It was a good day, I ate well, got in a good but not challenging walk, ~7 km, and feel good tonight.
Had a birthday party for 2 of the grandkids. It was our first get together since the virus thing, and I hope it was ok. They have started slowly opening things up here, not that we were ever as shut down as most y'all. Reopened State Parks a couple of days ago. So we had a family picnic at the closest park, about 15 people. We did try to observe social distancing, hand washing, no handshakes or hugs, etc. I wasn't 100% comfortable, but it felt good to get out and see some folks again. I hope we did the right thing. I ate a bit more of the party food than normal, 2 fried chicken wings and a bite of birthday cake, but did fine. Picture of the outing, you can see we were not alone, but it wasn't too crowded.
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Kind of an embarrassing question, according to my walking app it took 4 hours and 20 minutes of walking. I did forget to turn the app off on a couple of breaks and on after a few others, but that's not far off. Not much of a pace for a 8 km hike. On the easier parts I was able to get below 15 min/km, but on the steepest parts I was much slower, maybe 50 min/km. I actually was slower going down than up, it is harder, and I was more tired. I do like sticking to goals like this one, the challenge is fun. And for a while I was beginning to think it might not be possible. After Saturday I do think its possible. But will take a while, probably longer than for the snow to melt.
Had not thought of that until you and LaMa said so. I can see it. Our mountains however are not so green as Austria's. Looking at the picture makes me sorry I turned back when I did, I could have gone farther. But I think I did the right thing, the trip down is always harder than the trip up, walking to exhaustion would be a mistake.
Thanks! It did feel good. I don't plan to do this everyday, an attempt once every week or two is all. I don't feel bad today, but I can tell I worked my legs hard yesterday. And right on the food and water, as the hike gets longer this may turn into an all day thing.
It was a surprise to see the others, but nice to talk to folks about the route and mountain. As I said they were not hikers, but elk horn hunters. Starting a club is an interesting idea, I will give it some thought. Not sure how much interest I could find here. I do kind of like hiking alone, I get to set the pace, decide where to go, etc. But I know for safety being alone is not the best choice, and having some company can be fun. On the safety thing, my new route is up the face of the mountain, cell reception is excellent there. Early attempts were up the canyons, with little to no reception. What I miss about the canyons is the water, lovely little streams with lots of vegetation, nothing like that on the face. On the other hand I kept running into impassible dead ends in the canyons. This may be the only route to the top.
To be honest this is not like an unclimbed mountain. The truth is I am trying to get up the west face, from my house. There is a rough four wheel drive road on the east side, the other side, and I have actually driven to where I am trying to hike. Impossible until July or August, when the last of the snow is gone. The east side is not as steep. The lake I rode my bike around in the fall, Mantua, is on the east side, should be able to look down on it when I make it to the top. And the top isn't really the top of the mountain, its just the top of the ridge. Once there I can turn south and keep climbing, maybe one day I will have the option to do that. My goal is just to get to the top I can see from the house, hiking from the house.
Cate, I did watch the Waltz to the end, thanks so much for putting me onto it. Great stuff!
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1278 is the year the earliest known written copy of the Avesta. The Avesta is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, it is very old, but until that time was passed on orally. I have always found Zoroastrianism quite interesting. It predates modern religions and likely influenced Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá'í, and Buddhism. It is still practiced today.
