An inspired adventure blog

An inspired adventure blog

For the doers, the dreamers, the trekkers

06 Jul

Posted at 01:10h in Gear

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” — Coco Chanel Let me preface this post by saying that I wear a uniform for a living.  For the past 12+ years of my life, I have worn the same thing to work everyday.  This is perfect for me because it is simple and predictable.  The side-effect of having such a low maintenance work routine is that I have become literally incapable of picking out fashionable outfits in my non-work time.  Cleverly, I have solved this...

30 Jun

Posted at 21:26h in Personal Reflections

“The beginning is always today.” — Mary Shelley I love the idea of a reset.  A refresh.  A new start.  A time set aside to clear out all the "noise" and focus on being in the present.  This weekend my husband and I did something that we had been talking about for awhile - we climbed the 2nd largest volcano in Washington State as a "dayhike".  The majority of people who climb Mt. Adams typically divide up the nearly 7000' of elevation gain into two days, but...

29 Jun

Posted at 18:45h in Inspired Adventure

I can't begin to count the amount of times that I've uttered the phrase, "Photos just don't do it justice".  Usually, I'm talking about the three dimensional beauty that I am immersed in, but often I'm talking about much more - about the richness of the experience, the effort expended to acquire the photograph, or the events leading up to the single moment where the camera lens blinks and captures an image in time. I've taken thousand upon thousands of photos of my trips, and I...

22 Jun

Posted at 18:35h in Inspired Adventure

“Life is not merely being alive, but being well.” — Edward Smith-Stanley What's the 'secret' to leading a healthy lifestyle?  Spoiler alert - there is no secret.  In my opinion (based on my personal experience reversing the downward path of my own health), it comes down to three words : Preparation - are you setting yourself up for success, or are you putting yourself in situations where you might be tempted to 'grab something quick'?  Do you have a plan for the week?  If you are going to...

08 May

Posted at 20:38h in Personal Reflections

“Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we’ve ever met. ” — Marguerite Duras To my mom: Not including the countless hikes that we did as a kid and random day hikes that I'm not remembering, I estimate that we have backpacked and/or climbed over 304 miles together in the past 8 years.  This is relatively remarkable, because you live on the other side of the country from me.  But every single year, without fail, you make a migration westward so that we can complete our annual backpacking...