Alligatorob's Diary
- Thread starter alligatorob
- Start date
That's so funny, the second picture reminded me of the Sound of Music as well!
Also: great job getting so high up that mountain, Rob, and what a wonderful flower even if the picture isn't perfect. And I agree: always pack a snack and plenty of water if you don't know exactly where you'll end up.
alligatorob
Respected Member
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
Cate
Long term member
I love hearing about your hikes, Rob, especially now you have good boots & poles. I always take water with me & maybe you could also take jerky. When I was in a bushwalking club we had to be well prepared & I always took jerky, water & some trail mix. Plus a raincoat, gloves, plastic spade, etc. They insisted we were well prepared.
I'm glad you liked The Last Waltz. I have the original vinyl set. It is my kind of music. Joni Mitchell & Emmy Lou Harris have such pure voices!
I'm glad you liked The Last Waltz. I have the original vinyl set. It is my kind of music. Joni Mitchell & Emmy Lou Harris have such pure voices!
Who cares about your speed when you can get a good workout in AND enjoy those lovely views! Also:
This from the man who had trouble walking longer distances less than a year ago
DietAccountability101
Active member
The views on your walk look amazing - so much fun when it's not just about watching a calorie counter on a treadmill.
Wonderful hikes, Rob - so good, and at just the right season, I guess, weather-wise. Also wonderful - a birthday party! Great you could have it, and still keep social distancing - in my family there's a 21st birthday coming up this week, which we're having to celebrate in bits, including video of everybody (cousins, friends, everybody) singing and sending birthday greetings which is being stitched together into a video to be part of an online party. 
alligatorob
Respected Member
It was a good day, ate well, exercised and feel good.
I did a 7 km walk this morning and averaged under 14 min/km, my best time yet. It was a bit of up and downhill, but basically not a challenging route. 14 km/min is not blistering speed, but not terrible. Also did one of my makeshift workouts this evening.
I did a 7 km walk this morning and averaged under 14 min/km, my best time yet. It was a bit of up and downhill, but basically not a challenging route. 14 km/min is not blistering speed, but not terrible. Also did one of my makeshift workouts this evening.
Thanks for the reminder LaMa, a year ago I had to struggle to walk the length of an airport concourse without stopping to rest. And I was convinced that I had done too much damage to my knees and feet to ever really be able to walk much again. I am delighted to discover how wrong I was.
We did enjoy and I don't think it was too risky. I looked it up and in Utah we have 3,213 cases in a population of 3.2 million or about 0.1% of the population. In Ireland you have 15,652 cases in a population of 4.9 million, or about 0.3% of the population. Your rate is a bit higher, but not a whole lot. Neither rate appears very high, but that may have as much to do with how much testing is getting done as anything. Thanks for the nice words about the hike, I enjoyed doing it.
I agree, exercising outdoors in a nice place is a lot more fun, and easier to do. Hopefully we will all be able to get out more soon.
It is a good season to begin hiking, still a little cold but not bad, and we have at least 6 months of good weather to look forward to. Doing a birthday party by video sounds interesting, it would let you invite folks scattered all over the world.Wonderful hikes, Rob - so good, and at just the right season, I guess, weather-wise. Also wonderful - a birthday party! Great you could have it, and still keep social distancing - in my family there's a 21st birthday coming up this week, which we're having to celebrate in bits, including video of everybody (cousins, friends, everybody) singing and sending birthday greetings which is being stitched together into a video to be part of an online party.
I wouldn't be embarrassed about that at all! I think you should be proud that you have the endurance to be out there for that long!! I never try to go too fast especially on nice hikes. It's important to take in the beauty. But also trails aren't like street walking--you can expect a lot of them, especially if they're not that manicured and have inclines involved will take more time.
Glad to hear you had another good day!
Here the trail sign posts often don't show distance but expected wslking time for that reason. Which is kind ofannoying thefirst couple of times until you figure out your own speed relative to theirs but does acknowledge that terrain often plays a larger part than distance walked.
My nephew will be 18 this Sunday... He's missing out on graduation and so many other things and we can't even have a proper party! Of course he and his friends are infinity level tech wizards (proud aunt: he just got accepted into the very picky school of his choice
) so they'll probably have a mega gaming session in his honor that'll be almost as good as being in the same room.You're too modest! Fourteen kilometers a minute seems pretty fast to me!
(Seriously, and not being picky about typos - that's great walking you've got going on!)
I missed that one earlier!
alligatorob
Respected Member
It was a good day! I ate well, exercised and feel pretty good. Went for a 7.6 km walk tonight and pushed the pace, probably too hard and got down to 13 km/min. Probably won't be able to do it again tomorrow, but it felt good.
Thanks Liza, you are right, taking in nature is important. And for my big hike there really are no trails on the last half, just picking my way up the very steep mountain side (~35% or 20 degrees average in the last km or so according to Google Earth). I know that is slow going, particularly on the way down, have to carefully find every foothold and most of it has to be done sideways.
No trail signs or posts here, in fact no trails. Just hillside.
Hey I are an engineer and I write like one! Typos are par for the course. Wish I could do 14 km in a minute!
Thanks Petal, and for me you are right, and I guess that is all that matters.
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Quoted for truth. Also: if you had kept video evidence of your progress in the past year you'd be famous now - more than just forum famous that is.
alligatorob
Respected Member
Down 7 lbs this morning to 191. This is the most I have lost in a single week since my very first week. I did not expect it, but have seen it coming for a few days. I am guessing its some combination of more exercise and the normal bouncing up and down, with a good bounce down. It did occur to me this morning that I should get a second scale just to be sure mine is right, but we don't have another in the house right now. So, this big loss puts me past a few milestones:
Somehow I don't feel as happy about this as I probably should, more a bit nervous, but I am getting happier about it. I am feeling pretty good physically, I know from my exercising I am getting stronger and more energetic so its having the right effect.
Oh well, enough about this famous stuff. I am not done, I still have a few pounds to lose. I am just barely out of obese and need to keep careful with the diet. No heart attack grill 10,000 calorie cheeseburger celebrations! I have been looking at other measures of fatness, and have started measuring my waist and parts. I guess I am not quite sure where to measure the waist, at the narrowest point I am 38 inches, but at my belly button I am 40 inches. 40 inches seems to be the magic number below which you have a lower risk of heart disease, so I am close, maybe under depends on how the measure is supposed to happen. My hips are about 44 inches, so my waist to hip ratio (WHR) is about 0.9. If I am reading the charts right that puts me out of the obese range as well. I think men are supposed to be less than 1.0, or maybe more than 1.0 if I am reading wrong. Someone here probably will know.
Anyway barring my discovery of a scale malfunction I am provisionally happy about this!
- The big one, my BMI is now 29.9, of of the obese range for the first time since I don't know what, color TV or something. I am now "just" overweight!
- 129 lbs or 59 kg down.
- I blew right by 9 stone to 9 stone 3 lbs down.
Somehow I don't feel as happy about this as I probably should, more a bit nervous, but I am getting happier about it. I am feeling pretty good physically, I know from my exercising I am getting stronger and more energetic so its having the right effect.
I had to laugh at that LaMa, not sure how true it is, but I am would much rather be healthy and happy than famous. If I had that video maybe I could claim to have done it all eating McDonald's Happy Meals or something and make big bucks in advertising? Kind of the Subway Jared thing.
Thanks Petal, but I feel no more famous here than you, or LaMa, or a bunch of others. I probably could go back and copy my diet sheets from my posts, but I am not sure they would be all that impressive. As you say they are just lower calorie, no fads or anything. I can verify that the approach works to lose weight, you just have to stick to it.
Oh well, enough about this famous stuff. I am not done, I still have a few pounds to lose. I am just barely out of obese and need to keep careful with the diet. No heart attack grill 10,000 calorie cheeseburger celebrations! I have been looking at other measures of fatness, and have started measuring my waist and parts. I guess I am not quite sure where to measure the waist, at the narrowest point I am 38 inches, but at my belly button I am 40 inches. 40 inches seems to be the magic number below which you have a lower risk of heart disease, so I am close, maybe under depends on how the measure is supposed to happen. My hips are about 44 inches, so my waist to hip ratio (WHR) is about 0.9. If I am reading the charts right that puts me out of the obese range as well. I think men are supposed to be less than 1.0, or maybe more than 1.0 if I am reading wrong. Someone here probably will know.
Anyway barring my discovery of a scale malfunction I am provisionally happy about this!
alligatorob
Respected Member
Found a second scale, weight just a couple of tenths higher, the 191 seems confirmed.