Wednesday,
June 19, 2019
Day
19: Another rough sleeping night. I have to apologize to my neighbor who hears
me coughing in the night. She brings me
food to help me through and I’m thinking of recording the cough and playing it
in the window at night after I'm better so she keeps feeding me.
I came home from work early and
reclined for a nap. That lasted for a
couple of hours after which I began to get the itch. ‘What would a little bike ride matter? I’ll just go easy,’ I thought.
I changed into cycling attire
and headed out the door for what turned into a 35-mile ride. I really did keep it easy the whole time and
it was a sunny, beautiful afternoon so that made it almost mandatory for
riding. I took the paved bike trail from
Peninsula to Brecksville which goes through some amazing ledge formations. As I rode I couldn’t help but think how lucky
I was to have this riding environment with no fear of getting mowed over by a
texting driver.
I met up with Kimberly along
the way and she pushed hard for 18 miles.
She’s really a novice rider, just learning how to use the gearing to
make her life of riding easier, but has a natural tendency to push herself and
is already doing well. I’ve told her how
good cycling can be for those all-important Adirondack hiking and climbing
muscles, not to mention the cardio endurance, and she gets it. I have reminded her it’s only to augment the
all-important hikes with the packs on our backs, which she also embraces. She’s an easy and excellent student recognizing
the expertise and brilliance of my leadership in these matters.
She mentioned how she’d passed
a large turtle crossing the path recently and it wasn’t too much later that she
was hopping off her bike for a picture session with a beautiful box turtle that
had made its way onto the path.
I returned home quite exhausted
from the effort. I really need to take a
break and let this bronchitis thing work its way out of me, but I can’t seem to
convince myself that it will happen any faster if I just lay around. I’m not sure it will…
Bike:
Two hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 140 biking.
Calories
Burned: 1,500.
Bonus:
23,000 steps
Tuesday,
June 18, 2019
Day
18: I really don’t think streaks are a good
thing. They tend to lead to poor
decisions about resting minor aches, which can lead to more debilitating
injuries. Having said that, when you’re
competitive and in the middle of one, your good sense seems to be less noticeable. Like me, for instance.
I woke up through much of the
last couple of nights coughing. It has
turned into bronchitis, which can severely limit the lungs capacity for heavy
breathing and cardiovascular exercise…the stuff I try to do daily.
I went into work on a poor night’s
sleep and feeling horrible. Co-workers
gave me a wide berth as I continued to hack up my lungs. I had a water test that had to be done and
delivered to the lab, but after completing that I headed for home and some
rest. I arrived by noon and napped on
the couch, but with the sun out – a rarity these past few months – and my grass
getting out of control, I opted to start up the mower and cut the stuff. My lawn, being the size of a loaf of bread,
was done in twenty minutes. Dakota
though, would have none of my returning to the couch and guilt overcame me…as
well as a driving need to keep the streak alive.
I drove to an old 5-mile
training trail I’d used so often while preparing for the Adirondack hike last
fall. I could have just done the hike
without the pack, but that would have meant the end of the streak so I strapped
it on. The fifty pounds felt like ninety
as I headed in and up. The first mile of
the hike is mostly uphill and it took its toll.
Breathing hard when I made the top, I paused to catch my breath before
continuing what would feel like a death march before I arrived back at the car
two hours later. I was drenched in
sweat, but I hadn’t been coughing while hiking so I had that going for me.
Hike:
Two hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-100 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 900.
Bonus:
22,000 steps
Monday,
June 17, 2019
Day 17 in a row: Though I’d been running a low grade fever,
coughing and nursing a sore throat since Friday, I was sure if I just kept
going, it would finally disappear. Hmm…
The skies were gray and the
forecast was for rain, but it seemed to be holding off and I wanted to work in
a ride. I was supposed to meet Kimberly
for a picture taking hike at five, so that didn’t leave me enough time for my
35-mile route. I hurried out the door
with the bike so I could get in as many miles as possible, though.
I know I’ve been riding a in
more relaxed fashion for the last several years. It shows whenever I try to go hard as my
thighs begin to throb and beg me to slow down.
Once upon a time, that would be the signal to ride harder and push
through. It was the necessary ingredient
to making me a stronger, faster rider.
And for pain.
I’m tired of that I’ve been
telling myself. But on this particular
ride I found myself up out of the saddle and pushing hard on every rise in the
road. I was in the profile bars and
pushing harder on the flats, as well. I
was thinking about how I used to time every ride and have time records for the
different courses I rode, only being satisfied when I approached or broke those
records. I was thinking I needed a
stopwatch and should do that again. All
these thoughts were occurring to me as I hacked up a lung and spit phlegm to
the ground.
It was an exhausting 2-hour
ride. My lovely neighbor noticed me
pulling in the drive at the completion and asked me to come over for chicken
and a salad. I had about twenty minutes
to spare and it was such a kind offer that I couldn’t refuse. I showered, changed and joined her on her
porch.
As soon as I sat down, she
looked at me and said, “You look sad lately.
Is something wrong?”
How perceptive people who know
you well can be. We don’t see a lot of
each other, but enough that she had noticed something I hadn’t even noticed
myself – a change in behavior. I
explained about Miggie as she held my hand and teared up. “It is what it is and there is nothing I can
do,” I concluded.
I picked up Kimberly…and her
bike for some minor repairs…and headed for Brandywine Falls. Though the water flow was down, it was still
an impressive volume crashing over the rocks and cascading 65 feet to the pool
below. After several pictures, we headed
back to my place to get Dakota and walk the Towpath to the Beaver Marsh. The river had receded back into the banks,
but the trail still had significant puddles.
We sat at the marsh and photographed a Great Blue Heron, among other
things. We talked about her training
program and the need to amp it up if she was to be ready to climb Giant in the
Adirondacks this September.
“You need one really hard day
every week and that hell day is going to be spent with me so I make sure it
happens,” I told her. On the bike, with
a backpack climbing multiple hills or steps and maybe even some jogging, but I am
going to make sure she doesn’t start up that mountain unprepared. I love guinea pigs.
Bike:
Two hours.
Hike:
40 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 140 biking and 70 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 1850.
Bonus:
22,000 steps
Sunday,
June 16, 2019
Father’s Day…and rain day.
It had been raining all night
and much of the past several days so when my daughter Heidi texted about
kayaking, I told her it was out of the question.
‘How about breakfast at Molly
Brown’s then?’ she texted back.
Not a bad alternative. I ate large and after dropping her off and
hanging out indoors for several hours while the rains continued, decided it was
time to say ‘screw the rain’ and do something anyways. My streak of consecutive days was at 14 and I
wasn’t going to let wet stop me…though it would alter my mode. I’d done a 30-mile ride on Friday and a
five-mile hike with a 50-pound pack on Saturday, having upped the weight since
it’s been a month since I started carrying it again.
I knew from finding roads
closed as I’d driven to Heidi’s place earlier that the Cuyahoga River was at
record levels and flooding was occurring everywhere. I packaged up my cellphone in a ziplock bag,
put on my running gear, and headed for the Towpath and a trip to the Beaver
Marsh and the bridge over Ira Road to get some pics of the flooding. Once on the Towpath, I didn’t get far before
running into a breach by the river of the bank.
The water was flowing at record levels and the Towpath was underwater by
several inches. I took some pictures and
decided that walking through ankle deep water towards the marsh was probably
not a good idea.
I continued my run in the
opposite direction, splashing through the puddles and enjoying every step. It was extremely humid and I was sweating
buckets, but everything on my body felt fine and I continued to go for thirty
minutes. I’d have to look back in my
blog, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t gone that far in over a year. I’ve now run a couple of times a week for the
past three weeks and I’m getting close to moving my runs to every other day
before going back to back. Though I’m
pushing the time of individual runs out more than I probably should, I am
taking plenty of rest time between runs and it seems to be working.
The rain continued throughout
the day and the forecast is for lots more over the rest of the coming
week. I’m planning a photo shoot hike
for tonight and hoping to get some interesting shots of the power of raging
water.
Run:
30 minutes.
Hike:
40 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 150 running and 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 750.
Bonus:
12,500 steps
Thursday,
June 13, 2019
I arrived home planning to do a
run before John arrived for a hike with packs.
As I climbed from the car, I felt the pain of yesterday’s step-ups
throughout my legs. I’d only done 100, but
the logs I’d chosen on which to do them were high and I hadn’t done any since last fall. Still…I thought all the hiking with a pack
and the bike riding would have spared me this soreness. Wrong.
My running as a 64-year old who
hasn’t run consistently in eight years always begins with aches throughout my
lower body. I’ve come to expect this and
start slowly; with trepidation. By the
time I was actually on the towpath however –about two minutes of running – I
was feeling pretty loose and pain-free.
I ran down the trail for 12 minutes before turning and heading
back. I did a little extra near the
house to bring my total run time to 25 minutes.
I felt like I could have gone much longer.
So…note to self…be
cautious. Yes…the cycling and hiking
with a pack has given me good conditioning for running, but I could easily
overdo it and end up with an overuse injury because it feels easy right now.
The rains had been falling all
day and I suspected we’d have trouble getting in a hike. John was running late getting out of downtown
and had forgotten to bring his stuff to hike.
He would need to go home before coming to my place. I could see it was likely not going to
happen, so I took Dakota for a two-mile hike, without my pack, so I could make
my 20,000 steps for the day. I’m kind of
caught up in a streak that has me at 11 consecutive days over 20K, something I’ve
only done twice before. My record is 17
days, which is a long way off with a weekend full of thunderstorms predicted.
We ate spaghetti and Butter Boy
only had two pieces of garlic bread, which I had not slathered in the
quantities of butter he would have liked.
I only had two sticks anyways.
I ate the doughnut from the
Middlefield bakery I’d brought for him to sample; it was really a test to see
if he’d eat it and he passed, after he left.
I can see that I’m losing weight so I figured I could handle it.
Run:
25 minutes.
Hike:
40 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 150 running and 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 650.
Bonus:
20,000 steps
Tuesday,
June 11, 2019
“The Indians suck. They just SUCK!” John said as we ate our
dinners watching the game at Fishers.
We’d done a 3-mile hike with
our packs on and then come for dinner.
He is not very happy with the 2019 Indians, mostly because of all the
disappointments we’ve suffered as fans since losing the World Series in extra
innings in 2016.
“They just knocked off the
Yankees and the Twins in back-to-back series and they’re over .500 by three
games,” I said. “They don’t suck, they
just aren’t playing as well as you’d like them to.”
He finally acknowledged this
and we went back to planning for our trip to the Adirondacks we will be taking
with his son Henry the first week of August.
“If we’re going in the
backcountry and climbing multiple peaks, you have GOT to get rid of that gut,
Butter Boy,” I had admonished him a couple of weeks earlier while eating
spaghetti at my place. He’d taken a
piece of bread and slathered it with more butter than I would use on a loaf.
“I like butter,” he said in
defense.
“Tell me about it when you’re
puking out half way up Dix Mt.,” I said.
Since that time, he’s been good about biking and hiking, though still
eating his ice cream and butter.
I have continued my own
reclamation. Though only running once in the last week, a 22-minute effort, I’ve ridden the bike or walked
with the pack every day for two weeks. I
hope to knock off four peaks above 4,000 feet on our trip in August on the same
day and that means being in good shape.
If I manage to do that, I’ll have notched 40 of the 46 peaks over 4,000
in the Adirondacks and close to my goal of becoming a 46’er…someone who has
done them all.
John is due over tonight and I
hope to ride before he gets there and then hike five miles with forty pounds
strapped on. I’m staying focused on
fitness.
Hike:
One hour.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 500.
Bonus:
24,000 steps
Wednesday,
June 5, 2019
A little over a week ago, a
woman I have been seeing for three years let me know that she no longer sees
any point since she will never feel strongly enough about me to want to spend
the rest of our lives together. “You’ve
been better to me than anyone ever has in my life and I love you. You deserve better than me, though.”
In other words…I’m done, she
said. What I deserve ought to be my
decision and I’d chosen her. But as life
has thrown me these curves since my wife of 39 years met her soul mate seven
years ago, I have to figure out a way to understand and deal with my new
reality. Because I am happy with who I
am, for the most part, I will be able to do this. A good friend shared a poem with me about
people being in our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When I put what has happened with my
different relationships in this context, I recognize that these people were in
my life for a reason – to help me move onto the next phase of my life possibly,
or a season – a period of time that could end because they weren’t meant to be
with me for a lifetime. Sadly for me, I
would have liked to have had more than one of them in my life for a lifetime,
but never had control of the issue. I
don’t think I ever will.
Having said all that, I am
taking this opportunity to reclaim my body and get back to the training I was
doing in preparation for the travels and road I will be walking in the
future. Two days ago, I pulled my first
double. I had ridden the bike 35 miles
on Saturday and Sunday and my legs were feeling it. Monday I chose to hike 3 miles with my pack
loaded to about 35 pounds, which I’ve been doing for three weeks, as a kind of ‘break’
day. On Tuesday, I rode 30 miles when I
first got home, but then took Dakota, strapped on the pack, and did another
3-mile, hilly hike. I felt every step in
my weary thighs as I climbed those hills.
Yesterday unfolded with a plan
to meet John, who is also in a heightened state of training as we plan our
summer climbs in the Adirondacks, to hike a longer, more difficult trail with
packs strapped on. The weather, however,
had different ideas. We had received
another deluge during the afternoon hours and the trails would be extremely
muddy and not particularly safe. It was
raining when I got home, but a warm and gentle rain (though thunder was booming
in the distance), so I laced up my running shoes and headed out for a
ten-minute run. I need to start back
slowly on running, but I have every intention of making myself a runner
again. More on that later. As the rain fell and I splashed through the
puddles on the Towpath, I felt invigorated.
I also wanted to see how high the waters had gotten in the Cuyahoga
River. So I did what I so often do…threw
out caution and ended up running 20 minutes.
I followed it with a two-mile hike in that same gentle, warm rain
viewing a large female snapping turtle making her way to her nesting ground.
By the time John arrived, I was
more than exhausted and we elected to go with a short hike to the Beaver Marsh
in the Park and observe the flooding. It
was prolific and awe-inspiring.
So there. I’m pushing myself. I have been inspired again by events in my
life that saddened me and turned once more to my best antidote – exercise. I guess it could be ice cream and then I’d
weight several hundred pounds, so I’m grateful I lean the way I do. Life happens.
I’ll be fine.
Run:
20 minutes.
Hike:
One hour.
Training
Heart Rate: 150 running and 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 1000.
Bonus:
23,000 steps
Saturday,
February 16, 2019
I went on a three-mile hike
with Dakota because I was meeting with an old friend, Jeff, and his wife Katie,
for a four-mile hike into Fisher’s later in the day so that we could discuss
their current conditioning and nutrition program and she wouldn’t be able to
join us for that. Jeff is the person I
referred to in a recent posting who had, as so many people do, used the scale
as his barometer for success (or failure) in achieving his fitness related
goals. He had lost a considerable amount of weight, but had let his efforts slip after hearing from friends and family how good he looked and thinking, 'yeah - I'm done'. Over the next couple of years, it all returned. He has come to realize the error
in his ways and he and Katie are both all about the lifestyle changes that are
what matters and how they make the real difference in the long run.
“Forget the scale, Jeff. You’re still too focused on it. Realize that if you continue to pursue an
active lifestyle – because you LIKE it – and eat in the sensible and modified
way you’re now doing, weight will fall off over time, your clothes will fit
differently and most importantly, you’ll be in the game and not a spectator,” I
said.
He nodded agreement. We spent most of our time hiking and later
eating, discussing goal setting. I
stressed how important I believe it is to have an event in mind that forces you
to condition yourself if you are to complete it in a satisfying manner. “That’s why I challenge myself with 130-mile
hikes and 1,100 mile bike rides around the state of Ohio. I want to do them and can’t unless I train
hard and for a long period of time.”
It just works. Finding the right thing is the trick. I told them both I’d love to have them join
me this fall for a hike and climb in the Adirondacks. They are outdoor people and if they don’t
take me up on it, I think they’ll challenge themselves with some other event
that will serve the same purpose. I have
no doubt they will succeed. They are
focused and they have experienced what happens to their lives when they aren’t.
Hike:
Two hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 800.
Bonus:
25,000 steps
Friday,
February 15, 2019
Over 230 years ago, some guys
got together who we now refer to collectively as our ‘founding fathers’, fought
a war of independence with Great Britain, started a new country and designed a
system of government outlined in a document call the United States Constitution
to see if they could make a representative, democratic system actually
work. Every American citizen living
today who went through the primary school system has likely (if they were
listening) heard that their government was all about ‘checks and balances’ and
made up of three branches so that no King or dictator-like person would ever be
able to call the shots and rob them of freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights, amended to continue to protect those freedoms as time
challenges and changes what we knew then about such things. This is all a long-winded way of my saying
that whether I agree with, support, or acknowledge President Trump as the legal
leader of our Executive Branch of government, I will NEVER agree with his
latest policy/attempt to circumvent the will of the majority of Americans, as
represented by our Legislative Branch – Congress – to declare a ‘National
Emergency’ and take the funds he needs to fulfill a campaign promise of
building a wall (funded by Mexico for those who want to get technical and refer
back to what he ACTUALLY promised) on our southern border with Mexico. He is being challenged legally as he moves
forward, stripping the dollars to support military projects already vetted by
the Pentagon and Congress, to get the money he wants for ‘his’ wall. He will also be challenged by members of both
political parties in Congress as even Republicans do not like a trend towards
an Executive that can get around the Legislative branch to spend money and do
what it wants even when Congress has declared the intentions of the American
citizens it is sworn to represent.
Anyway…never a dull moment with Mr. Trump as president.
I came home from work Friday
with the intention of running with only one day’s rest. Is it too soon to put them that close together? Probably.
Did it stop me from suiting up and heading out the door to attempt a
15-minute run? Hardly.
The towpath was frozen like
concrete – something I try to avoid when running for the last thirty years, but
options were limited. As I began to run,
I paid special attention to all the things happening to my body that were
indicators that a running life at 63 was different. I find it harder to catch my breath as my
body ramps up from a resting pulse of 55 to a steady heart rate of 150 beats
per minute for the run. The lifting and
lowering of my rib cage, brought on by increased respiration and the aches in
my low back, ankles, hips and knees were all in evidence for the first five
minutes. Slowly, as the blood pumped
through my body, redistributing itself to the parts that were now working the
hardest, I began to feel like my old running self. I was moving slowly, but didn’t care; only
wanting to complete the time with no serious damage – particularly to my left
foot’s plantar tendons. When I reached
15 minutes and still felt reasonably good, I began walking and cooling
down. Though I could experience pains
later, I was happy at that moment.
Dakota and I went from my run
right into her hike and completed another four miles over the next hour. I kept the running shoes on as it is my hope
that they will continue to form to my gate the more I wear them. For now, all is right in my exercising world.
Run:
15 minutes.
Hike:
One hour.
Training
Heart Rate: 150 running and 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 800.
Bonus:
23,000 steps
Wednesday,
February 13, 2019
I began my second run of my
return to ‘runner’ status with some soreness in my legs. And it wasn’t the soreness from exercising,
rather more of what I’m referring to as ‘old man’ soreness.
Yes…I’m conceding that my body
suffers from aging. I know that the
aches I suffer in my hips, elbows, and hands, to name a few, are the result of
aging. Sure…I could stretch more and do
exercises to prevent these things, but I didn’t used to have to. It’s just that I’m there now. Anyways, I began running and felt soreness in
my ankle and leg that I knew would go away and so I continued on. The towpath was icy and I used caution as I
ran to the farmer’s market for my turn-around.
I was planning to just run the same distance as I had on the first day,
and though that would have been sensible, it wouldn’t have been the cowboy way,
so I continued on for two additional minutes for a total of 13 after which I hiked
several miles with Dakota.
Pitchers and catchers reported
to their big league Spring training camps yesterday and so, despite edicts from
our knucklehead president about walls, national emergencies, and what an amazing
human being he is, all is right with the world again. “Baseball, I think, is the greatest sport,”
stated the legendary Babe Ruth as part of his farewell speech and a truer
statement was never uttered. As I march
the final months towards my retirement and think and plan for all the things I
would like to do, seeing all of the minor league ballparks moves closer to the
top of the list. Hopefully I will be
dragging John, Donnie and Paul along for the ride because I think it is
something worth doing and writing about and will create memories that will last
the rest of our lives.
Run:
13 minutes.
Hike:
One hour.
Training
Heart Rate: 140 running and 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 800.
Bonus:
21,000 steps
Sunday,
February 10, 2019
“How do you know why a pair of
shoes was returned?” I asked the REI associate.
“It’s here…on the ticket. It says, ‘returned because they fit differently
at home’,” she read.
I was looking for a good pair
of running shoes and had been put off by the $120-plus price tags on the new
stuff. I was heading for the door to go
to Dick’s for something cheaper when I’d spotted the ‘garage sale’ room. REI has a fabulous return policy for all
members, which costs $20 and lasts the rest of your life. Bring anything back, regardless of how worn
and used, for up to one year and receive a full refund. They take these items and put them out for
sale at more than 50% off for bargain hunters like me.
I tried on the shoes which were
like new and walked around in them. I
was looking for something with a lot of arch support to help combat my tendency
towards plantar fasciitis injuries. And
all of this because, as I head towards retirement, have decided I’m too young
to retire from running.
Running – or ‘a runner’, which
am I and what’s the difference? Anyone
who runs for exercise or as a sport knows.
There are plenty of people who run as part of an exercise routine, but
because it isn’t their only form of exercise and don’t do it religiously, will
say that they run but don’t call themselves runners.
For many years, I was ‘a runner’. It began when I joined the track team in
ninth grade, thinking I was fast and would be doing something in the sprint
events. I found out quickly I possessed
simply average speed. The head coach
sent the team out one balmy, early spring day to run five miles. Everyone except the distance runners groaned,
including me. I ran the first lap with
friends in the middle of the pack, but as they began to tire and drop back, I
moved up to join the distance runners.
By the third mile, I was leaving some of the distance guys behind and
running with the varsity. I finished
five miles with that group no worse for the wear and with a new understanding
of my running talents.
I’ve run marathons and competed
in triathlons. I’ve run over 70 miles in
a week and through the years managed to win a road race and win and place in my
age group several times. Nothing great,
but certainly above average and plenty good enough to be considered ‘a runner’.
Then injuries, other interests,
and father time set in. I enjoyed hiking
and backpacking, cycling, and kayaking so much and when I put the Survival
Workout into my routine, decided that the constant problem with injuries meant
I should give up running and stick to the things that didn’t seem to bang me up
so badly. Probably a good decision.
But once a runner, always a
runner and with all the runners I see in my new location in the Cuyahoga Valley
National Park, it’s hard not to dream of doing it again. And so, thinking how to do it correctly, I
found myself at REI.
I took the shoes home, laced
them up and dressed appropriately for a winter run, and headed for the
towpath. The plan in my head was to run
five minutes and stop. As I thought about
where I would be in five minutes, I changed that plan. I did, however, limit myself. I had done a run late last summer while
training for my hike of the Northville/Placid Trail. At that time, I was in good shape and when I
started to run one day, found it to be so easy that I went for 30 minutes
before stopping. The next day my plantar
was inflamed and walking was difficult.
My goal was to avoid a repeat of that stupidity.
I jogged down to the farmer’s
market – about ¾ of a mile away, turned and came back. I ran a total of 11 minutes and called it a
day. I wasn’t done though, picking up
Dakota and doing a 6.5 mile hike. My
legs were sore afterwards, but it was that good kind of sore that was only
letting me know I’d done something, but not too much. I’ll wait three days and try it again,
sticking to the 11 minutes and very gradually moving it up. I will be ‘a runner’ again.
Run:
11 minutes.
Hike:
One hour and 45 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 140 running and 70-90 bpm hiking.
Calories
Burned: 850.
Bonus:
22,000 steps
Thursday,
January 17, 2019
“I think we have some mice in
the storage room,” Lisa said.
She keeps all kinds of
wonderful snacks for our many volunteers in a large room that also houses my
two main furnaces. She buys and stores
the food. I buy and store the mouse traps.
“They’ve been in the candy bar
bag here,” she pointed out as she began removing empty wrappers.
I counted as she pulled them
out and when she reached thirty, I knew we had a problem. Now…these are only the bite-sized variety…but
thirty? Either I had a mouse weighing
around twenty pounds and diabetic, or a village. Either way, it was going to be a challenge.
I set the traps with peanut
butter and both were cleaned out the next day without being triggered.
“Okay…it’s more than a
diabetic, fat mouse. I think it’s also a
very clever mouse…like Caesar from Planet of the Apes smart,” I told Lisa the
next day. Then it occurred to me. Snickers was the bar of choice by far and so
I loaded some of the gooey bar into two traps for the night. Next morning, I had one dead and one tripped,
but no mouse. There was a trail of blood
leading from the trap, though.
We were breeding a Super Mouse,
I feared.
Over the next several days, I
disposed of 12 mice and finally three days went by with no trap being disturbed
in any way. Epidemic over, I think, but
the possibility of a Super Mouse – too smart to mess with Snickers-laden traps
– has moved on to other hunting grounds.
I picked up Alaska Paul and
took him to Dodd’s Camera where he was purchasing a mini-camera for his
upcoming trip to Nepal. He will be
spending a week hiking above 17,000 feet and even visiting base camp for Mt.
Everest. Sherpas are mandatory and he
will only be carrying ten pounds a day, but at that elevation tying your shoes
can be exhausting. I have watched so
many different documentaries of climbs in that part of the world and have no
interest in the pain and agony, financial investment, time, and danger people
must put themselves through to be there and climb. Paul is doing his part on the cheap; just
hiking and camping at lower levels and taking in the beauty of the world’s
tallest peaks. He can only do what he
does at his age because he always takes care of himself. He maintains a trim weight, hikes, cycles,
kayaks, or runs daily. He is my hero
when it comes to retiring and seeing all the sites of the world he wants to
see. He’s checking off his bucket list,
and has been, for as long as I have known him and that goes back to high school.
We put in a four-mile hike
before returning to my place where he wolfed down two plates of spaghetti,
quinoa, and garlic bread. He always eats
like he’s been on a 7-day fast. He will
be in town for the week and so I’m thinking we’ll get in some more good
hikes. With a blizzard approaching,
hiking may be our only option.
Hike:
One hour.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 350.
Bonus:
22,000 steps
Wednesday,
January 16, 2019
Even I’m bored reading about
what I’m doing for workouts these days, so I can only imagine someone reading
because they WANT to. Better times are
coming and I’m going to keep on writing as continued motivation.
I did receive a satisfying not
from an old friend on Facebook yesterday.
It read as follows:
I have started up a serious
work out program once again and I am remembering the things you taught me when
you helped me out years ago. Back then I
was serious but I had a couple fatal flaws with my mind set. I viewed working
out as a near term goal to reach and I let everyone around who praised me for
losing all of my weight go to my head to where I left “I arrived” and
eventually I stopped taking care of myself as I should because I felt I reached
my goal. I am now viewing my health as a lifestyle change.
I
remember taking him to the woods for a Survival Workout and preaching to him
about goal setting and lifestyle changes.
Back then, as now, I need something specific to keep me on task. Yes…I like being fit, but can easily blow off
a workout when I don’t have something specific I’m targeting. Hence – trips to the Adirondacks, cycling
adventures and other challenges that help to keep me working out. My friend is realizing he needs the same and
it’s such a wonderful feeling to know that you’ve had a lasting, positive
impact on another’s life…and that they take the time to share it with you.
Dakota
and I weathered another cold night hiking in three inches of snow. Not too bad, but it certainly adds to the
effort. My heart rate walking usually
hovers in the seventies, but in the snow it is up at least ten beats. We did a short loop, but not before I’d
passed 20,000 steps for the third day in a row.
Tomorrow…Alaska Paul arrives.
Hike:
One hour.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 350.
Bonus:
22,000 steps
Tuesday,
January 15, 2019
Tuesday is rib night at Fisher’s
in downtown Peninsula and although it was in the lower 20’s, I decided my
workout was going to be a hike on the towpath into town for dinner.
The trip is four miles and it’s
flat as a pancake, but with snow and slippery conditions, it proved to be a
more difficult hike. One of the three
footbridges, closed a year ago for replacement, is still unfinished. If Trump gets his wish and if they start
building a wall because of the supposed ‘National Emergency’, I don’t think
this contractor should be involved. The
wall will take as long as it’s taking the Indians to win another World Series
with them on the job. In any event, I
got around the barrier and crossed on the temporary bridge, as all hikers have
for the past year.
The trail is a good place to
walk and think in the winter. There are
no worries about cyclists needing space to get around or even other hikers to
greet. I was alone and it was dark over
the last mile of the hike. I made it
into Peninsula in a little over 70 minutes, which is just a shade longer than
when the path is dry. I was actually
even sweating as I walked into the tavern to find Miggie, who was meeting me
for dinner and then driving me home.
As much as I enjoy walking, I
will again attest to the power of my Fitbit.
I wanted to hit 20,000 steps for the day and, along with half a slab of
ribs for only $8.99, was the motivator in taking the hike. I needed 9,000 steps when I got home and that
meant a hike of some five miles. Hence,
my trip into Peninsula.
Hike:
One hour and 10 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 400.
Bonus:
21,000 steps
Monday,
January 14, 2019
What makes one person want to
listen to live music from some loud and phenomenally talented rock band and
another just want to run from the room?
Why do some people love to watch game shows while others can’t change
the channel fast enough? What makes a
person neat and want to clean and another a version of Pig Pen?
People gravitate to things;
politics, religion, the arts, and in my case, the outdoors, for reasons I don’t
think we even consider, but simply accept and act upon. As my time for retirement draws closer, I
spend more of my hiking hours pondering what I’m going to do…and why. I don’t really know what drew me to want to
ride my bike to my grandparents in New York when I was 18. The 1,100-mile round trip effort was one of
the single most memorable things I have done in my life – many details of that
trip are still fresh whereas I can walk from one room to another and not
remember why I was going there. Then, I
believe, I was motivated by the challenge of it all, my love of cycling,
wanting to please my grandparents, and being able to brag about something I’d
done that most people couldn’t (or more accurately – wouldn’t). I have always enjoyed the spotlight and maybe
that was, and is, my greatest motivator?
If so, it moves me in a positive direction, I believe, for what bad can
come of keeping myself in shape hiking, cycling, kayaking, and
backpacking? I assure you that it all
leaves much time to go inside one’s head and ask these mostly unanswerable
questions. In any event, it makes me
feel good and I’ll keep doing it – and asking why.
I want to write in my
retirement and, not seeming to have a knack for making things up (many would
say all my factual writing is more fantasy, but that’s another story), I feel
like I need to write about what I know, which is what I have done, and so I
HAVE to do something challenging and interesting. I am wrestling with a new journey, one that
encompasses the important places and events in my life, and traveling that
route with my bike, kayak, and feet.
Retracing the steps I have taken in sixty-three years would take me from
Peninsula back through Highland Heights and Willoughby and on to Buchanan, New
York, my grandparents’ home town and the single most influential place in my childhood. From there, I would ride to Bristol, Ct., my
birthplace and home for eleven years, through New England on my way to
Gloversville and Cooperstown, New York, north through the Adirondacks to
Potsdam and Massena where my mother’s half of my family lived and lives, and
finally back to Ohio and maybe a swing around the entire state as I did with
Tour Ohio. I would certainly ride my
bike the route I took when I was 18, but opt to hike and kayak through the
Adirondacks on my want to Potsdam.
I don’t know who might find
reading about such a journey interesting and I’m not sure what it would do for
me and my thinking, but I believe somewhere along that route I may find the
answers I seek as to why I am where I am, what has made me the man I am, and
what I have to offer to others on a similar journey of discovery. For now, I will continue to work on making
the minivan the ideal sag wagon and keeping myself in the kind of shape I need
to embark upon this journey.
Hike:
One hour and 45 minutes.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 650.
Bonus:
25,000 steps
Sunday,
January 13, 2019
Adirondacks,
October, 2018
It’s hard to beat a hot shower,
a good burger and a comfortable bed after a week of sleeping on the
ground. It was a wet miserable day, so we
headed for Lake Placid and toured around the beautiful, little hamlet for the
afternoon. Justin was getting antsy and
I knew he couldn’t do anymore hiking on his bad knee, so I suggested he take my
car and drive home. “I’m pretty sure
John will give me a ride home once he gets here,” I said.
He was anxious to get going, so
we bid him goodbye and headed back to Blue Mountain to meet John. He arrived around six and after a dinner at
the local (only) tavern, we headed back to the hotel for another night of
comfort. The following morning we headed
for Newcomb and the trailhead to Camp Santanoni. Built by the Pruyn family in the 1890’s, the
15,000 square foot main lodge and many of the outbuildings used by the staff to
maintain and farm the property, are maintained by the state and in excellent
condition. It is open year round with
the main structure sitting on Newcomb Lake where boating and camping are
available. In fact, the old boat house
for the camp currently houses several kayaks and canoes available to the
public.
The road in is about a
four-mile hike, but it is packed limestone and in excellent shape. It rises and falls, but is a beautiful
hike. It took us about 90 minutes to
hike in since we explored as we hiked, but by the time we reached the main
lodge, John’s back was giving him difficulty and he needed to lay down. I was so happy I had decided that we not
continue on the Northville/Placid trail where he would most certainly had been
in even worse pain and with no easy way back out. He confirmed for himself what he was pretty
certain of…he’d lost a ton of conditioning over the past couple of years and
needed to get really serious about his training if he was to return to the
Adirondacks for hiking and climbing in any meaningful way.
By day’s end, I’d added another
12 miles to my hiking, which brought me to 100 for the week. I felt very fit and with the exception of the
blistering on my hips from the hip pads, I had experienced very manageable
difficulties. Though with the passing of
time I may soften my position, for the time being I no longer feel a strong
desire to hike several months on any of the long trails in the US. I am formulating another plan of hiking and
biking that would incorporate my personal life’s journey, but for now it’s all
about getting my van and myself ready for trips this spring and summer.
Hike:
Five hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 1,750.
Bonus:
25,000 steps
Wednesday,
January 9, 2019
Adirondacks,
October, 2018
I rolled out of my sleeping bag
in the morning covered in dew.
Everything was soaked and down sleeping bags, if they are to offer any
insulation, must be dry. I knew I would
be meeting up with Paul and Justin that evening and that I would be in
proximity to a small town where I could dry my bag if it needed it. I shook as much dew off as I could and
bundled it up for packing.
I ate the last of my cream of
wheat and assessed my lunch supply. I
still had three bars, but that was it.
I’d really tried to pack light when leaving the guys two days
earlier. I had a blistering wound on my
left hip where my hip belt set, which made each step painful. I bandaged it as best I could before putting
my pack on. A young couple hiked by as I
was finishing, but didn’t say hello.
They looked to be on the trail, as well.
I only needed to go 13 miles to
reach Blue Mountain and hopefully Paul and Justin would be waiting at the
trailhead. If they were not, I’d have
another 4-mile hike on the road into town and the grocery store that was
holding my resupply. After an hour of
hiking, I overtook the young couple.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“He’s got bad blistering on
both feet from new shoes that weren’t broken in, so we’re moving kind of slow,”
the female responded.
We talked briefly about the
condition of the trail and then I started out in front of them. I would see them again when I stopped for
lunch and they overtook me. They were
also headed for Blue Mountain and hoping to get a ride into town from someone
at the Lake Durant State Park campsite located at that trailhead. It was my backup plan, as well.
I hiked through the worst
section of the trail to date with much mud and blown down and had several
issues finding discs and staying on the trail.
I was under 2 miles per hour and so it was after three by the time I
reached the state park on Lake Durant. I
saw a park employee working and asked him about rides into town.
“I’m going that way in about
ten minutes if you’d like to wait. We’re
shutting down for the season so the bathrooms are locked up,” he said.
So much for planning. I hadn’t anticipated the campgrounds being
closed and had been counting on staying the night here and getting my first hot
shower in almost a week.
Paul and Justin were not at the
trailhead and I had no cell reception to discern their whereabouts. George, the Assistant Park Ranger for the
park, drove me to the grocers where I discovered that Paul and Justin had
already gathered our resupply box. I had
a cell signal and gave them a call.
“We were looking for the
trailhead, but couldn’t find it and no one in town seemed to know where it was,”
Justin said.
“You took a picture of the
location from the map. Did you look at
it?” I asked.
“Umm…no. That would have been a good idea,” he said.
He’s pretty, but not always so
smart. I didn’t want to hurt his
feelings so I said, “you’re dumber than a box of rocks.”
They arrived at the store ten
minutes later, impressed with the time I’d made over the past three days in
getting to this point.
“How do you feel? That was a lot of miles you covered,” Justin
asked while Paul went inside and bought me a pint of ice cream and a Mountain
Dew.
“Actually, other than the
blister on my hip, I feel great!” I said and I did.
My long-time hiking partner and
best friend John was enroute to this point where had planned to hike the last
three days with us to Lake Placid. John
had gained about forty pounds since his peak hiking days and was in no kind of
shape for what lay ahead – three days of hiking over 15 miles a day through
conditions that were like to get worse before they got better. I’d already decided for him that he was not
going into those woods with me. Paul and
Justin were still rehabbing and if I got back over ten miles into the woods in
what was some of the most remote areas of the Adirondacks and John was not up
to it, it would be a struggle to get him out again. I know better than to put another’s health in
jeopardy and have a deep respect for the back country and what it can do to you…and
how quickly. I told Justin and Paul my
altered plan.
“Let’s just do some camping and
day hiking. I’ve done what I came here
to do. I now know I can handle long days
in the back country carrying a pack. I’ve
also discovered it’s not what I thought it would be. I was bored much of the time and disappointed
that there were no vistas to speak of. I’ve
been rethinking my whole plan to walk one of the major thru-trails once I
retire,” I said.
Justin was ready to return
home, but Paul was willing and able to stay and meet up with John for more
hiking. It was supposed to rain all
night and I wanted a hot shower, so Justin and I sprung for a hotel room in
town while Paul slept in his van. John
would be coming tomorrow afternoon and we’d assess the situation and plan from
there.
Hike:
Eight hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-120 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 5,000.
Bonus:
36,000 steps
Tuesday,
January 8, 2019
Adirondacks,
October, 2018
Paul and Justin were supposed
to meet me in two days just outside the hamlet of Blue Mountain at the
trailhead parking lot where the Northville/Placid Trail crosses SR 30. It was about 35 miles from where I’d spent
the night and 17 miles from a lean-to I was targeting for the day’s hike. I had left my tent with the guys when we’d
split up thinking I could do without the extra four pounds and that I’d make a
lean-to each night so I wouldn’t need it.
It was a good plan. Almost…
The day was more hiking in the
green tunnel with extreme amounts of blowdown to circumvent. I spent the day inside my head and talking to
myself about why I was hiking, where I was in my life, what I’d do in
retirement, how my personal life had gone and was currently going, and how
tough the trail was. Still, I felt
strong and with only one stop during the day, arrived at the lean-to around
4:30 p.m.
I walked into the site, which
overlooked Cedar River and was in an open meadow. It was the kind of site people hike miles to
reach and I was thrilled to be there for the night. It was occupied by a single thru-hiker named
Tom I’d been noticing in the trail book as I’d hiked (trail books are found at
each trailhead and all hikers are encouraged to sign in so that locations can
be determined if they should go missing.
Thru-hikers sign them all and get to know those ahead of them and often
times overtake them, depending on pace).
He spoke up immediately.
“Been on the trail for a
week. Started out with my girlfriend,
but she dropped out at Piseco. I’m on
leave from the Army and love hiking up here…,” he said, and then some.
In fact, he talked for the next
ten minutes. I did get in an occasional
word, mentioning my son was also in the Army, but he had no interest in me, my
son, or my hike. He told me a couple of
things I could do better if I wanted to be just like him (I didn’t) and when he
finally took a breath, I jumped in.
“I think I’ll just keep on
hiking. I should be able to make it to
the Wakely Dam Campsites before dark,” I said as I slung my pack back on.
I walked out of that camp
thinking I’d rather be eaten by a bear than be bored to death by him. I think I knew why his girlfriend left the
trail. I was sorry to have missed out on
the lean-to, but the skies were clear and there was no rain in the forecast.
Those last four miles were a
death march. I was exhausted and it was
approaching seven. It was completely
dark now and I had my headlamp on as I finally made it to Wakely Dam. I looked at my Fitbit and saw that I’d done
over 56,000 steps. My map indicated I’d
covered 21 miles. There was one car there as this site was off a road, but tent
sites were numerous. I dropped my gear
and immediately headed for the water to clean the salty sweat and grime of the
day from my body. I cooked up some beans
and rice, dropped my tarp on the grass and laid out my bed role and sleeping
bag. There was such a heavy dew in the
air that everything was as wet as if it had rained before I climbed into my
sleeping bag. I could have used that
tent! On the plus side, no one was
jabbering at me and the sky was as clear and full of stars as it could possibly
be. I laid there watching for and
counting shooting stars before falling into an exhausted, deep sleep.
Hike:
Ten hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-120 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 5,000.
Bonus:
56,000 steps.
Monday,
January 7, 2019
Adirondacks
– October, 2018
Justin walked with me along the
only street in Piseco. We saw three
people talking near a mailbox on the side of the road and stopped to inquire
about getting Paul and Justin a lift back to Northville.
“You wanna walk down past the
post office to a driveway with a pile of firewood and walk up to the house on
the hill. Jim’ll drive you down to your
car,” one of the party offered.
I left Justin at the bottom of
that driveway hoping for his sake that Jim was home. Otherwise, they’d be sticking out their
thumbs and doing it the old-fashioned way.
I re-entered the woods in
another mile with easy going along an old lumber road for the next couple of
miles. Soon though, I was back to mud
and blowdown and difficulty finding the trail discs to keep me on course. On a well-traveled trail, the discs are
rather unnecessary, but on this portion of the trail, where few people were
traveling, it was hard to spot in certain places. I went off course on a couple of occasions,
but not for long though this added to the distance I walked and the time it
took. I had planned to make it to West
Lake where there were three lean-to’s to camp for the evening. If I did, I would have managed 17 miles, but
with the late start, I’d have to hustle.
I stopped briefly for a snack
of Clif bars and pushed hard all day.
When I reached the first lean-to on the lake, it was occupied by a
family of four and so I pushed on. The
second one, about a quarter mile up the trail, had one thru-hiker and one fisherman
already stationed.
“There’s one more lean-to about
a mile further up the trail, but I think there’s a mom, daughter, and their dog
at that one. You’re more than welcome to
stay with us,” the thru-hiker offered.
Lean-to’s can handle five
people comfortably and up to eight if you get really cozy. They are first come-first served and always a
welcome site after a long day of hiking and a disinclination to set up a tent. I thanked them and opted to keep moving since
one more mile tonight was one closer to my destination.
I arrived at the last lean-to
and did find the mom and daughter team.
Their dog, a black lab named Shadow, ran to greet me, tail wagging. I believe dogs have a good sense of who they
can approach and how, knowing danger from a dog lover. I, of course, was the latter. I explained to the mom and her teen-aged
daughter that this was the last lean-to and since it was practically dark, I
was hoping they didn’t mind if I shared it with them. The mom greeted me warmly and they made room.
As I was packing to leave the
next morning, the mom told me how she’d trusted me immediately after Shadow ran
up to me and the way that I greeted her.
“We were in a lean-to once when a male hiker came in and Shadow began to
growl. He had this large hunting knife
strapped to his leg and I decided that we’d push on and camp somewhere
else. I trust Shadow’s instincts,” she
said.
I completely understood her
statement. Dakota does the same thing
for me and I know that I can ignore my own instincts in an effort not to seem
rude. Alone in the woods is not the
place to disregard those warning signals.
I thanked her for the kind words and wished them well and began a hike
that would, if executed, take me over twenty miles for the day. If so, I would break my single-day, Fit Bit
indicated ‘steps’ for a day. I’d set it
the day before and it stood at 45,000.
Hike:
Ten hours.
Training
Heart Rate: 70-120 bpm.
Calories
Burned: 5,000.
Bonus:
45,000 steps.
