oregon

Inspire and Be Inspired

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

Wow. I suck. It’s been what? Two months since I’ve posted anything. Sorry for anyone who reads this and is interested in my adventures. I’ve been, honestly, adventuring a lot and have ideas for blog posts filling my brain, but have been lazy when I have the time and have truly lacked the motivation. My apologies. Life is slowing down a bit so hopefully I’ll get back on the wagon and be regular about it.

 

This post is dedicated to a few awesome hikes I had in California this summer. There is no play by play that I’ll run through, but a general feeling and tone that I know anyone who is into fitness or nature will understand. While traveling with my friend Pat in California and Oregon we picked up a friend of his, Ethan. Now, you must imagine a tall, skinny (really skinny) 20 year-old-kid that has longish shaggyish hair. A cute Canadian accent and carries a skate board wherever he goes. WAIT! He’s not a punk, he’s respectful, don’t judge him on his skate board (he doesn’t deface public property) or the fact that he could be blown over by a light breeze, (he doesn’t do drugs—though he enjoys a malt liquor every so often, nothing hard.)

 

This kid, this adult, had never been shown how amazing this earth is. He’d explored the streets of Toronto on four small wheels, grinding hand rails and ollying over steps. His jungle was concrete, harsh and full of twisted ankles and healing scabs.

We went to some spectacular places: Mount Hood in Oregon, camped and hiked in the Red Wood National Forest, surfed in Santa Cruz, hiked 27 miles in Yosemite National Park—we did a lot. A lot a lot! I was dumb founded and speechless at the beautiful places we went and the experiences we had. But being able to see someone change, to see someone finally get it and appreciate it was incredible.

 

It: The vastness, amazingness, hugeness, incredibleness of stepping outside, looking at a mountain and hiking over it, around it, through it. Stepping back and realizing just how small you are and how big this world is. Realizing that you CAN DO IT, you can hike that far.

 

“That’s sweet dude. Fuckin’ sick.” Ethan said this countless times. “This is sick. Sick man.”

To watch Ethan gain confidence was what I imagine a parent feels watching his kids. Not to compare him to my child (no way!) but he was so nervous to go for the hike in Mount Hood (a mere 6-8 miles) and rock it at the front of out pack and then bust out 27-28 on an accidental all day hike in Yosemite was amazing. We were all tired. We were all dehydrated. We were all hungry. We all made it out and we all maintained a semi-positive attitude, all had dips in our moods and energy levels, but we made it and helped each other, inspired one another throughout the whole day (and night.)

 

On this note, get out and share and grow and experience something with someone new and realize how powerful it can be. Take a step back and try to re-understand how impactful a few encouraging words or actions are.

Buckets of Sweat

/ Sloan / 5 Comments

My sweat glands always decide to release all at once. I don’t sweat much during the day, even when I go for a run, unless I’m doing sprints I don’t really sweat a lot. But when I do other sports, sports that I don’t think I can do well and then I succeed, well, I sweat. I sweat the success. I think my body hits a button, the adrenaline, holy shit I just climbed that rock, button. And I start to sweat, and because of my smile I taste it and the saltiness tastes good.

This past weekend I spent in Ashland, Oregon visiting my awesome big brother, Zane. In the past few weeks he’s gotten super into rock climbing and decided to spread the love when we rented shoes and hit the trail at Rattlesnake to climb some rocks. I’m not very good. I’m not horrible, but I’m not very good. I sat around the majority of the day lacking the confidence to try many routes, watched the boys climb, and enjoyed the Oregon sunshine. Finally, Zane found me a 5.8 to top rope. It was a short little thing, but it was a challenge for a novice like me.

 “On belay?”

 “Belay on,”

 “Climbing,”

“Climb on, sistah!!” and off I went. Falling, slipping, getting my fingers stuck in holds I thought I could use. Never once did my brother stop the encouragement, never once did I believe him when he said he knew I could do it! He was a voice of power from below. A voice I needed to get me a few inches higher off the ground.

Finally, what seemed like hours later, the sweat came. The sweat that felt like it could fill buckets, the sweat that got me up the rest of the rock, the last few hold, I touched the anchor and looked down at my brother—his smile was as big as mine, his effort was just as needed as my effort. His encouragement got me up the rock; along with my muscles!

This was just one moment, of many, that I had over the weekend where accomplishment seemed so far away. By doing, pushing and finding out what I am capable I’ve brought it back with me to the east coast. I CAN step up my work outs, I CAN power through and succeed, I CAN beat this damn stress fracture and bounce back even stronger!

Go out and do something you don’t think you can. Take an encouraging person with you and use each other, feed off each other’s support and positive words. You CAN do it, put your head down and power through—I know you can finish!