Event Weekend Day 1

Rocky Mountain National Park
Woohoo! Event weekend! The thing we've been training for all summer. After our arrival at Estes Park in the wee hours of the morning Thursday/Friday last week it was immediately apparent that I was not going to have enough winter gear for the blustery weather of a Rocky Mountain September. Thus, Friday morning was spent wandering in and out of outdoor shops and borrowing items here and there from my fellow New Mexico hikers.



Susan, Jenna, and I stopped by the eerie Stanley Hotel (the hotel Stephen King wrote The Shining based on) and poked around the place. It was a very classy lodge which is apparently very haunted. This was not the actual hotel used in the filming of The Shining (much to my disappointment) but was still a very interesting and beautiful lodge.

After a quick power lunch the New Mexico hikers got together for a nice leg stretcher to Cub Lake.

Cub Lake Trail
Distance Hiked: 5 mi
Elevation: 8,121-8,624 ft
Elevation Gain: 643 ft
Distance This Season: 72.45 mi
Elevation Gain This Season: 16,959 ft

Although we weren't at great altitude on our little leg stretcher hike to Cub Lake, I was definitely feeling it. Throughout the season I have struggled with altitude and breathing deeply enough to be able to keep up with the team on our hikes. We stayed together and took it nice and easy and I put my nervousness about the big hike the next day aside. It was great to get together with everyone for one last warmup and the lake was gorgeous with lots of beautiful lillypads and critters.

After the hike we rushed back to the lodge to prepare for the Inspiration Dinner. We met up beforehand to enter as a team and were surprised to see an archway of hiking poles guiding us into the ballroom. Ha! The food was delicious and the speakers were great. We were extremely proud to find out that so far this summer, the seven chapters attending this event had raised over a quarter of a million dollars! Wow!!!

It seemed almost impossible at the beginning of the summer to have brought in the amount of donations that I did. It's amazing how many great people we know who are willing to step it up and make a difference and to tell the government that if they won't take care of it, we'll do it ourselves! Everyone, you've made a huge difference in the lives of these afflicted families. Give yourselves a hug or a high five!

After dinner we broke up into the groups that we would be hiking with in the morning. All the chapters were spread out over several different trails with some having a departure time as early as 1:30am!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! Luckily, my group didn't have to be on the bus until 4:30am so we got to "sleep in". Our guide informed us that the trail would be steepest at the beginning, something else to tie knots in my stomach, but luckily I was able to sleep well before the big day!