2014 in Pictures

In 2014 I

took care of these psycho kittens for a while,

had visit from my sister Carolyn,

and my parents,

ran (swam) a 50k

got to see Betsy,

ran Hood to Coast in Oregon,

left my 2nd job at the Boys and Girls Club, but continued coaching recreational gymnastics and doing social media for Seattle Gymnastics Academy,

went on several hikes but wished I did more,

got to go to Austin for Thanksgiving and see the other Elizabeth Peckham, my grandmother,

won Employee of the Year at my job,

and ended the year with another great Peckham Christmas (28 of us!) in Chicago

Summer!

I had a great and much needed summer break! I relaxed and cleaned the apartment, which I hadn't had time for in forever between working like crazy and running.
Betsy came, and I ran the 50k. We touristed around Seattle and had a pole vault family reunion! 4 of us together, which hadn't happened in over 2 years. We just need Floydface to come visit now. We hiked up to Rattlesnake Ridge, which I'd done a couple times before but it had been raining both times so it was nice to do a it in the sun!

at Fremont Brewing

#pvfam reunion

downtown Seattle

Betsy at the gum wall

we ran into the Pride parade and fest

at the top of Rattlesnake

Luckily the clouds had cleared for the last couple days Betsy was there and we spent a lovely night at Golden Gardens drinking Summer Shandy's and hanging out with some new acquaintances.

Golden Gardens

4th of July was fun. A former coworker Mary, Kate and I went to the house of a couple that goes to Kate's church. I didn't really know anyone, and Kate only knew some people, but it was still fun and there was lots of food. It was drizzling all evening (typical...) but the fireworks were still cool over Lake Union.

I ended summer by actually working at Zootunes, a concert series in the Woodland Park Zoo. We set up a kids area for all the kiddos that get bored. I really liked the band and even stayed after we were done cleaning up till the end! There were the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

I'm excited to be here for summer. Everyone's just so happy here when the weather's nice, and I'm excited to have consecutive days off and more chances to go hiking and exploring the area! It comes with struggles too like finding a new place to live and not actually working a full schedule, but mostly things are going pretty well right now!

right after the 50k. soaked

Tuck and Robin Lakes

Kate reminded me I basically had 4 days off over Labor Day weekend, so I decided to do an overnight hike. I ended up going to Tuck and Robin Lakes.

I parked at the trailhead, which was full although only two trail start there. I have no idea where all those people were. I didn't start until 2:00pm because it was very important to go to the Goodwill sale first. It wasn't too hard to find, but the last 14 miles were on a terrible forrest road filled with potholes and rocks. Those last 14 miles took me over 1 1/2 hours.

It starts on the trail for Deception Pass and is pretty flat past Lake Hyas. I only saw a few people. Then, it goes up switchbacks for a couple of miles until you hit the fork for Tuck and Robin Lakes. And then it climbs. It's pretty much straight up, but that means the views get good really fast. Cathedral Rock, Mt. Daniel covered in snow and a glacier with lots of waterfalls streaming down. Supposedly, Mt. Ranier should be visible but I never saw it. There were so distant clouds in that direction though.

I got to Tuck Lake just before 5pm, and decided I should swim. It was quite frigid. As in, I swam to an island maybe 25m away, and my butt was numb by the time I got there. I warmed up and walked around the rocks once, but then swam back because I knew I had at least an hour left once I found the trail. It actually was easier than I thought, because I knew to keep Tuck Pot on my right and the lake on my left, and then I started seeing cairns. Thank goodness for those cairns. Again, it just climbed straight up. This part was even steeper. It's only a mile, but I definitely used my hands a lot, especially with a backpack. At one point I was following a path and realized I hadn't seen a cairn in a couple minutes (there should always be one in sight.) I realized I must be on a mountain goat trail, which didn't worry e that much because I know they go up to the lakes too. But then I saw the real trail right below. I had to do some legit rock climbing. It was only sideways, but I had to get to where the slope caught up to me so it started pretty high. Then I trampled a bunch of vegetation and probably caused years of damage side stepping on the precarious slope until I was on the just as precarious, but more sturdy, trail. The last push to the top is just on granite with cairns to lead you. The view was magnificent, although there were some clouds moving fast. I finally made it to the lakes, and found a spot to camp!

I ate dinner on the ridge between the lakes, and saw another tent across the small lake. A mountain goat passed the two people sitting on the rocks next to the tent, and then checked out my camp. He looked at me a few times. Apparently they like to lick where people have peed...so I made sure to do that far away from my tent. The clouds moved in fast and soon I was engulfed, which meant I missed the sunset too.

The next morning I was still deep in the depths of a cloud, so I stayed in my tent a while. I also watched a couple goats playing and a mama and her kid, who came right up to me.

Eventually I started climbing up the ridge. I wasn't sure how worth it it would be, but it seemed like the higher I climbed, the clearer it got. I was above the clouds for a while, and then the sun came out and they cleared. The view was amazing! I got to the top and could see over the other side too, but I couldn't figure out how to get to Granite Mountain and it was getting late so I just went down.

I packed up and started down, and it took me almost as long as coming up because it was so steep. It was amazing! I hope to be able to do more overnight trips!

Welcome to Washington

What I did with my weekend

Day 21:

a photo of you standing up

Another picture of me hiking in Honey Valley! What can I say, I loved it there (except the whole food poisoning part). Luckily, this was taken before that. Can you even believe this is in India?!?

Tiruvannamalai

Hello! Our internet hasn’t been working since Wednesday, but I’m back! This weekend we took a trip to a place called Tiruvannamalei (or Tiru, for short.) It’s very flat around here, but in Tiru a mountain randomly pops up, called Arunachala.  It’s said to be the actual body of the god Shiva, so it is very spiritually significant. Many people make the pilgrimage to go to the mountain.  With the help of google and other people’s pictures, I have some pictures for you!

The temple and the mountain in the background

We stayed at an ashram, called the Sri Ramanashram.  Sri Ramana lived in a cave on the mountain for more than 17 years, just meditating. If people hadn’t found him and fed him and took care of him, he wouldn’t  have eaten and he would have let the rats and bugs eat him.  Friday afternoon when we arrived, we were able to hike up to the cave and go inside.  We ate our meals at the ashram, and they were very efficient! Volunteers would set banana leaves or other smaller leaves sewn together to make plates out in rows. Then they would usher us in and give us water. Somebody would then come around with a bucket of rice and throw a scoop on each person’s leaf, and then people would follow with different vegetable dishes and curries. I’m not really sure what exactly we were eating, but everybody just mixes it all together and it tastes good! And of course, we eat with our hands. Well, just the right hand. When you finish eating, you fold your leaf towards you and go wash you hands. It was a very quick process.

feeding the monkeys at the ashram

Saturday morning, we left at 6am to make the journey around the base of the mountain. It’s about 14 km, and if you walk clockwise, it’s supposed to be the Hindu version of washing away your sins.  It was very peaceful until the last 4 km, when we walked through the heart of the city. I really enjoyed being able to walk and not talk or be distracted, but just to be. A dog found us right after we started and followed us the whole  way! We also went to the main temple in the evening. It has huge gates that have hundreds of carved statues on them. I can’t imagine how long it took to build them. There was music and dancing because it was goddess week, and we also went inside some of the temples. The biggest one is for Shiva, but there were smaller temples for the other gods and goddesses.

Sunday morning, we woke up early to climb the mountain. I was walking with a few other girls, and right at the beginning an Indian man told us to go a different way.  One of the staff for our group is from here and spoke to him in Tamil, and said we should follow him. He led us to a path that went straight up. Which was great, but then the path ended. We had a great time climbing over boulders, fighting our way through waist deep 

On the way up! I'm in the middle of the 3 people

grass, getting stung by wasps and enjoying the breeze, the view, and being with nature.  We figured we should just keep going up until we can’t anymore! We reached the top in about 2 hours, and it was so peaceful and amazing. And cold! It was definitely nice to be shivering instead of sweating. It was fun to look down at the city and still be able to hear car horns blarring and the hustle and bustle of life, but be so far removed from it. It was also the first time I really felt that I was breathing fresh air. On the way down, I ended up walking with one other girl from our group and a German woman about our age that we had seen around the ashram and met at the top. It was fun talking to her.  She started struggling to remember words in English, and the other girl I was with knew some German, so we spoke in German for a few minutes.  It seems easier to connect with other foreigners in India.  After we reached the bottom, we showered, packed, and made our way home.  I really enjoyed getting out of Auroville and seeing a place like that!

The people that climbed to the top!
The guy on the far left isn't actually in our group -
he's a german volunteer than we've kind of adopted
so he came along!

I just realized the internet is out again so hopefully I can post this before next week!