There's always something that defines each year. Usually it's kids or dogs or something deep and meaningful. This year it was the year of the beard. A long time ago, I was dubbed a Mountain Thug. Age has transformed me into a Mountain Hobo. In reality, it was just easier to make my way through the mountains (and life) without worrying about my face.
But back to adventure. It was a pretty routine year. Lots of trips on our home trail. Lots of trips in our home Wilderness. We snowshoed a lot. Three feet of snow fell at home and we were literally stuck in the house for a week.
I determined getting older sucks when my previously manageable asthma made it way too hard to breathe, but renewed my commitment to the slogan, "Better living through chemicals."
We continued our journey toward being climbers. We even climbed on real rock, not just the local plastic crag.
I realized not all the best hikes are far away. There are plenty of great spots just around the corner. (But some of the very best still require a few hours in the car.)
And then there was Tinkham. She grew into a full fledged mountain dog. I took her to some of my favorite places and we found some new favorite places together.
We can't forget the SCIENCE! We collected living snow, samples of both western red and Alaska yellow cedar, and yeah, of course, the pika. (We tried to collect data on pollinators, but where did all the butterflies go?)
I crossed off a couple bucket list hikes and we were witnesses to the coming purple apocalypse.
And since I like challenges, I started The Project. It's one of those crazy ideas that might not happen, but might. And if it does... Sweet. I ran out of time before the snows really came, but I'll be back in the spring.
But wait! There's more! Stats.
114 days of adventure, 585 miles, 192,290 feet of elevation gain. Not bad. The best measure of a year is how many of those adventure days were with family. 40% was less than a point off 2018 and 2017, but way off the 50% of 2016, 2015, and 2014.
If I have any goals for 2020, it's to increase the kids' time outdoors. And maybe tick off another couple bucketlist destinations.
Big thanks to our frequent adventure companions and partners. Especially TNAB, my group of like minded adventure fools, Deuter, Tubbs, WoolX, and Fido Pro.
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