A Little Bit About Me...

I'm an incredibly passionate and active individual.  I have lived in Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii.  I have traveled throughout Latin America, Europe, Japan, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean Islands and have been to Australia and New Zealand.  I love traveling and learning.  I am second generation Basque. 

My most favorite place is anywhere outdoors.  I love mountain biking, trail running and yoga.  I've been in nearly 15 running relay races and plan to run HTC summer of 2021 as an ultra team with 6 runners.  Prior to life with kiddos, I sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco, summited Mt Whitney, and hiked to the summit of Mt St. Helens.  I also completed a half Ironman in 2006 on the Big Island of Hawaii.   I love to surf, golf, and dive.  

I'm a huge animal lover! Hiking through the Pacific Northwest and swimming and surfing the waters off O'ahu are two of my favorite activities.  

I'm a strong proponent of the freedom of speech, personal responsibility and I value our environment and the protection of our natural forests and land.  I'm a huge advocate of non-profit and supporting charitable organizations.  

I’ve always been a little bit of a nomad. A wanderer. An adventure seeker. As a little girl, I was always leading the neighborhood kids into the forest, up the trees and through the sticker bushes. I’d come back home filthy with a stray duckling or kitten, torn clothes and ready for dinner and a big bubble bath. I loved to be dirty. My mother never had “school clothes” and “play clothes” for my sister and I. She knew better. We played, and played in whatever we were wearing at the time. My sense of adventure and seeking forest time has yet to diminish. Now, I’m teaching my children how it’s done. From catching lady bugs and earth worms, to digging deep in the dirt, I believe I belong in the forest, high on top of mountains or in the salty ocean water. I believe that my kids belong there as well. 

Living in Hawaii, I thought I’d only be there for a short time so I covered every inch of every island…twice! I paddled the Molokai channel, ran three marathons, and countless mud runs through the Kaneohe Marine Corp base. I took a passenger ferry with my mountain bike from Oahu to Maui and rode from Kahului to the top of Haleakala. We ate a snack at the top of the observatory at 11 pm and rode down the back side crater on a full moon arriving back in upcountry Maui at 4 am only to read the headline of the Honolulu Advertiser that the ferry had ceased operation due to union issues. I would have to fly home to Oahu and leave my beloved bike on the island of Maui until arrangements could be made. While the trek to the top of Haleakala is only 35 miles, the average car ride is over 2 hours. It is a 10,000 ft elevation gain up a windy narrow road. I’m pretty sure my snacks included Cytomax hydration and Skittles. It’s amazing what you can do at the age of 27! 

Weeks later, I took a month off and started my “vacation” with a 24-hour adventure race north of Los Angeles. Basically, you navigated (with a compass, not a phone) to find way-points in a large wilderness area. We kayaked, ran, bouldered and mountain biked to locate specific way points using longitude and latitude. After the adventure race in the Castaic Recreational area, I spent a couple of days at Yosemite at Camp 4 watching climbers from all over the world summit El Capitan. I did not climb El Cap; I just celebrated with the climbers after over a beer. I spent the last three weeks of this trip mountain biking through the Sierra Mountain Range and hiking the summit of Mt Whitney, a 14,500 ft elevation gain and 22 miles round trip. We did this hike in a push getting up at 2a to start our ascend. We summited around 12 noon and trail ran down just in time for a cold beer out of the creek. It was a perfect day. Pushing myself mentally and physically all while enjoying the outdoors is where I truly thrive. 

A year later, I sailed 2,400 miles from Honolulu to San Francisco. 26 days at sea. No fresh food, limited water and no showering made for a very painful trip. It was exhausting and definitely a trip I will not be taking again. 

While I still have a calling for adventure and the great wilderness, I now have kids and my boundaries of recklessness have been reined in; sensibility plays an important role in my decision making process.  I still seek adventure and want my kids to be explorers like their mother. 

Today, any free moment I get, I grab Fletcher, my Bernese Mountain Dog and head for the forest. Some people seek spiritual fulfillment through religion or various other means. I seek spiritual fulfillment through the outdoors; through big mossy trees and green lush ferns creating clean air and solitude. In the past, I would grab my surf board and head for the waves. Today, its large old growth trees and small quiet ferns. No matter when I live, I will always seek the tranquility and power of nature and the outdoors.