2013 in Review

2013 was a great year for adventures. I didn't travel as far as I did in 2012, but I did have some great experiences.

Two of the local adventures were Ice climbing at Lilydale park and attending the Red Bull Crashed Ice event, which you can read about in my blog posts from February.

One of the major themes for the beginning of the year was "Marathon Training". I ran through some nasty weather in February, March, and April. The most extreme day was a 16 mile run on a windy day that had rain and sleet. There were a couple of breaks from the training, though.

The first break was visiting Santa Fe, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon. All three places could  be worth their own trip, and I left thinking about all of the things I would have liked to do in addition to what we did, especially at the Grand Canyon and in/near Sedona.

The next big break was a backpacking trip to Isle Royale, Michigan. It was cold and wet the entire trip, and it wasn't rare to see patches of snow on the ground. One of the members of our group had issues with his knees, slowing our hiking pace. Our feet got very wet everyday, and parts of the trail resembled a muddy creek rather than a typical hiking trail. Regardless, it was a good trip. We saw a few moose and we were able to keep morale pretty high through most of the trip despite the nasty weather. It was fun to be disconnected from the world for a while.

Shortly after the Isle Royale trip, I went on a 21 mile run, the longest run in preparation for the marathon. It would end up being the longest run of the year, as my next few attempts at running ended after about 20 minutes. I decided that it wasn't worth it to risk an injury as just finishing a marathon wasn't a big goal-I'd already done that. The big goal was to go fast, and I doubted that would be possible. So I watched friends finish the race the day of the marathon and I re-habbed for the next couple of months.

The summer wasn't completely shot, though, as I got some outdoor climbing in. I went to Interstate State Park, Devil's Lake State Park, and Red Wing. I definitely recommend all three of these places if you are looking to climb. Each has their advantages: Red Wing if you want to sport climb, Interstate if you want to stay pretty close to the twin cities and possibly camp and hike, and Devil's lake if you want a large variety of climbs and good hiking trails.

Toward the end of summer, a few of us went on a trip through the UP, across the Mackinac Bridge, to Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes national lakeshore. Once again, it was a beautiful place that I wish we had more time to explore.

On a warm November day I went to Sandstone to get my last outdoor climbing day of the year in. I didn't blog about it, but we climbed a few routes while we were there. The only time I had been there previously was an ice climbing trip back in early 2012.

To finish the year off, I've done most of my exercise indoors, but I did make it cross country skiing once, and went winter camping at Brunet Island State Park in Cornell, Wisconsin one weekend.

It has been an active year despite not being injured, and I look forward to more adventures in 2014!