When, and where did it all start?

[hikerchick395]

Here's a pic from my first encounter with the Sierra. On the San Joaquin River near Devil's Postpile.

[SweetSierra]

Since this thread made an encore appearance, I thought I would add my story.

I grew up in Fresno and was a competitive swimmer for most of my childhood. I grew up in a family of five sisters and a brother. On summer vacations that made the greatest impact on me, I spent a week or so in a cabin of my best friend at a cabin on Pine Ridge on the way to Shaver Lake. One of our neighbors, and good friends of my family, took my sister and I camping at Dinkey Creek every summer for a few years. I loved those trips and swimming in Dinkey Creek. I wondered what was upstream in the pines that went on and on.
But the first true moment of love for the mountains (though I loved the mountains as far back as I can remember) was my first trip to Yosemite when I was 8 or so and seeing the valley after exiting the Wawona tunnel.
I mention swimming because after high school, I stopped swimming. My brother, who loved the mountains, took me backpacking for the first time when I was 18, the year I graduated, to Sunrise Lakes out of Tuolumne Meadows. I was out of shape and had to stop at every other switchback. I came back from the trip in love with backpacking. I began running then and came back to the mountains (Sierra) every chance I could to backpack. I've subsequently backpacked in many remote areas of the California deserts as well as the northern, central, and southern Sierra, Wyoming, Utah, and Mt. Rainier. The love affair with both the mountains and running endured.

[SweetSierra]

Hikerchick 395, like your photo!