6/6/2023

It’s already June, and I haven’t made it up into the mountains at all yet. This is frustrating. I was going to get up there Sunday, 6/4, but the weather was looking suspect. It’s a couple hour drive up, so I didn’t really want to waste the time if it wasn’t going to be worth it. Now I don’t have any free time until after July 4. I’m beginning training for my next race - Ghost Train. 2 of us doing a 30 hour relay race. 15 mile sections. Our goal is to each do 5 sections. So, plenty of training between now and then. But that doesn’t mean I will forget about the mountains. I want to get back up there badly, but schedules for the next few weeks are going to push that out for a bit.

I think I did decide which mountain I want to be my last of the 48. I’m leaning towards Mt. Isolation. As the name suggests, it’s a lonely one. It’s up in the Presidential range and is by itself, so there is no peak bagging with that one. From what I’ve read, a lot of people go with someone or a group of people to celebrate their final peak. While there are parts to going in a group that sound intriguing and fun, I’m leaning towards doing my last one as a solo hike. This is a highly personal journey for me. I love hiking with different people, but my journey is for me to help me be a better person. Going solo on the last one will help me reflect on the journey and really allow me to appreciate the moment. That’s still a long way out, but picking my last one is important to me so that it’s as meaningful as possible when I complete the list. I don’t want to hike all the peaks that are the most meaningful to me and be left with a peak that doesn’t mean as much to me as my last one. So, I will not be doing Mt. Isolation until the end. Hopefully once we get past July 4, I will have some more updates with peaks I have checked off the list.

4/3/2023

Running has taken over my life. Hiking was the main point of creating this site, but it has morphed into a ton of running as well. I ran 130 miles in January. I ran 160 miles in February. Those are monster months for me. March was much more difficult. I developed some pain in my shin/ankle after my last run in February, and decided to rest a bit while on vacation the first week of March. I really thought the timing was perfect. My body was telling me it was time to take a break and enjoy my vacation with my family. But the pain didn’t really stop. In fact, it’s still not back to normal. I feel like I have days where I feel really good, but days where the pain is pretty excruciating. I have tried to develop a plan that will help me rehab the injury while still trying to get miles in to prepare for Rock the Ridge. That has meant fewer runs. I “only” got 107 miles in. That’s still a higher number that I had gotten most months last year, but it was a far cry from what I need to prepare for the 50-miler. I’m focusing on more yoga and more work on the spin bike to help take the pressure off my leg, but continue to build the strength in my legs. I’m hoping for a solid month of training, but also want to get to race day healthy, so I have to be smart about this.

I also started an Instagram page since the last update. I despise social media, but thought I would do a page just for my treks. There are a lot of inspirational people out there to follow. Jocko Willink and David Goggins are a huge reason why I am where I am in terms of pushing my limits. Then there is Cameron Hanes, Andrew Huberman, Courtney Dauwalter, Joe Rogan just to name a few. The algorithm in social media can be good if you’re looking for good things. So if you’re seeing a lot of negative things on your social media, maybe you should re-consider what you’re looking for.

I have been thinking about what will be next for my next trip up to the mountains. I’m going to look over my list and see what I want to conquer next - after my race. I first want to decide what mountain I want to end my journey to 48 on. That will be an important one, so I want to make sure I put thought into where I want to end. Then I can put that one aside and throw a dart at the rest of them to see what is next to tackle.

I’m no endurance athlete. For years, I hated running. I didn’t pick it up for real until I was 37 years old. Looking back, I realized why I hated it. I hated it because there were no teammates. Nobody to help me through the game or practice. Nobody to blame failures on. It was easy to get lost in the mix as part of a team. I couldn’t do that with running. The reason I’ve started to enjoy it so much is the same exact thing. I’m ready to take the responsibility of whatever happens. It’s just me out there. The only way to get better is to put the work in. With a team, I could rely on others to make the team better. With running, I have to rely on myself. I never wanted to do that for years. Now I’m ready. I’ve matured (somewhat) and need to be accountable to myself. I’m no endurance athlete. But I’m trying my hardest to push as hard as I can physically and mentally. I keep surpassing things I always thought were impossible for me. Once you surpass something like that, it gets addicting. What else can I accomplish? What else can I do that I would have laughed at a couple years ago? That’s the plan - just keep doing things I didn’t think I could. In the process, I’m becoming a better person. I’m still incredibly flawed, but hopefully I’m a little better each day.

Just over a month to go before race day. Probably no more updates before that, but feel free to find me on Instagram and maybe I’ll have some updates there.

1/12/2023

Well I have already failed at doing what I said I would do and keep this updated. I’ve accomplished a lot, but got lazy about documenting and failed to post anything on here. It’s time to get caught up and do a better job at keeping on top of things.

Pemi Loop and Single Day Presidential Traverse in the span of a couple months. Several other hikes sprinkled in between. I got to 28 peaks by early October. It was fantastic. On top of that, I ran my first half marathon, which has fueled me to do even bigger things.

Coming this May, I will be participating in Rock the Ridge, a 50 mile race over the Mohonk Preserve in the Shawangunk Mountains. The plan is to complete the entire 50 miles. My boy Tim and I are conquering this together. The training has started and I’m so pumped to work on this challenge.

Hopefully the treks I’ve made will be updated over the next few days to a week. it will take me some time to dig up my notes and pictures and get everything written up, but I’ll hold myself to making sure it’s done shortly after the date of this post.

6/29/2022

I’ve been busy. This year, I’ve tackled 7 more peaks to put me into double digits. I’m working on updating the treks pages for all of them. Owl’s Head was in April. Lincoln, Lafayette, Tom, Field, Willey, Moosilauke were all in May. I hope to have the treks pages updated soon. In fact, if you’re reading this well after the post date, there is a good chance they are updated now.

The big one is coming up though. So I had to provide this little update. My boy Tim is coming back into town, and we’re going to conquer the Pemi Loop. Will be headed up to Lincoln Woods Parking Lot on Friday, 7/8 and will tackle the loop that weekend. We want to hit all 12 along the loop, which is more of the “extended” loop. We figure since we’re doing 2 nights, 3 days, we should be good to do the entire extended loop. Excitement is running high and we’re still more than a week out. I have been training hard all year. Since the beginning of March 2021, I have lost about 40 pounds. Much of my motivation to work out more and get in better shape is just so I can hike these mountains a little easier. I’m still not where I want to be. The mountains will still humble me. But I’m in a much better place now than I was a year ago.

Since I have already done Lincoln and Lafayette, those 2 along the Pemi Loop won’t be new for me. But assuming we get all 12 done, I will be able to check 10 more off the list, which will put me at 20. That number just sounds so much better than 3, which was just at the end of last year. I could not be happier with the progress I’m making towards this goal.

11/15/2021

After hiking my first 3 peaks, I got even more excited about this journey than I was before. It was such a good weekend, and the hiking was tremendous. I really found something that is all positive. It’s a great hobby to have. It’s healthy for me. It makes me want to get myself in even better shape. It gives me something to look forward to. It makes me push myself. It can be humbling.

This adventure is very personal for me. I have set this goal of the 48 4000 footers to help me get stronger, both physically and mentally.

I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and wildlife, but this has helped take that to the next level. I have such a higher appreciation for the wildlife than I did before.

I’ve decided that for every new peak I conquer, I will donate $50 to a conservation group, hopefully focused on preservation in the White Mountains specifically. To start this, I donated $150 for the first 3 peaks to White Mountain Trail Collective.

I am fortunate that my employer will match my donations up to a certain amount, so I’m hopeful that I can make a good sized impact to conservation efforts by the end of this journey.