Living LARGE! Just kidding

A little about life here in Virginia, first thing to note is that it is much more humid than I am used to. I went on a run yesterday around 7am found myself drenched with sweat. I could ring out copious amounts of fluid that had been produced by my seemingly overactive sudoriferous glands. I took a quick shower before breakfast, and dried off only to find that I was still wet. It was strange.

 This is a picture of what I typically live off of; the only thing missing is some type of nut butter, tortillas, spinach, honey, wheat bread, and bananas. This is not all I eat, but I would call it my staple.

Today I went to the farmers market and bought two zucchini, two sweet potatoes, one bell pepper, and I also managed to get 12 white peaches for 2 bucks. (not everything for 2 dollars just the peaches). Lauran, her friend Laura, and I grilled up the veggies and a few hot dogs out on the patio. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. Tasted good too.

I like to travel light. Every time I have to pack up and move to a new place I am amazed and slightly disgusted at the amount of stuff I have accumulated. Therefore each time I try to condense what is necessary, and do away with what is not. Here is my room. 

My fine bed

my lovely desk

my clothes 

Nursing School and Ashburn Virginia

The past few days have been rather hectic, and classes haven’t even begun.

For the past four days we have been bombarded by welcome speeches from the Dean, from the associate Dean, the Director… and many more. I found out that there were over 270 individuals that applied for the program, and only 51 were accepted. I am one of 7 guys.

This semester I will be taking Transition: Nursing Profession, Health Assessment: Foundations, Med Surg I, Med Surg I-lab,  and Pharmacology for a total of 20 units. And somewhere in there will be a weekly 12 hour clinical in a hospital or clinic.

The two ladies that I am living with are also in the program. One of them has just finished up their first degree at Cornell, while the other has been out for a year longer than me. Our apartment is incredible… and incredibly expensive too. I chose to room with individuals that were also in the program rather than out on my own believing that it would facilitate my pursuit of this nursing degree to a greater extent. Although I am sure I could have found some cheep dump to live in, I am now living in a 1436 sq ft three bedroom two bathroom mansion for $1,875 a month.

Money is hard to come by, especially when one has not held a steady job. Sometimes I long for the sense of security that a consistent income would provide. However there is a constant danger of feeling self-sufficient. I don’t want to forget that God has brought me to where I am now, and God will take me through what is ahead. By attaining an all encompassing scholarship, and an ensuing high paying job it would be easy to loss my dependence on God. Living day do day wondering how to come up with $40,000 for this year keeps me trusting that the God that has been with me thus far will continue to be with me.

Since in the past it seems as though my life has been nothing but school and running, it would be wrong to not write a bit about running here.

I have always believed that I can to almost anything that I set my mind to. I think this is what has contributed to my injuries as well. I will wake up, shoot for the stars, and run like there is no tomorrow… and likely there is no tomorrow as far as running is concerned since I destroyed myself the previous day.

I still believe that I have a good bit of running left in me. All I need is to find the resolve to be committed… and see it through to the end.

West Virginia and the New River Gorge National Park

West Virginia is a very beautiful state, although there might be just as many tobacco fields as corn fields now, it is green and hilly once again. West Virginia is one of the United States top coal produces, second only to Wyoming. This was evident by the many ‘I heart Coal’ bummer stickers that I saw.

In the 1870’s over sixty mining towns developed on the New River Gorge. Much of this coal helped full the United States for over half a century during the industrial revolution. Now they are almost all abandoned ghost towns, remnants of the past fading into the foliage.

band of coal in NRG

The Allegheny Mountains that the New River Gorge is located in are deceptively larger than they seem. This is the case for the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains as well. I was impressed with hidden cliffs and rough landscape beneath the green canopy of trees.

The New River Gorge is not really appropriately named. It should be called the oldest river ever. It winding path is evidence of its millions of years cutting through the Appalachians, one of, if not the oldest mountain range in the continental US.

Some of the cliffs that we hiked around were easily over one hundred feet tall and yet they were completely hidden. The maze of magnolia trees wove their roots over our path and hung their vibrant leafs only just above our heads. Various vines climbed the rock, white oak, and Virginia pine trees. The visual beauty along with inescapable song of the cicadas’ made our hour hike along the rim of the New River Gorge a wonderful stop. 

Road Trip to Virginia (Kansas to Kentucky)

There is really not much to say about this portion of the trip. Once you get past Denver (which really isn’t that interesting anyway, just a big sprawling city) not much changes for the next 650miles. I was joking with my dad that if only we could just fold the map a bit, you know… delete a few middle states… jump from Denver to St. Louis, but we did have a pretty good stake in Kansas. From Moab, UT we drove to Hays, KS spent the night and then drove to just outside of Kentucky. The scenery progressively got prettier, but there were no longer the tall pines, redwoods, and rough wilderness that I have grown to love.

This is about it...for miles and miles

It was good to see Jim is doing well for himself

While driving the flatlands my dad and I read a book out loud to each other as we took turns driving. The book was Called When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. Along with majestic views and good conversation, reading this book has been a major highlight of my trip.

The story is written from the perspective of a young man who has dedicated his life to understanding the human heart. Although the book has sections in which it is heavy on the medical terminology: (“Felt crepitus, suggesting subcutaneous emphysema, suspicious of partial pneumothroax left side.”) It has also been heavy on the healing of the heart.

I believe that this quote and a bit of explanation sums up the tone of the book: “We are all shipwrecked. All castaways… Once day, we all wake on the beach, our heads caked with sand, sea foam stinging our eyes, fiddler crabs picking at our noses, and the taste of salt caked on our lips… And, like it or not, it is there that we realize we are all in need of Friday to come rescue us off this island, because we don’t speak the language and we can’t read the messages in the bottle.” p. 240

For those of you that have not read Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Friday is a character that has a life changing impact on the life of shipwrecked Crusoe. When Crickets Cry takes the reader through the highs and lows of a man’s search for the healed heart. It is a fascinating book regarding the procedures behind open-heart surgery, as well as health friendships, I would whole-heartedly recommend it.

Oh and it also contains great quotes from writers such as Shakespeare, John Donne, William Blake, Saint Augustine, Isak Dinesen, and others.

It was a good book and a page-turner (and not just because we were driving through the dullest part of the country)

Road Trip to Virginia (California Through Colorado)

The plan was to leave Tuesday morning and arrive in Ashburn Virginia sometime before 8:30am the following Tuesday, and of course make a few stops in between. Our first major stop was in Yosemite, and major meant we stopped, ran up a granite hillside and took some pictures; traveling over 2,800 miles in less than a week does not allow for too much stoppage time, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t appreciate the beauty of the valley.

We ate a mid-afternoon dinner at the Whoa Nellie Deli. The half pound burger and fries hit the spot; it was impressive, I should have taken a picture. I was still full the following morning. Driving across Nevada was rather uneventful, however I did see some wild horses, I should have taken a picture of that too, but it’s tough to slow down or snap a picture when you are the only driving a straight road where the speed limit is 75mph…

We woke up in Ely, NV and drove out to Moab Utah. Although stopping in Moab would mean that the next two days had to be twelve or thirteen hour drives, it was worth the stop. Moab is nestled right along the Colorado River in between Arches National Park and Canyon lands National Park. I could of spent weeks there, however an afternoon would have to suffice. With four hours of daylight left, the arches won out when choosing between the slick rock, the arches, the river, the canyon lands, and a myriad of other outdoor activities.

We hiked almost every trial, and saw every major feature. It was beautiful, and I would love to return; the park and the surrounding land begs to be explored.

The drive out of Moab was just as stunning. We took the State Scenic Byway 128. This road fallowed the Colorado River turn for turn up the canyon and then pops one out into the desert; it was amazing. We came across some incredible little ranch/resorts with their own gardens, crops, and grazing lands, and of course horses, looked like an incredible place to live and work.

This was one of our long days. The short version: we went from halfway across Utah, straight through Colorado, and halfway across Kansas. The best part of this drive, other than the early morning drive up the 128 was taking the I-70 up into the Rocky Mountains. Leaving the desert of Utah for the green forests and majestic rocks of western Colorado was a sight to behold, a breath of fresh air, a drink of cool water. Perhaps it was this contrast of high desert to an evergreen forest speckled with aspen trees, that fed my astonishment, but Vail, Colorado and the surrounding mountains are certainly a location that I wish to return to.

Mt. Eddy

After a few days of deliberating of whether to try for Mt. Shasta or not, my friends and I decided to Hike Mt. Eddy, and hike it at sunrise. With only one day of prep, and very little mountaineering experience between the eight of us, and no gear for dealing with the elements we would encounter above 10,000ft, it seemed like an adventurous, yet poor idea. Mt. Eddy would do, and it did indeed serve as an excellent day trip.

We began our adventure at 3:30am, it took longer than expected to get on the road, but soon we were off under a brilliant moon driving towards the trailhead. The main trail actually coincides with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) as it is running north from the Castel Crags towards Marble Mountain Wilderness. The PCT is a wonderful trail, which was designated as a national scenic trail in 1968. It runs from the southern border of the United States over 2,600miles to the Canadian border. The trail loosely fallows the crests and ridgelines of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges along the pacific coast. Unfortunately this means that the junction is roughly 30miles from Mt. Shasta or 40miles from Enta. Despite the long windy drive and late start we still began our hike in relative darkness.

The wide logging road on which we started out on soon dwindled down and came to an abrupt end confirming our fears that we had taken a wrong turn very early on. Our eagerness to see the sun rise played into our poor decision making which was compounded by the darkness and lack of preplanning. But that didn’t change much. Having set out with the goal of seeing the sunrise, we rock hopped and ridge scrambled for 80min until we could see the sun just peaking over the northern shoulder of Mt. Shasta.

Breakfast at 8,000ft is wonderful no matter what you are eating.

From there on it truly was hiking on the edge as we blazed a new trail over some of the roughest terrain out their until we summit ted 6 hours and over 6 and a half miles after having begun. We were exhausted and enjoyed a well-earned nap.

courtesy of Steven Anderson

The return trip was much easier being that we now knew where the trail was. We even stopped to enjoy the largest of the three deadfall lakes on the way down.

Steven Anderson

 Over all it was an incredible day covering over  half a marathon of mountain tops.