Letter To My Benefactor

Dear Benefactor, In Letter #42 to you, I told you about my deep fear of rattlesnakes. Well, I went to the same place again this year—Steamboat Rock State Park—and I’m sad to say that I did not go hiking. I did a ton of biking, though, even though my shoulder was still really sore and […]

Dear Benefactor, Three years ago, I did this hike with my husband and two very close friends. Life seemed so easy back then. Sure, I had gone through cancer, but I survived that and slowly, slowly built my stamina back up after that long, long year and a half of chemotherapy back in 2009-2010.  As […]

Dear Benefactor, I haven’t been hiking, but I told you in my last letter that I was doing a lot of gardening. Tons and tons of steps trying to get my yard back into shape. I’ve also been having to wear some pretty wacky hair styles to get this yard work done. Hard to concentrate […]

Dear Benefactor, I know I have not been hiking yet because of the shoulder problem I told you about a few letters back. But, the yard is finally starting to come together. I should hope so: I put 21,571 steps on my Fitbit today. Yup, I still have that Fitbit. Oh, I guess it wasn’t […]

Dear Benefactor, I’ve had 3 1/2 hours of sleep in the past 27 hours.  Probably not a good time to take up hiking again, eh? I told you about my fear of bears and cougars and murderers in the woods in my 41st letter to you. I’d be sure to walk into danger in the […]

Dear Benefactor, Has it really been almost a year since I’ve written you? Wow. I’ve been a bad girl and I have not been hiking. Not once. Do you want to know why? Well, in October of 2019, I got a rash. It started as a teensy little spot on my face and grew from […]

Dear Benefactor, Guess what? I’m so excited. My mental block against hiking is over. Finally. I thought it would never end. Remember? I told you all about my anxiety in Letter #45 when I let you know that I was hoping to conquer Cutthroat Trail. I made it all the way to the lake and back, […]

Dear Benefactor, It has been a really long time. On March 8, 2018, I promised you that I would go hiking again. Well, I hit a bit of a snag. Boy-howdy, who am I kidding? It’s been rough. On April 11, 2018, I ended up in the ER. I had been having sporadic, excruciating pain […]

Dear Benefactor, I’ve been a bad girl. I have not hiked since November when I conquered the Waihe Ridge Trail in Maui. I told you all about it in my last letter to you. You see, I’ve been super sad. My uncle has Stage IV lung cancer. It happened super fast. In fact, I just […]