HIKING

During the past four years, I've slowly turned into a big marshmallow. Mind you, I've been a marshmallow for many years but now I am a big marshmallow! I used to be in pretty good shape as far as my muscles were concerned but then all my health issues started. First my thyroid went kaput. Then my brain decided migraines were a good thing. My iron became depleted. Physical activity made me feel worse, much worse. So I sat, and sat and sometimes laid down to rest. I've gotten really out of shape and can no longer do the things I've always loved to do. Well, at least not as much as I've always done. It's hard for a person to get older and realize that each year your body slows down but for me the slow down from my health issues was fast and drastic. It's taken me a long time to get my health back on track. I'm still not totally there because I just had to change the dose of my thyroid medication in December (2009), I still sometimes get migraines and I constantly have to be careful to keep my iron level up. I know I am feeling better but to some degree, I've learned to ignore the side effects of these health issues. I've been able to increase my activity level. I had planned to do it slowly but sometimes I've tended to overdo it.

Besides gardening, one of the things that I've missed is hiking. I think my whole family has missed hiking since I was always the one who got us in the car to go explore a new trail. In February and March I started by getting back to my walks around the community. We have some moderate hills where I would get out of breath and feel my heart pounding. I wondered if my iron level had dropped but I kept it up. After awhile I saw some improvement. "The Knob" that overlooks the town of Milford is accessed by a rather short but steep hike. I've always wanted to hike it but have never gotten around to it. That was my new goal. At the beginning of April, just before Easter we went on the hike but got sidetracked and I never went to the overlook. The perfect reason for hiking it again the following week! Although I had never made it to the overlook on the first hike, something even more important to me happened. I got back my hope that I really would get back into shape. I began to form an idea. I want to hike Mt. Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!

Quite a few years ago I had made the statement that one day when the kids were older we would hike up Mt. Washington. I'm guessing that was at least six years ago. Thomas will be 18 years old in September so he would have been 11 or 12 back then. Old enough to be excited and looking forward to the hike. It's been a long wait but now Sarah is 13 years old and old enough to make it....I think. So we've started to get in shape for a trip to NH towards the end of July. What I've discovered is that Sarah is in much better shape than I thought and I'm in much worse shape than I thought!

I'm in the worst shape of the family and although Tom is much, much better than me, he is next in line. It's hard to say if Erin is better than Sarah or vice versa because they are pretty much the same. Thomas, of course, is the best. He could hike the mountain tomorrow without a problem. Actually, everyone could hike the mountain tomorrow except for me! I think everyone except for Thomas would really be hurting if they hiked tomorrow but they could at least make it. Yesterday, Thomas told me that he thinks I would be able to make it right now also, but I have my doubts.

Since April, when I told everyone that I wanted to hike Mt. Washington, we have been trying to hike every weekend. Thomas and I have gone on a couple extra hikes - me to catch up to everyone and him for encouragement! He can be quite an inspirational motivator! I also think my new found gardening energy has helped me build some muscles. I've joked with everyone that I'm not sure how heavy everyone is breathing because I can't hear them over my own gasping!

Our goal as a family is to get strong enough for everyone to be able to make it without being in agony. We know it's still going to be tough but if everyone were in agony we would more than likely turn back. I think my individual goal may be slightly different than everyone else. I would like to be able to just make it, agony or not. What a satisfied feeling I would have! Unfortunately, I know that there is always the possibility that I won't be able to do it. Sad but always a chance. I cannot control certain things in my life and my health is one of them. I do know that barring a major setback, I can at least start the hike with everyone. It's important to me to face my reality because acceptance of these facts helps me move on. I guess I'm trying to live in the moment.

So, we've (I've) made some major strides. Pun intended. Yesterday we hiked around 4.5 miles through the steep inclines of our area. We took a rather long route to end up at Dingman's Falls. We had been surprised to discover that it was a back route to the falls. We hadn't known that is where we would come out and had walked about 2.5 miles to get there. We had quite a laugh to discover that when we followed the creek back to our car on a more direct route, it was only about a half mile away! Ha ha ha! The entire 4.5 miles took us about 2 hours. The distance is about the same as the hike up Mt. Washington but the elevation change is not the same. The hike up Mt. Washington should take between 3 and 4 hours one way so that can give you an idea how steep it will be! It's hard to get a hike that is near the equivalent.

So it's nice to have a new and exciting goal and especially exciting for it to be a goal involving physical activity!