Girls Weekend/Boys Weekend

Ryan and I split ways this weekend for outdoor adventures with friends! I left work a little early on Friday to meet up with some girls, pack up our car with camping gear, and head out east for the weekend! We were heading to The Gorge Amphitheater for the Zac Brown Band concert. I love me some country music, but really, the venue itself is reason enough to do weekend trips there. It is beautiful! We made it to our camp ground Friday night and set up camp a did a little cocktail making/sampling for the rest of the night before cuddling up in the tent for a little sleep.

Saturday we got up decently early since that seems like what happens when you're camping. It's hard to sleep in when the sun comes up and everyone else starts moving. We were a little slow moving and enjoyed some coffee while one of the girls cooked up a delicious breakfast. Since there was still a good amount of time before the show, I had found a nearby hike to go wander around to kill time. Turns out, it was pretty awesome. This area of the state is pretty much desert, which is already a cool change from the old growth trees and mountains to the west. Then this desert hike was randomly scattered with beautiful lakes and waterfalls. It was really cool to see dry brown landscape everywhere then one streak of green foliage coming down the cliff where a waterfall was. It was a good hike and a really pretty way to kill some time in the middle of no where!

We spent the rest of the afternoon tailgating at our campsite before heading over for the show. This venue is really amazing! It's a natural amphitheater looking over the Columbia River. We snagged ourselves a spot on the lawn, grabbed a few drinks, and settled in for an amazing sunset over the river before the show. The show was also amazing and we were slapping knees and screaming all night long! After the show we headed back to the campground for a night cap and called it a night.

So what did Ryan and Ben do all weekend while I was off with the ladies?! They wandered through the wilderness for 30 miles with a couple of other guys. Super manly stuff.

 

Butt Burner Weekend

Soooo...On Saturday I competed in my first Crossfit competition...eak! I decided to sign up for this event for a few reasons. First, it was being run by a couple of our really good friends. Second, it was a running event...5k with crossfit movements after each 800m. And finally, I definitely waited until the actually workout movements were announced to find out if they were all movement I could do pretty comfortably and a weight I could handle. We also had a huge turnout of competitors from our gym, a lot who were also first time competitors, so that was super fun!

All the people from our gym!

So the workout was...Run 800m, then do 50 deadlifts @ 65# (not a heavy weight, but a lot of deadlifts), Run 800m, then do 30 box jumps on a 20 inch box, Run 800m, then do 10 'Curtis P's' (squat clean, 2 lunges, and a push press...google it if you're really interested), Run 800m, then do 15 burpee box jump overs, Run 800m, then do 20 squat clean thrusters, then finish with a final 800m run! Whew!

Doing Curtis P's

Box Jumps!

It took me just over 34 min to finish the whole thing. I think I finished right around the middle of the group of competitors, so I'm feeling pretty good about that! It was a lot of fun and I like that it was much more about endurance than super heavy weights. Needless to say, that was a lot of work on my legs and booty...hence the blog title...I'm definitely feeling it in the glutes today! 

Running...I can handle that!

So the huge downside to the awesome competition is that I got terribly sick after it. I think the main issue was that I didn't eat properly before the event. We were actually helping out at the event. I was thinking I'd grab a snack when I got there at 730 since I didn't compete until 9:15. Unfortunately I was put straight to work checking people in for the 8:30 heat. After check in, I was pulled off of that to be a judge for the 8:30 heat. By the time that was done I had a whole 5 minutes to get ready for my heat! I tried to get some food right after my event and drank plenty of water, but I started getting a terrible headache and bad nausea which got worse as the day went on...and of course we were both working the rest of the heats too, so I didn't really get to recover. Anyway, we ended up having to miss the after competition BBQ and hurry home so I could sleep it off. Next year I'll be better prepared and I'll definitely compete in this one again!!

Special group of people

So after all that we decided it would be an awesome idea to climb a mountain on Sunday. Talk about another butt burner! We hiked up Bandera mountain. It was a super short drive from Seattle, so that's why we chose it. It was about 5 miles up the mountain. The first few miles were pretty easy, but once we got towards the top, we were definitely scrambling up it (as in using hand and feet to crawl up). Even ben was exhausted from it and kept stopping to lay in the shade. It didn't help that it was 80+ degrees and we were on the sun facing slope with very few trees to block the sun.







It was super pretty from the top though, so we hung out there for a few minutes to rest and eat a snack. On the way back down we took a little detour to a nearby lake to cool off. It was an alpine lake though...so it was freeeeezing!



Definitely a good workout of a weekend!

Navaho Pass

We decided we need to get on this whole backpacking thing before we loose all this great Seattle summer weather! I think next year we'll do a better job at getting weekend backpack trips in. They're so easy and cheap and amazingly beautiful! This weekend may have been the best backpacking trip I've ever done. It was perfect weather. We chose a close hike so we didn't have to rush. There weren't too many people on the trail to deal with. The starts were out in full force. It was great! We had been throwing around a few different hike ideas the last week or so. Finally we decided on Navaho Pass since it was the closest one and we weren't motivated to get up super early on Saturday to make it to a trail. We made it to the trail around noon and headed up.









The trail was pretty easy. It was a decent amount of elevation gain, but nothing too technical. We took a few breaks along the way and made it to the pass in a few hours. The views from the pass were amazing! Quite a few people had already claimed little camp site so we set out to find one for ourselves before it got dark. We got a little nervous at first since every place we thought might have a good spot was already taken. We walked up the ridge for a ways without finding a good flat spot to set up. We were about to give up and head down to a lower spot when we came across the perfect spot...with no one anywhere near it! It was right on the ridge, so we had great views of the valleys on both sides. We were a little nervous at first that it might get super windy since there wasn't much tree protection on the ridge, but it was perfect.





We set up camp and just sat and enjoyed the views for a while. When the sun started to set, Ryan cooked up some supper while I did a little reading out loud...I'm such a nerd. When the sun set it started getting a little chilly so we bundled up in our sleeping bags in the tent. Since it was so clear out, we opted to sleep with the rainfly off...which basically left us sleeping under the open sky. The stars were killer! We just laid there for a while staring at the stars before we drifted off to sleep. 







Since we didn't have the rain fly on, we were also woken up as the sun rose. That was pretty amazing as well :) We enjoyed the sunrise from our tent before getting moving with some coffee and breakfast.



We packed up and hit the trail back around 9am so we could get home at a decent hour and clean up around the house. It was a pretty easy hike back down and we made it back to Seattle in the early afternoon. Definitely worth a quick backpack trip! It could also easily be a day hike if you went a little earlier in the day, but it was so much fun watching the sunset, sun rise, and sleeping under the stars!