Month: August 2017

I’ve been itching to go on a hike like this all summer, but the timing just hadn’t been right until now. This is my favorite type of hike – steep climb with a spectacular view as payoff. It’s all in the picture; 4 miles straight up with 3700 ft of elevation gain. The first 2ish miles switchback up through the forest steeply enough that you can see hikers several levels above and below you. The first views of surrounding mountains reveal themselves as you leave the forest for an alpine meadow. After a few more miles of relentless uphill and spectacular views, you eventually reach the top which showcases almost 360 degree views of the Cascades.

Blair was a bit apprehensive about me going by myself, but I actually ended up hiking right behind another solo woman hiker for the first 0.5 mile or so. She eventually let me pass her (probably after getting annoyed by me awkwardly trailing her) and I actually ended up passing at least 20 people on the way up. There wasn’t any real reason to hike fast, that’s just the speed I go when I’m by myself. I definitely started to get tired by the time I got close to the top and took a few breaks to take in the scenery. It was an overcast day, but you could still see the mountains pretty well and I think the sprinkling rain kept the bugs away. You could barely see Glacier Mountain through the haze/fog at the top. I really enjoyed this hike and I still think it’s crazy that I live this close to such amazing hiking!

The weekend before July 4th we decided to take advantage of having a few days off and head to the Olympics. I planned this hike and didn’t tell Blair where we were going because I wanted it to be a surprise. I knew he would get a kick out of seeing the plane crash from the 50s. It’s also a throwback to our first backpacking trip where we camped at a plane crash in the Talladega National Forest.

One facet of hiking in the PNW is that often, the really great hikes require a long time driving on fire roads. This one was no exception and after leaving the main road you still have at least an hour of driving along narrow gravel roads to get to the trailhead. I bought a Northwest Forest pass just in case, but apparently the Tubal Cain trailhead does not require a pass. The trails in this area travel through an amalgamation of various public lands, including the National Park, the National Forest, state-owned and privately owned land.

We left home after a lazy morning, taking the ferry to Port Townsend and driving from there. We probably got to the trailhead around 3:00 PM and set off with all our gear. I was surprised at how much more difficult the hiking was with a full pack, but the trail was slightly uphill and it had been a while since I’ve hiked with a heavy pack. After around 3 miles we reached the junction with the offshoot trail that led to the plane crash. Back in the 1950s, a B-17 crashed here while flying to McChord in bad weather. I had read that there were multiple campsites in the area, however I am always nervous about first-come, first-serve sites being taken. We actually ended up being the only ones camped out by the plane crash! Perhaps because it’s a very steep 1 mile climb up to the crash site.

The crash itself was really interesting and it’s surprising how much is still there after so many years. Parts of the wreckage have definitely been dragged around by people, but most of it is still in a flat section near a small pool of water. Unfortunately the still water meant that during he evening there were quite a few bugs and mosquitos. We built a fire and that kept most of them away until we got in the tent. In the middle of the night I definitely heard some sort of animal investigating our campsite, and of course since it’s night time I immediately thought the worst, that it could be a mountain lion. I was very glad that I insisted we hang all our food in a bear bag because I at least knew we had no food in the tent. I’m pretty certain it was actually a deer but it’s impossible to know for certain. Anyways, whatever it was it never bothered us and left us alone.

The next day I wanted to check out the mine, which was about a quarter of a mile further up the trail. There’s actually a rather confusing network of trails and campsites in that area but we did eventually find the path up the steep scree-covered hillside to find the mine. There’s a stream flowing through the tunnel into the mine and it was filled with spiders and bugs so we didn’t do more than look inside. It’s always interesting to see signs of human activity from long ago and imagine what life was like for the people who built and worked on this mine.

We returned back to the trailhead after that and honestly both of us were pretty tired from the trip. I hadn’t gotten great sleep, but that always makes me appreciate my own bed that much more! I would definitely recommend this trail; although it doesn’t lead to panoramic vistas, it does have some interesting sights.

I am a bit of a personal finance nerd and I love reading PF blogs. I will sheepishly admit that I’ve drunk the Mr. Money Mustache FI/RE (Financial Independence/ Early Retirement) kool-aid and am a complete convert. If you don’t know what I am talking about, here are a few links to illuminate you. I know this is mainly a blog about fitness and hiking, but since it is my blog I would like to include some financial goals as well. I know this idea is hard to swallow for a mainstream audience, the first argument being that it’s impossible and delusional. However, a cursory web search reveals multiple people who have been doing this for quite a while. The most relevant to our situation is Doug Nordman, who completely retired (along with his wife) after 20 years of military service over 15 years ago and is still going strong!

The reality is that it’s simply a balance of where your values lie and what you’re willing to sacrifice to get what you want. Most people who want to retire early are in one of two camps: they either hate their jobs, or they have other goals/ life pursuits that do not earn enough or even any money to support themselves. I am firmly in the latter group. A short summary of my life goals include:

• My first taste of wanderlust as a teen came after watching this video. I looked up all the locations in that video (and the sequels) and made my own mental list of all the places I needed to visit in my lifetime. This included summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro; seeing the salt flats in Bolivia; hiking to Everest Base Camp; going on an expedition to find gorillas is Uganda; Angkor Wat; Torres del Pain in Argentina; hiking through the Swiss Alps; and on and on. I did manage to visit Zanzibar and Angkor Wat in college (pictured above) and the experience was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be.
• I want to do an Ironman someday. I have done several Olympic triathlons in the past , so this is an achievable goal with the proper commitment and dedication to training.
• I want to complete a 50k, 50 mile, and perhaps someday even… a 100 miler.
• Completing a triple crown: Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide Trail. All three American iconic long-distance trails.
• Obviously since I love backpacking and hiking, there are shorter trails and hikes I’d love to do: Mt. St Helens, Wonderland Trail, John Muir Trail, Wind River High Route, the Sierra High Route, summiting Mt. Rainier, etc.
• Having time to visit close and extended family; it’s become so common for Americans to move for their jobs that I now have family in Florida, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, and California, and with the meager vacation time offered to most employees seeing everyone is difficult if not impossible.
• Cycle-touring the trans-American route from Virginia to Oregon
• Living in an RV for a summer (or perhaps longer) and road-tripping to all the National Parks
• And potentially endless additional outdoor recreational pursuits, including long-distance cycling, various marathons, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sea kayaking, white water kayaking, canoe-camping, mountaineering, climbing, bouldering, and the list goes on.

Are you tired yet? Obviously quite a few of these are absolutely incompatible with a standard 9-5 job and most of them are at least inconvenienced by it. These experiences mean more to me than any fancy house, nice clothes, dinners out, or expensive car. Therefore it makes sense that I’m willing to sacrifice those things in order to afford the experiences that I really desire. And honestly, I don’t really care what other people think of my choices and I definitely do not believe that having nice things is a requirement to have a happy life.

This is why I max out my TSP and Roth IRA every year and save as much as possible on top of that. It’s not uncommon among the personal finance world but I believe it’s very rare to do these things at a young age in the “real world”.

I could go on and offer counter-arguments to the most common protestations against this idea, such as not living up to your potential, not contributing to society, etc. but this blog post is long enough already. If you’ve read the 7 Habits of Effective People then you know that Habit #2 is Begin With the End in Mind. The End that I desire is not to be some corporate executive or even a high-ranking government employee, because those achievements are empty of true fulfillment. What I desire is to lead a full and satisfying life full of adventure and meaningful time spent with friends and family. And this is by far the best way I’ve found to achieve that.

By the way, being financially independent doesn’t mean you have to quit working; it can also give you the freedom to take a more satisfying albeit lower-paying job or start your own business. I’m not sure exactly what I will do when I reach that point, but I have a long time to figure it out!