I never said I'd update this daily.

I've been thinking a lot about climbing and adventuring lately, and I want to get some of my thoughts down in words.

There's something about the treeline. I felt it climbing Olympus. I felt it on top of Marmot Basin. I felt it on Mt. Marcy. You feel like you're breaking some rule -- a rule that everybody knows but yourself. It's the reason that natives of the Karakoram don't climb (that's the region of the Himalayas that has the biggest mountains in the world).

Climbers are always superstitious. Usually for good reason, too. When I was on Marcy I made some comment about being stronger than the mountain, and throughout the rest of the day little things kept going wrong for me (stuff falling off of my pack, little things breaking, etc), that didn't happen to anybody else. I'm not akin to superstitions myself, but it was still strange.

I just got my hands on some new gear that I'm pretty excited about. I got a new jacket, pants, and a hat. The more I buy, though, the more I realize how much I need still. It's dang expensive, too. If I climb for a while (through to my 50's or so) I bet I'll spend about $300,000 on the sport. If I get any good, though, I'll get a lot of that covered through sponsorships and stuff like that.

It's funny though: in spending a lot of money on this stuff I really don't feel any buyer's remorse. I did when I bought my bike, and I do whenever I go out to eat, but I'll gladly drop $200 on a jacket (even when it's a "worse case scenario" jacket that I hope I'll never have to use). I think it'd be real cool to mix medicine and climbing. For one, I could always be an expedition doctor and get on with big-time climbs. Big-time mountains are almost always surrounded with vulnerable/indigenous/exposed populations. I think it would be real cool to go work with some of those populations, too (kind of like how Greg Mortenson got his start in Three Cups of Tea). It's an idea, but who knows. I guess I gotta get into med school first.

I've been training real hard. I can run 10 miles pretty well now (I have no idea what my time is), so I've been throwing in a ton of hills. We have a hill in downtown GR that rises about 250 ft. in about half mile, so it's pretty steep. I try to run that five times within a 5 mile loop (thus giving me about 10 miles). I find that I love that hate the hill all at the same time. My knee hasn't bothered me in a really long time, so I figure I'm doing things right. I started lifting, too, so that should help me out a bit. Hopefully it will all put me on top of Mt. Elbrus.

A month recap

The past month has been a blur. They say history can't be fully understood until everybody affected is dead. I'm not dead yet, but I might be able to understand the past month or so.

It began with a backcountry trip to Canada, my first time leading a trip of this sort. Here are some pictures:

Reeds Lake

I just got back from the Reeds Lake Run, a pretty big 10K in East Grand Rapids (around the same lake that Paul and I did the triathlon at). My goal time was sub 45 min. with the full expectation that I wouldn't even come close, but it turns out I was just above 47, so I am very pleased. A bunch of paramedics I work with ran, too, and I think I beat them all, which is a little ego boost there. All in all, real fun run.

I got word from University of Tennessee already. As it turns out they are only accepting in state applicants. Kudos to them for not putting that fun tid-bit in any of their information.

I'm starting George Washington University's secondary application today. Let's hope that goes well. I don't know how much longer I can get denied from stuff -- jobs, schools, etc.

I had a cool idea the other day. I was thinking that when my lease is up I should close all of my bank accounts and just drive around until I run out of money. That would be a cool adventure.

The next big thing.

Plans are set for the next workout. We're going to do an "out and back" of the Musketawa Trail, which links Muskegon and Marne. We're gonna bike 25 miles out and walk 25 miles back. I think I'm gonna do some other stuff to make it a 24 hour event...maybe some swimming, just for giggles. My wrist is still bothering me from last time, so hopefully that clears up.

We've also made some plans for climbs. Mt. Katahdin in November, Mt. Elbert in March, and Mt. Elbrus sometime at the beginning of 2010. Elbrus is the big one as far as cost and training goes, but I've got a year and half to get ready for it. If all goes to plan (which it certainly won't), I maybe be standing on the top of Europe sometime soon. Sounds good to me. I still think it's goofy that I spend so much of my time with guys in their 40's.

I had a real cool day yesterday. A new friend and I went to the zoo in GR (my first time there), did some culinary exploration on the east side of the city, then went to a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (or whatever it's called). It was a great day, one of those days that feels like a 15 hour vacation. I wish you could consistently plan stuff like that.

I'm reading a bood about a guy who walked the Appalacian Trail (real funny book by Bill Bryson), and I gotta say that it's turning me off from the trail. It's hard to put my finger on why, but I"m just not feeling it as much anymore. Maybe I'll change my mind after my big July hike with Derek. It's strange how it's so hard to decide on adventures when I have absolutely no parameters or limiting factors. I can do anything and I can't think of anything. Maybe I should just walk to Mexico or Alaska or something like that. Who knows what I'll do.

A silly way to live life

I'm just about recovered from my workout. Just a little bit of soreness to get over. I think I'm going to try for 8 miles this afternoon.

I worked a shift on an ambulance yesterday, and I realized that I have comfortably nestled into a working lifestyle. I'm either at work or I'm not. I work out a bit, I read a bit, and that's about it. It's a very silly way to live. I can't wait to pick back up with school, with progress.

It's not that I'm not stimulated. I've got a great job, I read great books (more on that later), and I do awesome stuff. I just hate the segmentation of it all. Working vs. not working. I plan on breaking it up with some trips and such. I've got an 11 day walk across Michigan planned for the beginning of July. Tim also thinks I'll be able to get a job with the organization he teaches Wilderness Medicine with (Wilderness Medical Associates). He says they just want experience (wilderness and medicine), which I have both. It sounds like fun. That would sure look good on a med school application, too.

I made the mistake on Sunday of picking up some light reading: Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. I read half of it about 2 years ago, but I decided to pick it back up after a little discussion about it with a friend. The problem, though, is that I was right in the middle of a dense Russian lit book. I forgot how nice it can be to just read, and not worry about dense and heavy topics. After reading the first two chapters of Miller's book I promptly returned The Idiot to the library and continued with the light reading. I hate leaving books partially read -- I'll have to pick it back up later.

The wall begins at 75 miles

I had a huge workout yesterday. It started at 8:30 AM with medical coverage on my bike for a 5K down in Cutlerville. Nothing much happened. I then jumped up to Rockford with Tim and Mike and the real pain began at 1:00 PM. We rode over 30 miles up the White Pine State Park Trail (7 miles paved, the rest two-track gravel) to Morley, the trucking capital of Michigan! We ditched the bikes and hiked 2 hours north to about Stanwood (around 7 miles), did an about face, and returned to the bikes at Morley. After a quick 5 min. break we were riding south again with legs burning and butts aching. We rode back into Rockford around 11:00 PM with fireworks welcoming us back (I hear they were actually for the summer celebration carnival, but I'm gonna go ahead and pretend they were for us). In the end we did about 85 miles.

My goal for this past week was to hit the wall: that point that marathon runners always talk about when you run out of carbohydrates and your body slowly switches over to fat metabolism. I guess the more you do it the faster your body makes the switch, which is why seasoned marathoners don't ever hit it anymore. I hit the wall at about mile 75. My feet were numb, my legs were filled with lead and jell-o, and my fine motor skills simply didn't work anymore. It was surprisingly relaxing, though. I am accustomed to acute stress situations (with school and stuff everything would always culminate at once), and this stress of hard work was great. With only two thoughts in my head (how much pain I was in and how I just needed to keep pedaling) I found an incredible peace. Suddenly concerns about med school, job stuff, and life were gone. All that mattered was that I keep pedaling. Who would have thought so much suffering could bring so much peace. Life has a strange duality to it sometimes.

After the worst night of sleep in my life I feel pretty good now. My legs are a little sore and my right wrist is absolutely killing me (gotta be the tendons from holding onto bike grips for so long), but that is all. I think I might run a couple of miles today just to boost the ego and show the old guys what's up (i.e. Tim and Mike).

Overall, I gotta say that I'm very pleased with myself. I should have weighed myself last night. I bet I lost a couple of pounds in that crazy adventure, even though I didn't have five pounds to lose.

Some may say I'm a lifer.

I spent the past couple of days up at SpringHill. I helped a friend of mine (and former boss) teach the staff about how the infirmary works, and I also helped train some of the infirmary staff. It was a lot of fun. I got some comments about how I am a SpringHill lifer, which I gotta disagree with. As far as I am concerned, my time at camp is done. I go back simply for the people. Some of my best friends live and work up there. I don't really make it a point to participate in the camp's mission or anything like that, and I really don't try to make new friends. I did make a new friend this past week, though, which I think is pretty cool.

Big day planned for tomorrow. I'm covering a 5K for work, then I'm heading up north of GR for a 100 Mile workout. Tim, Mike, and I (we 3 who climbed Mt. Marcy) are going to ride 30 miles, ditch the bikes and hike 20, then backtrack all the way back. I'm excited. It'll be a real hard day.