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cougbowler · 6 years

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I am now a Trail Angel

On Monday September 17, 2018 I became an official Trail Angel and provided a little bit of magic. The whole experience made it one of the most satisfying days of my life. I have no idea how many years left on this earth I have but they will be spent “giving”. You may be asking yourself what is a “Trail Angel”? I will tell you.

First a little background: Soon after getting into hiking in 2015 I began reading quite a few books of real life accounts of hiking adventures. Most of these have been of people who have hiked the entire AT (Appalachian Trail). These people are known as thru-hikers. Thru-Hikers of the AT or even the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) can be out in the wilderness for 4-5 months straight. The AT goes from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. The PCT from the US/Mexico border east of San Diego to Canada north of the Okanagon in Washington State. Both are around 2400 miles. The normal trip for both of these are NOBO (in the North Bound direction) and are from around April to September.

While reading these books I could not imagine walking, quite a bit of them alone, for days at a time without seeing another human and sometimes running out of food or water. The logistics involved are incredible as well. Hikers will mail resupply boxes to various cities along the route so they can pick up more food or other supplies as they go since nobody can carry 4-5 months of food with them. Every book has had something in common. The hiker is in the middle of nowhere and either getting close to a campground or a road crossing (both of these trails cross various roads both dirt, paved and even Freeways) and all of sudden there is a person or a group of people setup and providing hikers with food and drinks when they least expected it. These people are Trail Angels and the amazing food and generosity they provide is the Trail Magic. Sometimes a hiker will just come across some Magic with no Angel in site. This could be in the form of a cooler full of beer, water or gatorade or even some candy bars or other snacks. Some Trail Magic could be a bunch of cold drinks tied up at a stream crossing staying cold in the water. Amazing right?

So how did I become an angel? This summer I have been following along via YouTube of a local Seattle-ite hiker who has been hiking the PCT. It has been awesome to follow along her journey and experience a thru-hike that I will never……….wait….. That I have yet to do. She has passed a few different Trail Angels and received Magic from non-angels. Most thru-hikers leave the trail and head to towns along the way to re-supply or take a “Zero Day”, a day where they hike zero trail miles. Quite a bit of these excursions are hitchhiking from the road-crossing to the town. The random people that give them rides are also Angels, usually unknowingly. I started thinking it would be amazing to give back to the hiking community and provide some Magic of my own. I started looking into how and where I could do this. I found a website about the PCT and saw that it crosses HWY 410 at Chinook Pass near Mt. Rainier and tried to get a few people from a couple Hiking FB groups together to do this but I was not sure when would even be a good time of year to ensure I would see thru-hikers and what would I bring and if it rained would I just be sitting out in the rain…. I needed more planning…. Then I found a FB group for PCT Hikers and even a couple groups for PCT Trail Angels. I joined these groups.

I woke up on September 17th and noticed in the Trail Angel group that a girl had posted the night before asking for help getting from Seattle to Marblemount up near the North Cascades HWY so she could get back on the trail. I posted a reply to see if she still needed a ride and got no reply so I sent her a DM through Messenger. She answered right away that yes she still needed a ride. She said it was her and her friend and they were hoping to go around 11am. I told her I would do it. So there it was my first instance of providing Trail Magic was going to be picking up 2 strangers in Seattle and driving them 2 hours north for free and just because. I was excited. I found out where they were and headed out to fill up my gas tank. She pinged me to say her friend had to go to the pharmacy that did not open until 11 so could I be there at 11:30? I told her if they wanted I would still grab them at 11 then stop by the pharmacy and head north. She said that would be great. So at 11am I got to the Holiday Inn on Dexter near the Seattle Center to pick up 2 hikers. Both of the were probably in their 30’s and the one I had been communicating with was Asia (Ah-see-ah) originally from Poland and her friend was Niko, originally from the Czech Republic but both currently lived in LA. They said they were in the midst of only hiking the PCT through Washington and had been on the trail since August 10 but had taken a break for the past week and explored the Olympic National Forest and Mt. Rainier. We left the hotel and headed to Fred Meyer in Ballard for the pharmacy. While Niko was in Fred Meyer Asia told me they were actually filming a movie and not just hiking the trail. She carried all of the equipment in her pack and Niko had the tent and food. They started out with a drone too but it had issues and never worked so they had to send it off for repairs early during the hike.

We left Ballard for our 2 hour drive to the Marblemount Ranger Station. Along the way I got to ask a lot of questions about the PCT and get my fill on thru-hiking information that I had always wondered about. I asked if they had “trail names” which are nicknames that most thru-hikers either get from other hikers or give themselves usually relevant to something they experience “on trail”. For example someone who is a fast hiker and making good miles everyday may be called “Speedy” or maybe a hiker breaks a hiking pole along the way and they get called “One-Pole”... Anyway they said that they gave each other names and Asia was “dirtball” and Niko was “sweatball”. I did not ask why but seems pretty self-explanatory. The drive was nice and relaxed. We talked about hiking and at times I kept quiet so as not to continue blasting them with questions. Niko spent some time looking at apartments in LA as they were planning on moving in together when they got back but also since they had been in Seattle and on the trail in Washington they were seriously considering moving to Seattle as they had fallen in love with our neck of the woods per se.

The girls were not sure what their plan was once they got to the Marblemount Ranger Station. They just knew they had to check in and get their permits for camping in the National Forest and figure out the best way to get on a trail that would lead them to Stehekin. ***** From what I have heard prior Stehekin is a magical place out near Chelan that can only be reached by a ferry or by hiking***** Their plan was to get to Stehekin in the next couple of days, stay there for a couple days then get on the PCT there and head to Canada. Sounds fun right?

We arrived at Marblemount and pulled up at the Ranger Station. I told them they could leave their packs in my car while they figured out what was next. We went in and Asia started getting the information and their permits. I saw some Bear Canisters in the corner and just had to check them out. I’ve read all about hikers having to carry these in certain places to keep their food safe from bears. This was another really cool first for me. I headed back to the desk to see what the Ranger was telling Asia and NIko. He showed them on a map a couple of places they could camp along the way to Stehekin but first they had to get to the Cascade Pass Trail near the Johannesburg Campground about an hour away. Their plan was to get there and stay the night then start hiking in the morning. Once they realized this was their plan I knew they had no idea how they were going to get to the Campground so I told them I would take them. What’s another hour of driving anyway right? But it was already after 1pm and I think we were all hungry. I asked if they wanted to get some food in Marblemount before heading out and offered to buy them lunch. We went to a cute little place called the Glacier Peak Eatery. After some food we were on our way to the campground. The road was mostly paved but had some portions of dirt and luckily was pretty well maintained without many potholes. We made it there and to their dismay there were tons of vehicles. They were hoping to be somewhat secluded. The actual campsite was about 200 yards from the parking lot so I am not sure how crowded it was but it also looked like quite a few people were heading out so maybe they were mainly day hikers. We got their packs out of the trunk and noticed how it was pretty cold there but I was super jealous I was not partaking in their adventure. They thanked me for the 20th time and I told them it was my pleasure. I gave them each a hug and told them I would be following on IG and looking forward to the movie debut.

I used the restroom and headed back down the windy road. I plugged in my spotify and was engulfed in emotions. Similar to when I start the return trip of one of my hikes and my itch to do a backpacking trip has just got 100 times worse. While Asia and Niko were thankful and were happy to have received a free ride and a free meal it was me that got the most out of it. My heart was full and I can’t explain the feeling of helping someone out with no expectations in return. What I also got out of it was 2 new friends. Yes I may never see them again but we definitely became friends and as I drove away I felt happy but also a sadness as I truly was starting to miss them and I sooo wanted to be out at the campground getting setup for the night and preparing for the next day hike. Someday… Someday. But until then I will continue to seek and provide Magic to those that can use it.

#trailangel

#trailmagic

#pcthikers

#thruhiking

#someday

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cougbowler · 7 years

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Purple Folders

“Where’s my Purple Folder?” has been a very common question asked amongst the 3 FTE’s (full time employees) on my team over the past year or so. You see, when someone gets a purple folder it means they have been laid off from NBCNews.com.

Let me give a quick history lesson: I started working for this company in October of 2003. It was then called MSNBC.COM and was a Joint Venture between Microsoft and NBC. While the NBC TV product was in NY the website employees were split between NY and Seattle (well Redmond as we were on the Microsoft campus). In June of 2013 NBC bought out Microsoft’s half of the company and Microsoft basically said “get out” and gave us 1.5 years to find a new place to do business.

Also as part of this change came some re-organization efforts as NBC wanted more of the staff to be in NY where the Editorial leads would now be located. Quite a few people were notified that their positions were being moved to NY and were given the choice to move to NY or be laid off. Some went to NY but more took the layoff that came with a generous severance package of 2 weeks of pay for every of employment they had. One of the guys that was being laid off was a video producer named Rico. Luckily for him though the team I was on had an opening and we hired him to join our team.

As for picking our new location NBC sent out a survey to see if the employees had a preference for where we wanted to re-locate to. We were given 3 choices. Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue. We thought this was a nice gesture but the people that wanted to stay on the East Side didn’t realize until later that our votes were split between Redmond and Bellevue thus allowing Seattle votes to win out. NBC big wigs wanted to make a big splash and decided to re-brand the main website to NBCNews.com and picked the 26th floor of the Columbia Tower in Seattle as our new office. They even said it was going to be known as their new “Technology Center” since most of the employees in our office were the Operations Team, Developers and Engineers with a few Editorial folks left in Seattle. So in January 2015 we all moved into the Columbia Tower and had a fresh start. One month later the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and we had the Parade go right past our building on 4th Ave. Fun Times.

Soon after the move to Seattle came a new direction and NBC decided to get rid of some of our senior leadership members and this began the consistent talks of “what does this mean for the Seattle office and the rest of us?” Nobody was happy with who was let go and a new CTO (Chief Technology Officer) was brought in to replace our beloved Head of Technology, Joanne. Then in November 2015 there were more layoffs. Most of the rest of the Editorial group that was still in Seattle were laid off and this is the first time we realized that those who were being laid off got their paperwork in “purple folders”. So we knew then that if someone was walking around with a purple folder they were one of the people affected by the latest round of layoffs. While we had our own HR person in the office there was always a more senior HR person in town when layoffs happened. From this day on whenever employees from NY were in town, especially anyone of Senior Level importance, we always looked around to see if anyone from HR came too. HR=purple folders.

In November 2016 most of our PMO (Program Manager Organization) was let go along with some other Technology folks and a month later they just shut down our BreakingNews.com group that had a loyal following including 9.5 million Twitter followers. This made nobody happy and added even more “writing on the wall for the rest of us”. Besides that we were down to about 55 people in our office from near 100 when we first moved to Seattle. There was always talk of our office, we had the whole 26th floor, being too much space the small amount of employees left.

So for the past year whenever anything of importance happened, actually pretty much anything around the office at all, it had us questioning whether Purple Folders were coming or not and whether they would just shut down the entire Seattle office. A few months ago our CTO, the one that had replaced Joanne, decided to move on and when the new one showed up he was asked about our space and agreed that it was indeed too big for us and that it was being looked at as far as what to do with it. There was talk of sub-leasing it and moving us to a smaller office but there was also gossip of them just shutting down the whole Seattle office for good.

My team is made up of a manager (Dom) and 6 Analysts. 3 of us are FTE and 3 of us are contractors. The 3 FTE’s are Chris, the previously mentioned Rico and myself. The 3 of us work together Monday-Thursday each week and have a good time. We give each other crap all day and make jokes about Purple Folders and every time someone from NY makes a visit, especially HR, we ask each other “what that means for us?” and basically assume we are being fired… all in jest but knowing it could and probably will happen at some point. Well not fired but at least laid off.

So keeping in line with the past 2 Novembers this year was no different. On Tuesday November 7th there was talk that the CTO was heading into town on Wednesday afternoon but only coming for a quick visit and heading back out Friday. It seemed like a weird visit so people started wondering what was up. On Thursday morning he showed up but there was a female with him this time that I did not recognize but figured it could have been someone from HR. I saw the 2 of them in a meeting with my boss and his boss early that morning. Pretty weird to have this mystery female in a meeting with the CTO and 2 managers from the Operations team. I let Chris and Rico know what I saw and the gossip began in full. Later I heard 1 co-worker ask another “how are you doing?” but it was not the typical “good morning” or “what’s up”… It was as if something bad was going on. More gossip. LOL Then a developer was standing in our little work space when someone walked by and said, “It’s exactly how I said it was going to be” which brought even more wondering about what was happening. Dom, who was one of the guys in the meeting earlier that morning, came by and we were asking him who the lady in the office was and he was like, “Who? I’m not sure” and when she walked by I pointed her out and he still said he was not sure. LIES. I figured he just wasn’t allowed to say anything yet but how could he not know who she was when he was in a meeting with her?? SMH. HAHA.

At this point we figured bad news was on the way. Another Manager of some of the developers came by and we asked him what was going on and all he would say was “you need to ask Dom”. That did not sound promising. A little bit later I was walking around the office to check things out and all of the Web Operations team, their manager and Dom were in a meeting together. I figured this was kind of weird but maybe Dom’s boss, Doug, was letting them all know what the morning meeting was all about. It never crossed my mind that usually when this happens our team would be in the same meeting because our team and the Web Ops team makeup all of Operations. Dom had seen me walk by so as soon as that meeting ended he came by to let us know that indeed something was up. He said that layoffs were happening but the Operations team was not being affected. Most of the Developers were being let go and the Ops team and Devices team along with a few others were not affected by the layoffs. Either way it was another shitty day in November for our office. He also said our team would have a meeting at 1pm for Doug to let us know all the details.

Just before 1pm Dom said our meeting with Doug was in an office that we do not normally have meetings in and it was the same office from the morning where I saw Doug, Dom, the CTO and HR lady in. Plus the one Contractor on our team that was in the office was supposed to stay back and not attend which was kind of weird but some information regarding layoffs is only given to FTE’s first. As the 3 of us walked to the meeting Rico said that the room we were going to is where the HR lady was currently set up. At this point we kind of figured things out and we were walking into the Lions’ Den. Sure enough the meeting was with the CTO, HR, Doug, Dom and the 3 FTE’s from my team. The CTO began the meeting and let us know there were some changes within the Operations team and the 3 of us were being laid off. They were going to replace our spots with 1 contractor in NY, 1 contractor in London and then 1 more in the Seattle office. WE WERE BEING GIVEN OUR PURPLE FOLDER!!!!

While we knew eventually it would happen it always seemed like our team would be last to go…and still may be…but for now they were cutting costs and getting rid of the FTE’s except Dom was staying on to manage the team including the new remote head counts to come.

They asked us to stay around until April 2nd and as with previous layoffs we were offered a nice severance package so while I am losing my job in 4 months I will be getting 28 weeks of pay added on when I leave. Rico and I have been kind of tired of the gig for a while and were just kind of biding our time until we got let go. Over the past couple of years I took a bunch of Project Management classes and got a certificate from Bellevue College as that is the line of work I was trying to move into at NBC and now will be seriously looking for a PM position somewhere else after the Holidays. This door has closed but I am looking at it as all positive and I am sure new doors will open soon.

P.S. The one negative of all this is that the folder with the layoff paperwork was not really purple but more of a deep blue. BOOOOO -spacerun:yes'>M��7

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cougbowler · 8 years

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3rd time’s a charm: Thanks Jan!

The 3rd time's a charm. Not really. I mean I guess maybe it is. For me it took a third failed relationship for me to find Jan, thus finding the reason why these relationships, 2 of them being marriages, were failing. Failing for the same exact reason. Jan was my Charm!! When my 2nd wife told me she wanted a divorce and I realized there was no convincing her to reconsider I sat in our bedroom on the floor, sometimes in the walk-in closet, and I wrote. I wrote every day for about 2 weeks. I just wrote and wrote and wrote. The best thing I wrote was that it was finally time to get help, to figure out what was happening, why it was happening and how to stop it. I was at my version of Rock Bottom. I now needed the help I always figured I needed but this time I was going to get that help. Through resources at my workplace I found a counselor..... I found Jan! I had my first meeting with Jan in January of 2015 and it did not go so well. I am not sure what I thought was going to happen but I left her office wondering why I felt the same as when I got there. I mean shouldn't I have some sort of direction now that I spoke to a shrink? I guess it took 44 years to get this fucked up in the head and heart that 1 session with her wasn't going to fix it huh? Plus Jan would say something or ask me a question and then I would respond and when I paused or stopped she just stared at me. "Hey Lady, you talk to people for a living so you obviously know when it's your turn – SAY SOMETHING!" I mean I was already uncomfortable being there and was never good at eye contact so now I have this lady staring into my eyes saying nothing at times. I wasn't sure we were a good fit. Even though I knew that a counselor was the right thing....was it Jan? How do I know who will be right for me? This therapy shit was hard, in more ways than one....or 2 or 7... So after 1 session I felt no different and didn't think I was talking to the right person. Good start Brian! I decided to give Jan one more try. I do not really remember my 2nd session with Jan but I think we got a little into my childhood and parents and I got a little emotional and probably even cried. (Side Note: The reason I never went to a counselor before this was because I knew 100% I would cry and that scared the crap out of me). Jan still stared at me longer than I was comfortable with but maybe she was just giving me a chance to say more, I mean that's why I was there, to TALK to her right? I saw Jan a few more times in the spring but our schedules did not really match up well and after about 4-5 visits I stopped going and spent my summer hiking as my therapy. I was feeling a little better and had gone on a few dates but I knew I was nowhere close to being ready for another relationship and I wasn't going to become ready just because time had passed. I needed more Jan. I think it was around September when I made another appointment with her. At some point we got down to the fact that I had zero self-esteem. Jan recommended that I get a certain Self-esteem workbook so I could work in it and then we could go over it at each of our sessions. I bought the book and we began going through it. This workbook is really good but I believe it's not just something I could have read and learned. I needed Jan to go through stuff with me every other week. I was learning that I was worthy. I, like all of us, are born worthy and then we grow but at our core we always have that worth. It was immensely valuable to my healing. I never thought anything I had to say was important. But I learned from her that I do have importance. I met with Jan every other week or so for quite a few months spending part of our sessions going over the workbook and the other part just talking about whatever it was that I felt like discussing. The biggest thing that needed discussion was “how do I move on from my divorce?” “How do I make sure that what caused previous relationships to fail doesn’t happen again?”

*************

A little back story is needed here After my ex told me we were done she began talking to one of the other dance dad's from our daughters studio... we will call him Billy. Billy was one of those used car salesman type guys who says whatever it is you want to hear. I am not 100% certain anything went on between them or not but that's not the point of this post... plus we were already done and separated and she was free to talk to whoever she wished. But because I had to see Billy at the studio and competitions it became a point of contention for me. I used to make small talk with him in the past but now we never even made eye contact anymore.

************** Back to Jan. During one of our sessions in late February or early March --- I had already told her all about Billy previously----- I brought it up again and let her know I could not let it go... I didn't know how to get past that topic. I always heard that in order to forget you need to forgive. So I told Jan I wanted to, needed to and was going to forgive her (for picking someone I knew and had to interact with to be the first guy she hung out with) and forgive him (for being that dude). She in no uncertain terms called BS on me. She said forgive them for what? What did he do that you need to forgive him? "She had already told you that you guys were done before she started talking to him right?" Yes. "And he didn't cause the demise of your marriage right?" Right. Jan then proceeded to tell me my anger I felt towards them was a secondary emotion to the hurt and pain of a failed marriage and that I needed to address that pain. I had no clue what she meant. I had no idea what was next. I mean, come on Jan. I just told you I had the answer. I was ready to forgive, forget and move on. I was done stressing over this topic and I wanted to get past it... now I was back to ground zero and lost... Jan told me that indeed I needed to forgive but the person I needed to forgive was not Billy or even my ex. It was ME. Huh?

I needed to take ownership for my part of the failed marriage. Her words hit me like a ton of bricks but made total sense. She said not only should I forgive myself but even let my ex know I was forgiving myself for my part in the failed marriage and forgive her for having a part in it as well if I so desired. I left her office and went home and wrote my apology with the information Jan had suggested but did not send it. The very next day when I saw Billy at the studio not only did I make eye contact but I said Hi to him and made a little bit of small talk. He rambled on about his job or car and nothing much was really said but at least we spoke and I walked out of there feeling like I had just gotten a 14 month long monkey off my back. It felt damn good. At my next session with Jan I told her about speaking to Billy and she was totally surprised that I had already made that move and she was really happy for me. This made me feel even better about it all. I told her I had written and accepted my apology to myself and that I was going to email it to my ex because if I tried to say it in person I wouldn't be able to get it all out. She agreed that was a good idea. So during that week I sent the email. I never got a response but I was not looking for one. I finally had my "apologize, forgive and forget" moment. It was not what I originally envisioned but thanks to Jan it was perfect... And it accomplished what I was looking for. I was free of the past. The blockage to my happiness had been removed!!!

In June of 2016 I was at one of my appointments with Jan and we were talking about dating and how the “meeting new girls” was going and I told her things were good and that I was able to be open and honest with girls and able to let them know I was just looking to meet new people and have fun but not looking for any type of relationship. We still had not finished the “Self-Esteem” workbook but I felt like I was doing ok in that department. In the middle of our session she basically said, “I think you are good now. You do not need my help anymore.” I looked at her kind of weird and was kind of set back by her comment. To me I thought this was kind of like AA meetings for an alcoholic where I was always going to need her. When I questioned the idea of being done she told me when I first came in to see her I always looked down at the ground and showed zero confidence but now I was looking right at her all of the time and I was upbeat and I had good ideas about what I wanted and how I wanted to go about the future. I looked around and quickly realized she was right. I was doing just fine!! I was still shocked that she said I was graduating, that’s what I called it, graduating from Jan. It was bitter sweet for sure. I knew I could always come back and talk to Jan if I ever needed but for now this was it. She made me whole again…and by again…. I mean for the first time since I was an innocent little boy… before I became “emotionally broken”.

I still think about Jan every so often. She is monumental in my life. I thank myself all the time for giving her a chance after that first session. She is my charm – staring right at me. ;)

My post before this was about Taressa but without what Jan did for me that post could never have been written.

THANKS JAN!!!!!

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cougbowler · 8 years

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HIKING: POO POO POINT IS CALLING

I never liked running, let alone walking much. I still do not like running. I do like to walk though....well hike. (Because of the overwhelming emotions I feel at times it's entirely possible that when I hike I am actually running... either to or from something). Many years ago I was just looking around at random people's Facebook pictures and found one taken from this place overlooking Issaquah and Lake Sammamish. I thought it was the coolest place to be able to get to. After a little research I came to find out that the place was called Poo Poo Point. From that day, getting to Poo Poo Point was somewhat of a "bucket list" item for me. I found out that the hangliders that you see on clear days flying over Issaquah and the Issaquah-Hobart road actually take off from Poo Poo Point. I could see the clearing from the grassy landing area that I would drive right by all the time while taking my daughter to dance in Issaquah while living in Maple Valley. The patch of grass amongst all the trees seemed so far up on Tiger Mountain that I thought there was no way I could ever hike up to there. Even though I put the idea of reaching that far away spot out of my mind, for years every time I drove past, I would look up at the Point and it would draw me in like a magnet. My wife, kids and I tried to go hiking once sometime around spring of 2013 or 2014 out by the High Point area just off of I-90 past Issaquah. There were signs all around the trailheads warning hikers of a recent attack on a female hiker. Understandably, that caused some anxiety within our group and after no more than a 1/4 mile of walking we called it a day. My personal urge to hike and get out into the woods continued to grow especially since I continued to see more and more beautiful views and places people could reach by merely walking into the trees. Fast forward to February 2015. My marriage had ended and we had to sell our house. The first thing I bought with the little bit of equity from the sale of our home was a pair of hiking boots and no-blister hiking socks. A couple weeks later, in early March, I did a little online research for some beginner hikes and so on Saturday March 7, 2015 I found myself back out at the same High Point area to conquer the Tradition Lake Plateau trail! I got out there, parked, laced up my boots, put a couple waters and a cliff bar or something in my bright blue string backpack - the kind used by people to carry an extra pair of shoes in - and headed off to "hike". This trail was basically a gravel path with no elevation change whatsoever. I passed a couple spots where you could look out through the trees and get a glimpse of the "lake", which I would actually consider an oversized pond. I snapped some pictures with my phone including my first hiking selfie.. Feeling a bit weird that my vision of hiking was being torn apart I kept going. I am not sure if I lost track of the trail, err I mean path, but I ended up on this larger service road. I walked along this for a short distance and it led me back to the area I started at. I completed my first hike!!! But.. I felt more like I had wasted a chunk of my Saturday morning.. "This surely can't be what hiking is, can it" I thought to myself. Luckily the High Point area is home to a few different trailheads. I looked at the various signs and decided I wasn't done walking for the day (Little did I know then that "not being done" would become a theme to quite a few of my future hikes). So I headed off to take on more trails. I was struggling to figure out which trail was which so I just picked something and started walking. I did not get too far into hike #2 where I was actually into the woods finally and doing some real trailblazing when the trail began to climb. It didn't take much of this uphill walk before my thighs started burning. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into and I had to stop and rest quite a few times. My water bottles came in handy and as much as it was hurting and drying out my mouth I pressed forward. I got to a spot where the sign said I could continue uphill to West Tiger Summit 3 which was like 3 miles or so or further to Cable Line trail or god-forsake go 16 miles to Hobart or Preston or something.. I was thinking "who in the hell wants to walk 16 miles to anywhere?" I ignored that path and headed to the right off towards Talus Rocks. This path was not too bad plus I had my headphones and music to keep me company. (Now I know that hiking purists will scoff at music-hikers but I only had 1 earphone in and the other I kept free so I could listen for Bears and Cougars that I was certainly going to encounter. I still have music in one ear on my solo hikes. It actually is my motivation and I could never envision being out in the wild without my "hiking partner".). I never saw any wild animals and even stopped here and there to check some baseball scores on my phone. 😀😀 Talus Rocks was a nice trail and I felt like I was doing what I had pre-conceived hiking to be like. The trail had some ups and downs, passed a little stream running down the mountain and the portion where it got it's name from was pretty cool. The Rocks were huge and you could climb up and over and through them giving you the feeling of being in a cave-like setting or at the very least some crevices like what that guy who had to cut off his own arm had got stuck in.... but on a much smaller scale. The trail exited the woods into a clearing at some power lines.. I saw a sign that mentioned the "High School Trail" which from earlier research meant I was somewhere near Issaquah High School. I thought to myself, "this is really far from where my car is and how do I get back to where I started?" As I headed onto the power lines trail to see where it led I saw the sign pointing to Poo Poo Point! My first hike and there was the destination staring right at me.. It was turning out to be a pretty cool day. I followed the power lines in the opposite direction and not far into it I saw a path heading back into the woods that mentioned something familiar (I forget now if it was Tradition Lake or Talus Rocks) that let me know it would lead me back to where I started. It ended up being the School Bus trail which is another flat gravel path like the trail I started the day on but it passed a spot where there was a decaying school bus all rusty and covered in weeds and moss. I have no idea why or how it came to rest out in the woods but it was definitely super cool and the drug that would keep me exploring the mountains. I made it back to my car, changed into my regular shoes and headed home excited about my new label... I was a "hiker". I got home and right away started searching online for my next hike. There was still one more day left in the weekend so I found a relatively flat trail, not knowing if I would wake up sore, and on Sunday March 8th I hiked Old Robe Trail out near Granite Falls. I hiked a new trail just about every other weekend, eventually conquering some that were higher and harder than Poo Poo Point. On a crisp Saturday morning of September 19, 2015 I hiked Poo Poo Point and sat there for over an hour just having a snack and taking it all in. #dreamsdocometrue

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