About

Just a million steps…

My poor boy’s raw feet after just 3 days on the trail.  They did get better after a few days & lots of blister pads.

When you hike over 200 miles in 23 days with your spouse and two sons, you talk about a lot of stuff.  Some of the talks are deep and thought-provoking and some are inane and are only meant to distract you from your fatigue or hunger or the fact that you have 8 more miles to go before you can make camp.  One of our many trail discussions revolved around how many steps we would take in total on our JMT hike.  We counted the number of steps that each of us individually took in one minute and then extrapolated from there.  My boys love nutty math calculations.  I can’t remember how many steps we estimated that I would take, or my husband or older son, but I clearly remember that we calculated that our 9 year-old son, with the shortest legs in the group, would take over a million steps before he reached the journey’s end.  He did it like a champ, with blisters and hot spots to prove it, and he has many more steps ahead of him.  We all do.  Together.

About me…

I am a mother of 2 elementary aged boys and in my mind, I am still 18 years old with more questions than answers.  When did I become an adult, let alone someone’s mother?  I was once an accountant and thankfully that is now a distant memory.  From there I jumped into corporate finance, worked my way through an M.B.A. and had my first child a few months before graduation. I quickly left the corporate world and with my husband beside me, set off on a path to raise our boys to be good people.  This is what I was meant to do.  From our home in Santa Barbara, California, we have taken many adventures with our sons.  Travel is in our blood and we love to visit new countries,  but backpacking touches our souls.  Both my husband and I grew up enjoying the Sierra Nevada mountains with our respective families but we didn’t discover backpacking together until about 10 years ago.  We have traveled to many places around the globe and nothing compares to a long hike in the Sierras with our boys.  It cleanses the soul and tests every limit you have.

I created this blog to encourage more parents to take their kids backpacking.  It will keep you young and you will grow closer to your children.  Here I will share our backpacking adventures, discuss plans for new journeys, and inspire you to get out on the trail with your loved ones.  Enjoy!