Hiking

[littlebittybobby]

Okay---Hiking is something I've done a slight amount of, but not enough to share tips of value. I frequently sit-n-watch short videos of experienced hikers going up Colorado 14-teeners, State High Points, Trips to Crash Sites, etc. Read Krakauers books, too. But the best I can do is boast vicariously about a niece, who hiked up Grays Peak, several years ago. She beat me to a feat that I've yet to accomplish. But yeah----just so you'll know, I approve of getting out to DRIVE long-distance, to do this stuff. Just don't expect praise for driving to Alburquerque, to ride the tram up Potosi Mountain, or some other canned accomplishment. So---I've biked some. Nothing extraordinary, but more than the average citizen my age in the Heartland. There's a steep place in a local park, only 2-3 hundred feet long, that is open to walkers and bikers, and guess what? I have found it more of a challenge to walk it, that to bike it, uphill. I will admit that maybe I am better conditioned for biking that hiking, and yes---there IS a difference in the conditioning you get. Hope that helps you some. 2022-07-22 (8).jpg

[jp1]

Omg! I’ve been to the top of grays peak! Many moons ago when I was a stupid 18 year old kid that didn’t understand yet that some things are really difficult. Sadly I had not yet bought my first iPhone (Steve jobs’ biggest achievement by that time was creating the Macintosh a few years earlier) so I don’t have a selfie of me standing on top of the world.

[rosarugosa]

Okay---Hiking is something I've done a slight amount of, but not enough to share tips of value. I frequently sit-n-watch short videos of experienced hikers going up Colorado 14-teeners, State High Points, Trips to Crash Sites, etc. Read Krakauers books, too. But the best I can do is boast vicariously about a niece, who hiked up Grays Peak, several years ago. She beat me to a feat that I've yet to accomplish. But yeah----just so you'll know, I approve of getting out to DRIVE long-distance, to do this stuff. Just don't expect praise for driving to Alburquerque, to ride the tram up Potosi Mountain, or some other canned accomplishment. So---I've biked some. Nothing extraordinary, but more than the average citizen my age in the Heartland. There's a steep place in a local park, only 2-3 hundred feet long, that is open to walkers and bikers, and guess what? I have found it more of a challenge to walk it, that to bike it, uphill. I will admit that maybe I am better conditioned for biking that hiking, and yes---there IS a difference in the conditioning you get. Hope that helps you some. 2022-07-22 (8).jpg

Into Thin Air is one of my all-time favorite non-fiction reads. I had no interest in the subject matter; I only read it at the urging of a co-worker, and I took it just to be polite. I could not put it down; it followed me into my dreams, and launched an Everest obsession for me. It's kind of funny, because I get somewhat winded on inclines and try to plan my walks to avoid hills, so I'm strictly into vicarious mountain climbing.

[littlebittybobby]

Okay----R/R, One of Krakauers books is about an unrelated subject; it's called: "Under The Banner of Heaven". Yup. It's a true-crime account, and a trilogy. But yeah--It's real interesting. Ron Lafferty died in prison, several years ago. Plus: here's another nugget: the staye of Alaska removed The Bus from the trail, due to it being deemed a danger to curiosity sewekers & too expensive to rescue them. My f-book account has a photo of the busa being lifted by a military helicopter, after which it was trucked to Fairbanks and placed in storage. Also, as you prolly know, there's Into Thin Aiur and Eiger Dreams. Yup. been so long since I read those, I practically forgot what they said. Hope that helps you some.

[rosarugosa]

I read both of those too, and they were very good. His book about Missoula is on my list.

[catherine]

Into Thin Air is one of my all-time favorite non-fiction reads. I had no interest in the subject matter; I only read it at the urging of a co-worker, and I took it just to be polite. I could not put it down; it followed me into my dreams, and launched an Everest obsession for me. It's kind of funny, because I get somewhat winded on inclines and try to plan my walks to avoid hills, so I'm strictly into vicarious mountain climbing.

Into the Wild is a great book, too!

[rosarugosa]

Into the Wild is a great book, too!

Yes it was, and I thought they also did a good job on the movie.

[jp1]

We've been having a bit of rain for the last month or so. Perhaps even a bit more than a bit of rain. Ok, we've had almost 27 inches of rain in the past month, according to our weather station. That's only 11 inches shy of our annual average.

Today it stopped for a while and I thought that would be a great time to go hike one of my favorite trails, the "Ken Harth Waterfalls trail." For 7-8 months of the year the name is aspirational. There is no water falling. The most water I've seen before was quite modest compared to today. About half the trail is a downhill through a valley cut by the river and the trail crosses the river 18 times. Today I managed to cross it twice and at the third crossing decided to turn back. It was just way too easy to see myself falling in at that crossing, and they actually get more difficult further down. I'd already gotten a boot full of mud and didn't particularly want to be all over wet.

But I did take a couple of videos.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m4XzIDiwpDE
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C8hq2Vt9pmE

[rosarugosa]

Nice, JP! Good way to make the best of all the rain!

[littlebittybobby]

Into the Wild is a great book, too!

yes, yes-- Nothing like a good book about Hiking! I've read Eiger Dreams, and Under The Banner Of Heaven, too. Wagon-training from Zurra to Utah isn't really what you'd call recreational hiking, but it's a long trip! Ha. But yeah--, a few years back, I read "The Crash Of Flight 260", a book written by one of the first people at the scene of a TWA airliner that crashed into Sandia Mountain, just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 19, 1955. All souls on board the Martin 404 were lost. The pilot was from Kansas City; the flight attendant from Spencer, Iwah(middle o' nowhere), and Glenn Martin was an IWAH native, who got the heck out of nowhere(IWAH) early on, and taught Ed Boeing to fly and started up what is now Martin-Marietta. So, anyway--those, are all stories for another time. Yup. Anyway, you can either hike up Sandia Mountain on the trail to the crash site, where wreckage of the plane still lies, or take the Tram built by a Swiss company up the mountain. Whichever you prefer. Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.2023-01-09.jpg