Healthy by 30: Catching Up and Traveling the West Part I

Good afternoon! It's been a crazy three weeks since I was last able to post! Lots going on! Let's start with a photo of my mom and I from my half (recap is here).

Putting on a happy face though I was pretty upset that the race got pulled.

Following the race, I boarded a plane and flew to Colorado to join a field course that I was coteaching. My goal for the field course was to hike as much as I could and to maintain my weight as it was going to be impossible to count calories or have much control over what I was eating (beyond gluten free of course). There were 26 students and 2 faculty members (including myself) on this trip, so being extremely picky about what I was doing or eating was really not an option.

Never-the-less, on Day 1, I got my butt out of my sleeping bag and went out for a walk. I knew that after my half on Sunday, I would be quite stiff if I did nothing but sit in a van all day. I only had time for a quick 35-minute walk + ~10 minutes of pushups and abs but it was definitely worth the effort! Day one involved driving from Lakewood, CO to Moab, UT. A few photos of the trip:

Vail Pass, Colorado

North of Moab

Day 2 was spent hiking in Arches National Park. I hiked up to Delicate Arch and then hiked Devil's Garden to Double O Arch (about 8 miles total). While I love hiking, the hike to Double O Arch was...not worth the effort. It really wasn't cool enough for the amount of rock climbing that was involved. I did get to walk around on the top of the fins though, so there was a silver lining!

Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch with me in it for scale (I'm the little pink and black blobie).

Delicate Arch

Hike to Double O Arch in the Devil's Garden area

Day 3 was driving from Arches to Zion, hitting Capital Reef National Park and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (awesome!) along the way.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Day 4 was hiking in Zion National Park! Up until this point in the trip, I had been to all of the places were were hitting. I had never been to Zion and I would dare to say that the hiking day at Zion was perhaps my favorite day of the whole trip. I hiked 5.4 miles up to Angels Landing and followed that with 1-2 miles in the Narrows (no photos because I was worried about getting my camera wet - you are just walking through the Virgin River between rock cliffs - cool but tiring!).

Angel's Landing is perhaps the best hike I have ever done. You climb up about 1500 feet, using chains to pull yourself up for the last mile, and you end up at the top of a cliff overlooking most of the park. Very, very cool! Very worthy of lots of photos! :)

First look of the morning of the "oh crap, that's where we are going?" sight at the trail head. Angel's Landing is the very highest point in the photo above.