Diary of "the boring one": Big Sur (updated photos)

This weekend TheBoy and I packed two days worth of dry and warm clothing, food and some booze (because y’all – it’s us we’re talking about here) into two backpacks that I could easily climb inside of myself and set off for a weekend hike at the beautiful Northern California coast. Honestly, at the beginning of last week we weren’t sure we were going to be able to go at all because the weatherman was forecasting rainstorms straight through the weekend and while I do like to backpack I am not such a huge fan of rain.

I actually used to backpack a lot in high school. In fact I even belonged to a club for a very short time through the recreation center that organized overnight trips for local teens to various destinations around the bay area. Mainly Big Sur but some other areas as well. I’ll be honest… I think I enjoyed the dichotomy of me, the varsity cheerleader with long blonde hair in French braid pig-tails and manicured nails out there kicking ass on the trails as much as the actual hiking and nature. I remember this one hike I pulled up in my car, a teal green Saturn with pom poms lining the rear window, and started pulling my gear out of the trunk and these two mean granola-type girls turned to these, equally granola-y, guys they were with and said (very loudly and VERY rudely) “who invited Barbie”.

I REALLY, REALLY enjoyed passing them on the trails later that day. Bitches. But of course I sweetly offered one of them some water and a granola (ha) bar when she couldn’t keep up later in the afternoon. Kill them with kindness my Mama always said…

Ahhh the younger days… Needless to say I wasn’t doing much passing of anyone on the trails this past weekend! Nothing is quite as humbling as working really hard and feeling like you’re in really good shape and then going out and testing yourself to realize that… well… you just aren’t. Nope. Man I am SORE today! And I don’t mean like a few sore muscles and wow that was a good work-out. I mean I am waddling sore! Planning my day around minimizing how many times I need to get up from my desk sore!

Though I did have an epiphany at one point that I fully blame on lack of calories to the brain... It goes like this. My pack weighed roughly 45 pounds so together that is maybe only 8 or 9 pounds MORE than what I weighed at my heaviest a couple years ago! Scary! No wonder I was so miserable. I can’t believe how far I’ve come y’all. Really it helps to put things in to perspective sometimes. Also, I think I’ve come to a point where I need to put a firm end weight on this diet thing. I’ve avoided doing it because I’ve wanted to see how I’d feel and what I’d look like and such but I’m in to the home stretch and I want to be able to set a final goal and have something to work for. So stay tuned. I may or may not announce my final goal here. (How is THAT for vague?!?!)

Anywho, Big Sur was awesome! I forget how beautiful California really is sometimes. I really am fortunate to have been able to live here for as long as I have. Between the affordable housing prices* and the stellar traffic** it’s easy to overlook the natural beauty that is just a short drive from here.

And while the exercise and fresh air was good for the body, a little R & R and quiet time alone with my man was good for the soul. You know? Because sometimes it gets too easy to overlook each other…

*Sarcasm

**More sarcasm

**PHOTOS**

This was a little "stream" we had to cross at the beginning of the hike. The log was actually the best way across believe it or not.

TheBoy WOULD. NOT. KISS. the banana slug! Have you ever heard of anything so cute?!?! I thought that was like a California kid's coming of age ritual...? I think I'd lived here all of 4 months before I'd done it! So sad.

Here's me with a teeny tiny waterfall off to the left... The canyon was beautiful y'all. This picture can't do it justice. Amazing.

Okay I have a couple more photos but Blogger is being a pain in my ass! So I'll try to upload some more tomorrow! :)

** MORE PHOTOS**

The waterfall was BEAUTIFUL! And I have no idea how we missed it on the way in except that it was kind of hidden behind this cliff thing. And we were exhausted.

This is another picture of the canyon... We were hiking along this teeny tiny ridge and this canyon was immense! Really these photos don't do it justice. The Big Sur river was WAY below us (~1200' or so) but we could still hear it from time to time and the wind was rushing by... It was so peaceful up there y'all.

This is a picture of our little camp. We were going to go down to another camp site entirely but about a mile before we got there we started getting passed by all these little boys. Like DOZENS of them! Sure enough - boy scouts. So we decided to stop here instead. Because... Y'all know... I'm maybe a little... inappropriate for young boys. I'm just saying...