I will probably wax poetic about how much I have come to love this state for it's amazing diversity of wildlife and natural splendor. Funny because I grew up in the even more expansive state of Alaska for the first 19 years of my life, and sadly enough never came to really appreciate the great alpine mountain experience until many years later. Oh why didn't I start this much earlier.
I will start by saying I spent the greater part of my youth trying to run from direction/family/accountability and fancied myself some sort of social rebel. Now I am 39 and I am trying to re-claim my life with a fervor! I was a smoker for the better part of twenty years. I started at age 14 and smoked an average of a pack a day until I was 34. After a slew of visits to the emergency room for what felt like heart attacks and declining health, I awoke one morning and said to myself "Twenty years is too much". Ever since then I have never picked up a cigarette and never looked back. Ahh but so much time and physical ability has been flushed down the toilet in the years gone by. What to do now?? I started hiking and running to help with the new nervous energy I was unprepared for. Tough at first.
I had really great inspiration between good friends and an ex-girlfriend. It was by watching them lead their lives with such a sense of adventure and willingness to try new things that I was inspired to follow suit. I joined a local group called the Mountaineers. I spent the next few years scrambling and climbing with the club and making new friends along the way.
I want to say that this blog is merely a testament to my experiences in the mountains either here in Washington or elsewhere in the world. It isn't meant to be a forum for bragging or postulation.
In the hopes that this doesn't come off as trite, I was raised in a home where my parents were both of the Christian faith. I myself never found God as it was written in the books and pamphlet's left around my home. I always found myself at odds with what I felt the church represented. I will say that the time I have spent in the mountains has given me the spiritual relationship I needed with a "higher power".
I look forward to writing more in the future about fantastic exploits and a wonderful world of exploration!
