The Colorado Trail--so far

Well, we are a week in to our hike and it's definitely been an experience.  Day 1/Segment 1 was rough!  "Everything hurts and I'm dying" was a very accurate description!  The scenery on Segment 2 overshadowed the dying part, and made for a better day.  A thunderstorm followed us all day, and we stopped early to set up tents ... good thing, because we experienced golf ball sized hail and a 6 hour long thunderstorm!  (pics at end of blog)
Segment 3 was less scenic and my feet were killing me.  Segment 4 started good, but we got stuck in a nasty thunderstorm and got hailed on (um, ouch!) Thankfully we both had rain pants, which make a big difference in attempting to stay warm.  After hiding under a tree for awhile and shivering, we had to decide between hypothermia and getting struck by lightning.  We made a run for it over the pass and made it, but it was scary!  We hiked father just to try to stay warm and let stuff dry out, but everything got soaked.  Camping that night was rough, it stormed again after we set up tents, am pretty sure we went to sleep at 730 pm. 
The next morning we only had to do 10 miles to get back to Kenosha pass, where we left one of the cars.  The scenery was the best yet, and we were paranoid about storms, so we hiked fast.
Our zero day in Breckenridge was less relaxing than I thought, as we spent most of the day running errands like showering, going to the grocery store, and laundry.  We finally finished repacking everything around 7,and I got to soak in the hot tub and hang out by the fire.  The hostel was AMAZING!  So gorgeous.  I chatted with a bunch of cool people and got my extrovert-socialization-fix. 
We hiked out starting Segment 7 yesterday morning.  My pack was so heavy with our food resupply and extra layer of clothing! The first 9 miles were basically all uphill.  It was definitely the toughest climb so far, and despite a 0 day, my feet were not recovered.  We had to cross a lot of snow, our first time encountering it on the trail.  It was intimidating-one slip and you'd easily slide 300-500 feet almost straight down to tree line.  I lost the trail after one snow pass and had to go up a steep incline to find it again. Once I made it to the ridge, the wind gusts prompted me to keep moving fast-as we learned previously, storms pop up quickly and we were well above tree line with no shelter.  My legs got super sunburnt too!  I'm rocking some super cool tan lines now, Ha Ha. 
My feet didn't fare so well and I decided to take another 0 day to try and let things heal.  Both my heels are covered in blisters.  One of today's goals is to get new shoes-my trail running shoes must not fit right.  Roxy,  Monika's dog, was also limping today, so we've re evaluated our thru hiking plans.  I'll keep going and Monika will meet me at trailheads to camp.  Roxy recently had a tumor removed and while she's eager to hike, it's probably more than she can handle and Monika has decided (smartly) to play it safe and not push her.
The snow in Segment 8 is supposed to be worse than 7, so I'm skipping 8 and going on to 9. Falling off a mountain is not on my list of things to do! 
Colorado is gorgeous :)

Colorado!

It's Saturday night, I'm taking advantage of free WiFi at Whole Foods to write one last entry before we start the trail tomorrow :)  Waking up in the mountains is amazing, I keep wondering if this is real life?  I've been planning for so long, actually being here is surreal.

My last day of work was Wednesday and I arrives in Colorado on Thursday night.  I was really hoping to figure out a living arrangement for this fall before leaving for the trail, but people on Craigslist are flaky and that didn't happen.  Hopefully it will all work out once we're done hiking.  So far things have worked out very well.

A HUGE thank you to all of my amazing friends who have housed me over the last 2.5 months! I am forever grateful.  (Lindsey, Jenn,  Tiffany, and Rob! You all are awesome!)

I'll have my phone off  (usually no cell service) unless we are in towns for the day (about once every 5 days).  The sun rises much earlier than I'm used to, so we'll be hiking early to take advantage of cooler temperatures.  Its been in the 90s all week, but at least there is no humidity!

I got to do a little climbing before leaving for the hike...this terrified me but I didn't die and it was fun :)

I will post again when we're in Breckenridge! 

Life Lessons--The Horse Industry and Depreciation

Uprooting my life and moving across the country has presented plenty of challenges.  This decision was relatively unexpected (within the last 6 months), so my previous thoughts about long-term planning have gone out the window.  I didn't truly know what I was getting into when I started into the Quarter Horse world 4 years ago.  Candidly, most of this post may be "TMI," but it would have been helpful information for me when making decisions 5 years ago.

We have a joke "Horses are as addictive as cocaine and twice as expensive."  I can't relate to the cocaine-portion of this joke, but I hear it's also expensive.  In terms of the horse-addiction...All logic goes out the window when it comes to my horse hobby/lifestyle.  Showing is a "fix" and once one show is over, we obsessively plan for the next.  I would estimate 25-50% of my income went towards my horse hobby, depending on the time of year.

• Horse: I had to sell my horse, Scotty.  This is the one thing I sold that I didn't get pretty much screwed over on; I bought him green, and found him an excellent new home with a loving family that spoils him.  Financially have a nice little "nest egg" for my next horsey companion, once I'm out of school.  Granted, if you added up what I paid for him and then spent on his care (board, feed, vet/farrier, chiropractor, supplies, etc) I'm sure I lost money--but that is DEFINITELY not part of "Horse Show Math."

September 2014--We won the Rookie Equitation class.  Best horsey-moment ever!

I bought a truck and a trailer so I could haul myself to shows.  At the time, I was not at a show barn, and really needed my own rig to get places.  After finding Barb, I definitely could have paid her to haul me and come out WAY ahead.  Here's some math:

• Truck: I bought a 2 horse, aluminum trailer so I could get away with only a 1/2 ton pickup.  This was to be my primary vehicle (ha ha, that's what I told myself when I bought it!) so I wanted something that was "good" on gas mileage.  
• Math: $36,000 for a brand-new 2013 Chevy Silverado.  Sold 3 years later for $22K.  So yes....$14,000 in depreciation over 3 years.  I still owed the bank on this truck and couldn't afford payments once I'm unemployed...so truck had to go.  

• Trailer: I was too scared to buy a used trailer because I didn't know what I was doing and pictured terrible breakdowns/issues in my head.  Thus, I justified a brand-new custom-ordered aluminum trailer.  "I'm going to keep it FOREVER!" I thought!  Ha ha.  I definitely want to upgrade to a living-quarters trailer in the future.  This means more $$, and a bigger truck to pull it with.  
• Math: I paid $18,000 for it, brand new.  The company that makes them cheapened them up significantly the year after I bought mine...so now you can get a brand-new one for under $16K.  :(  This does not help my resale value.  To sell it, I want to cover what I owe plus my downpayment...or $13,000.  It does not appear to be worth this right now.  So, I'm probably going to sit on it until I graduate and then trade up later.  Unlike the truck, it won't depreciate that much just sitting. (At least I hope? My track record estimating this has not been good so far!).  But my pride can't handle another huge financial hit.
• So let's add this together:
• Monthly Payments on Truck and Trailer: $450
• 3 years of payments: $16,200...plus insurance on truck and trailer
• Compare that to paying a trainer to haul me, plus hotel...and still come out WAY ahead of what I did.  "But I'm building equity!"  Yeah....Had I stayed in Ohio and kept the same rig for another 5-10 years...this logic might have paid off.  Not in this case.  Live and learn!

• *Bonus:* I did use my truck and trailer to move myself to Colorado.  By the time I added up my expenses (gas, meals, storage unit--Approx. $1,500) I probably would have been farther ahead just getting rid of EVERYTHING and furnishing my next place from Ikea.  The cost to use a moving company (well above $3,000) was definitely more than my stuff is even worth.

• Saddles:
• Western: I bought an older, used saddle, thinking it wouldn't depreciate much more....it did.  :(  Worst case, I'll dye it black (if that's still "in") and keep using it post-graduation.  

• English: Brand new, mine was $1,600.  My friend just bought basically the same saddle for $700.  This I'm not mad about, since I've used mine A LOT and it still has a lot of life left in it.  Definitely keeping this for the long-haul.  But it's good info to have!

So...It's been a learning experience.  Going forward, I will buy used!  Better to let someone else eat the depreciation :)