Found: The perfect Skyline in Lost River

Ah - there's nothing like 10 days out in the wilderness to rejuvenate your soul, body and mind! Throw in the fact that the love of your life is joining you in this venture - and you have one kick ass time.

Our cabin rules. It's rustic - meaning no running water but we do have water. Never mind that it took us 6 days to get the water running at our outdoor faucet and I didn't take a shower for at least a week. It's perfect. (So what that we have a 5 foot hole underground that took us 1.5 days to dig through the dirt? We have water!)

Don't worry - after three days of hiking around in dusty dirt and battling a million different species of flies - you stop noticing how dirty you are when you crawl into your sleeping bag. I'm sure Ryan didn't notice - he was just as smelly and dirty. :)

And having the same pancake breakfast every morning while listening to the quails and woodpeckers playing in the forest? Amazing. Oh and I can't forget about the stars - a gazillion of them poked out every night. Not to mention how quiet it is in the North Cascades out Lost River Airport area. Looking at Makiah and seeing a huge smile on her happy little face - while basking in the sun. Priceless.

We also biked up the Hwy 20 - to Washington Pass. Truly an amazing climb. It's steep and grueling - especially when you do it at mach ten like Ryan did. Then we really celebrated our anniversary in style by doing a multi-pitch route up Goat Wall. It was rated 11c - which of course Ryan climbing like a champ. I on the other hand got to pull on some draws and aid my sorry biking ass up. The view was stellar. We almost had an epic - thanks to some poorly placed belays. But all in all we made it home safe and sound before the sun went down.

Then during our last day Ryan wanted to hike up to Fire Wall one last time and put in a new route. We spent the entire day in our harnesses while he jack hammered some pins into the rock and set up quite possibly one of the harder sport routes in the area. He's headed back next weekend while I put some time in on the bike and get down to business for nationals.

The best part? Not worrying about the bike - thinking I had to ride it at all. I totally relaxed and had an amazing time. So did Makiah - it might take her a couple of days to recover from all that activity!

Now... time to get down to business and back to the gym....