Wednesday, October 29, 2014

A good double...

Sunday, October 26, 2014
In keeping with my Saturday commitment, I headed for the park early Sunday morning.   Savannah met me with Copper for the hike, but I was doing the Survival Workout.  And it was quite a workout.  I’ve been doing some push-ups and dips here and there, but this was the first complete workout in several weeks.  I didn’t hit the numbers I’m used to, but the effort was there – and so was that great ‘pump’ that comes from a tough weight workout afterwards.  I headed for home around 9:30 a.m. with enough time to shower and make it to church.  I alerted Savannah that this would be my new Sunday morning routine.

I did some yard work after church and began preparation for the Sunday family meal, but everything was designed to fit around my ‘double’.  It was very windy and in the fifties, so when I suited up for a bike ride, I put on a long-sleeved t-shirt.  I had less than two hours if I was to have dinner ready for everyone, so I rode my Waite Hill loop minus the climb over Mulberry and returned home with an hour to get things ready.  I felt surprisingly good for back to back rides – the first since Tour Ohio last fall.  I’ve got some catching up to do and I know the coming week will be filled with raking leaves and other tasks after work.  The time is coming though when I will have the schedule cleared to work out every evening and I’m looking forward to that.

Bike Workout: One hour and 50 minutes.  Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120 on the bike and 100-150 for SW.
Calories Burned: 1540 on bike and 600 on SW.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

New directions...

Saturday, October 25, 2014
I started the day by meeting Savannah in the park to take the dogs on a 3-mile hike before heading to Mimi’s and a cup of coffee while discussing the events of the previous week.  They were numerous and eventful.  On Tuesday, October 21st, I’d been forced to stand in front of a judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas to have my marriage of 39 years dissolved.  It was not what I’d wanted, but Holly had decided to move on with someone else and there was no stopping her.  I’d given it my best effort for 18 months, but she was determined. 

I made it to Saturday on pilot, but I had made a conviction to myself to get going on the workouts again.  I’d been using the excuse that I was doing physical work by day and then more on my extra jobs and therefore was staying in shape.  It was true to a large degree, but I missed the pump of the workout and the riding.  I needed to get them going again.

I raked for two hours at Mimi’s before heading to meet Savannah at her new town house to unload a sofa with Jason and get the remainder of the heavier furniture.  We carried it in and then went for the bed, dresser, table and other miscellaneous items.  After sweating and carrying, I returned to Mimi’s to pick up on the raking, but the winds were so strong that the leaves were completely uncooperative.  We gave up.

I got home and immediately suited up for a ride.  Since I hadn’t ridden in a month and only several times all summer, the prudent thing to do would have been my 25-mile loop.  Prudent yes, but not the Cowboy way.  I rode into Waite Hill and turned east for Kirtland and my Mulberry route.  It was hilly, windy and had me quite fatigued as I rolled the last of 32 miles into the driveway feeling pretty good about myself.  I needed to fit exercise in.  It defines a large part of the person I am.  There is always time if I’m willing to give something up.

Bike Workout: Two hours.  Hike:  One hour.
Training Heart Rate: 120 bpm biking.  75 hiking.
Calories Burned: 1700 biking.  375 hiking.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Heading for home...

Monday, October 20, 2014

Sunday – eight days ago:  I’d climbed into my tent the previous evening as a slight rain was falling.  This forced me to pull the rain fly over the tent knowing that again, I would miss the opportunity to see a North Country big sky.  I turned on my head lamp, picked up a copy of Pat Conroy’s ‘The Lords of Discipline’ and read for an hour before falling asleep.

It had cleared overnight and as I packed my tent for the trip home, I imagined I might catch some good pictures along the way.  I made my way to the Noon Mark for one final meal for 2014 before driving north to the spot of my favorite crumbling red barn in a field just off SR 73.  With a frost on the ground and an early morning mist rising off the meadow, mountains flushed in autumn colors in the background, it provided an excellent photo opportunity.

I drove home through the mountains making numerous stops to photograph beautiful lakes and streams.  I made Utica around 10:30 and was home by 4 p.m.

It was a short, hurried trip and yet seemed to accomplish all its goals.  I’d had time alone to think about my next move in my personal life while getting some great time with my cousin and a chance to discover two more scenic, lightly used trails.  It was family dinner night and thankfully the girls had put it together and all I had to do was eat.  I’m hoping in the coming weeks that side jobs after work will settle down and I can again get into some pattern of exercise.  I’ve gone a summer riding only 5 times, which is an all-time low for me…ever.  Though I’ve maintained fitness from the physical nature of my work, I still miss the pump and buzz of doing a tough workout.  Once all the leaves have fallen and been raked into the woods or the curb, storms put in and water turned off, I should be good to go.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Eating and hiking...

Friday, October 17, 2014

The previous Saturday:  I slept soundly in my favorite parking lot with no cars coming in the night to disturb my sleep.  That’s what happens when you arrive at 1:45 in the morning, I suppose.  Unfortunately, there was cloud cover and no stars, but also no rain.

I knew Donnie was planning on arriving at the Noon Mark around 9 a.m. and since he drives like a ninety-year old lady, it would likely be later than that.  I anticipated a big crowd there for breakfast and didn’t want to tie up a table for too long, so I waited until 8 to drive over.  I have a particular table I like to use when I’m there; it’s a 4-top but smaller and has an outlet under the table that works, which allows me to recharge my phone.  And my phone was d.e.a.d.  When I walked into the diner, I found a young couple sitting at my table.  They appeared to be finishing up, but no matter.

“Hi there…excuse me.  You seem to be eating at MY table,” I said.

They looked at me, puzzled.  “Um…we didn’t…what?” the man said.

“My table.  This is my table and I’m here and you’re sitting at it and either you’ll need to get up or I’ll sit in that empty chair next to you,” I said.

“We come here all the time and I’ve never seen you before,” she said.

“I live in Ohio and I come here about four times a year and when I do, I sit here so I can charge my phone and see the door so I know when my cousin – or cute chicks – are coming in.  And now I’m here.”

I stood there staring and in the awkward silence, they blinked.  Grabbing their check and belongings, they proceeded to the cashier and I sat down in their mess.  Well…at least that’s what I think happened.

Donnie arrived around 9:15 and I ordered a Western omelet and three pieces of rye toast.  Mindy, granddaughter of the owner and part-owner herself, was our waitress.  Her Aunt Rosie was working the other room and not looking too happy.  Maybe the force of my arrival had bothered her.  The place was bustling so I didn’t engage poor Mindy in my normal, light intellectual banter but instead, let her work.  I did warn her that we’d be taking a short hike and likely returning for lunch in the early afternoon.  I could sense her pleasure in having me there for two meals in the same day – a natural reaction.

I knew Donnie was not looking to hike ‘up’ anything and he somehow got the idea we’d be hiking horizontally from something I’d said, though I’m unclear as to exactly how he got that impression.

“We’ll just take an easy hike on something horizontal,” I said as we walked out of the diner.

“You promise?”  He knew me.

“Of course…sure,” I replied as we climbed in the car for the drive to the Au Sable Club parking lot and a hike to Cathedral Rock.

But when we arrived at the parking lot, it was loaded to overflowing with cars lined half a mile to either side of the entrance on Rt. 73.  There was nowhere to park and plan B kicked in.  “I’ll drive to Mt. Gilligan just outside of town.  It’s away from the leave-watching crowd and will likely be easy to get to,” I said.

We stopped to view a waterfall along the road and arrived at the trailhead parking lot to find only two cars there.  Perfect.

We hike about a quarter mile into the secluded woods past a private cabin before reaching the first of two steep inclines on the 1-mile hike to the peak.  I wasn’t sure if he’d noticed and I scrambled up quickly trying to make it look level.  Ten minutes later, he reached my perch at the top of the climb breathing heavily and limping on a sore knee.

“Really pretty views of the fall colors from just around that bend,” I said as a way of distracting him from what he’d done and still had to do.

“You son-of-a-bitch.  You did it again.  This isn’t FLAT!”

“It’s…I…um…well, shit Donnie – how could you think a hike on a trail with the word ‘mountain’ in it was going to be flat?  Besides – I’ve been lying to you for what, 58 years?  When will you ever learn,” I said.

He waited at that point while I continued the climb to the top.  There were some very good views and pictures and by the time I returned to his resting point, I’d broken a good sweat and was beginning to get my appetite back.  We returned to the car and drove back to Keene Valley for lunch, which consisted of soup and a smoothie.  Donnie got on the road after lunch, needing to return home to stoke his furnace.

It was only three, which allowed me enough time to climb something short.  I found what I needed, Baxter Mt., and made my way to the trailhead for an easy, 2-mile hike to its wonderfully scenic peak.  It is truly amazing just how much of a view you can achieve with simple, lightly-used trails.  The crowds head for the well-advertised, larger peaks and I get that, but it really isn’t necessary.  I shared mine with four other people where on Giant Mt., there were likely over 100 climbers that day.

I finished that day back at Noon Mark for dinner and some journal time.  It hadn’t been rigorous hiking, but had been so rewarding.  I was sure I’d gotten some excellent pictures and felt very pleased with the 12 hours of daylight I’d enjoyed in the mountains.
Hike duration: Three hours.
Training Heart Rate: 90 bpm.
Calories Burned: 750.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

It's a go...

Wednesday, October 15, 2014
The previous Friday:  I drove to work still undecided about the Adirondacks.  I hated to spend all that money on gas just for a 24-hour trip and yet I knew I needed it.  I had some important thinking to do and felt the best place to get it done was around a campfire alone with a big sky overhead.  In any event, the car was packed with everything I needed to hit the road right after work.

By three o’clock I was sure.  I drove home to say goodbye to Savannah and do a couple of chores and then hit the open road by 4 p.m.  According to my GPS, I would be arriving in Keene Valley a little past midnight.  Normally, that would mean the public parking lot and sleeping next to my car under the stars, but I’d found a campsite just off the road  ten minutes south of Keene Valley on my last trip and was planning on going there and setting up my tent.

It was a playoff night and without an audio book, I searched for a station that was covering the game.  Kansas City was playing Baltimore and looking tough after sweeping the Angels in the second round.  I was rooting for them since they were from our division and had nosed the Indians out of the playoffs.  There is something quite soothing in listening to a well-called baseball game on the radio – for me anyway.  I enjoy it more than watching and maybe it is just the return to my youth and the days of summer when a game would be playing somewhere as people in the neighborhood enjoyed whatever they were doing while listening to the play-by-play.

I exited I 90 in Utica and began the trek north on State Route 8 – a winding, scenic, smoothly paved road that passed through picturesque Adirondack towns and by many clear mountain lakes and streams.  It was 10 p.m. and pitch black, so I was seeing none of it, though.  I was traveling along at 60 mph when suddenly a large, beautiful buck ran across the road and into my headlights.  I pulled hard to the left and the car swerved and slid to avoid the animal.  I may have clipped his back leg, but was too busy correcting the vehicle back onto the road to have any knowledge of his condition.  Heart pumping, I managed to gain control of the car and, with added caution, continued north.  I pulled into the last open gas station in Poland, NY and filled up.  As I left the station listening to the game, I thought I heard and unusual sound coming from under the car.  Stopping and rolling down the window, I heard more clearly the all too familiar sound of a flat tire.  Fortunately, I had enough air to return to the station and change the tire.  One very nice thing about the Toyota Corolla is the spare is the standard sized tire for the car, not one of those silly doughnut things.  I had to empty the entire contents of my drunk, jammed with tools and camping gear, onto the parking lot to reach that lovely spare though and, in 20 minutes, was back on the road.

The game went into extra innings and kept me company almost to my destination with KC winning in the tenth.  I pulled off the road about 1 a.m. quite exhausted and ready to crash.  To my surprise, someone had discovered my secret, hidden tent site and so I turned around and drove into Keene Valley and the public parking lot where I’d spent many a night sleeping next to my car waiting for dawn and a trip to the Noon Mark Diner for breakfast.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Should I go to the Adirondacks?

Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The previous Thursday:  I’d wanted to go to the Adirondacks to see the fall colors the previous weekend, but the weather forecast was horrible and I decided to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Cape Vincent instead.  It was now getting quite late in the season; temperatures were dropping into the 30’s in the mountains overnight, but I checked the weekend forecast and it called for sunny weather in the fifties on Saturday.  I could drive up Friday after work and arrive there around midnight and then have all day Saturday to hike and snap pictures before driving home on Sunday, but was it worth all that driving for 12 hours of daylight in the mountains? 

“I’m thinking of driving up there tomorrow night,” I told my cousin Donnie when I reached him.  “Can you make it down for a night and a couple of meals at Noon Mark?”

“I could be there for the day, but I have to get back to stoke the furnace so I can’t camp out,” he said.  For him, it was a little over a two-hour drive to Keene Valley, but, like me, he knew it would be worth the trip.  He warms his house with firewood and needed to be back in time to replenish the furnace.  Living that far north means a long heating season.

“I’m ninety percent sure I’m driving up after work tomorrow so I’ll call you when I’m on the road to let you know for sure.  I think I need a day in the mountains to do some thinking and writing.  And I need a couple of home-cooked meals at Noon Mark,” I said.

I spent the day at the farm trying to do some rather physical work to make up for the fact that I wouldn’t have time for a workout that night.  I dug some fence postholes by hand, which did the trick and then went to work one of my evening jobs after, cutting a lawn.  I still had a little daylight once done with the lawn and went for a hike around the Metroparks doing a mental inventory of my gear as I walked.  Inevitably, I would get up North and find I’d left something back home.  A two-day trip didn’t need too much planning though I had to have my camera, sleeping gear, tent, the right clothes, my writing material,  headlight, some food, and some money.  Everything else was a luxury.  I didn’t have a functioning CD player in the car and so I would be without audio books, which was a concern.  I’d need to entertain myself for eight hours and though I am fascinating company, it was a long time.  I drove home and began the process of packing the car with everything I would need if I decided to go.  I was still uncertain when I climbed into bed.

Monday, October 13, 2014

It's been while...

Monday, October 13, 2014

Has it been that long since I last wrote?  So much has happened in the interim.  I left the YMCA and started working at Fieldstone Farm doing the job my brother Jim was managing when he died four years ago.  My son got married to a lovely lady.  I’ve been to the Adirondacks twice and my right heel has been hurting since it started to give me greater problems on August 12th, the date of my last entry.  Let’s back up a couple of days to getting started again.

It was Wednesday night and Jack was asking me to do a Survival Workout.  I met him at the park and we went through a pretty rigorous workout, particularly for someone who hasn’t worked out hardly at all for several months.  The workout did not prove too difficult considering the layoff and I can only attribute that to the very physical nature of the work I’ve been performing both on the job and during my side jobs I do in the evenings and on the weekends.  It’s been pretty much seven days a week for that same period of time during which I think I’ve done two Survival’s and two bike rides and that’s it.

“You have to start working out again, dad, and you have to start writing, too.  It’ll make you feel better,” Jack said as we worked our way down the trail to another station. 

We also discussed the Paleo Diet.  He is very interested in eating healthier and knows he is a victim of whatever is in the house. “If we have good stuff, I’ll eat it,” he said.  And he will.  With Savannah moving out in two weeks, it will be just the two of us and the perfect chance to figure out a new eating pattern.  “We’ll go shopping as soon as we eat all the crap that is in the refrigerator now – I’m not throwing food away,” I said.

I had an excellent pump when we returned to the car and Jack mentioned how I need to walk with my shoulders back and chest out – like he does.  “You’ve got to show off a little otherwise what’s the point of working out?”

“Well…it makes me feel good,” I said.  He grinned like, sure, that’s a good enough reason, dad.  He may be doing it for the girls.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600.