We're over $1000!

$1130 donated as of right now! (Wednesday night, 7/30).
Thank you so much, everyone!

When I wrote my last post, Brian was the donation leader. Since then Ms. Pat (otherwise known as Temporary Grand Poobah of Donations) has jumped ahead! Thanks Pat!

Also, several others have joined Brian's level of donation, including Eddie, Carrie, Linda, and David and Nell.
And every bit helps - Maryann, Susan, Patrick, Heidi P, and two Anonymouses (Anonymi?) all donated too.

July 26 - 4th Hike - Castle Rock State Park

This post is dedicated to everyone who has donated so far, but especially to Sven, because he donated while I was writing this post, to Carlos the Dwarf, because again, his blog post was very touching, and to Brian, who is my top donator so far.

I like the word "clambering".
As in "she clambered up and down over rocky obstacles in the trail, a couple times scooting down on her butt, but not falling!"
I didn't have time to stop and take pictures on the trail very often, since I usually felt like I was going so slow on the rocks and wanted to keep moving when I got on flatter ground.

This hike was at Castle Rock State Park, a four hour hike (8:15 am to 12:15 pm). I was so thankful to have hiking poles, which really helped my balance going downhill (and eased my fear of falling forward due to weird center of gravity).


Here's my camelbak, poles, and boots, all lined up to go in the morning. I left around 6 am and got to my carpool point around 6:45. We piled into one car and for once, I was at the hike meeting point way before the 7:45 deadline, thanks to the peer pressure of the carpool deadline.













We got certificates to recognize that we recommitted to our fundraising goal this week:


This hike was about 18,000 steps (or close to 8 miles) as logged by my pedometer.
This was the first hike that I drank all of my 100 oz Camelbak water "bladder" during the hike, plus 16 oz of electrolyte drink.

Near the beginning of the hike there was a small clearing near Castle Rock where we stopped and stretched, although the pictures are kind of dark and didn't turn out that well.


Then there was a nice overlook to the Castle Rock Falls (or what would be Falls if there was water):














Here I am posing at the overlook (photo taken by Kelly, I think):















This is one of the awesome views, either from that overlook or taken while hiking along the ridge. In the first half of the hike we had the ridge drop off to our left, so just turning our heads we could usually see this view:














A little further on we came to Goat Rock. When Dave saw the below picture, he said, "You weren't supposed to climb a rock that big, right?"
Yes, we didn't climb this rock, but on the other side we saw rock climbers.




This is Reggie contemplating Goat Rock.













As Kelly, Lisa, and Tifin look on.

By the way, I really love how the leaves look in this picture. I was standing uphill a little bit, so the leaves are really in focus.








On the other side of Goat Rock, there were climbers!










This hike was quite fun, and I was very tired at the end!
But still able to rush home, take a shower, and ride with Dave up to our company picnic in Piedmont.
Thanks to Dave for his support and driving because if I had to go by myself to the picnic, after this hike, I think I would have stayed home!

Friday 7/25 - "urban training" but way more donations!

Today was brought to you by the number 3, as well as these awesome people:
Brian T., Annie F, Kati, Kari, Jim B, and Carlos the Dwarf, who even gave me a shout out on his Vs. blog!
Only about 5000 steps on the pedometer.
I also had a flat tire in the morning, so I took it to get fixed or replaced at a nearby repair shop, then drove to BART.
Sadly, after work when driving to REI to get some hiking poles, the tire proved itself not fixed! I had the roadside assistance come to REI and change it.

Pictures tomorrow of me ready to go with poles, ready for the hills.

Pictures here are of the BART ride back to Millbrae from the office.
Above is this really beautiful arcade walkway right next to the Embarcadero Station (connecting Spear and Main streets).
And below is the station map at Embarcadero. I like this because you don't see this map style very much in BART - and it looks like it's trying to be like the London Underground map but it's not cool enough (not enough branches!)

How much $ does it take to treat Leukemia or Lymphoma?

Here is some information from one of Tifin's weekly updates:
(the source for this is a patient's family, I assume fairly recently...)
It really brings it home to me what we are doing all this for - all this hiking and training and fund-raising.

Connecting with the Cause:


Ever wonder how much $$ it takes to treat Leukemia or Lymphoma? Leukemia impacts every area of a patient's life and the lives of their families. Having leukemia means painful treatments and emotional challenges for the patient and their family. While a family is dealing with all of these issues, they are also dealing with the financial costs.

Below is a list of expenses associated with diagnosis and treatment during the FIRST WEEK ONLY, compiled by a patient's family.

* Average one night stay at Children's Hospital: $990 - $1,350

* Surgery to put in Port-A-Cath: $1,560
(A Port-A-Cath is a device inserted under the skin to make the administration of chemotherapy easier.)

* Initial Stay at Diagnosis (6 nights)

* 6 days @ $990 $5,940

* Special Nursing $120

* Surgery Services $1,874

* Lab $5,407

* Radiology $310

* Pharmacy $1,733

* Supplies $2,776

* Emergency $243

* Lab Work $1,628

* Cardiology $838

* Professional Fees $386


TOTAL CHARGES FOR ONE WEEK: $21,255


Thanks for donating to help these families and to find a cure!! You ARE making a difference!!!


Here is the link to the local support groups that our Chapter sponsors: Please forward this to anyone you know who may be interested in the support groups:

http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/sj/supportgroups

Today's Training was brought to you by...

The donations of my colleagues Tim Mensch and John Welch, to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Thank you John and Tim!

I took a bunch of pictures today on my walk back to the SF Caltrain station from our office.
Today's hikes were all on the street.
About 13,000 steps today, thanks to the trusty pedometer.

I need to remember to really enjoy being every day in San Francisco. I always loved San Francisco from afar when growing up in North Dakota, and it still seems kind of unreal that I get to walk around in SF like this.

We begin at the PlayFirst office in downtown SF. The first picture is the view from my desk.

Then a little further down Embarcadero, is this globe statue:

There's no sign on it except for a sign telling people not to touch it.


There are 35 Tall Ships docked nearby for the Festival of Sail.
Here's one of them I saw as I walked past. Ironically, it does not have its sails out since it's docked for the night.




I also took several pictures of the clocks that I watch as I walk to catch the train. I realized when looking at them all together that they're not half as interesting to others as they are to me.
But here's the list:
* clock #1 at pac bell park (about 6:10)
* clock #2 at pac bell park (about 6:15)
* clock #3 at SF Caltrain station (about 6:24 or so)
* clock #4 at San Mateo Caltrain station - a little before 7
And then this picture of downtown San Mateo - this is the pedestrian Main Street that leads to the movie theater, Bacio Cafe, and the cool sign for the San Mateo Safe Center on the right. There's also a fun little Hong Kong dessert place coming up on the right too.

Saturday Hike at Castle Rock

On Saturday we'll be doing a 4 hour hike at Castle Rock State Park in Los Gatos.

Our leader's team email this week alludes to the prospect of more hills for this hike - saying that those who have issues with heights may want to talk to the leaders before setting off...

She also said last night at training that I should definitely get hiking poles for this one. "Castle Rock is a good one for poles."

The past 3 hikes I've borrowed other people's poles at different times when going down steep inclines...looking forward to trying out my own this weekend.

Recommitting!

I have participated in 3 hikes now and 1 track training for Hike for Discovery, and it's already time to recommit to the fund-raising goal!

Tomorrow is my 2nd Track Training, at Foothill College.

For the fundraising Thank You gift, we were thinking of making custom magnets for those who donate above a certain amount.
They would look like this:

July 19 - 3rd hike - Almaden Quicksilver - San Jose

Here is a picture from the Honoree Picnic after the Huddart Park hike on July 12.
It's one of our team honorees, Lauren, and our team co-leader, Jennifer. I haven't had a chance yet to really talk to Lauren much, but Jennifer hiked with our group part of the way on this hike.

Around the midpoint there is this huge hill that is out in the sun with no shade. And there's a picnic table at the top.
Jennifer had radioed down to our group to tell us that she was coming back down the hill again to go up with us, which was nice, because she could say, "It's not far now, you're almost to the picnic table!"

I find out again that I can go up hills with almost no problem as long as there's some sort of traction going up. Going down hills, without having hiking poles, is another matter!
On this hike I borrowed Tifin's poles for a good portion of the end, when we were heading down a pretty steep slope.

I don't have any pictures for this hike, but here's the link to its Wikipeda page, and a hiker/photographer's site with pictures - not the official park page Almaden Quicksilver County Park.

That link has this description of the Hacienda Park Trail which is I think is either the one we took to start the hike, or it's the "medium-fast extension" which we went up for about 5 minutes and then came back down since we had hiked our full time!

The Hacienda Trail begins next to the New Almaden Trail in a shady forest, then rises quickly. It is the steepest trail in the park. Taking it uphill provides a good workout. It climbs straight up through oak-shaded forests, with increasingly dramatic views of the park, the Almaden Valley, and the Santa Teresa Hills. Even after it seems to reach its peak, the trail drops and rises over the ridgeline of one narrow hill after another, like a roller coaster.

July 12 - 2nd Hike - Huddart Park

Here I am posing either before or after the hike at Huddart Park.
This hike was very beautiful - a bit hillier than the earlier one but not so bad.
When I was driving to the park (and going a little too fast) I saw a family of deer trotting by on the left side of the road. It was a doe and at least 2 fawns.

As you can see in the picture, now I have my lovely 100 oz Helena Camelbak backpack. This hike was like night and day compared to the last one. I felt so much better.
Better hydrated, and wearing capri pants instead of jeans made me a lot cooler.

This hike I chose to hike with the "medium" group.

Our hikes are done by time not by distance. So this one was a 3 hour hike, but depending on the pace of the group, a hiker might hike more or less distance in that time.

For the medium-fast and fast groups, they usually have a little offshoot planned out so that they can continue hiking if they "finish" before the 3 hours is over, without having to backtrack.

Here's one of the groups I was in - I think this was combined with another group at a break because Joy is in this picture (taken with her camera on a timer) and I wasn't hiking with her most of the time.



On the July 19 hike I was in the medium group and we did do about 15 min of the "harder" trail - it was up a hill so I was glad that we turned around fairly quickly.

July 5 - First Hike - Edgewood Park

Joy, one of our hike mentors, took this picture - it's on the team website in the Huddart Park section but I know it's from Edgewood Park because of the shirt I'm wearing!

That's Bob on the left, and on the right is Tifin, the HFD Manager for our area.
This picture was taken probably at the very beginning of the hike, because I'm still holding my water bottle and trail mix, and the trail mix bag is pretty full.
I was so unprepared for this hike - I didn't call anyone before showing up, because it had been promoted as a "try it out" hike, and I didn't think it would be very long. Also, I wasn't exactly sure I was definitely going to go until the night before.

It turned out to be 2.5 hours...which is the 2nd shortest hike (this was only the 2nd hike for the team, and the first on the trail - the first team hike was at Foothill on 6/28.)

I only had that water bottle, which is only 32 oz. Jennifer, one of the hike co-leaders, topped it off before we left on the hike, because I'd been sipping from it in the car.
Tifin wound up carrying the water bottle and the trail mix in her pack for me because I didn't even have a good bag to put them in (I'd thought I could carry the bottle). Thank you, Tifin!

Plus, I'm wearing jeans! Which were really hot on the hike.

It was a fun hike though. Everyone was very positive and cheered me on, causing me to want to come to the next hike...