The Beginning: How we discovered hiking....the 2003 Ring of Kerry Story and Torrey Pines

My husband and I initially participated in a program our health care provider offers to lose weight (HMR). One of the regular assignments we were given was to experiment with new forms of "physical activity" or P.A. "Physical activity" was their creative way of telling us to exercise without saying the word exercise. I am certain that much thought, deliberation, exploration and experimentation went into this decision, but it still makes me laugh. Anyway, I digress - the long and the short of it is - it worked. David and I started walking, then walking really long distances (I'll post some of those walks, long and short, here as well as the hikes). Then, we started hiking easy, short hikes. Once we lost over 100 pounds each, I decided we could celebrate by hiking in Ireland.

Ten years before we embarked upon our weight loss journey, David joined me in Ireland where I had been attending a summer grad school program. We fell in love with the country, its beauty, its culture, its people....its pubs....and it's were we fell in love with each other (yeah, it's true, but you just rolled your eyes, didn't you). One of our favorite trips was a bus trip we took around the Ring of Kerry on Ireland's West Coast. It was stunning. It is one of the most extraordinary, beautiful places I have ever seen. At one point during our bus tour in 2003, we pulled over and disembarked to take in the breathtaking view of Macgillycuddy's Reeks from Moll's Gap. The tour guide mentioned that people hike and ride horse through there. I told David I thought that would be fun. I think his exact words were "Book it, Danno!" He thought he was being funny. Took me ten years - but I just that. We weren't married yet in 2003 when he laughingly told me to book it, but, David would learn not to underestimate my determination. When I say I'll do something...I do, no matter how crazy it sounds.

In 2012, we had been on our weight loss journey for a year. I lost 131 pounds, David lost 118 pounds. As I mentioned, I decided to celebrate by booking a hike. I did some research and found a company that books hiking tours in Ireland (Hillwalk Ireland, I cannot recommend them highly enough, we have used them for four hikes now). I found the most difficult, longest hike I could find and booked that one. Mind you, at this point, David and I were doing long walks, Zumba, short hikes and bike rides. The hike I booked was the challenging Ring of Kerry hike...214 K (133 miles) and 11 days over rough terrain, through bogs, through rivers, up and down steep hills. So we decided we should probably start to do some "real" hiking to train. Enter Torrey Pines State Park in La Jolla, California - near San Diego...

Ireland through the years...

Ireland 2003 - Giant's Causeway

Ireland 2005 - Giant's Causeway

Ireland 2013 - Ring of Kerry Hike

2013 - Completing our last day on the Ring of Kerry Hike (133 miles)

We started doing regular hikes every Wednesday after work at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in San Diego, California. We are blessed to live in this gorgeous city where this beautiful hike is less than 1/2 an hour drive from our house.

Torrey Pines has several hiking trails. Some are along the cliffs over looking the Pacific, some are very hilly and will take you down to the beach, others are easier loops that will take you to vistas. Torrey Pines strength is also its weakness, it is beautiful and accessible - so it is generally very busy. It's not easy to find solitude. That said, we were going in the late afternoon / evening on a week day, so we were able to enjoy a relatively quiet hike and, frequently, spectacular sunsets. Not bad for training hikes. I've posted some photos of Torrey Pines below. I'll post more about our other hikes (including Ireland) in later entries. For now, enjoy our Torrey Pines pictures.

Torrey Pines