My legs were still feeling the effects of the 65 miler from Saturday as I launched myself down the driveway heading out on the Waite Hill course. I’d decided to ride comfortably to work out the aches, but this idea faded as the ride went on and I felt better. At some point in the ride, I decided I felt strong enough to make the ride longer by adding in a couple of long hills, which I did and ended up with a two hour ride.
After cleaning up, I rearranged furniture into the room I’d just painted and broke another sweat. Once this was done, I sat down and tried to map out a couple of hikes I thought my cousin would enjoy when we got together in the Adirondacks. He’s gotten pretty serious about the trip, adding a new, internal-frame backpack and a lightweight, two-man tent to his cache. When I mentioned that he was now prepared for some longer, backcountry hikes, he admitted he wanted to do some.
“Donnie...we’ve been joking about Sherpa’s carrying all your overweight gear, but now is probably the time to tell you there really aren’t any Sherpa’s in upstate New York,” I said.
“Well John...I knew that. I’ve still got the truck and the Ranger though,” he said. The Ranger was his answer to a poor man’s ATV. It was the only four-passenger vehicle of this type I’d ever seen.
“Good thinking, Don. I’m sure the Ranger will get you where you want to go almost as well as the Sherpa’s could,” I said.
I’d taken Donnie up Mt. Van Hoevenberg, a reasonably challenging climb with fabulous views of the High Peaks and on that day he’d worn blue jeans...and suffered. I’ve alerted him to the ‘cotton kills’ expression and told him to pack accordingly for this trip, but he learns slowly. I want to climb Jay and Noonmark Mts. with him since both have spectacular views and aren’t the type that need tremendous conditioning. Not that he’s in bad shape, but I want the hikes to be fun so I can hook him into doing bigger ones on future trips. Just as I do with people I take through workouts, I’m always trying to inspire them to do more and making them suffer never accomplishes that task...in my opinion. When I last spoke to Donnie last night and told him I didn’t think John would be joining us, he asked me to pass a message along to him.
“Tell John to take off his baby pants and put his man pants back on and come to the Adirondacks with you,” he said.
He has little sympathy for John’s injuries.
Bike Duration: Two hours.
Training Heart Rate: 125 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1700.
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