Mountain Dew

I will look you up on the forum again when my "Winter blues" sit in Right now, I have been lazy at work and have did very little... I have been GLUED to this site most of the day. Reading old posts and the TR's (good stuff)... Great site, Love it!

How come no smile while at the summit? I think I would be grinning ear to ear :) Nice pictures btw, great job!

Thank you

I have a question for you then. Was this Your first time as well? and if it was, did you use a "guide service"?

Thank you for more good advice. NWhikers has a lot of good info on it. I read it for an hour yesterday. Don't have time to post double, so for now I will just come here Also, love the idea for the poster t_rutl, good idea! Now without further ado.... DAY 3 Well on day 3 I tried to force myself to eat breakfast or lunch (instead of just pigging out at dinner)... Thought of it at the last second and all I grabbed out the pantry were some.. :lmao: The good news is, I did eat one for breakfast and then another one around noon... Even better news is I only drank TWO Sodas at work today!!! (trust me, that is a major feat for me) LOL Also went to get my map of the Capitol Forest. I went to the DNR Printing office in Tumwater off exit 101. The lady was very nice and I bought the map for around $5.00... (they do take debit cards). Then I did a little recon on my lunch break. Marked out a site or two on the map and went to find the trail heads so I could find it easier on Saturday. Met a very nice older couple there who were unloading their horses for a ride and they were very helpful on suggesting "nice routes" to take this weekend. I did see a sign that said; "closed Nov 1st"...mmmmmm I wonder if all hiking trails close then?? After work I stopped by a discount outdoor place in Lacey (used to be Sportsmans wearhouse) and bought a nice little first aid kit to take with us.. (better safe then sorry) Made a simple dinner last evening, and I ate 3 I know, your thinking..WTF?... but 3 is not a bad number for me. I usually eat FOUR, and wash it down with around SIX beers. Tonight I stuck to 3 and only drank 2 beers! (it was hard to stop). After, I put the 2yo in the stroller and we went for our evening walk. (my oldest had a small groin pull from practice). Went for a 60 minute walk but this time I added a little something. There is a road near my house that is pretty steep. I went down the hill with the stroller (harder then I thought), and then slowly came back up. Huffing and puffing and sweating all the way! LOL The hill/road is only about 1/4 mile or so, but he elevation came up 220 feet from the bottom to the top (at least according to my Suunto) Feet felt better when I got home, no new blisters so far; And this morning even managed to eat a small bowl of cereal... Hey, its better then nothing right? To Be Cont...

These stories are Great and Very Motivating! Congrats to you and your family

You all have such wonderful ideas, plus you all are a HUGE motivation for me!!! Thank you again! :)

DAY 2: Yesterday afternoon I did research on trying to find some local hiking trails that I heard mentioned here. Went to the National forest service in West Olympia to try and find some maps of the local area... DOH! They only had the Olympic Forest (national forest service duh). So I then went to the DNR (dept of natural resources). They didn't have a map of the Capitol Forest either but had a strip map of the location in Tumwater where I could find one...Plan on going there today After my daughters HS Soccer game (they won, yeah!) I went home to make dinner. Baked some skinless chicken breasts with onions, and ate it with a little rice. Not my normal Huge meal so I am slowly trying to eat better. Best news, I only drank 2 beers! One before dinner and one with. (this may save me a lot of money in the long run too) LOL Around 815pm me and the kids went out for a walk in the dark. Maintained a brisk pace most of the time, and carried my 2yr old/"back pack" a majority of the way. Wore my new boots to help break them in. We went out away from our house for 30 mins and then walked back... So after 1 hour of 'working out' for the first time in forever I was a sweaty mess and my feet hurt LOL I then proceeded to drink 3 glasses of water (first taste of water in like 6 months) and passed out on the couch. This morning I have a tiny tiny blister on my right foot, and my theighs are a little sore... besides that, I feel Great! Forced myself not to drink a Mt Dew when I woke up and drank another glass of water... I am feeling good overall... Mt Rainier here we come! To Be Cont......

Thank you for the advice Hopefully I will not be buying the "big gear" for a couple of years or more...depends on when I feel I am up for the task.

The Chronicles of Mountain Dew (Month 1) Day 1: 183 Well it has started... The journey of a 44 year old, over weight beer guzzling guy; and his kid’s goal to summit Mt Rainier someday. It all started last evening. On my way home from work after posting on this site, I found new strength and determination to make this dream a reality. I knew I would have to start out slow and overcome a lot of obstacles. Mentally I made a list of what I needed to do: Stop smoking ~ This is gonna be hard; it is a 26 yr old habit Stop drinking so much ~ Around Oct 2001 started drinking on a daily basis. I had drank before on occasion to help me sleep through the night (after 3 combat deployments in my youth I sleep way too light and wake up frequently), but the added stress of my new job made me step it up a notch to where I now can drink a least a 6 pack a night without feeling a buzz… Of course I consume more on the weekends! Start eating right ~ Right now I only eat about once a day, and then I eat until I am stuffed… I know this is not good. I also eat anything I want (which in my case is bad). Start getting in shape ~ Right now I have no exercise in my life period! That changes now. I am not quite as heavy as I thought. I feel 200 but I am only 183 as noted at the top in red. (I will weigh myself monthly to monitor my progress and let you all know where I am at). Stop drinking soda like it is water ~ Hence my name, I drink Mountain Dew like a vampire sucks blood! It is the first thing I do when I wake up (while having a smoke of course). It is also the last thing I drink at night (washes out the taste of all the beer) LOL I also drink around 4-6 during the day at work. I don’t drink coffee, but I sure make up for it by swilling my “golden green elixir of the Gods” (as I like to call it). With all that in mind I approached my oldest daughter to get a time limit for my goals; “When do you want to climb Mt Rainier”? “Before I graduate HS” She replied. So there I had it. 4 years to get this done. I feel this is a reasonable goal… The sounds of “Eye of the Tiger” started playing in my head as I made our dinner of spaghetti!!! I took my first baby step by only eating ¼ pound of spaghetti instead of my normal ½ pound. After words I had the kids jump in the car and we headed to REI in Tacoma. I tried to get my wife to come along and join in and become a part of our 4 yr journey, but she gracefully declined and continued to read her “Twilight Fan – Fiction” on the computer LOL. As we made our way to REI I had decided just to pick up the necessary hiking shoes/boots that would be needed to start hiking. As people suggested here, starting out with some nice easy hikes would be a good start. This past weekend we had wore tennis shoes and even flip flops (me), and that would not work if we were going to do this seriously. Entering the store my daughter and I “oohed” and smiled as we saw the pick ax door handles! Oh boy, good times lay within! After picking out what appeared to be a decent pair of hiking boots for my oldest daughter and I (both got Merrell Gortex), I was ready to head to the check out. Of course my Teenager was not going to let it be that easy. Peering at me with her “One big brown eye” (the other one covered by her emo bangs), she pleaded for a North Face Denali jacket and hiking pants… arrgghh, I should of seen this coming. Of course I agreed being the sucker for my kids that I am and let her throw the extra stuff in the cart. Not to be out done, my 2 year old wanted some cloths as well… So with two jackets, 2 pants for the kids, 3 pair of boots, and a few pairs of wool socks I went to the cash register where the salesman told me to bend over while he ripped $532.00 out of my butt!!! So that is it. This weekend will be our first hike. I am going to look into the capital forest area that someone here suggested… And I am also going to start a journal of my daily “struggle” to be the mountain man my daughter wants me to be…. I’ll keep you all posted To Be Continued (I hope)…

Thank you HighAngle, Your story motivates me even more!! Thank you for sharing I am trying everything I can think of to keep me pumped up... I know it will be a long road ahead for me... Posting here will help to keep me motivated. I will be posting "Part 1" of my journey in about 15 mins Thanks for the link Jon. Sadly we will go hiking this Saturday, but we also have a family commitment on Sat evening and I cannot get over to Levenworth... Great suggestion though.

Wow, I am overjoyed with all the great ideas Kinda beats my Daughters idea of going to Mt Rainier each weekend and seeing "how far dad can make it" My daughter would love to do groups or clubs that promote this (and has climbed at the Warehouse Rock Gym in the past), but with all her darn Freshman Homework, and dailey Soccer Practice she has very little time except for the weekend and she wants dad and sis to be involved if possible... Sooooooo I have come up with a plan to do all the Things I Need To Do... I will post part one on the "Newbie" section a little later this morning... It will sort of be a Chronicle of what it takes to go from Beer Gut dad, to Mountain Climber. (I hope) I realize I have to start off slow, and will have to kick one habit at a time. It All Started Last night with a trip to the store....... (more to following later) ;)

Hi, New to the site and thought this the best section to pose my dilema. Have 2 daughters (14 & 2). This past Sat & Sun as a "daddy/daughter" weekend outing I decided to do some outdoor activities. Rented a small boat to take them out on the Sound on Sunday but was at a loss for what to do on Sat. So as a spur of the moment idea I drove them to Mt Rainier. It only takes about an hour and a half to get there from my house so that was no big deal and my youngest had never seen the mountain up close and my 14yo had not been there since she was around 3 or 4. The drive to the state park was nice and calm as we ate munchies and my kids watched the Hannah Montana movie LOL After paying the 15 bucks to get into the park my oldest wanted to stop at every single pull over and look at the view. My youngest was very excited and she wanted to jump into the water falls along the way. Of course dad had to explain to her that jumping 100ft into a river below is dangerous After doing the typical tourist type thing and looking around the welcome center at Paradise the kids begged me to hike up the trails. Needless to say we didn't get far.... Let me tell you of our "Hike": My 14yo is in fantastic physical shape and can run for miles without getting winded, and my 2yo is a typical tike who is full of energy... Trouble is, I am 44 and in the worse shape of my whole life. After being 138-145 1bs, and 27 inch waist most of my younger life; the last 8 years of my life I have put weight to where I look pregnant (around 200) and my waist is nearing 36 inches I sit at a desk all day, drink beer every evening (even though its light beer), and smoke at a minimum; 1 pack a day. My favorite hobbies are Drinking beer, watching TV or Reading, BBQing on the weekends, and taking naps! Needless to say; we didn't go far... after what a sign said was .4 miles to look at a water fall I was pooped. My daughter wanted to push on and pointed to a group of hikers that looked like they were 80 miles away on some trail and said; "lets go up there where they are"! I of course said; "next time" and turned the wagon train around and we headed home after the "long journey" back to the car LOL The reason I am on this site is because I see the enjoyment and wonder in my kid's eyes when the thought of hiking or climbing Mt Rainier is brought up. I hope to give them this gift before I croke someday. My oldest has enjoyed rock wall climbing for the last few years after she got hooked by climbing that rock wall at the REI store in Seattle, but she has never climbed a real Mountain or even a hill. I would like to slowly but surely get out more with them, get back in shape, and rather it is 1 year or 10 years from now; one day climb Mt Rainier with them before I croke! What should I do? I know I need to get in shape (that is a given), but also, to maintain their intrest in climbing are there any "tiny mountains" to climb around here? Perferably one I might be able to climb up as well without keeling over. Thank you in advance for any advice... I am dedecated to making this a reality, so I am looking for any and All advice