Anne's 1000 Mile Challenge: Final Entry

Taking a well-earned break

Outdoor Contributor, Anne, has  spent a chunk of the summer on a new project and a new training journal.  This is her final post about her 1,000-mile challenge.

My original goal was to move 1000 miles and lose 10 poundsby Labor Day. So, how did I do? Well, as of Labor Day, I had moved 533 miles,and I lost two pounds. By some measures, you would say that I hadn’t done verywell at attaining my goal, and on some days I would agree. However, I’m tryingto look at the more positive side of things. When I set the goal, I didn’t evenknow if 1000 miles was possible, and I didn’t gain any weight.

If I had confined my activity to biking, I might have mademy goal. Instead I biked, hiked, canoed/kayaked, and even swam twice. I’m stilltracking my distance to see how long it takes me to hit 1000 miles. Now, I’m at606 miles. I’ve biked 419 miles, I’ve walked/hiked/backpacked 126 miles, andI’ve canoed/kayaked/swam 61 miles. I’ve covered some ground.

Here are a few of the things I’ve done this summer to help meget towards my goal.

• I hiked 10+ miles in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness.  It was a lovely day with a walk past more than four alpine lakes, and over a pass into a beautiful, glaciated valley.
• I went on a couple of great kayaking trips on Flathead Lake.  One was to some pictographs only accessible by water, and the other was to some islands we had never been to before.
• I counted my floats down the Clark Fork River in inner tubes—a summer tradition in Missoula. On a hot day, people float through town on the river on inner tubes, drinking adult beverages. It’s a very relaxing summer time activity.
• I went on a backpacking trip to Trask Lakes in the Flint Creek Range.  I hadn’t taken a backpacking trip in more than five years, but managed to make it six miles into this alpine basin where hardly anyone goes.

 Looking ahead, I’m doing the Tour de Cure next weekend, butI don’t have any other major expedition plans. I don’t think I’ll get to 1000miles until the end of October, but I’ll keep trying. As to the weight thing, Ithink I’ll have to address that in another post later.

Anne