Hello there! The first sentence of a new blog is hard. So I'll get right to it: I'd like to use this blog to document my hiking adventures in the Pacific Northwest.
There are a few reasons for this. I have been adjusting to a lot of change recently - new location, new job, deaths in my family, etc. Either in addition to or because of these things, I have struggled with increasing feelings of mid-twenties/post-college confusion and self-doubt as of late. To help improve my state of mind, I've been looking for something to distract myself from myself: a new hobby. I have always been interested in hiking, and my girlfriend Kathy and I were able to hit a few great spots when we had just arrived in Portland last fall: Tryon Creek State Park, Powell Butte, and of course, Mt. Tabor.
Since then, our first winter in the Northwest - which mainly consists of rain or grey skies all the time - along with slightly busier schedules have been keeping us inside. At the start of the new year, I quit my job, which prompted a three week period of unemployment until someone else finally hired me. Although the time off was certainly enjoyable in some ways, three weeks of sitting around the house also made me slightly depressed and stir crazy and really, really drove home the fact that I missed the great outdoors. Also during this time I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which, in the sad case you haven't read it, details his adventures while attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail. I've read almost all of Bryson's books and pretty much love the guy. He manages to be extremely informative while at the same time being constantly hilarious, interesting, and overall down to earth. He also really, really made me want to take a walk in the woods.
And so I figured, the heck with it. I'd start hiking again, even if it was winter. And I'd be serious about it, make goals.
Hiking, and making this blog, also fulfill two other motives I've been lacking in recently.
1) I am not a very healthy person lately. I eat too much - specifically, I often have an inexhaustible appetite for ice cream - and never exercise. I was part of a wonderful gym in Boston (where we lived prior to our move to Oregon) which really made going there almost like a treat, but all of the gyms I've looked into in Portland remind me of big metal boxes full of intimidating machines and they just don't inspire me much to leave the comfort of my cozy apartment. Hiking, though, does.
2) I need to write more. And by "more" I really mean write anything at all, but also write more about my surroundings, about the life and the world around me, not just the muddling conflicts of my own head.
I moved to Oregon of my own will, one of the most beautiful places in the country, but I already know I won't be here forever. Other forces - mainly, my desire to be closer to my family - will draw me back to the East Coast eventually. I want to be able to say that I really lived in Oregon, didn't just work here and inhabit an apartment here for awhile. So I'm starting my exploration of this wonderful state in two chunks: the Columbia River Gorge, and Forest Park. Hopefully my first few entries will revolve around them, with some other random wanderings in between.
There are a few reasons for this. I have been adjusting to a lot of change recently - new location, new job, deaths in my family, etc. Either in addition to or because of these things, I have struggled with increasing feelings of mid-twenties/post-college confusion and self-doubt as of late. To help improve my state of mind, I've been looking for something to distract myself from myself: a new hobby. I have always been interested in hiking, and my girlfriend Kathy and I were able to hit a few great spots when we had just arrived in Portland last fall: Tryon Creek State Park, Powell Butte, and of course, Mt. Tabor.
Since then, our first winter in the Northwest - which mainly consists of rain or grey skies all the time - along with slightly busier schedules have been keeping us inside. At the start of the new year, I quit my job, which prompted a three week period of unemployment until someone else finally hired me. Although the time off was certainly enjoyable in some ways, three weeks of sitting around the house also made me slightly depressed and stir crazy and really, really drove home the fact that I missed the great outdoors. Also during this time I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which, in the sad case you haven't read it, details his adventures while attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail. I've read almost all of Bryson's books and pretty much love the guy. He manages to be extremely informative while at the same time being constantly hilarious, interesting, and overall down to earth. He also really, really made me want to take a walk in the woods.
And so I figured, the heck with it. I'd start hiking again, even if it was winter. And I'd be serious about it, make goals.
Hiking, and making this blog, also fulfill two other motives I've been lacking in recently.
1) I am not a very healthy person lately. I eat too much - specifically, I often have an inexhaustible appetite for ice cream - and never exercise. I was part of a wonderful gym in Boston (where we lived prior to our move to Oregon) which really made going there almost like a treat, but all of the gyms I've looked into in Portland remind me of big metal boxes full of intimidating machines and they just don't inspire me much to leave the comfort of my cozy apartment. Hiking, though, does.
2) I need to write more. And by "more" I really mean write anything at all, but also write more about my surroundings, about the life and the world around me, not just the muddling conflicts of my own head.
I moved to Oregon of my own will, one of the most beautiful places in the country, but I already know I won't be here forever. Other forces - mainly, my desire to be closer to my family - will draw me back to the East Coast eventually. I want to be able to say that I really lived in Oregon, didn't just work here and inhabit an apartment here for awhile. So I'm starting my exploration of this wonderful state in two chunks: the Columbia River Gorge, and Forest Park. Hopefully my first few entries will revolve around them, with some other random wanderings in between.
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