home!

Once again, it has been an embarrassingly long time since I have been on here.  At least this time I have a halfway decent excuse: I have been a bit busy.  I road tripped halfway across the country back to New England.  I spent a little time back in New Hampshire and got to see some of my friends.  I am currently staying at my parent’s house in Maine and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it!  Sometimes you forget all the little things you love about a place, until you are back.  I have spent most of my time right around the house, although I have had a few adventures.  The best so far was a century ride that I took last week with my friend Dylan McGuffin.  Starting out from Lincoln, NH we made a circular route, which ascended three mountain passes (Franconia Notch, Crawford Notch, and Kancamangus Pass).  To completely downplay the situation you could say that my legs ceased functioning on the last pass.  However, as mentioned, that is the gentle way of describing it.  Luckily, when you are doing a loop, what goes up must come down…and down we went!  The descents were awesome!  The day was a total blast and I owed Dylan a lot more than the single beer I bought him, after he stuck with me all day.  

Here are some of the pictures from the day:

 

My handsome partner-in-crime: Dylan.

 

Cresting Franconia Notch.

 

3 of the 5 bears we saw! (We also spotted a moose)

 

A moving glimpse of the Mt. Washington hotel with the Presidentials in the background.

 

Crawford Notch: preparing for the descent.

pictures

…of Pictured Rocks (finally).

Pictured Rocks!

Bea-U-tiful!

Bryan, Maria and I.

The Caribbean...or the U.P.???

Maria, catching some rays.

Grand total!

The checks are in, the money has been counted, and the grand total is….dun-dah-dah-dun….(drum roll please)….. $2,968! There are still a few people with potential donations looming, so we may be able to hurdle the $3,000 mark.
Either way, I am super pumped about the success of the event! The money raised would be substantial by any standards. However, it is important to remember just how far this money can go, when it is being used to fund education in a developing country, on the other side of the world! To get an idea, here is a funding plan that I found on the Central Asia Institute’s website:

Summary of Costs
$20………One student’s school supplies for one year
$50………One treadle sewing machine and supplies
$100……..Maternal health care supplies for 1 year
$300……..One advanced student’s annual scholarship
$600 …….One teacher’s annual salary
$5,000……Support for existing school for 1 year
$50,000…One school building and support for up to 5 years

Looking at it that way $3,000 can look a lot more impressive!
Thanks again to all the people who helped! Stay tuned for more up and coming ideas!

food for thought

Actually two pieces of nourishment…
1. I took a minute last night, while getting out of my car, to appreciate just how amazing stars are. It sounds cliche, but standing in the pitch black, below an entire sky full of stars is sweet. Which made me realize, if I eventually arrive at the point in life where I am looking to find a permenant home, finding a spot without light pollution will need to be near the top of my list.
2. I need to start writing more. By writing, I am not referring to the random smattering of letters that often get placed on here, but instead, creating something a bit more…beautiful, or at least entertaining. I just started a new book, In Search of Hope. The book is written by Mariane Pearle and chronicles a year spent traveling around the world; meeting various, amazing women: all fighting for peace and freedom in their own unique way. Reading the book has inspired me to reconsider journalism, and writing in general, as one avenue for discovering the world. And, since they always say “practice makes perfect”, I am going to start making a concious effort to further develop this skill. Of coarse, there is no need to go overboard, so I will aim at producing one worhty piece of writing per week, to begin with.
Today was obviously not that day.

Ideal Market

The Ideal Market, located in downtown Cable, is home to the most delicious pizzas in town! Aside from the scrumptious food, the place is asthetically pleasing and is run by two fantastic people, Mick and Beth Endersbe. I am a frequent customer, as it is not only a great place to eat but also to just hang out. Today I get to take part in the action. Which means that I get to call my usual sociallizing activities a “job”!
So, if you are in the Cable area, stop by!

$$$

I am currently finishing the collection of the last of the donations. A grand total of the funds raised will be posted on this site at the start of next week!

holiday!

Following the 48hr Challenge, and one long night of sleep, I hopped into my car and headed towards Marquette, MI. I spent the last few days in the U.P. with Maria Stuber and Bryan Cook. It felt great to relax with friends for a few days, and just have fun exploring a new area. The highlight of the trip was running out along the Pictured Rocks national lakeshore. Pictures rocks, located an hour further east of Marquette, is composed of impressive sandstone and limestone cliffs, overlooking Lake Superior. The water sparkles a brilliant bright blue-green, next to the orange and white cliffs. It is absolutely beautiful out there!
Maria made sure to keep me busy while I was there. We had a list of Marquette ‘must-sees’ and crossed almost everything off. Some of our other outings included seeing the Dead River waterfalls, dining out at L’atitudes, grilling, and have some scrumptious treats at Babycakes. Maria and Bryan were definitely top notch hostesses, in fact they even gave me a gift for being a guest! Yeah, I know, seems a little backwards. They gave me my very own Stormy Kromer hat, to remember the U.P. I left Wednesday evening, with the conclusion that Marquette is a pretty sweet spot!
Pictures, from our various adventures, will eventually be included. Unfortunately, my computer is dead right now, and since I forgot my charger in Marquette it may stay that way for a little while. But pictures will come…eventually.

48hrs

All told, I would say the 48hrs were a magnificent success! I definitely challenged myself; I was able to spread awareness about a cause that I believe in; and we raised a lot of money to support charitable work. That being said, I found plenty of errors and mistakes (made by myself) along the way, and learned a lot for the future.
First and foremost, I had my eyes opened to a completely different realm of athleticism. This was my first glimpse of what the endurance and adventure racing world might look like…and I have to say, I believe I liked the view. Of coarse, what I was doing was not exactly a race, as there were no other competitors. However, I did get to experience how the body reacts when you remove sleep, and push it farther than imaginable. My two biggest conclusions:
1. The body can do some pretty amazing things.
2. The mind often fails before the body. Which meant that I was periodically hoping, without success, for the last 14, or so, hours that my body would give out. But when the body refuses to give in the mind must concede.

As for mistakes, I greatly underestimated the time it would take me to cover the Birkie trail. This became obvious almost as soon as Jojo and I initially set out, and the pace sure did not get much quicker as the weekend continued.

The highlight was the wonderful support that I received all weekend long, I was very flattered. From people traveling hours to Hayward (Jojo and Kathy), to those who managed to squeeze out a little extra time from already busy weekends. It made a huge difference to have people out there with me. In all I was out there for less than 10 hours by myself, which is hardly anything to complain about. So thank you, for the millionth time, to everyone who helped make this dream of mine become a reality.

As far as adventure goes this was probably one of my most wisely planned and executed attempts ever. With so many people helping me, I felt a greater responsibility to sound and safe decision making (which as many of my friends know, is not often my forte). The most adventurous stint was the first mountain bike traverse of Telemark Road that I completed, which was performed at night, in the pitch black with Linda Cook. We both had headlamps, although neither were providing an excess of light. Mine, in particular, was projecting the light almost straight down. Which meant that I was arching my back and tilting my chin straight up in the air to try and pitch the light forward. Not so comfortable. This, combined with my already independently closing eyelids and somewhat lacking mountain bike skills, made for quite the interesting ride. However, in the end this was probably one of my favorite parts of the journey!
Here are a few more pictures, to sum up what my words lack…

One of my favorite supporters, Chloe!

Crossing the finish line, 48 hours later.

done….

…completed…finished!
It is Monday afternoon and I am now well into the post-challenge recovery!
I enjoyed sleeping in and having an all around leisurely morning. Now I am slowly delving in (about elbow deep) to the task of cleaning up and tending emails etc.
I am working on putting together my account of the adventure, as well as collecting more pictures to post, as well. I hope to have this together by tonight or tomorrow.
As for the quick update: it was awesome! Although, as some witnessed, there were certain points where I may not have stayed quite so positive.
I hiked 100km and was just shy of 100km on the mountain bike.
Finally, I would like to add that this was in no way a single-woman adventure. I received loads of help from tons of amazing people and it would not have been possible or nearly as successful without this help! So thank you to all my supporters!
Stay tuned for a more extensive report and added pictures!

48 Hours is Underway!

Greetings! Heather is currently undertaking her 48-hour fundraising challenge and I am acting as a stand-in to update her blog. I joined her for the first seven hours of her jaunt through the woods, and when I left her she was feeling the first minor signs of fatigue but still in good spirits.

We set off at 5:00pm Friday evening from the North End cabin in Cable, and made steady progress towards the “OO” cabin on the Birkie Trail at a lumbering pace of 15 minutes per kilometer. Good conversation and frequent tick-checks kept us busy as the kilometer markers rolled by. We reached our designated rest stop (and dinner!) without trouble around 9:00pm.

After a hearty helping of chili, Heather paused to put her feet up and reflect a bit on the 40-some hours left in her quest: “Maybe I don’t think things through all the time,” she quipped. But perhaps over-thinking can leave little room for big dreams. So Heather is out there, trodding along, probably fantasizing about down pillows and hot oatmeal, but still dreaming big.

-Jojo Winters