pine_knot wrote on Apr 30^th, 2010 at 10:21pm:


Pineknot,

Just keepin' up with the Joneses who seem to show up in my paddling parties from year-to-year.

The older I get, the more I insist on paddling with folks who have what it takes to haul my sorry butt out of the wilderness should I ever break one or two of my nearly 56 year-old legs (or if get knocked more silly than I already am by a particularly aggressive pollyhumper).

Jimbo  

P.S.  I don't deny the "nuts" part.

kypaddler,

You've got a good idea there with the paddle in the pool. Not a bad way to go if you can't actually get out on the water, and have a pool at your disposal.

Jimbo also has a good point about being able to haul yourself or a group member out of the park, if the unthinkable were to happen. In that kind of situation, you'd really be thanking yourself or your buddies for staying in fighting trim! If I went down somewhere, most of my friends wouldn't be able to get me very far. I'd probably make better time crawling on my own.

A related story:

A few years ago, my friend Thad and I went hiking out in the ND badlands. Neither of us were in very good shape at the time, and to make a long story short, we ran out of useable water and due to the 85+ degree heat (Easter weekend!) we decided to hike back to the truck after the sun went down. Earlier that day I had strained my quad going down a steep hill, and soon after we started the hike back, I strained the other one crossing a dry stream bed.

We had taken a shortcut on the way out, by basically glissading down a 600-foot bluff face, and there was no way we'd be able to do it going the other way, so we had to try and find the real trail on the way back. Easier said then done in the dark, with no moon, and when the real trail and the maze of bison trails are nearly impossible to tell apart. Each step of the way (around 4 1/2 miles) was excruciating, and we ended up backtracking more than a few times when we followed the wrong trail. I remember a few moments where we were a half-step away from killing each other over disagreements on which was the right trail.

We made it back to the truck a few hours before sunrise, and thankfully, we had several gallons of water stashed away that we were unable to take with us on the way in. It took a few days before I could walk again without pain, and it took almost a year before my friend and I made plans to take another hiking trip together - this time much better prepared. He's still one of the only guys I ever go on trips with, but lately he's been tied down with his IT career, so hence my foray into the world of solo.

It was a humbling experience, and a valuable lesson, but simply being in better shape would have allowed for a much better (and much safer) trip to begin with. A few hours every other day is a small investment in one's overall health, not to mention in pulling off the trip of the year.

Another $0.03

I used to swim a mile a day, my main form of exercise.  It's harder to find a convenient pool when you're not a student though.  It is great exercise, but kind of boring compared to running.

I plead guilty to the "nut" part. Waylon Jennings used to sing, "I've always been crazy/but it keeps me from going insane."

Yeah, I can swim. But I've never cared for it much, even though I took some lessons about 20 years ago.

Tim

Old Salt,

Good point. The very best "weight training" or exercise actually gets something accomplished, whether it's cutting and splitting wood, digging another hole for my grandfather, who used to order me around just because he could, or building a deck.

My extended family is having a Steps competition (teams go for extended walks and count steps for the week, loser pays up) as a way to improve the overall health of some of the members. I was giving my little wife some grief, because she's lagging and my team is getting its arse kicked, and I told her: "Your Portuguese ancestors would be ashamed."

And she replied: "If it were scouting the grapes, tending the goats on the hill or even hiking along with a basket on the head, the Manuels and Joakims of my family would be proud of me. They wouldn't have understood walking with no destination."

Kypaddler