Hike of my life..

We set out late Friday afternoon for Dave Bishop's Ranch in Quincy WA, the Burke Lake area for a weekend with friends.  6 months ago when we planned this weekend, we were going to bring horses and ride; however we all know the horse situation so Derek & I decided to go anyways and just go for walks and see the area.  We were tenting it of course since we have camper issues to resolve, so the adventure was on..  It was a great drive over, got there at dusk, good thing our tent is super easy to set up!  :)

The next morning we decided to go out for a walk/easy hike and explore the area.  We left at 8:45 am, the sun was out, the wind was blowing and it felt great, almost cool...  but the cool air quickly heated up as we continued on our walk on the trail.  We followed the canyon wall to the left of us, saw a couple minor waterfalls

and as we looked out across the canyon floor through the valley, we saw what appeared to be a trail going up the side of the canyon.  It looked fairly steep from where we were at and I asked Derek, "would you go attempt it if I was not here?"  He said heck yes he would.. so I said "lets go then!"

Here was our view of the canyon as we contemplated which direction to head.. we had come from the right

So we started our cross-country trek to the other side of the canyon and get to the base of this trail, now realizing this is NO horse trail!!  This is a hikers only type trail, far toooo steep and rocky for ANY horse to go up.  I knew I was being crazy but I was feeling good and I said, lets do this..  It was slow going and a sit down breather was necessary once or twice to make it to the top, but I did it and the view as amazing!!  

We were overlooking Dusty Lake.. I'm thankful for self-timer cameras so we were able to get a shot of us both at the lookout.  From our viewpoint, there was no getting down to that lake safely, so after a few minute break, we headed back down a level to the main trail on top of the ridge.  This was clearly a horse trail and we followed it back towards the end of the canyon.  We didnt really want to go back down the trail we had just come up and we also wanted to continue with our exploring.  

 At the far end of the canyon, we reached the trail that would lead us back down to the canyon floor, what a great view we continued to have of Ancient Lake as well as a couple other neighboring lakes too..

This is a nice waterfall into the green lake.

From our vantage point, we looked out across the valley and that little red X you see on the picture, that is the corner of the canyon wall we have to go around to get back to camp!  So we still had a long ways to go. At this point, before our final decent, we were about 2.5 hours into our "walk"!  

At this point I am still feeling really good, my back was shocking the hell out of me by giving me ZERO pain.. ZERO!!  My legs were a little tired and tight and the sun was getting quite warm, but I was still feeling great. I knew we had a long walk out ahead of us, but kept thinking the worst is behind me, I got this!!

That feeling quickly ended as we reached the canyon floor and started to hike out.  There were minor hills in the valley to go up and the first one I encountered kicked my ass!  I was out of breath 1/4 of the way through it, my body was starting to shut down.  I was struggling pretty bad with my breathing and for the first time, started thinking that I wished I wasn't out there.  About this time my head started to tingle as I was walking and I started to feel a bit nauseous, but I pushed on.  After 30-40 minutes or so of this, my body and brain hit the wall; I started to hyperventilate, my eyes started shedding uncontrollable tears, I probably was shaking a bit, and I'm sure my heart rate was up.  Derek indicated I was having an anxiety/panic attack.  I really struggled to get control of my breathing, but Derek was great and he took control of the situation and after a few minutes was able to talk me back to breathing and calm.  It took another 5 or more minutes to recover enough to continue on.  

I really had a tough time trekking back out of there, but I just put one foot in front of the other as they say, and walked my ass out of that damn canyon!  That last 1.5 hours of hiking, I was breathing heavy the entire time, struggling to find energy to do anything but walk.  I think my brain realized just how far we still had to go and it shut down and convinced myself it could not do it.  But here I am, back at work, so I clearly did it!!

I am proud of myself and I am sure Derek is proud of me too.. He never thought I would attempt the trail we took or that I would be out for a 4 hour hike!  I went too far, 2.5 hours would have been perfect for my conditioning and 3 months ago at 30 lbs heavier, I wouldnt have been able to do this hike at all.  I am certain of that!!  So I am proud and I did enjoy it.  It has easily been 12 + years since I've been on a hike and this by far has been the longest and hardest hike I've done in my life.

I marked in white the route we took..

 When we got back to camp, we both doused our heads in water and just sat for a couple hours doing nothing!  And that felt awesome..  lol    Later that afternoon we went out for a little 20 minute walk with Scott and Barbara as they showed us the lookout of the Columbia River and another area that can be ridden, beautiful!!

The next morning, I felt pretty darn good!  I was not ready to head out on another hike like that, but I was not really sore at all, just some tight muscles  :)  I am completely amazed with my back and a little confused why my lower back has been pain free..  Not that I want the pain, I'm really really excited its not there.. just surprised mostly.

The thing that disappointed me the most.. was my WW activity monitor!  After we reached the peak of our hike overlooking Dusty Lake, to that point I had already used up probably 125% of my daily points target.. but when I took the monitor off, it was telling me I was between 50-75%.  I was PISSED!!  I cussed at the little monitor and was quite irritated that it was not accurate.  I guess because we were going slow and it wasnt moving around a lot, it didnt realize just how hard I was working.  By the time we got back, it finally registered at about 125%, which again is full of ....  because I should easily have been 250% for the day.  Too bad it doesnt monitor heart rate.. so it is a minor glitch/flaw with the tracker.

But I am proud of myself because when we got home from camping yesterday and after we had put everything away, I was at 100% of my activity for the day, but I climbed on that elliptical anyways and put another 20 moderate workout minutes into the end of my day.  Because w/o the loss of almost 30 lbs or the use of the elliptical I've been doing the last couple weeks, that hike would not have been possible..  I'm working my way to fit...  :)