Determination and Success! (July 2021)

I feel great about my progress as I achieved success again on this, my fifth week of training! After last weeks setback I hiked Colby Trail on Wednesday with my friend Pam, I had to rest again several times while ascending and did not make it to the top. So, I decided to try again with amazing success. I made it to the top without stopping one time, that is a first. Although I wanted to quit several times as I ascended the trail, the muscles in my legs were burning, I was out of breath, and my heart was pounding, but I was determined to go all the way. I just focused on my breathing getting in sync with my stride and kept my mind focused on my goal again of hiking the Grand Canyon. I thought about my friends and their recent hike in the Eastern Sierras and the story of their hike motivated me. I also realized the incredible value of this blog which I had not considered before. It is a major motivator because as I was hiking, I had in my mind that I wanted to write about a “Positive” outcome so that also helped me succeed this week.

Lesson to myself this week…it takes determination, support and encouragement from family and friends, and goals that are just out of reach but not so much so that they feel impossible.

In the photo to the right is a beautiful flowering Yucca Plant that I encountered on my hike this week. These plants, common in the San Gabriel Mountains, flower once each year from summer to early fall.

I note that the people I have met on the trail, fellow hikers, without exception are the most incredibly nice people. I can only surmise that people that are drawn to nature are a certain kind of person and being in nature is very calming.

I also discovered a couple very helpful websites "https://www.alltrails.com/". This website has trail info and detail maps of over 200,000 hiking trails. And https://www.hikingproject.com/ and has more than 650,000 trails and has a mobile app so you can monitor your progress.

I will try the Upper Colby Trail next time out. The Upper Colby Trail starts where the Colby Trail ends and climbs another 1,000 vertical feet and 1.3 miles to Summit 2583 in the San Gabriel Mountains.

And then the Mystic Canyon Trail also located in Glendora California. Mystic Canyon is rated as hard with a length of 9.2 miles and elevation change of 2,194 ft.