Hiking in 2021: 1st on the 1st - Laguna Coast

I started off 2021 with a YouTube dance video bad salsa-ing my way to 3,000 steps. Inspired by this early morning achievement that also included a few awkward revolutions with my new weighted hula hoop, I suggested to Nate that we do the hike he had just done the day before with Lia. Oh, I was there too…in an adjacent way…waiting in the car…because Schitt’s Creek on my phone is better than no Schitt’s Creek at all.

Anywaaaay, he’d mentioned that it was an easy hike and that the view was not just amazing, but UH-MAY-ZING. It sounded easy enough. I mean, he said he’d carried Lia “all the way up” because he'd needed a leg and thigh workout. So how high could “all the way up” really be if he was able to carry our 32 lb cactus-costumed 4-year-old to the top? Surely, I could manage. 

Apparently I forgot how fit my husband was.

Do you know how high the peak is at the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park? I have absolutely no idea, but that trail is steep as hell. It started out just fine in the first 3 minutes, but then the earth started to tilt at a disturbing angle and decided to stay that way until my knees and heart burned with the wrath of a thousand Moroccan desert suns. 

Not even halfway there yet

It was a hike peppered with a number of what the hells:

WTH – and still it goes up?

WTH – that old lady with the walking stick was way behind me and now she’s ahead?

WTH – Nate and Lia are racing. Now he is sprinting with Lia on his shoulders.

Many a time I wanted to give up the ghost. Throw myself over the side. But, I kept going. I stopped a lot, kicked some dirt, questioned Nate’s judgment, questioned mine more, then kept moving forward. Nate tried to get me to do some investment math to keep my mind centered on non-violent things, but that was too much effort and I told him to get a clue. Read the room, man.

After a long stretch of time in which the state of my mind could only be described as feverish and heavy with hallucinations, we finally we made it to the top, and you know what? He was absolutely correct. The view overlooking Laguna Beach and the Pacific Ocean was breathtaking. Literally. The next best thing was not the feeling of accomplishment from having climbed that mountain. Oh no, no, no. It was that it was all downhill from there.

Look closely. I'm crying.

Easy peasy for this cactus cooler!

At the end of our hike, I’d managed to hit almost 10,000 steps before 11am. Pretty sure I’ll hit my target of 15,000 by the end of today. Not a bad start for the first of the new year.

Hike number 1 of 2021 is in the can. Next weekend we'll do another one and I’ll be ready for it wherever it may be…because it can’t be harder than today’s….right?!

Happy New Year!