshire. Mixed in will be posts about ME.