Friday Feature: Beth Lakin of 3UpAdventures
It's the return of Friday Features....
Beth is the outdoor adventurer that I believe to be the most like myself. (Sorry, Beth...) She's kind of like the nicer younger sister that I didn't have. (Ha!) We have tons of common interests, motivate each other (well she motivates me at least...) and follow each other's mountain summits and adventures. Beth is very hard-working, driven, fearless, supremely intelligent and someone to admire. She blogs frequently at 3upadventures.com
Hi Arizona Dayhikers!
My name is Beth Lakin and I base my adventures out of southwestern Colorado. Like your host Jason, I would describe myself as a peakbagger. I love getting to peaks by road tripping with my pup, Sprocket, in my Jeep, Ruth. (the dog is named after Sprocket in Fraggle Rock and the Jeep is named after the Notorious RBG). I’ve hiked a whole slew of obscure mountains around the western US but in the last couple of years have focused my attention on county high points. Most people find that really odd but I really like using my lists as an excuse to drive to remote locations all over the place. (Editor's note: This is pretty much me.)
I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors and exploring. When I was a child and my family went camping, I would always beg to go hiking and then lobby for longer hikes. I began to take friends and family on hikes I’d planned in college and then when I got out of grad school, I started to hike alone with the dog to get out even when no one else wanted to. After my divorce in 2014, I threw myself into hiking the Colorado county high points. Being outside challenging myself in the high peaks of the Rockies saved me. I didn’t always remember to keep hiking and spent more than a few weekends huddled in bed with the dog but as my peak total mounted in 2015, so did my confidence in myself as an individual. Striving for high peaks is where I refresh my soul. (Me too... x a million.)
While many outdoor adventurers dream of living the #vanlife, I’ve already done that. I’ve turned my attention towards building a house in my small mountain town so that I have a solid home base to return to. My needs are minimal but attaining that goal sooner rather than later has necessitated me taking on a few side hustles which has taken time away from my big mountain hikes although I’ve been doing a pretty decent job of keeping up with running while still being a teacher.
In addition to working at that so very adult task of becoming a home-owner, I live a pretty sweet life of semi-adulthood where I teach high school science, read a lot (primarily about the outdoors and adventure), take care of maintenance on the Jeep, work on one of a million projects that I have going (quilting, landscaping, baking, etc.), and write on my blog 3Up Adventures.
