I have struggled literally for months about what to do with this blog. I believe I have thought about this blog at least once a week since March probably. I obviously have not had any consistency in writing whatsoever and the future does not look very promising either. I think for me the best case scenario would be to write here once ever few weeks to update you on whats going on in my life… and maybe I will try that again… but the storm of a newly married 2nd year doctoral student is about to hit and again this blog will take a serious back seat.
So where am I now? Well, I was married to the beautiful and wonderful Heather Hutson on May 17th, 2008. We were married at Camp Tahkodah on a bluff (called Indian slides, except there is not much sliding… its pretty much a 60ft drop) by my dad. It was perfect. We had a phenomenal time that day… everything was great. We loved being around friends and family.
We went to Estes Park, CO for our honeymoon. It was absolutely fantastic. We really enjoyed being able to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. On the last day Heather decided that she wanted to see some water falls that were just a few miles up a trail, so we outfitted ourselves with water and granola bars and a few extra layers because we didn’t know what the weather was going to be like. Through a series of events (deciding to go to my grandparents house and packing) we didn’t get started till about 2pm (at an altitude of about 8000’). We hiked about 3miles and got to the falls and took some pictures and then decided we wanted to check out the other falls a mile up or so. At about 9000’ there started to be snow on the trail and at about 9300’ there was 3’ of snow covering the trail. We only knew it was a trail because of the footprints from others who were there before us. The trail to the waterfall was covered with snow so we missed it, but we continued hiking to the lake at the top of the trail (Fern Lake). Unfortunately, by this time it was getting to be evening and we were not at the end of the trail yet. We decided that we needed to turn around about 6pm because we thought that it would not be great if we were on the trail after dark. We made it to Fern Lake at 5:58pm and took a few pictures then turned around and put the hammer down to get off the trail before dark. You need to know something about Heather… she doesn’t like to walk fast, she likes to take her time. She is physically fit, but her body just doesn’t move fast when walking, I would estimate her average walking speed is around 1.5mph… and going up and down stairs is even slower (she really doesn’t like stairs)! We needed to average 3mph for 4.5miles over rocky and uneven terrain at an altitude of 9500’ after already being on the trail for 4 hours and climbing 1500 vertical feet in order to make it back to the car before it was too dark to see (of course we didn’t bring flashlights). Heather was a beast! Without a word of complaint she threw down… sometimes having to jog to make good time! We averaged 3mph and made it back just when it was getting tough to see. I was so proud of Heather. We hiked just over 9miles that afternoon.
I understand that to some of you this is no big deal and to my younger brother this was a light day at best, but we were ill-equipped using running shoes as our protection from the snow and rocks and packed poorly in school backpacks. And not entirely physically prepared (having done zero hiking and nearly zero altitude acclimation) before our honeymoon. In addition we only thought we were going to go to the waterfall and back originally. So with this context, we were very proud at how we performed.
At Fern lake (6:00pm)
First day of School for Heather(our home in background)
