Holy @#!%ing Jim

It's no coincidence that the trail sign looked like a crucifix!

Looking up at the towers signifying the peak!

Hiding from the bugs under our shirts by the towers at the top!

"Get these #@$% bugs off of me!"
(Click to enlarge)

And we do it all with a smile!

Resting at the end of the hike!



"Nature was profaned here by the swear words flooding from the mouth of "Cussin' Jim" Smith or "Holy Jim" as he was renamed by tightlaced government surveyors who mapped the canyon in the early 1900s.""

The holy Jim Trail takes you to the top of the highest peak in Orange County: Santiago Peak. It's the higher of the two peaks as you look at Orange County's most prominent landscape feature: Saddleback Mountain. When The Holy Jim Trail was named, it was a sarcastic play on words about a guy named "Cussin' Jim" who founded the trail. After hiking his trail, I completely understand his use of foul language! After spending an entire Saturday on his trail, climbing 4000' to the top of Santiago Peak (the highest peak in Orange County) and back down through a total of 16 miles of switchback trail, everyone from the most capable of hikers to the most innocent of hikers was using an expletive or three in the middle of Holy Jim's name to the point where there should be a parental advisory warning label on the trail head sign. I tell you this because the purpose of this week's blog is to demonstrate the raw reality of what it is like on our weekly training hikes. The reality is, no we do not or did not cuss as much as Jim probably did, or as much as I exaggerated us to have done. The remainder of this week's edition of our blog is no exaggeration though, so sit back and have a good read on us, Team Lost Dogs!

Imagine that every Saturday morning instead of sleeping in, you have to wake up earlier than you do on your average work day. You wake up and have to commute to a destination where, when you get there, you will have to exert yourself to the point of exhaustion numerous times throughout the day. Your best friends are water, a wide-brimmed hat, and bug repellent. Your wardrobe isn't something you would necessarily want your friends to see you wearing, but it is functional for being outdoors, and prevents chaffing, so you abandon all humility. You wear a heavy backpack for an entire day filled with 6 liters (imagine 3 soda bottles) of water (which you will easily go through) as you spend many hours hiking for miles on end uphill through uneven, rocky terrain in the heat of the day as you try not to tangle with the lush overgrowth of poison oak. All the way up the mountain, you're dodging speeding mountain bikers coming straight toward you, and an occasional rattle snake (of which one member of our team saw 2 and almost stepped on one). You get to the top of a mountain somewhere where your payoff for making it to the top is a killer 360 degree view of the cities below and surrounding peaks while you share your lunch with swarming bugs, and the ground usually isn't much better. You hide from the bugs under a spare shirt or bandanna to keep out the bugs as you eat your lunch. Your main course is a cliff or power bar and your side dishes consist of almonds, string cheese and salami, half a PB&J sammy, and a fruit leather for dessert. You want to stay and take a nap (at this point you're immune to the bugs), but you must move on. You're covered in dust now, which is stuck to your sweat, and you make the journey back down the mountain, which is even more unforgiving on your knees than it was on the way up. You are so delirious at this point that you completely can't remember being on certain sections of trail even though you hiked them going in the opposite direction just a few hours prior. Your hike is now over and you see the most comforting thing you have seen all day, a porta-potty, and some large roots of a tree that look like they grew in the perfect shape of a chair made specifically for your butt. As you rest on this chair by the porta-potties waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, all you can think of is the REAL food that you have deprived yourself of all day, such as steak and nachos. You finally get back into your high clearance vehicle so that you can drive the 4 miles (that takes 45 minutes to drive) of bladder battering, rocky road (dubbed "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride") to get back to your own car and commute back home.

You finally get home and bring in all your gear and the couch is calling your name. Actually, the couch and the shower are having an argument over which one gets to have you first. It's complete chaos as these two are arguing, and now the bed has interjected that it has been waiting for you all day. The dog is now having a side argument with the bed because he too has been waiting to see you all day, so he abruptly jumps on the bed, violently pinning it down, and things start to get really confusing for you as the chaos continues to get worse. The TV has now decided that it is in your best interest for you to watch the Dodger game, only now the entire UFC has joined in the commotion and all hell is breaking loose right there in your living room! You realize there is about to be a bench clearing brawl between the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the UFC right in front of you, and you don't know what to do about it! It only gets more annoying as the manipulative couch starts siding with the TV, and now there are actually alliances forming to try and take control over you. As you try and mediate among everyone and help them all compromise, the nosey neighbor has stuck his nose where it doesn't belong and is trying to get you to ditch everyone and come to the spa. You try and walk away from all of it, only now the computer is saying "Psssst, hey kid! Yeah you, come here I got sumpin' to show ya"! You figure that since your wife has now taken control of some of the chaos by getting in the shower first, that you might as well listen to the computer as you upload all of the pictures you have taken throughout the day and see them on a big screen. The computer is smart and waits for the right moment to get your attention, but all along it was the only one who actually did have your best interest in mind. It wants you to see what you have accomplished over the course of your day and give you a sense of pride for your efforts and remind you why you just put yourself through hell today.

The pictures remind you that you get up and repeat this same scenario every Saturday because you care about something greater than yourself. You did all of this with a smile on your face because you are trying to save lives.

Now imagine that someday in the future, a cure has been found for blood cancers and your hiking and fundraising have all paid off. Lives are being saved and you know that, in some small way, you had something to do with that. "It's easy to imagine if you try." -John Lennon

If you would like to make this dream a reality and help us raise money to find a cure for leukemia and lymphoma, please donate here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/Yosemit110/TeamLostDogs

Oh, and if you would like to imagine what the @#!%ing in Holy @#!%ing Jim stands for, just imagine that it stands for the word hiking!