Maintenance Required

While I was up at Mt. Shasta this weekend, the maintenance required light came on my car. It started off just flashing at me when I started the car, gently telling me that something needed attention. Now it's on permanently, reminding me ever so stalwartly that my oil needs to be changed, fulfiling it's purpose in life to get my attention concerning the maintenance of my car. Unfortunately for that little LED, it's soft orange glow is reminding me to maintain this blog rather than maintain my car. (No worries, ladies and gents, the oil will get changed this week; I gots to take care of my baby Rebel.)

It does please me to say the even though the blog hasn't been updated, I've still gone on hikes consistently. And, in fine fashion, here are the blurbs about the hikes, bullet-point style!

• Monday, August 27th, 2007 - All By Myself : On the one month anniversary of this journey, the inevitable happened - I hiked alone. Unlike the last time I thought I was going to have to hike alone, however, I was looking forward to it. There were a myriad of challenges in front of me - finishing the hike in a good amount of time, running on my own, pushing myself forward. I decided to take the counter-clockwise route, which has quickly become my preferred route. As I walked up the first hill, I watched as hikers in front of me branched off to hike in different directions. Turning the corner to go the less-traveled, counter-clockwise route, I spotted a pair of hikers walking the hike. They didn't seem to be walking too terribly fast, so I then made it my personal goal to pass them. They must have been on a mission, because they sped up on the hills! I silently cursed them as I pressed on towards my goal. Sadly, as we reach the big dish, they started to break away from my reach. When I reached the tippity-top of the uphill climb, I decided to run the remainder of the hike, including the super steep second hill. Running downhill often feels more like stopping yourself from falling downhill; my toes were pressed up at the top of my shoes, making my feet oh-so-uncomfortable. At the bottom of the hill, I checked my time - 1 hour, 4 minutes. What a proud moment! I had been able to push myself, run alone, and make good time all on my own!
  

• Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 - Snaaaaake, Snaaaaaake, it's a Snake! : There's nothing that makes me more embarrassed than getting schooled on The Dish hike. It's suppossed to be my thing, after all. I remember feeling a slight twinge of embarrassment a few weeks ago when Ken joined me on the hill. This time, however, the embarrassment was doubled - not only was I schooled on the hike, but I was schooled by my mother. My mom came into town to check out my new apartment, IV, and MPPC (the church I attend), and to check out The Dish hike with me. Xianne, Kristyn, and Nola joined us on the hike Wednesday. We must have been walking too slowly for my mother; she would speed past us (ok, mostly me) to the top of the hill. Then, to add salt to the wound, she would walk back down the hill to where I was, and join me in walking back up the hill! Sigh. In addition to getting schooled by my mom, the group had it's first encounter with wildlife (other than God's favorite animal - the squirrel) on this hike. As we were walking the final at the base of the big dish, my mom screamed. Kristyn and my mom scattered up the hill, while Xianne stopped to look at what the commotion was about. Next to the side of the path, a kingsnake was chilling out in the shade. Because of their similar coloring, are often mistaken for the venomous coral snakes. In fact there was really no need to be afraid of this creature; kingsnakes are highly resistant to the venom of other snakes and are known to eat more dangerous snakes, such as rattlesnakes. (Thank you, Wikipedia!) Xianne had only seen one snake before in her life, so she was enthralled by this creature. I found the whole situation hilarious, and was chuckling at the extreme responses of my friends and family. While I may have been schooled by mom, at least I didn't scream like a little girl and run away from a harmless snake.
  

• Friday, August 31st, 2007 - We Built This City : My undergrad institution seemed to be constantly in some stage of construction. Each summer, the school would be invaded by Bobcats and (John) Deeres, each marking their territory on the campus in a manner known only to their species - digging a big hole. By the fall, the fleet of Bobcats and (John) Deeres left campus, leaving a small path of destruction in their wake. Construction never seemed to finish at that school; once a building was finished, construction or renovation on anoter began. If I visited it today, I'm not entirely sure that I would be able to recoginize the majority of my undergraduate institution. I'm sure that construction woes are a shared experience for every collegian, but somehow I expected more from Stanford; that they might buck the trend in construction and settle for a more stable campus. Even The Dish undergoes a fair bit of construction during the year. I'm not entirely sure what was going on this week, but there was a bustle of activity around The Dish. As our group rounded the turn to the final hill, I noticed the familiar shape of a Bobcat loader at the bottom of the hill. Construction signs and tape lined the side of the hike on the way up the final hill. Taking a closer look at the signs, I notice that the construction signs were labeled "HATTON'S". It's nice to know that the Hattons have left their mark on The Dish in more way than one.

• Saturday, September 1st, 2007 - Chasin' Waterfalls : Labor Day Weekend. The end of summer. How did it come so fast? Thankfully, Stanford doesn't start up school for another month and I live in the land of gorgeous weather, but there's still something dismal about the end of the summer season. To celebrate summer's last gasp, Kevin Carlberg organized a trip up to Mt. Shasta. After a good six and a half hours of driving up on Friday, we finally reached the City of Mount Shasta. Talk about gorgeous surroundings - the peak of Mount Shasta, still speckled with snow, surrounded by green trees as far as the eye could see. After spending the night underneath the stars, the thirteen of us Peninsula-ites (and one Hawaiian - my mom) went to 'hike' the McCloud River Waterfalls (http://www.visitsiskiyou.org/hikes/hike6.html). The entire hike was about 3 miles round trip, and about a third of it was paved ... so I'm tempted to call it a stroll instead of a hike. Semantics aside, it is an absolutely gorgeous stroll. The group took a break at the second (and most gorgeous waterfall) to jump in the freezing cold water. Being manly men, all the guys jumped in and swam to the waterfall. Not to be outdone, Xianne, Grace, and I followed suit. As soon as we hit the water, we realized what a mistake we had made, and swam back to shore to shiver on some rocks. While we were standing out of the water, I decided I couldn't be beaten by a group of boys - what a disgrace that would be! I convinced Xianne to join me, and we swam to join all the guys at the base of the waterfall. The guys did show me up twice on the hike - I wimped out climbing down a very steep path to the final waterfall, and I didn't cliff jump at the first waterfall. C'est la vie; I guess the guys have to show off to the girls somehow :).
  

• Monday, September 3rd, 2007 - De-Motivation : While my mother may have schooled me on Wednesday, she served as the sole de-motivating factor on Monday. We had made plans to spend Labor Day shopping, especially at my mom's favorite store - TJ Maxx. No joke, people, this woman CRIED the day that TJ Maxx left Hawaii. All my state is left with is Ross, which can normally fulfill your discount shopping needs, but is still lacking a small touch of class. Since it was a holiday, I figured I deserved to sleep in. So, before I went to bed, I moved back the meeting time to 8:30 am, and alerted the troops. When I woke up (sadly, at 7:00 because I couldn't sleep in for the life of me), my mom was dressed and ready to go. She had woken up at 5:30, and decided that she'd rather run around the block and be ready to leave for shopping as soon as I woke up; "we'd leave to late otherwise." Begrudgingly, I alerted th troops that hiking was canceled for Monday. Thanks, TJ Maxx, for breaking my hiking streak.