Josephine Saddle

I left the house early Saturday morning with the goal of making it to the Josephine Saddle. While not technically a “high-point”, this most recent hike is certainly an achievement and a great milestone in my recovery.  I knew when I left the house that morning that this particular trail would be a challenge, but I hadn’t realized just how much of a challenge it would be. Even before my surgery, this hike would have been a great undertaking.

Old Baldy Trail Head

 If you are not familiar with this trail it is in Madera Canyon, in the Coronado National Forest, and is the halfway point to the peak of Mt. Wrightson, the highest peak in Santa Cruz County.  This trail begins at the Mt. Wrightson picnic area and heads up the Old Baldy Trail. This is about 2.5 miles give or take, with an elevation gain of about 1,700ft. This is a continual incline with very few flat areas to catch your breath. If you are out of shape, I recommend starting on a different trail. If you absolutely have to start out here, allow yourself a few hours. From talking to the other hikers on the trail, most of them were able to reach the Saddle in about an hour. If you are new to hiking or not in the best physical condition allow yourself several hours. My sister and I made it in 2 hours and 15 minutes. This was largely due to my lungs.

The Low Point.

     I firmly believe that you can't have a high point unless you have a low point. Otherwise everything would just be flat. So I am going to start this blog off with my low point. However, since this is a blog about my high points, this will be the only post I make on this page. This is my low point.

First Hike Above 8,000ft.

Looking down at 8,000 ft.

             Well, I had a new highpoint a few weeks ago. It was my first hike above 8,000 ft since the docs removed half my right lung. Not only was it the first hike,  but it was the first time above 8,000 ft. without an oxygen tank.  This was a huge deal and my first of many big steps that I will need to take in order to accomplish my goal of defeating Mt. Wrightson by the end of summer!

It's Been a While!

I know that it's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy. I had a bit of setback in April with my health and then things started getting crazy. I spent a few months working on a campaign for the AZ CD8 special election and that took quite a bit of time. But now that is over and I'm back in the mountains. I'll post a few updates about my recent trips shortly.

Relay For Life

     

Survivor speech at Green Valley/ Sahuarita Relay for Life 2012

I have always wanted to get involved with some type of charity work, find a cause, have a purpose. Well, this year I found mine. In January of 2010, I was diagnosed with a malignant Giant Cell Tumor of the spine. This was not the first time that I had had this tumor, but it was the first time that I had been told it was cancer. I had already had two surgeries in 2007 to remove the first tumor and now I was about to begin the process all over again. Although this time it would not be as easy.

Bog Springs

     This past Saturday I attempted my first hike without the use of supplemental oxygen since my surgery. Now, I brought the oxygen with us, (or should I say my husband carried it with him), but I did not use it. This was a huge milestone in my recovery and healing. The hike took about twice as long as it has in the past, but I made it to the springs and that is what counts. It is a 3.8 mile hike and as a 1200 foot elevation gain. So hiking this without oxygen was no joke for me.It was quite difficult and as you can see from the picture, I was beat.
     We took our dog Zaphod (his name is from the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) with us. He loves the mountains, but with me being sick, he's gotten a bit out of shape. So he was beat at this point too. Poor guy was limping around more than I was the next two days. But he loves running through the forest, smelling all the new smells and there is not a lot of that in Tucson (The forest part, there are plenty of smells).

Welcome To My Blog

Welcome.
     I have started this blog to celebrate all of the high points in my life. You will see there is a tab for low points. This is there because in order to have a high point, there must be a low point. There is only one entry on that page and that is all there will be. This blog is focusing on the positive. If at some point I feel the need for a tragic entry, I will create another page. But for now, this blog is about moving forward and upward, metaphorically and literally. You will see that there are also tabs for emotional, physical and geographical high points. I am still in recovery from major surgery (discussed in my low point page) so there will be a lot of physical high points before I make any geographical ones. So join me on my journey of recovery and self discovery. Who knows, maybe we'll even meet up in the mountains someday.