Feeling Great!

I had a pretty great day today! I went to the gym and did a "Mountain" class. Its frustrating because my ghetto gym only allows 30 minutes on the treadmill.The machines can not and will not go over these allotted 30 minutes no matter what setting you use :P I had to do a warm up, then stop the treadmill and reset it so that I could get 30 minutes in on top of that. Grrr.. After my "Mountain" session I did an upper body weight circuit, some ab work and stretching. Considering it took me fifty-leven hours to get out of the house due to extreme procrastination; I ended up having a really good workout and feel great! I have eaten really well and have some Chicken Souvlaki marinating in the fridge for my next meal..MmmmMmmmmMmmmm!

I am really looking forward to the upcoming week. My wonderful friend from afar is coming to spend the night .... CHILD FREE!! Wooohooo! My son is gone and she has lined up a sitter so we are free to do what our little hearts desire! In the past our little hearts have desired some odd, but fun times! The best memory to date was last summer when it was scorching outside and we ended up cramming our asses into a kiddie pool where we proceeded to drink alcoholic beverages for 5 hours. We didn't realize at the time how ridiculous we looked. Then we saw the pictures! It was so much fun, and being ridiculous made it even better!



We have a few plans for this upcoming visit. The weather Gods are apparently going to give us some sunshine and we are going to make good use of it! There is an amazing hike that I did a couple of years ago called "Elk Mountain". If I remember correctly, it was about 3.5 hours up and 2 hours down. It was a challenging hike. There is a lot of incline and some rocky spots, but the view from the top is absolutely breathtaking.





I haven't hiked since I got back from Fitness Ridge a week ago and I must say I am missing it! I would be ecstatic if I could hike all day long at FR and just skip all the other cardio classes. The scenery in Utah is so stunning! Well... its stunning in its own way.. I am quite partial to the lush green forests that I get to hike at home. The majestic pine trees..the smell of dirt and foliage.. I love British Columbia! Another thing Utah has that I won't miss on this hike are the Rattle Snakes! There is a good chance of running into a bear though and they are a LITTLE bit bigger than a snake so I'm not sure which Id rather meet along the trail!

Speaking of bears, we had a beautiful male Black Bear in our yard several times over the last few days. He is a BIG mother of a bear for his species! I absolutely adore wildlife! It makes me happy that I've moved to such a stunning area. We are right on the side of a mountain and get a lot of bear, coyotes, squirrels, raccoons and even a cougar (thankfully I didn't have the pleasure of meeting him, but he was right outside our house) I love that I can walk out my front door and end up steps from a beautiful rushing river, a short drive to several lakes and my "backyard" is a maze of amazing hiking trails! Ive really got it made! I'm quite jealous of myself actually!





Early next week we are leaving for a week or so to head up to Haida Gwaii in northern B.C. (just below Alaska) Ive never been north. Its going to take a 17 hour drive and an 8 hour ferry ride! We will be seeing a lot of wildlife (yay!) and doing some fishing for Coho and Halibut. We will be stocking our coolers full of fish! Its waaay cheaper than what the grocery stores here charge for it! We will be eating like royalty!

When I get back I am planning to do the "Grouse Grind" an insanely steep set of wooden stairs that wind up the forest to Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. I also want to hike Mt Cheam, and a few other ones I marked off in a book called "Hikes of Southwestern British Columbia" I will be sure to post pictures! I love that Fitness Ridge has given me the drive (and lungs) to do these hikes! I will never regret deciding to go to that magical place!