HILLS HURT, COUCHES KILL hiking log

I heard it from Lance Armstrong years ago

He was a inspiration for many back in the 90s and early 00s when he was dominating races and beating cancer. Too bad he turned out to be a cheater..

 

Nice It is too bad but honestly man was still an elite athlete. So many at that level probably get to a plateau and must be so tempting to do anything you can to become the best. Definitely stole dreams away from others. But doesn’t make the quote any less powerful!

 

Yeah I'm with you on this one. Both the inspiration and the disappointment. Made me lose a little of my faith in humanity when the truth finally came out. I do cut him some slack because I think you'd have a hard time finding any rider during his era that was completely clean. Doesn't excuse his actions but I understand the decisions he made.

 

Nothing too crazy, just some after work touring with a buddy. Showed up at 5 and still got 4 laps in before dark

 

These hills hurt a bit. Last weekend my wife and I participated in the "High 5" challenge at Hanging rock state park. The challenge is to visit all 5 peaks in the park. The event was a fund raiser for the friends of the park, so all for a good cause. It did make for a crowded trail, especially for the first half of the hike. See all the people in the 2nd picture. Took us almost exactly 6 hours to finish the 10-mile route. Gaia said it was about 1850' of elevation gain so a big day for us.

 

I had a chance to do some recreational hiking while on vacation with my wife. This is Avalon, CA (on Catalina Island).

 

Friday: 3.8 mi, 700 ft of climb
Saturday: 7.8 mi, 1200 ft of climb
Sunday: 5.7 mi, 1100 ft of climb
Today: 5.9 mi, 1000 ft of climb

This scene from the end of today hike. Path at the right (I call it Eliminator, park people want to call it Prospectors Loop now) directly up the hill, follows the ridge to the left and meets another path behind the tallest hill on the left. There is a path in the middle (Drop Mine) going up the front of the hills to the left, circles back around the tall hill on the left. This photo is highest resolution I can send. Both paths go up about 1000 ft in about 1/2 mile. I would have gone 9.8 miles today but for some reason I cannot fathom my legs just were not into that ...

 

Solo touring under the chairlifts at Stevens yesterday. No time constraints so I took it easy. Trying to learn how to use my new Backcountry Nav app and log trips and such. Took around 6 hours, 5,500 ft climbing, 8-10 miles






Getting up to Cowboy Ridge turned into a scramble with my board on my back, probably should've brought some cramp-ons




Top of 7th Heaven chair. This area means a lot to me, I've been riding here for almost 20 years

 

Best topo app by far. Did you get Pro or XE? I've used Pro for a LONG time. Like app was in beta still long.

To record a track in Pro you just tap the GPS icon. Then tap Record Track. There you can rename the track to whatever you want. After that hit Start Recording. Just remember to pause the recording if it's an overnight trip. Then remember to start it back in the morning.

All track info can be viewed on the stat screen at anytime. Miles, Elevation, moving time, yada yada.[/QUOTE]

 

[/QUOTE]
I got XE after reading some reviews that Pro was a little outdated and XE had more current support. Overall I'm happy with the map/topo quality and it loads quickly when zooming in and out. Still struggling with recording tracks though, I had to keep going back into the app permissions and changing them to keep the track going. It would shut itself off if it saw "no activity" for over 10-15 minutes. Kinda annoying when you put your phone away and expect it to keep recording.

But I'm terrible about reading user instructions or even watching a tutorial lol, they sent me a link to a few tutorials when I signed up and i still need to watch them.

 

My opinion (that nobody asked for) is that the caltopo app is worth checking out. I don't know what it costs for all features but the web version is excellent for building routes and it melds flawlessly into the cell app. Great for off-trail and far-away use. Disclaimer: my primary use case is not recreational.

 

Read them. lol

XE is gonna be developed for a long time. Pro is still supported but the dev has said many times that it will end at some point. I like then both and XE is more useful if your planning routes on a comp but I'm so used to Pro it's really hard to switch.

I few people I know use it for recreation and it is indeed a great program and app. I've played with it but BCN is just better. I used to use CalTopo in BCN but have switched to ArcGIS maps. They are shaded relief and for my area more accurate for trails and roads then CalTopo.

 

Another 6 hours at the ski hill today. Only saw 2 other people, snow was pretty fun for late April. 8-10 miles and 4,500 ft climbing. Didn't take many pics

 

Quick jog up the Taylor River with new doggo at dusk. About 6-7 miles, basically flat, 1.5 hours






We've only had this boy about 4 weeks, but he's turning out to be a pretty good trail partner. Zero pulling on the leash, good cadence, always stays next to me or behind me..



He's still pretty shy, jumps at loud noises and sudden movements. I can tell by his body language he's being pretty reserved, hasn't really let his personality come out yet. But he did get goofy for a minute when he saw his first patch of snow and I saw him flip his paws up a certain way jumping over a log (like a deer) that was pretty cute. Other than that he's been keeping it pretty bottled up, which is fine, I understand. It'll be a long time before I trust him to really spend time off leash, but I don't mind waiting for him come around. He's already shown to be a smart boy. His name is Brad

 

Love Brad. He has a mischievous look, he looks like a good one.

 

For nighttime ... noxgear has LightHound (for dogs) and Tracer2 (for their humans): https://www.noxgear.com

I have their older not-really-waterproof model the Tracer360 and when running in dark area people saw me and moved to avoid hitting me.

 

Trail maintenance in Phoenix South Mountain Park. They closed off one portion of a trail system, probably because it was so abused over the years. To make their ... uh ... point, they planted these little land mines. They are balls that break off "jumping cholla" ... a few visible spines and a cloud of fine hair-like spines. They are nasty things and I bet the park rangers had a fun time collecting/planting them. By next year each ball will be a new adult jumping cholla.

 

Faceplant on a desert trail. One foot caught, either on a rock or on the other foot. Both forearms scratched, one palm scratched. One forearm has sore muscles. Glasses survived, no facial cuts.

Arizona is always trying to kill you.

 

If it isn't the heat...

 

... or the NewSkin ... errrrrgggggghhhh!