November 14, 2006
What Next?

The final stats are in:

1. Denali climb: elevation gain was 21,400 feet, the distance traveled was 36 miles, the coldest temperature was -40 degrees with 60+ mph winds.

2.Backpacking trip(Stampede Trail): 40 miles of hitchhiking, 75 miles of biking, 20 miles of hiking.

3. Shark Dive: 5 feet visibility, 56 degree water, 10 feet depth, = NO SHARKS

4. Bike Trip: From Alaska to Mexico, then back to San Diego we biked a total of 3, 987 miles! We thought we could bike in circles for 13 miles to hit 4,000, but we figured we can just round up anyway. Our total elevation gain for the bike trip was about 160,000 feet. It is hard to get an idea of what that really means, but to help, Mt.Everest is 29,000 feet; which means we biked up Mt. Everest 5.5 times (from sea level).

Total Distance Traveled: Climb + Backpack + Bike = 4050 miles

Total Elevation Gain: 181,400 feet.

You've all read about our pancake addiction, and the bears that chased us down, and the deadly snow storms. Will we be able to come back to normal life? As the website states, this is the inaugural trip of Live Adventure. I started a company which will encompass many different things: Film making, speaking, writing, adventure trips, among other things.

Besides crazy adventures, and eating, Greg and I tried to grow and learn things about ourselves. We did this is by doing exercises that made us reflect on what was happening to us. We would try to talk about our strengths and weaknesses. We discussed our goals, and what we thought would make us a better person.

In order to gain perspective on experiences you have to discuss, journal and reflect on what has happened. We have tried to do that with our pictures, filming and writing. We hope that everyone has enjoyed coming along for the ride.

What is the status of raising money for Star Ranch?

Do to some unfortunate circumstances, the status of the place we love so much is uncertain. Because of this, we will have to wait and watch what will happen next. We want to help in anyway possible, and we are trying to determine what would be the most beneficial to the organization. Donations can still be accepted, and would be very helpful.

After a trip like this what kind of things have we learned?

We started out the trip looking for an adventure. We thought it would be fun to do something huge; to push our boundaries, and challenge our comfort level. We also wanted to do something more than just adventure. We wanted to find out more about ourselves, and our surroundings. We wanted to know what we believe and find passion in those things.

There are so many people doing amazing things that we either met or heard about on our trip. I found myself comparing our adventure to theirs. But then realized I can’t do that. It is not a competition, nor should I dwell on what others are doing around me. One persons form of adventure may not be mine and, I should focus on what I am passionate about. The same is true for anyone else. Some may be reading this, and thinking, “your trip was great but I will never do anything like that, and you definitely will not see me swimming with great white sharks.” What we hope is not that people will go out and duplicate our trip, or have to do something extreme, but to find their challenge and push their comfort level. It is important to push yourself because that is where growth happens. We must have struggles, difficulty and discomfort in order to find out what lies dormant within us. It doesn’t require extreme circumstances. It can be as simple as an unfamiliar environment. Sometimes we don’t go looking for those difficult situations, they find us. We should be ready for them, and what better way than to find it before it finds you. We will continue to look for growth whether it is in the mountains or at home in traffic struggling through everyday life. I think we will continue to learn days, months, even years after the trip.

We will use what we learned on our trip to produce our documentary titled “ Exploring the Unknown”, we are excited to start work on it, and start our trip all over. We will keep our progress posted online, so check back every once in a while. We might even have a big movie premiere so all our friends can walk the red carpet. Thanks again to everyone who helped out on the trip, and for the prayers and encouraging e-mails.