Tahoe Rim Trail Journal

2009 Thru-Hike on the Tahoe Rim Trail -- the Journal.

It's been almost a month since I finished my thru-hike on the TRT -- and my journal is finally done! You can view the whole thing on Trailjournals.com. I've got a journal entry from every day we were on the trail (with a couple of prep days and afterthoughts), lots of photos and my gear list. Play around -- it's a really cool site!

The four of us became official 165-Mile Club Members when we finished the trail, and we were recognized by the Tahoe Rim Trail Association for our accomplishment. Pretty cool stuff... Check out this link to see our names listed on their site!

Robin Grapa #896

Keith Laatsch #912

Patty Laatsch #913

Leo Cepoi #914

P.S. If you enjoyed reading my Tahoe Rim Trail journal, you can link to my 2006 ADT journal from Trailjournals and give that a read, too!

For more information on the Tahoe Rim Trail, please visit the TRTA website. It's a great organization, and they have a great site. Check it out!!

...June...

Well, I'm still working on getting my TRT journal typed up, so meanwhile, it's catch-up time.

It seems like forever ago already, but I think that most of my time spent in June was mostly waiting for July to roll around. I was starting to get really excited for Tahoe... buying miscellaneous pieces of gear and clothing bits for the trip that I needed, and waiting... waiting... and waiting some more... but June was still a cool month for sure.

One of the my favorite parts of June every single year is the 9th. That's my and Adam's wedding anniversary! We were married on June 9, 2001 in Phillips, WI. It was a really fun wedding and reception (of course I would think so!). Our wedding lasted about 15 minutes in the small, packed Presbyterian Church (I'm Lutheran now). The reception was at the Northwoods Supper Club in Fifield (north of Phillips). For any of you that have ever drive up north on Hwy. 13, it's the place with the HUGE deer in front of it. Adam and closed the place down with a ton of family and friends - we were all dancing and just having a great time! Good, good memories!!

Adam and Robin Grapa - June 9, 2001

...so, 8 years later, here we are as different as we could ever be, but still in love and always working on challenges that come our way. There's never a dull moment, that's for sure! It amazes me how different two people can be, yet still have such a strong bond to each other. I LOVE YOU, ADAM. SO SO MUCH!!!

Wisconsin River Paddle Group

Another thing I did in June was something new -- I went on a paddling trip with some new friends I met through participating in the Frozen Otter Trek, put on by the Fat Otter Adventure Racing Team. I guess Rod puts this trip on annually, and ooooh, it was FUN!! It was on the Wisconsin River between Sauk City and Spring Green, and it was an overnighter -- the plan was to camp on a sandbar along the way! Sweet! Lots of people went, so there were a whole bunch of canoes and 3 kayaks, me in one of the kayaks.

It was a funny situation preparing for the trip... I joined this trip on my own, so I was going to be meeting a bunch of new people (which I was nervous about, but everyone was so awesome!!), so I originally planned to take my own kayak -- I'd never done an overnighter with my little kayak, so I packed as little as I possibly could, since I had to strap everything to my boat. Then Rod called and said one guy needed a canoe partner and asked if I would mind teaming up with him. I was up for it -- and besides, I thought, "Ooooh, now I can bring a big cooler! Full of good bevvies!" And with that change of plans, I left my kayak home (I thought about strapping it on my car just in case... but decided not to because I didn't want to leave it out for the whole 2 days unattended).

So I went just myself and camped the night before at a campground across the street from the launch. The morning rolled around and I met the group across the street, and my canoe partner didn't show up, so I ended up taking a kayak anyway! Which was totally fine... Rod and a couple others were great and took some of the extra gear I'd packed (including my cooler), so everything worked out just fine. I had a freakin' blast in that kayak... I ended up having to rent one, but it was very similar to mine... I was happy about that, especially because now I know that I can do an overnighter in my "Sharkbait" boat. :)

We had perfect weather, everybody was very friendly and FUN, and camping on the sand was awesome! Oh!! We paddled past Mazo Beach... for anyone in Wisconsin, or in the Sauk City area, they know that Mazo Beach is famous for it's... nudes. It's an actual nude beach in Wisconsin! I heard that it wasn't necessarily underwear models hanging out there, so veer in the other direction if we so choose... but with something SO unique... I could not resist. I had to check this out. So when we approached the beach, I paddled right up to it. The people were all very nice!! And very naked. ;) It was an experience I will never forget (I stayed fully clothed, by the way!). The camping was fun. We all drank a bunch and a few of us crazy die-hards stayed up REALLY late eating lots of smores and goofing off. It was a beautiful night, and when we woke up you couldn't even see the river because there was a gorgeous thick layer of fog over the entire thing. It was just all-in-all a great weekend. I hope to make the next one! :)

Typical "stupid-Robin" look on my face. :)

At the end of June was Country USA. Last year was our first year there... we were invited by our good friends, Anne & Craig. This is how we met other good friends, Kevin & Shannon. We had a ton of fun last year, so we were sure to join again for this year. We were sad to find out that Kevin & Shannon weren't able to make it, so we missed them terribly, but we still had a few for them and were sure to have a good time. Adam and I had a pretty screwed up schedule the whole week with things going on, so we actually ended up not going to any of the shows -- we saved $80by not going, actually... we just got there so late a couple of the nights that it didn't make sense to pay that much for an hour or two... so we'd hang out at the campsite and wait for the others to get back from the concerts. In all honesty, Country USA is about music, friends, camping, drinking, and getting a little wild. A couple of night we stayed up all night and watched the sun come up. It's a different atmosphere there... you go to bed when the sun comes UP. But let me tell you... it took at least a week for me to recover from all that! Only once a year... that's all I can do. :) We're looking forward to next year, now, too. Craig hooked Adam up with a battery that runs his CPAP machine, so we can sleep in their camper on the grounds, which is awesome. And next year Toby Keith is going to be there. I LOVE Toby Keith. ;)

I think that was it for June. You know, I'm thinking I missed a few things in there, because I know I was doing stuff every weekend this summer (my calendar is FULL), and that doesn't cover every weekend... but anyway... it was a great month. Before I knew it, July was here and I was smiling from ear to ear!