Haiku Tuesday!

I have always liked haiku. The challenge of expressing a whole emotion or idea in such a short and constrained manner just appeals to me.
A couple of years ago, I even tried writing a haiku every day for 30 days. I did keep it up for a couple of weeks. I even illustrated most of them. Then it snowed, and I got distracted by playing outside.

I've decided to start writing them again. I won't have a goal as lofty as one day, but I think one a week is realistic. Some of them, okay, most of them, will probably not be very good, but I like to challenge myself and solve puzzles. To me, a haiku is a creative word puzzle. This will help me stretch my brain. Plus, it will be fun.

Why Tuesday? Because it has a "u" in it and sounded better than "haiku Thursday".  So without
further ado:

Rains refuse to come
While trees remain clothed in green

Forgotten by Fall

Our weather has been uncharacteristically warm, with very dry conditions. The only leaves on the ground are there from lack of water. There are very few fall colors and the lake is very low. 

Feel like trying your hand at a haiku? Try it out and share the results in the comments!

Highpointers and Hills

For several years, I lived very close to Arkansas's highest point. I hiked to the top of at least once, nearly every week.  At the top was a  well cared for and rather large sign announcing the elevation and a mailbox containing a logbook.  The logbook would fill every couple of months,  and I was often granted the pleasure if being the one to exchange it for a new one.  I enjoyed reading some of the entries while it was temporarily in my keeping, and that is where I learned about highpointers for the very first time.

You'll have to visit to see what's at the top!

Denali

Highpointers are people who have made it their aspiration, their hobby, their passion to reach the summit of the highest point in every state.  (There is also a group that aims for the highest point in every county,  but that's for another time.) For those of you who may be a little rusty on your geography,  that includes the 14,440' Mount Elbert in Colorado, the 14,494' Mount Whitney in California, and the famous 20,320' Denali in Alaska.  Just  to throw out there for fun, Arkansas's Mount Magazine, is 2,753' tall, meaning it would take just over 7 Mount Magazines stacked up to reach the height of Denali!

At first,  I  simply thought "huh. Well that's cool,"  and moved on. Then as I saw more logbook entries,  read their stories, visited the websites like highpointers.org and summitpost.org, and conversed with highpointers, the idea began sinking into my brain.  I don't remember when I decided it. I don't know if there was a specific moment that it became a goal. But I decided to start visiting highpoints.
My goal is to visit at least 40 of the 50. Denali,  Whitney, and a few others are technical climbs, requiring specific skills,  physical conditioning, and practice.  I would like to climb a mountain like that some day,  but I feel like it's naive for me to believe I could climb a monster like Denali.  It would take time,  finances, and dedication that, at this point,  I'm not sure I'd ever be willing to invest in such a pursuit.  But  stand on top of the shorter 40?  I have no doubt I can accomplish that.

I've obviously been to Arkansas's highpoint, and I accidentally visited Missouri's a few years ago. However, my first intentional trip to visit to a highpoint was just a couple weeks ago. A friend and I visited Driskill Mountain, or Driskill Hill depending on who you ask, in Louisiana. I walked to the 535' summit on a trail that was about half a mile long.  At the top was a panel with some history, a logbook, and a couple of benches.

The area was heavily wooded, but there was still a little bit of a view. The highpoint and trails are on private land, but the landowners graciously keep up the trails and allow people to hike on them.  If you decide to visit, there are lots of criss crossing paths, so be sure to pay attention to the trail blazes.

On the trip, we camped at Lake Claiborne State Park in Louisiana. The park was nearly empty, and I enjoyed staying there. Our site was right on the water and had plenty of trees for hammock. My friend slept in a tent, but there was no designated tent pad. Instead he pitched it on the asphalt for RVs. I loaned him a self inflating sleeping pad. I also took advantage of this opportunity to cooking frozen biscuits in my homemade steam baker. I've made them from mix but frozen was new. They had a slightly different texture on the outside but turned out well.

DIY Backpack Steam Baker

Steam Baker!

I made a backpack-able steam oven! Check it out.

Ok, so I didn't make the WHOLE thing. I turned my MSR stow away pot and my MSR pocket rocket into a BNO Steam Baker. (What?! It seemed like it needed initials, so I gave it mine.)

I saw a somewhat expensive backpacking steam oven set up for sale online. Once I got to thinking about it, I decided I could probably convert my regular pot into one fairly easily. With some brainstorming help from Ranger D. and Ranger P., and a short supply run, I was able to make cornbread.

Mmmm! Buttermilk cornbread.

All that I had to actually purchase were some silicone baking cups and the cornbread mix. I wanted to use the same type of mix I'd pack if I were camping, which meant a "Just Add Water" type.

It took me less than an hour to make it. That's counting the time it took to decide which kind of bolt and which drill bit I wanted to use.
  
 My guy is probably going to want one for his overnight kayaking. If I make his, I'll take pictures and post a how to. If I don't, I'll stage pictures and post a how to anyway. :)

See, no golden brown, but it was still tasty!

 So the pros:

• I can bake while backpacking, Cool!
• It weighs 3.1 oz. 
• It was way cheap to make. 
• It was way easy to make. 

The Cons:

• Stuff you bake in it will not brown. 
• It weighs 3.1 oz (but baking...!)
• It gave the cornbread a different texture. Not a bad one, just a little bit different.
• After I spent the time thinking and working on it, I found a silicone thing for $10 that does the same thing... 
• You're going to use a bit of fuel to bake something. The cornbread took about 15 minutes at around 1/2 power. But if you're going on a trip where you don't mind the extra 3 oz, you are probably going on a trip where that little extra fuel is okay to use.

Here's a picture if you want to work it out yourself, before I do the how to.

Or you can drop the $10 plus shipping and order the silicone one from PackIt Gourmet. They also have a kit that includes the silicone cups, a whisk, and a pot scraper for $20. My silicone cups were just under $4 for 8 of them.


Can't wait to take it on the trail next week!

Travel & Trails

Mom and I went on a trip together. We didn't do the things we planned, but we had a great time.

We picked Ha Ha Tonka State Park because we wanted to see the "castle" ruins. The story of the ruins is pretty cool, though a little bit sad. There is a .4 mile mostly paved trail that goes out to it. You can't go into it or climb on it, but it's neat to walk around and peak through the windows. I wonder if the area would've became a park if the house hadn't burned.

Apparently, Ha Ha Tonka is also home to the 12th largest spring in Missouri. They sprang that on us (haha..see what I did there&  there?) when we stopped in the visitor center. I'm a sucker for visitor centers and I really wanted a Ha Ha Tonka State Park shirt. They only had one shirt that said Ha Ha Tonka, and it didn't come in my size. Apparently Missouri is doing "The Year of the Trail," including a neat challenge issued by the governor to travel 100 miles of trail. That's awesome, cause that's my goal for the year, too! So I bought a hiking medallion for it. I also bought a Ha Ha Tonka medallion.


We planned a backpacking trip on Turkey Penn Hollow trail. We loaded up our packs and headed off on the supposedly 6.5 mile trail. We hadn't been hiking long when it started storming. Around mile 5.5, when we discovered the backpacking camp was after that marker, we decided to go on and hike out. We thought it was only 6.5 miles. Turns out, the mileage doesn't start at the parking lot. The Turkey Penn Hollow trail starts & ends partially down another trail, making the mileage for it a little over 7.5 miles.

Mom says it still counts as backpacking because we did the whole thing with our packs on. :)

Not staying on the trail for the night gave us an extra day on our trip. We went to the George Washington Carver Monument National Park.

Hiking Challenge

Random odd thing

I enjoy hiking, and I love seeing new places. I like the little random odd things as much as the big cool things. Lately, I've done most of my hiking all in one spot, and while at work.

I decided to challenge myself, to help myself branch out a little.

Before the end of the year, I'm going to cover 100 non-work miles of trail, by running or hiking, with at least half them not in Mount Magazine State Park.

I already went to Pedestal Rocks & King's Bluff. They were 2 loop trails that totaled around  4.3 miles.

Big cool thing

All the trails I've done since then have been while I was on the clock. The last few days, I've planned on on going on one of our trails after work. It's been raining and Boudreaux didn't want to get wet.

Mom and I are going to do some hiking soon. Amily has quite a few big hikes planned for us this summer. Sharing the trails will make the challenge even more fun!

My Mail Obssession & It's "Fix"

I love getting mail. Don't you?

When we were younger, my little sister wanted mail so badly that I would hide notes in the mailbox addressed to her from a "Secret Friend." She was too little to know that they weren't "real" letters, and she always seemed so happy to get them. I probably loved giving her those fake notes as much as she liked getting them. Mostly because I like to make my little sister happy, but also because I love mail.
 I liked mail so much that as a kid, I collected both stamps and postcards. Family would give me unsent postcards from places they had been or with pictures they knew I would like, and  I received stamps as Christmas gifts. Often, I would have pieces of my grandma's mail soaking to retrieve the stamps before she knew the mail had been delivered.

My love of mail didn't stop with stamps and postcards. I loved stationery, post-its, note cards, unique papers, weird envelopes, and oddly shaped pieces of mail. I have things like a giant foam kissing lip mailer and  plant-able notecards.

Now that I'm older, I still love sending and receiving mail. When I saw +Postcrossing, I knew I had to sign up and at least give it a shot. Not only have I had quite a bit of fun seeing sights from around the world and across the country, but Postcrossing.com has reminded me of how much I enjoyed collecting stamps and postcards.

Postcrossing is a free website that connects postcard and mail lovers from around the world. From their "About" page:
"The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world."

One of my favorite cards, from Taiwan.

I enjoy travel and would love see the world. Realistically speaking, I know that will never happen. Receiving postcards with amazing and unique sights from around the world helps soothe my wanderlust without putting my bank account in intensive care.

Postcards are easy to find, often for $.30 or so. International postage is $1.10. Because I get a card for every card I send, for $1.40 I get to see something new!

The postcards are fun and seeing all the different stamps is a treat. I also hearing from random people all over the world, even just tiny snippets of their life.

Being a numbers and lists kind of person, I really enjoy the section of Postcrossing where it tells you how far the cards have traveled. The postcard above traveled 12,593 km over the course of 10 days in order to reach me. Another card, from India, traveled 13,843 km and took 30 days to reach me.

My current goal is receive at least one postcard from each state in the United States. I have Delaware, Nebraska, California, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Florida. Some are from Fitocracy friends and some are from Postcrossing direct swaps. A direct swap is where if a person has it enabled, you can contact them to request a swap, without having to wait for the Postcrossing roulette to achieve your goal. I was recently contacted by a lady in Australia whose goal is to collect a card from every county in the U.S.!

Check out some of the postcards I have received in my postcard album on Picasa. Even if you think I'm crazy, you're likely to appreciate at least a few of the cards. If you think it sounds fun, head over to Postcrossing and sign up. Maybe our cards will cross.

Viva la Post Office!

Progress

I had one of those moments today where I was like "Wow! I've come really far!" and it wasn't just because I had ran 4.5 miles.

In Sept. 2011, I officially didn't run a lick.

In Sept. 2012, I ran 15 miles. I was getting ready for the Color Run 5K that was going to be that following November.

Sept. 2012 Smashrun Overview

 In Sept. 2013, I ran 26 miles! I'm getting ready for the Mississippi River Marathon's half marathon that's in February 2014.

Sept. 2013 Smashrun Overview

I'm super excited, not only about my progress but about training for a half marathon. I'm using Hal Higdon's half marathon Novice 1 training program. I picked it because it has 3 running days and includes cross training, strength training, and stretching.

Today I completed week 2 of the training. I changed the days to match my work schedule, so I do the Monday workouts on Friday, making my long runs on Thursday, my normal day off. For strength I've just kind of been doing random stuff. Cross training has been hiking and riding a bicycle.

I've decided I need to get a little structure for strength training. I went to the library and borrowed "Body by You" by Mark Lauren. It's a body weight training program specifically tailored for women. I've been reading it and have decided to give it a shot. Tomorrow will be the initial evaluation for me, where I see which exercises I will use to continue the program.

Even though "Body by You" is fairly anti-cardio, and it isn't really intended to be used like this, I plan to use it on days that call for strength and on the major cross training day. I've been taking measurements, but I think tomorrow I'm going to take one of those half naked "before" photos (not for sharing!) and see what happens after a couple months.

I'm a little excited about doing this combination, though "Body by You" is going to get tough.

Let's see how it goes!