52 Hike Challenge Recap and New Goals for 2020

I'd intended to write this post on New Year's Day.  But high waves were forecast on the coast, and my neighbor Cheri enticed me to join her at Cape Disappointment where we spent a fun day trying to capture the swells and splashes with our cameras.  Two days later, instead of working on my post, I took a fun winter hike near Mt Hood.  Then I went back to work, and life became busy again.  So now here I am 7 days into January realizing I need to get my 2019 hiking challenge recap finished before more time elapses.

I'm extremely proud of myself for completing the "52 Hike Challenge" in 2019.  Not only did I cover the required 52 hiking trails, I reached my goal early, completing number 52 in mid-October.  Since fall is the best season for hiking (in my opinion) I didn't stop there, and kept tallying my hikes until December 31st.  I finished out the year with a grand total of 65 hikes!  Yeah!

Boundary Trail, Mt St Helens

Some of you following along at home may have periodically checked the "52 Hike Challenge - 2019" page that I created at the year's beginning to document each hike towards this goal.  I had fun recording each hike as it happened, and trying to photograph a creative selfie to post with each one.  At the end of 2019, it was rewarding for me to look back over a years worth of hiking entries and bask in my accomplishment.  Being the geek that I am, in the final hours of December 31st I made an impulsive decision to compile all that data into a spreadsheet to determine total mileage and elevation gain.

 So....here's the grand totals for 2019:

Total  hikes completed:  65  (although my page says 64, when putting together the spreadsheet, I realized I'd counted two hike # 8's!) 

Total miles hiked:  461

Total elevation gain:  88,330 vertical feet

Coyote Wall, Columbia River Gorge

More interesting (to me) statistics:

May was the month of the most hikes, with 10 total.  March was the least with a paltry one (I think I was skiing a lot).

54% of my hikes were solo.  The person who hiked with me the most was a tie between my hubby and my friend Young (6 each).

35% of the hikes were on "new to me" trails.  46% of the hikes were out of state, Washington being the most hiked in state after, of course, my home state of Oregon (23 of 65 hikes in Washington).

Other states I hiked in:  Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota

I didn't repeat many trails.  There were only three trails I hiked twice in 2019 - Hamilton Mountain, Hardy Ridge and Kings Mountain. 

So....what were some of my favorite hikes?  

Of course, I already covered the top 12 in my last post, so be prepared for some repeats.  However, there are a few additional categories that I think are worth mentioning:

Longest and most challenging - Hands down Lakes and Whittier Ridge Trails near Mt St Helens.  15 miles and 3500 feet of elevation gain!  Not only physically but mentally tough, but I lived to tell the tale (or will in a future post)

Jen and I celebrate surviving Whittier Ridge Trail

Best Fall Colors - I would say it's a tie between the Metolius River hike in October or the Thomas Lake hike in September.  Both were pretty spectacular.

Metolius River

Best Spring Wildflowers - Definitely Memaloose Hills this past April.  A banner year for balsamroot here, the hillsides were absolutely covered with the yellow blooms.

Memaloose Hills

Best Winter Hike - Tilly Jane Ski Trail in January.  As I mentioned in my prior post, the 52 Hike Challenge forced me to hike in all seasons, and that included winter.  And I realized I really liked hiking in snowy conditions.  The ski trek up Tilly Jane trail with my girlfriends was my fave winter hike of 2019.

Tilly Jane Ski Trail

Best Summer Alpine Wildflowers - Skyline Loop, Mt Rainier National Park.  In early August this trail is know for it's fabulous wildflower meadows, but this year's show was the best ever.

Skyline Loop, Mt Rainier National Park

Best Selfie Taken on a Hike - Those of you following my separate hiking page no doubt noticed I tried to include one photo of myself from each hike.  Hiking solo nearly half the time, getting a self-portrait posed a challenge.  I tried various ways of propping the camera on my backpack or a stump, or using a gorilla pod, but found sometimes the easiest way was to simply turn the camera on myself.  This image taken by the Kings Mountain summit sign turned out surprisingly well.  (But boy did I get funny looks from an adjacent group of hikers!)

Kings Mountain selfie

Finally, my favorite hike of 2019:  No surprise here, it was my trek to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back via the South Kaibab and Bright Angel Trails.

Grand Canyon!

In conclusion, I enjoyed completing the "52 Hike Challenge" so much I've decided to do it again for 2020.  However, this time I'm adding a couple of twists.  Since I completed 65 hikes last year, I'm setting the bar at 65 again.  And - seeing I didn't get any backpacking trips in last year, I've decided 5 of these hikes must be overnight backpacking trips.  Also, 25% of these hikes must be on "new to me" trails.  One hike must be a long (15+ miles) dayhike.  One of the hikes must be taken in a state I've never hiked before.  Finally, 25 of next year's hiking miles must be on "new to me" sections of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

I've added a new page to my blog, accessible via a tab below the header. The page is titled "65 Hike Challenge - 2020" and this is where I intend to record this year's hikes.  I invite my readers to check it out and monitor my progress throughout the year.

Wish me luck for a successful hiking challenge in 2020!  And I'll try to do better and keeping my posts more current (well, maybe only one month behind instead of three........)

(Kudos if you've made it all the way through this very long, detail-oriented, geeky hiking post!)