I took my friend Gary Geddes on a hike to one of my favorite areas a couple weeks ago. He just sent me these two pictures. He managed to convert mundane into magical. https://garygeddes.pixels.com/

Picked out a nice 6 mile hike (which was 7 miles, I suck at estimating). Very happy my knee held up. I think I know the secret now: If you walk on a paved trail, you swing your foot and come down on your heel. That sends a shock up your leg. But when you're […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

I know our local bald eagles relocated after their tree fell over, but I didn't know where they were. Yesterday I got a glimpse of the eagles, so today I was on a mission. Turned out to be really easy. With just a basic idea of the location, I was able to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Bored at a garden club party. How fast is that airplane flying? If it's 6 miles high at 45 degrees it's about 8.5 miles away. Three fingers together at arm's length is a 10:1 ratio. So the fingers cover about 0.85 miles. Ah, but the plane is flying at 45 […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

I picked out a nice spot to take a friend for a 3-mile hike. My test hike today showed it was more like 4.5 miles. We'll see how he feels about the longer distance. If it's too far, we'll just park on the other side of the river and only do the north/east […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Feeling pretty conservative about my knee, so went hiking with a buddy who recently had hip replacement surgery. Just 3 miles, which suits us both perfectly. And both of us feel more comfortable not being solo. Por ahora. #hiking

One of the programmers at work has been building a rubber band ball for a while. It's remarkably heavy. I think it's going to reach a point very soon where the bands we scavenge from the incoming mail aren't going to fit. Even my celery contributions will have problems. They grow up so fast.

After ending up on crutches for a week after my last two hikes, I took a much more limited 6 mile (~10km) walk today. The knee did fine and it felt SO GOOD to be outside. You know how it is to turn a corner and find yourself in a field of flowers? To walk […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

8 mile walk in the rain because it's going to be worse tomorrow. I have an umbrella and a rain jacket, I didn't walk in any puddles, and I didn't slip in any mud, so it's all good. Relive movie is for a photographer friend of mine who visited the trail 2 […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

[Snake, but it's being mellow] My knee is making an *incredible* recovery, but I'm giving it an easy day. Took the bike out for a quick 21 mile ride on a PERFECT day. Snakes are out more this year than in the last ten years, but so far they're all pretty mellow.

03:20. The Great Horned Owl in the woods behind my house just woke up. Quiet enough to sleep through, but loud enough to let me know I'm not the only one awake. Comforting.

[Snake mention, no picture] Because I hike on less-popular trails, I always wear my snake gaiters. But since I started wearing them about 5 years ago (?) I haven't seen a snake. Until yesterday. I walked right up to one laid out across the trail. Speckled light coming through the trees made it […]

Well, it was a bit longer than I thought. What with the knee problem, I thought I might be able to do 6 miles. So I picked out a nice route and "thumbed" it on the map. Looks fine. By mile six I realized I'd made a big mistake about the length. But then I […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

What's funny is that none of these flower types are growing in the legitimate flower bed. Just these two in the entire yard. Every Spring we get a few surprises. My wife keeps a relatively organized garden, but she always takes care not to disturb the volunteers. #flowers

Well, I took a couple friends out to one of my favorite areas. 4.5 miles for them, 6 miles for me. Unfortunately that's about the limit with my knee. Looks like no long hikes this year 😞. Loaned one of them an extra pair of snake gaiters and crampons. He was […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

I *almost* went for a hike today, but I decided I'd give my knee one more week. Instead, I took the e-bike out for a 24-mile ride just to give the knee a light workout. Now I want to get out there and hike! Maybe next week I'll try for my normal 10-15 miles […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Well, my knee isn't better, but it's "better enough". I decided on a short 3 mile hike. The plan was to take a buddy from work and his new girlfriend. But he cancelled, so I went alone. Missed my "exit" from the trail and had to come back by city streets […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Well, crap. Just 6.5 miles into my hike, my right knee suddenly decided it was done. Done. I've always joked about how Lyft/Uber was part of my rescue plan, but I pulled that trigger today. I struggled a quarter mile to the nearest road and called for a ride […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

I dunno. I'm out hiking, hoping to beat the rain, then I hear the wind pick up in the trees above me and see them starting to sway. Then I hear lots of creaking and cracking… and I look around me. Oh. This could happen. Well, statistically, the worst that […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

From my trip to Florida a few days ago. Did the whole thing there and back in 3 days with only 6 hours of sleep. Well, okay 7 hours. I got one hour of sleep on the airplane on the way back. When you're wrapped up in the moment, you're buried in the details […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The day was going perfectly normally, then my boss called and said "I need you to get on a plane immediately. We can't trust FedEx to deliver anything overnight no matter how much money we throw at them." So I'm hand-carrying an ATIS computer for Boca Raton […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Awww, well, it was a learning moment. I was walking over a small bridge and saw an ornate pipe sticking out of the ground. Curious, I reached up on top and blindly felt around with my fingers for a bit. Then I figured "you know, maybe I should use the selfie […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Out for a short 9.75 mile walk through the woods after spending last weekend on the "honey do" list. Sheesh, I take one weekend off and I can feel the difference! I gotta exercise more. https://www.relive.com/view/vQvxkr4A79q #hiking

Out for a walk with my wife. Two miles on the local bike trail that parallels a creek. We don't speed walk, there are too many things to look at!

Only 9 miles today because I had to be home by dinner time 😏. So the front half of the hike was loaded with solid bushwhacking – the kind where you move 5 feet at a time because you can't see further than that. But once I got out of the bushes, there were […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Dropped my car off at the shop and went for a 10-mile hike along the river. Ignoring trails every chance I could, heading out into unknown areas, just having a blast… and then noticed I was well past my turnaround time. Oops! Had to hustle to get back to the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Another "Creeks, lake, and river" walk. But I had to chop the planned 16 miles down to 14. I slipped on mud and landed hard on my back at mile 6. Yah, and *then* I put on my crampons. I did okay for another 5 miles until I pulled off my backpack and twisted […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Sooo, there's this fence along the lake here. Lots of scary signs and a barbed wire fence. But… I can go to the public park at the lake and walk to the lake side of this fence. And I can walk in the bike path on the other side of the fence. But I can't switch […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Well, I managed to convince my wife I wouldn't drown in a puddle and went for a short 6-mile walk allegedly to go search for gear I lost a few weeks ago. You know, I'm not very smart. I lost it crawling through heavy brush in a dry creek. Well, it's not a […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Well, I moved into my new 35L backpack and can finally carry everything inside. And it's long enough I can actually use the hip belt. It's perfect! I hate it. It turns out I carry 19 lbs. Water, purifier, rappelling gear, crampons, snake gaiters, rain gear… […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Today's work was visiting a nearby air traffic control tower. It was an old tower they abandoned, and now they're refurbishing it and making it the "new tower". I was there to do a "site survey" for an AWOS relocation and a new ATIS (if you're a pilot, you'll […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A fun 11 mile hike. I pulled a classic "look left" and found a new gulley I immediately explored, then went on to do an end-to-end walk of the gulley I found last weekend. And found and explored a few more "trails", all while still making it back in time for […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

It started out as a nice hike on a foggy cold day, and then I looked right. Hey, that's a cliff. Why haven't I noticed that before? Let's walk up to the edge and look down. Hey, I think that's a dry creek down there. How can I… Let's walk along the edge for a […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Super short 6 mile walk today, so I headed to the "hundred acre wood". Saw 3 deer and a flock of turkeys. Look at those woods! How can you not abandon the trail and just head out "cross country"? Got a bit trapped, the first 100 feet were awesome, then it […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

16 miles today and the pictures don't do it justice. The colors were so intense I found myself taking pictures every 50 feet. The low sun angle really makes the colors pop! It was my "normal" creeks/river/lake walk, but I added in some bushwhacking and rock […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Just got off a customer service call with an airport manager from the "deep south". None of us could understand him. Not his name, not his airport's name, not even the three letter "LID" (FAA Location Identifier) of his airport. We had to fall back to spelling things out phonetically to confirm […]

Funny thing happened. I hike with snake gaiters. And I had a carabineer hanging on the right side of the one on the right. Somehow it slowly worked its way around my leg, then completely and totally latched both gaiters together while I was hiking. I went […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

11 miles today, but they were slow miles. Lots of exploring and going off-trail. Remember, this is all "urban hiking" mostly enjoying all the neglected and forgotten areas that bridges cross over and that bike trails pass by. Unfortunately, today's route had […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

My wife was kind enough to drop me off downstream on the other side of the river so I could walk home. That saved me about 7 miles of walking, so I only did 10 miles today. Today was a day for checking out all the trails I thought would be no fun. I […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Last weekend's hike where I ended up in a bad spot… Well, when I got out of it, I came out on a trail I'd never been on. So today I went back and explored that new trail and went into an adjacent area with no trails at all. At least this week I didn't have to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

16 miles today with just over 1800 feet of elevation gain. I intentionally went into a dead-end gulley. What an adventure! I climbed out on soil that barely held my weight, then ended up on hills that were scary steep where one slip would have me rolling down […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Well, I may not be getting as many miles in, but I'm having more fun! Cut my normal 15 mile urban hike down to 10.5 miles due to time constraints. The more I get off the established trails, the slower I get. Worth it. Adventure trumps distance. This link is […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Had a mandatory party on Saturday, so had to do a Sunday hike. Only did 9 miles due to time constraints. And when I'm pressed for time, I head for the worst places I can! No, you won't see them in the pictures. They're the places where you go off-trail, then […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

I've been visiting my "secret meadow" for the last 10 years, but it's an impassible swamp 🫤. The access to it is completely overgrown and close to impassable. 10 years ago after a multi-year drought, it was a meadow with usable deer trails… but not since then […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Yay, I made it up the South Fork of the American River! It was 14 miles of kayaking, but it should have been 16 because I got lost AGAIN. I mean, this time I paid attention to where my little launch inlet was, but my brain said "no way, it can't possibly be […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Hiking with my wife in the Plumas Forest (California USA). Only 4 miles with about 1000 feet of elevation gain. I couldn't ask for a better day to be out hiking. Perfect weather, clear skies, no bugs, no bears. My wife wasn't thrilled with all the climbing […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

My wife decided we needed a vacation, so we drove to the Plumas National Forest. Not thrilled with the ratio of time in the car versus time on the trail, but it really is pretty up here in the mountains. Too many great pictures, so I'm splitting them into two posts. #hiking

Took another shot at the South Fork of the American River. Frustrating! I only got halfway to the bridge before running out of time. I've done it before, but can't seem to find the time to do it now. Oh… I know why. Now I'm biking the kayak instead of […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Another hike cut short because Saturday mornings with my wife, well, the little things we do together make me smile. It's hard to rush what's become a tradition. So I only had time for 12 miles before it was suddenly dinner time. But you know, you can visit […] [Original post on mastodon.social]