Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Have a wonderful holiday, folks!  We're off until the New Year.  Hope your holiday is filled with fabulous adventures in the great outdoors!

Remember -- it's not too late to get a 2012 tax deduction -- visit GIRLS ON THE WAY and donate to GirlVentures and/or Global Fund for Women.  We're hiking 500 miles...can you donate 500 cents?  Or, better yet, $5.00, or $50.00...or $500 dollars?  :)

Tuesday Trip Report: Doublehead, Squam, and Percival

The girls and I are hiking the 500-mile Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago in March and April 2013.  We're hiking to raise money and awareness for the nonprofit, female-empowering organizations GirlVentures and Global Fund for Women.  Visit GIRLS ON THE WAY for details.

To prepare for our upcoming adventure, the girls and I are doing what we always do...we're hiking New Hampshire mountains every week.  The White Mountains serve as excellent training grounds.

All trip reports will hence be posted on our Camino-oriented site until we return from Spain in late April/early May 2013.  Here's the link for our specific Doublehead, Squam, and Percival trip report.

Sage on the summit of Percival.  12-13-2012

Thursday Thing #1:..Drawing, Revisited

We are walking across Spain in March and April 2013 to raise money for GirlVentures and Global Fund for Women.  Visit our new site, GIRLS ON THE WAY, to learn more about our upcoming adventure and how you can contribute.

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Both girls now constantly draw landscapes, scenes, and portraits.  Therefore, for this week's Thursday Thing, I'll update our progress for item #1:  Draw or paint a landscape.

Sage, 12-12-12

  

Alex is still working on this one.  She began it on 12-7-12.

Both girls take lessons from the talented local artist Nancy Griswold.  Check out her site -- her work is outstanding.

Tuesday Trip Report: Mt. Galehead (TW72). December 6, 2012

The girls and I hiked Galehead last Thursday; Alex wants to finish the Trailwrights 72 list, so I suspect we'll tackle a few of her remaining peaks before we leave.  When we return from the Camino, she wants to complete the TW72 -- she also wants to hike the NH48 again, this time within a single season.  Sage wants to finish the 52WAV and both girls want to finish the Terrifying 25.  Methinks there isn't going to be enough time during the summer and fall of 2013 to do absolutely everything Alex and Sage want to do, but we'll see what happens. 

I posted a pictorial trip report of last Thursday's Galehead hike here.  From now until we return from Spain, most, if not all, of our trip reports will be posted at GIRLS ON THE WAY. 

The peak of Galehead from Galehead Hut (closed for the season).

Thursday Things: Cutting Down Our Own Christmas Tree

The girls and I are hiking 500 miles for Global Fund for Women and GirlVentures -- visit GIRLS ON THE WAY for details (click here).

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Friends have been telling us about The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem, NH for years.  The Rocks is a tree farm; a visitor can choose and cut down his/her own evergreen.  All the trees are the same price ($44 this year), and the employees will bind the tree to your car while you visit the gift shops.

This year, we finally drove over to check out the place for ourselves.  While we were there, we accomplished Thing #37 -- Cut down our own Christmas tree.

The girls were excited; they took off running as soon as we got out of the car.

It didn't take us long to find the perfect tree.

Alex and Sage took turns using the saw.

A kind employee took our cut tree and bound it to our car.  We made it home without a hitch.

The tree today, in our home and fully decorated --

I love this time of year!

This was our first time cutting down our own tree.  Though I loved The Rocks, I'm not sure we'll do it again.  I'm a bit of a bleeding heart and I don't like the thought of taking down a perfectly good tree.  Of course, the trees at a tree farm are grown for the sole purpose of someone coming along and cutting them down, but still... I can't shake that guilty feeling.  Silly of me, I know.  

That being said, our tree looks great and the girls had a wonderful time harvesting it.

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The girls and I hiked Galehead (again) this morning -- the day was sunny, cold, and clear.  I'll post a video trip report on Tuesday.

GIRLS ON THE WAY

Hi folks --

Just a reminder that we've a separate website for our upcoming 500-mile Camino de Santiago adventure.  The site is called GIRLS ON THE WAY. 

We leave for Spain in March 2013, so for the next few months, GIRLS ON THE WAY will contain posts regarding our preparation, training hikes, gear choices, and fundraising efforts (we hike for GirlVentures and Global Fund for Women).

Once we're on the Camino, I'll update the blog as often as I'm able.  I hope to have a webcam that will enable viewers to see what we're hiking live, in real time.  I'm not yet 100% certain about the possibilities of the webcam, though...so cross your fingers and stay tuned for details.