Doing Epic Things #40before40

Tomorrow is my half birthday, which means I have exactly six months left in my 30's. I'm not sure why that is landing so hard on me. I remember having friends turning thirty and feeling like this was no biggie, even when it was my turn to say goodbye to my 20's. But forty sounds like a pretty terrible number to be!! 

If there's anything I can do to enjoy these last six months to their fullest potential, I'm up for it! Which is what I started thinking about while hiking more than 18 miles with my friend, Cheryl. I hadn't really thought about doing 40 crazy things until I was in the middle of doing something crazy, but I needed something to think about to take my mind off the pain!!

Here we are at the beginning of the trek...still smiling!

It was a steep and chunky climb to the top of Aasgard Pass, but that was totally doable. I think if there had been a way to come down from there and easily get back to the car, that would have been ideal, but no... The idea with this hike is that you don't come straight back down, instead you take the LONG, gradual way down, which pops you out quite far from your vehicle and needing to be shuttled back. It's really beautiful at the top, but we just kept hiking, and hiking, and hiking some more!! I don't think I've ever hiked for more than about 6-8 miles, and we hiked past 18 miles. I don't know what type of shoes would have saved my toes, but the hiking boots I was wearing were not a good choice. I'll spare you pictures of the blisters and later, bruised and swollen toes. My big toes are still black and blue under the nailbeds, many weeks later. 

So this crazy hike became the first thing on my list of #40before40 and Cheryl and I started verbally putting a longer list of ideas together while continuing to put one foot in front of the other, hoping to get off the mountain before dark [we didn't]. 

Later I added two things to the list that I had already done [is that cheating?], so the Enchantments Through Hike is actually #3 on the list. 

#1. Try an escape room for the first time [we LOVED Alaska Escape Rooms in Anchorage!]

#2. Bike a portion of the Iron Horse Trail [we rode around 120 miles with a round trip between Cle Elum and North Bend and two nights dry camping]

#4-6 were ideas we thought of while hiking: +Ride the city bus to Chelan [great idea] +Ride the Lady of the Lake across Lake Chelan to Stehekin [moderate idea] +Eat at the Stehekin bakery [okay idea]. It was a fun outing with Peter [although he was grumpy I kept him away from projects at home]. He doesn't love an outing just for the sake of an outing, like I do. We had fun playing with phone photography. :) 

Next on my list of things to do was #7: Visit Ohme Gardens. We've lived here for almost seven years and haven't ever seen one of the top tourist attractions in our area. So, thankfully the library has a free family pass that we were able to borrow and off we went to see what the hype was all about. 

It's a pretty unique garden built on the rocky hillside, and I can imagine it is even more spectacular during springtime, but if you've been to Butchart Gardens in Victoria.... Eh, that's not a fair comparison. :) 

Another idea that had been on my list was #8: riding the Olympic Adventure Trail. I envisioned sweet and flowy single track mountain bike trail, of which there definitely was some, but I failed to understand that 25 miles of trail, plus the other 10+ miles of other terrain to access the trail, would be a little exhausting!! There has been a bit of a theme with my adventures lately -- just going too far!! Tim and I enjoyed our weekend away though. It was fun. :) And the celebratory food afterwards was amazing. 

Life has been a little too busy lately with Fall Festival and report cards, but we are hanging on, knowing that Thanksgiving Break is only two weeks away! HOOORAAAY! 

I will report on items #9-14 if and when they happen... *fingers crossed* 

I am well aware that doing 40 epic things before May 2023 will be epic in itself. We'll see. :p

Yes, Peter plays the flute. And the piano. Add to that the melodica, recorder, harmonica. 

Now he's adding trumpet to the list! 

So, here we go, into November with snow in the forecast for tomorrow and highs below freezing this week. WHAT??!! Hopefully I'll survive long enough to get down to a warmer place for the holiday. STAY WARM!!! 

#40before40

1. Try an escape room for the first time

2. Bike a portion of the Iron Horse Trail

3. Hike the Enchantments Trail

4. Ride the city bus

5. Ride the Lady of the Lake

6. Visit the Stehekin Bakery 

7. Visit Ohme Gardens

8. Bike the Olympic Adventure Trail 

To be continued...