A Look Back on 2017 and Ahead to 2018

December 31, 2017 · hiking

A Look Back on 2017

2017 has come and gone and now is the time to reflect on all that was accomplished or not. This year was definitely one of the more exciting years for me adventure-wise. But, looking back on my goals from the end of last year I’ve noticed that this year also appeared to be a transition year for me. More on that in a bit. First, here’s a rundown of my goals for the year and whether or not I attained them:

• I did hike Mount Washington in the winter, on March 18th
• My family and I did drive across the country for the month of July and visited as many National Parks as possible. We hit: Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Sequoia, Yosemite, Lassen, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons

Family selfie in front of Delicate Arch

• I did not complete the New England Hundred Highest list, but I did complete the New Hampshire peaks
• I did continue to work on some of my crazy, long-term goals, but did not make huge progress on them: The Grid, Tracing the White Mountains Trails, New England 3000 Footers and section hiking the Appalachian Trail
• I did not complete any more State High Points
• I did not return to the Adirondacks for another multi-day hike
• For my annual fall hiking trip with my friends and I did not do the Delaware Water Gap, but we did do a weekend in Baxter State Park knocking off Coe, South Brother, North Brother and Fort for those who needed them
• We did not do a canoeing trip along the St. John river this Spring
• I did not join the AMC’s Adopt-a-Trail program

At the end of 2016 I made a bunch of hiking goals, and I see that I only completed a few of them. One thing I did not foresee was that I would become obsessed with trail running. Here are some of my accomplishments from 2017 that were not goals at the beginning of the year:

• I ran the Beach to Beacon, a big 10K road race in Maine
• I kicked off my acting career by acting in a MaineHealth TV commercial and a B.Good Web commercial
• Two friends and I hiked the John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Reds Meadow in August
• I ran my first trail race, White & Black 2 Peak Challenge. I finished in 11th overall and 3rd in my age group
• I ran a second trail race, Vulcan’s Fury
• I ran my first ultra distance when a friend and I did the Cross Falmouth Trail and back, for a total of 27 miles
• I ran a local Thanksgiving 5K and finished 26th overall and 4th in my age group. I surprised myself that I could compete in a short road race
• I ran the Millinocket Marathon, a free (Boston qualifier) marathon in northern Maine in December. I suffered from leg cramps for most of the race but finished and improved on my marathon time
• For Christmas we got a puppy. Loki will likely be featured a lot on the blog in the next year

Loki, the Norse god of mischief

A Look Ahead to 2018

Keeping with the heavy on running theme from 2017, here are my goals for 2018:

• I will complete at least the Maine peaks of the New England Hundred Highest list, it would be nice to complete the whole thing
• My family and I will do a Spartan Race
• I will complete my first ultra race, the Runamuck 50K in Vermont in April
• I will complete my first 50-miler, at the Pineland Farms Trail Festival in Maine in May
• I will complete my first 100-miler, at the Vermont Endurance 100 Race in July

Vermont 100 Endurance Race

• My friends and I will return to California in August to complete what we have left of the John Muir Trail
• I still have some lofty endurance hiking goals I’d like to accomplish, I will complete one of them: Presidential Traverse in a single day, Pemi Loop in a single day, New Hampshire hut-to-hut in 24 hours, Devil’s Path in the Catskills
• I will do some dirtbag running this year: driving to new locations, running trails there, and sleeping in my car
• My friends and I will return to Adirondacks for a long weekend in the fall and complete more of the Adirondack 46 High Peaks list
• I will cap off the year with the Millinocket Marathon again

Finally, it had been a rough year posting to this blog. I found it difficult to find the time to sit down and write this year. This is especially sad because you have continued to visit the site and I captured a lot more media for posts this year (I bought a GoPro for my big adventures). I’ve slimmed down the template of my posts recently, and I hope this will make it easier for me to catch up. The whole point of this blog was for me to share how it is possible for a normal person with a full-time job and full-time responsibilities to find adventure. I’ve certainly found adventure, but I need to be better at sharing those experiences and inspiring you to do the same.

Previous years’ posts:
A Look Back on 2016 and Ahead to 2017
A Look Back on 2015 and Ahead on 2016
Looking Ahead to 2015
A Look Back on 2014