"It's the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off your shoulders..."

Sunday, December 6, 2015

I cheated over the weekend.  More than once.  I ate French toast twice and then went to Savannah’s for dinner where I scarfed down five pieces of pizza.  I did not drink any milk however, and so the sum total of my dairy consumption for the past week has been the cheese on the pizza.

My stomach has been better.  There were not repercussions from the gluten or small amount of dairy.  I will continue with the diet however, and then introduce dairy with about a gallon of milk over the course of a day to see what reaction my body has.  At this point, I’m wondering if I didn’t have some kind of temporary stomach ailment that cleared itself up over time.  I’m happy to be on the diet though, and feel my choices are much healthier in the long run.  I have now gone nine days without dessert!  Utter madness.

I drove back to Ohio and straight to the North Chagrin Reservation where I exited the car, stretched the legs from the five-hour drive, and began doing push-ups.  I maxed at seventy and went through the entire routine, struggling to hit reps on the second and third sets.  My strength is down, but my commitment level is up.  In a short time, I will be on track and back to normal.  I received a call from Alaska Paul at about the time I returned to my car. 

“Hey Paul…trying to reach you to talk about my trip on the Continental Divide.  Two more people were attacked by a grizzly in the Canadian Rockies and I’ve been thinking about whether I should carry a hand gun when in grizzly country for that hike,” I said.

“Hmm…Wyoming, Montana…yeah, definitely heavy grizzly country.  I carry a .44 magnum, but it’s heavy.  Maybe seven pounds loaded?” he said.

“Holy shit! That’s heavier than my pack (empty, that is)!”

“Yeah…maybe I’m off on that weight, but it’s heavy.  Still…not much else will stop a grizzly that’s anywhere near easy to carry for twenty miles a day,” he concluded.

“Maybe I’ll just have you walk with me and you can shoot them if they come for us,” I replied.

And he is very likely to join me for part or all of the trip.  I’m also hoping others from my life will walk part of the journey, as well.  Kim, John, Kathy, Donnie, Eric and others have expressed an interest and it would make the walk that much more epic.  I could also get them to resupply me along the way…not a bad ‘two for the price of one’.

I still have my sights set on Minnesota and walking a 400-mile trek some time over the next two years.  It will be the perfect trip to determine what I need to carry and how my body will react.  Testing gear is so important to a long distance hike and that would be the ideal situation.  Patience is all I need right now.  That, and to be retired.

Survival Workout: 60 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600.