Seasons of Life: Kooistra Strong to Stehekin Part II

A year ago, some friends and my girls hiked with me in to Stehekin. We did it in memory of Les being gone for one year. You can read about our walk to remember here. Some time after the hike, my son said, "Mom, I'd like to do that hike". Well then. I guess it's kinda like child birth........as time passes, you forget the pain. So I said OKAY!! But decided it would be family only. I've had so many people say they would like to do this hike, but I thought it would be fun with family only. I put the word out, and over the next months our team came together. I know there were family members who REALLY wanted to join us, but the timing didn't work. We ended up with a team of 11 and we hiked over the Labor Day weekend.

Start time 6 AM at trailhead!

I want to talk about the team members. I'll start from oldest to youngest (me, of course, being the oldest of all!!!) These people all mean so much to me.

My sister Sharon is 3 years younger than me. She lives in Iowa so was not able to train on mountains. She would walk gravel roads for many hours. But the most amazing thing is that she had a liver transplant 20 years ago. The fact that 20 years later she was hiking with me for 18 miles is just so amazing.

My niece Emily (aka my third daughter) joined the hike last year and joined again this year with no hesitation. She is in great physical shape and I'm so glad she joined us. My son Kris was the instigator of Part II. He had just come back from 10 days in Alaska a couple days before our hike. He shot a caribou up there so hiked many miles with 120# on his back - packing out the meat, etc. He was still pretty tired from Alaska starting out this hike - but still managed to run the last few miles......... We were glad to have him along since he was the only one with a gun AND a sling shot. He saved us on the trail by killing a chipmunk with that sling shot.

Nothing to do with our hike - this is in Alaska. His dad would be so envious and so PROUD

Limping to the end!

My nephew Adam is also from Iowa (he is Emily's brother). He committed right away to join us. I was surprised, and so thrilled! Adam has very bad knees but was willing to put up with that pain to join us. He kept us laughing the entire weekend he was here. It was such a joy to have him along!!

Brett, my son-in-law, was our last member to commit. I'm pretty sure he had a great weekend with us! He was an energizer bunny (as always!) and was usually our FAST pace setter. He went in with NO training but did great! He was pretty tired tho, and I think all these young males had a bit of respect for all of us ladies for hiking this last year!!

the boys!!

My baby girl Leslie joined us again. She is a very busy mom and wife so doesn't have tons of time to train, but she powered through! The journey would not have been the same without her along. My nephew Sean lives in California, and he also committed right away. He is training for a "Tough Mudder" so he's in great shape (and rocks an amazing moustache). He took a bee sting for the team. So so glad he flew up for the weekend.

SO thankful these two were with me!

My daughter in law Hannah joined us. She was a bit "iffy" because she was 18 weeks pregnant at hike time. But Hannah is a very strong and determined mama and she hiked this like a champ - I admire her so much. She also took a bee sting for the team!

Dealing with bee stings

Our youngest hikers were my two nieces Jenae and Gretta. They are both seniors in high school and VERY busy. Gretta is playing high school soccer right now for Wenatchee - she played a game on Saturday and hiked on Sunday!! That is amazing. Jenae is my California girl - she flew up for the weekend. Love love love these two girls. They have amazing hearts for Jesus and they will do amazing things in the future.


Aunties and nieces

Lunch time

My friend Kay hiked with us last year. Her husband wanted to do the hike this year, so they committed to hiking over Labor Day. We ended up hiking opposite directions - sharing cabins and swapping cars at trail heads. It worked out so great! All of us who hiked a second time thought the second time was easier. I for one felt much better physically (I was a bit sick last year and so nervous) and was able to enjoy this hike more.

So so fun to meet on the trail!!

The weather was very hot, but we started early (no rain!!) and ended by 2:00. Stehekin is such an amazing place. We had no smoke the day we hiked, but watched the smoke roll in the next morning. We had smoke all the way down the ferry ride of Lake Chelan and all the way back home to western Washington.