Confessions of a Former Peak Bagger

One of my favorite chapters in my book, Continental Quotient is Confessions of a Former Peak Bagger.

I wrote this story while living in Colorado. 

One of the best aspects of being a writer is reliving all these stories as I write them. I was first introduced to hiking by my boyfriend in 1988. I had never hiked a mountain and I didn’t have hiking boots. I bought boots for the hike to Mount Lafayette.

I’ve always been goal driven and always had a need to look forward to something. When I started hiking in the White Mountains of NewHampshire I had a goal to finish all the 4,000 footers. When I moved to Colorado I only had two mountains left to hike to be a member of the club. 

I will hike these mountains. I will finish them by 2015. How’s that for a goal?! 

Here is an excerpt of one my favorite stories in my book, Continental Quotient:

That summer, I would read the White Mountain Guide, looked at the map, and planned my day or overnight trip, and bagged every peak I could. The best part was seeing all the checks next to the peaks in the back of the AMC Guide. I spent almost every weekend hiking and backpacking; it was my escape.

My high school friends were in college, and I climbed peaks on the weekend. Nothing in my life was going right, I checked of another peak. I took a college class and dropped out because I didn’t like the teacher or the subject matter and would drive north to climb Mount Jefferson and felt a sense of accomplishment. I spent almost every weekend in the mountains while living in southern New Hampshire; either going up for a day hike or overnight backpacking adventure. I hiked alone. I backpacked overnight alone. I wasn’t scared of anything I loved the solitude of being in the mountains.

Have a great day. Hope you are out hiking in the Whites.