Date: 2005-02-18
To: Trail Angels
Miles today: 0.0

I was just thinking today, as I stabbed myself with the needle again, how important my friends and family are to my success. Already, they are starting to sign the guest book and wishing me well. I am going to do it! Ok, so I got the patch sewed on a little bit crooked, but I never was very good at home economics stuff anyways. I always preferred shop class or PE or Pathfinders! Way Way back, I think 1973, I went to my first summer camp, Laurel Lake Camp in Pennsylvania. I loved it. I loved the counselors, the activities, the campfire songs, everything. I couldn't wait to go again. In 1977, I took the Pioneering Course at Big Lake Youth Camp near Sisters, Oregon. I absolutely adored my instructors Paul Wentland and Terry Bolton. I would have married Paul if I wasn't just a snot-nosed 12 year old. It was most embarressing when I went down the wrong trail on our "night hike" and ended up two miles away at the Mormon Girl's Camp instead of our campsite! I joined Pathfinders (a seventh-day adventist version of Scouts) and finished a Master Guide. My Leaders, Larry and Audrey Minor and Keith and Clydelle Moran, taught me the basics. You know, Like how to start a fire with a whole roll of toilet paper, campho-phenique, and really wet wood; How to chuck rocks at the boys when they wouldn't quit splashing the girls. The important stuff! My favorite high School trail angel would have to be Ken Dunlap. He was my math and science teacher, and fellow long distance runner. He challenged me to go farther and faster each time. I wasn't built to be a runner, but I had determination. Ask my principal, Dr. Boyatt. He climbed Mt. Hood with me, then stayed up past midnight waiting for me to find my way off the mountain. (Another long story!) At college, my friends, Sarah Green and Roger Chapman spent endless weekends on our motorcycles camping and riding and finding new ways to escape the dorm. My rock climbing/Mountaineering instructor, Aaron Lish and Kayak instructor, Greg Terhaar taught me the limits of my courage, the depths of my fears. My Search and Rescue team who taught me about teamwork. Michelle McPheron who got me out there on the PCT, And Shorty, who made it possible to take the time off to do it. Oh, there are so many good people out there, I'll never finish. But my family, they're the ones who have been there for me my whole life! Mom worked really hard to give me the education I so desperately wanted. Dad worked from dawn till dusk 365 days a year, to put food on the table. My brother, Dave, would try anything I suggested. Like campouts in the garden or assending our big ponderosa pine with rope and prusiks. My brother, Lance, would do anything for me. Even when I told him to check the "Female" circle on his 5th grade test. It came back reading, "Lance is very strong in Mathematics, she this, she that." I don't think he has forgiven me yet! Kristie, my kid sister, is now my motivation to get out there and do the crazy stuff! She likes the Bungy Jumping, Sky Diving, Diving with Sharks, that thrill stuff where you don't have any control. I have always liked fixing my own anchors and controlling my own descents into the deep dark fissures of a glacier. Hey, I know most of the journal readers are fellow hikers. I know you don't know any of these great people, but I have mine and you have yours. We couldn't do it alone. I just want to thank everyone whose path has crossed mine in some way or another. They have all made me the person I am today and I am better for them. I am going to do it! Happy trails,