How I Turned from Couch Potato to Adventurer in Just a Few Months

If you told me four months ago that I'd be writing a post about hiking/the outdoors, I'd probably say you were nuts. Back then, I considered traveling from my couch to my fridge a hike. Fast forward to last Friday night, my friend and I drove from Seattle to Canada after work because we were planning on hiking Panorama Ridge. If you haven't heard of that one, it's a 22 mile hike (RT) in Squamish with a breathtaking/jaw-dropping view at the top. Craziest part about it all was that we planned on finishing the entire thing in one day. You know what happened? We did it. The whole thing took about 9 hours but every step and every second, was worth it.

(Excuse my basic "I MADE IT" pose) 

I honestly never would have imagined myself becoming an outdoorsy person. In fact, I used say people who enjoyed hiking were crazy (my bad), but when you come across views like the ones below, you kind of just ... fall in love. 

White River Falls, OR

North Cascades, WA

Hidden Lake, WA

Heather Lake, WA

You maybe be wondering what triggered this random love for nature. It started with a picture of Lake Twenty-Two on my Instagram feed. That led to me telling my best friend that I wanted go on a hike and her asking me if I was broken (rude). Anyways - 2 weekends and a 2.2 mile hike later, I was awestruck. Everything about the moment seemed perfect. It was quiet, peaceful, the lake was perfectly still so you could see the reflection of the snowy mountain tops in the water, and best of all - I was able to share the moment with my friend who had been there for me through thick and thin. After that, hiking didn't seem so bad. 

Ever since that day, I haven't been able to get enough of the outdoors. 4 months and 101 miles worth of hikes later, my bucket list of adventures continues to grow. That my friends, is how a couch potato like me turned into an active-nature loving adventurer.