Can we all keep this up?

For those of you that still check my blog (are there any of you left?) I know I have been absent for a long time. Fact is, I lost my motivation to write. I'm not sure yet if it's returning, but I'm hoping to spark the flames of inspiration somehow. I keep track of other blogs, and I've noticed other writers suffering the same malady. One popular blogger even posted recently that he was done. So I have to ask the blogging world, can we really commit to this?

For myself, I'm going to try. By the nature of blogging, one must view it as a personal journal, open to public viewing. Otherwise you're just talking to yourself.

My Dad used to tell a story of a visit by my German Aunt. When she saw what we were having for dinner, he heard her mutter "Aufgewärmt Überprüfung der Woche". Which, if Google Translate did this right, means "warmed over review of the week". Implying that my Mom was serving her leftovers, which I know she never would have done for a guest. But that was my aunt, we still tell funny "Anni stories". If Aunt Anni read today's post, I'm sure she'd mutter "Aufgewärmt Überprüfung des Monats". And so it is.

August was a busy month. A quick trip to North Carolina to help Ben and Emily move, which I don't have pictures of. And 6 days in Chicago and Wisconsin visiting Jared and Lisa.

From Chicago we took a side trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Lisa is a great trip planner and did all the work lining up the jaunt north to the land of Cheese and Lakes.

A boat trip around the Lake

One of the many "summer cottages" that lined the lake shore
The Wrigley Family owns about 5 miles of lake front.

Another summer home.
This owner decided to build a party boat house designed after an old steam ship.

Midwest sunsets are beautiful! Taken from Jared and Lisa's apartment.

Back in Chicago Lisa lined us up for a architecture boat tour up the Chicago River.
I should say down the river because the river flow was reversed in  1900.

Chicago skyline from the Hancock Building.
Playing around with B&W

Sunny and beautiful. A great time!

The end of an August vacation has always felt like the beginning of a new year for me. I guess it's still a hold over from my school years when everything started in September. I usually feel relaxed and refreshed and return to what I know as normal life. Then I tend to re-evaluate my priorities and try to re-organize my life.

I'm happy to report that the running is still going well. I'm up to 1.7 miles with no walking breaks. Probably not the progress that will prepare me for the Baltimore 5K in late October, but I feel good about it. I have to rest the knees for 2 days before I can run again, but hey, that's 56 years old. When I injured by knee 15 years ago, I thought I'd never run again. So actually I'm really pleased with my progress.

What would a "review" be without an update on Patton and Reilly?
The Bay is still a favorite destination.

Instead of throwing a stick, I am using the "Chuck-It"
I can heave a tennis ball a good 100 ft and Reilly swims out to retrieve it and begs for more.

Cliff City is one of the quiet "secret" destinations that we really appreciate living here.

Just as Patton appreciates a visit from Tyler and a chance to cuddle.

Modest Adventures almost sailed slowly into the setting sun.
But it's trying to return to blog another day.

Backpacking the Shenandoah

If you have a blog with a title that contains the word "Adventure", every now and then you feel compelled to actually go on an adventure. Even if you tried to qualify the title with the word "Modest", the implication is still that you want adventure. And so I do! Fortunately I have 3 adventurous sons that are more than willing to indulge Dad. So when I suggested to Jared that I come down to Virginia for a long weekend and we take a backpacking trip, he happily agreed. Being more familiar with the area, I let him pick the trail. The criteria for our selection was a reasonable distance, a good camping site, good views, and a parking lot where our car wouldn't get broken into or vandalized.

He selected Ramsey's Draft Loop in the George Washington National Forrest. 9.5 miles the first day to the camping site and then 5.5 miles the second day of easier descending trial back to the parking lot.

We didn't want to get to the camp site too early so we locked the car and left the lot at 2:45 PM. Jared had the way points and mileage loaded into his iPhone. We each were packing about 30 - 35 lbs.

Ramsey's Draft Loop is a series of shorter trails combined into a total of 15 miles. 150 yards from the parking lot the loop began with a right turn and about 2 miles of sometimes steep ascent to the ridge line.

 Both of us with a Gatorade in hand, Jared took the lead up the first switchback.

At times we broke out of the trees and waded through thick knee high forest weeds.

We soon discovered that one of the native weeds was stinging nettle, the leaves didn't seem to bother us but contact with the stem was like the sting of a jelly fish that turned into an itch. After hiking through a bad patch and getting nailed by the nasty plant, we would douse our legs with bug spray. The sting of the alcohol in the bug spray brought some relief.  Fortunately the sting and redness went away after about an hour. I would consider wearing long pants but I'm not sure whether the sweating or the stinging would have been worse.

Getting steeper and thicker.

Finally some relief from the nettles. We broke into the higher elevations. The side of the mountain got steeper and the trail harder to find. The trail was marked with yellow diamonds nailed to the trees every 200 yards or so. More than once we wondered if we had lost the trail and were relieved to find a yellow diamond.

Nearing to top of the ridge we were rewarded with some great views that the camera cannot do justice to.

The rolling green mountains of the Shenandoah against the deep blue skies did not disappoint.

 Most mountains of the Appalachians are wooded at the top, even though they may reach over 3000 feet of elevation. We came across a few tree clearings that gave us a great view.

Another clearing...yes...it's not a postcard.

The top of the ridge was a series of ups and downs over various knobs.

It was a nice day but the effort was more than enough to make us sweat considerably.

I thought of this as somewhat of a shakedown trip, an education in fine tuning our gear. We did not pack a water filtration system, something I already have on my shopping list. Instead our hydration plan consisted of 5 bottles of Dasani and 6 Gatorades. Hey, we did hydrate with a 24 oz water each before leaving the car, what could be wrong with that plan?

I know, gross right? I stopped for bug spray and I was definitely leaking fluids through my skin.

Even if we did have a filtration system, there were no water sources until we hit camp at the 9.5 mile mark.

We calculated how much water we needed for dinner and allowed each of us a Gatorade for the trip out in the morning. What was left we allowed ourselves to drink. If you have never been forced to ration fluids before, it does make you think about what you take for granted.

Jared was the navigator and so far his estimates were right on. When he said that we'd hit a certain land mark in 45 minutes, we did. He calculated that if we kept up our pace we would hit camp about 8:00. Still in time to collect firewood and pitch the tent before it got dark. So my excessive picture taking became somewhat annoying to him. "Slowing us down, Dad!"

"Really? Another?"

I was still able to sneak in a good vista shot!

We battled through some thick brush and descended the final leg of the first days mileage to reach camp right on time, 8:00 PM. There were 2 other camping groups already there, they came up the shorter 5.5 mile side. One group, a man and woman, asked us about the 9.5 mile leg, and then decided to return the way they came.

Modern backpacking tents are great, we had it up in 5 minutes are were looking for firewood.

As bad as our hydration plan was, our food plan was awesome. Jared had a frozen rib steak which had been thawing out all afternoon. Combine that with Kraft macaroni and cheese.....nuf said! After dinner we suspended the dirty pots by a rope from a tree. There are bears in these parts.

We hung out by the fire until 10:30 and then hit the sack.

Unfortunately for as tired as I was, sleeping on the ground isn't as easy as I remember it to be. Come to think of it, it has been 15 years since I last did that. I had a light foam pad but it still felt like I as laying on a stack of plywood. The experience of interrupted sleep makes you think that you haven't slept at all but in reality you just woke up every hour trying to get comfortable. They make good backpacking air mattresses now, another item added to the shopping list.

At one point in the night, we both heard slow deliberate foot steps through the woods, getting closer to the tent. It sounded almost like a person walking. It wasn't noisy enough to be a bear. I thought maybe a raccoon, and I didn't want a raccoon coming under the tent fly to root through our packs. Deciding to confront the intruder I pulled on my pants and shoes (the last thing I wanted was to be chased through the woods by a marauding animal in my underwear), unzipped the tent and went outside with my spot light. It was a deer! A big doe, staring back at me. It didn't run. I yelled at it. "Hey, get out of here, we're trying to sleep". It just stared at me and kept taking its slow deliberate steps through the woods. I went back to bed.

Morning broke with first light coming through the tent wall. I opened my eyes, groaned and rolled over.

It seemed like a few minutes later that I looked at my watch, but it was 7:00 AM.

The morning sun was already high enough to filter through the trees overhead.

We packed up, ate a granola bar and hit the trail. We figured we could make the remaining 5.5 miles in less than 3 hours.

The trail ahead of us was a slow descent. We came across more patches of stinging nettle.

And some sections that were like a walk in the park.

It was a great trip. We accomplished what we set out to do, kept our times and made our destinations according to plan. I learned a lot for future backpacking trips. And, most of all, had a great time.

After reaching the car, there was one thing left to do. Find a diner and eat a healthy breakfast.

Eggs and scrapple is sounding pretty good!

More random discourse and 3½ weeks of running

Actually I consider this week 3½ of the Couch to 5K training. It's really more like week 5 or 6, I lost count. But I'm still running every 3 or 4 days and my knees are holding up well. I'm calling it week 3½ because I took the week 3 plan and accidentally expanded it. It turned out well so I intentionally did it again. At the risk of boring you: walk 5 min, run 90 sec, walk 90 sec, run 3 min, walk 3 min, rinse and repeat. Except the second hand on my watch is so small that I can't hold it still enough while running to see it. I ended up running 4 minutes instead of 3. Knees are ok, AND the good news is that I think I've finally reached a level of leg muscle fitness where my weakest link is now my breathing. So I can finally start getting the cardio/respiratory element in better shape.

I discovered a miracle recovery aid....came across it and tried it. Compression. It's the bomb. The idea is to put something tight on your legs post workout. It reduces swelling and forces the blood internally where it does more good healing muscles and providing recovery fluids to joints. Athletes have been using this for a while but it's now becoming more popular. If you're worried about looking silly, well, you will look silly. Wear some long pants over it.

Now on to random discourse:

The turkey population is booming on the eastern shore. I remember hunting wild turkeys in college in central PA. I spent hours and hours in the woods and never got a shot off. Although I did hear them and actually saw a few at a distance. I concluded that turkey hunting was the biggest waste of time and vowed not to spend another precious minute on the vain pursuit. Yesterday morning (wish I'd gotten a picture) I was driving down our lane heading to work and there were 3 adult turkeys and about a dozen chicks milling around the blacktop. They didn't want to move. It's strange irony that it's evolved into me honking the horn and yelling "get out of the way!".

Remember this from back in October?

It appears to be almost finished. At least the lawyers are using some of the money they make on class action lawsuits to keep the construction workers employed.

There is a debate under way in Congress about whether political contributors of very large sums of money should have their identity disclosed. Those against it argue that disclosure infinges on their right to free speach because identifying them can lead to outing and harrasment. Those for disclosure argue that the public wants to know what the motivation is behind large contributions. Will a special interest expect favors down the road? How do you come down on this issue?

I do know this:

This guy drives his truck around DC all the time. He is exercising his right to free speach.

Label him crazy, but in how many other countries would this be allowed?

Eastern Shore Fine Weekend!

With a beautiful weather weekend and a visit from Jared, Ben and Emily, a glutenous indulgence of typical Eastern Shore activities was in order.

We started Saturday out with several dozen crabs eaten bayside.

Good picture stolen from my DIL. No shame.

L-R: Ben with wife Emily, Jared.

Saturday night we chilled on the back porch and got to hear all the stories that no one wants to take the time to relate over the phone. Patton and Reilly complimented the party with frequent bouts of alarmed barking and what seemed to be nothing.

Ben finally had enough of the hysteria and demanded some face time with Patton.

Patton doesn't look that upset about it.

Sunday we decided that the dogs needed to be tired out, and what better place to do it than Cliff City.

Oddly named because there aren't any cliffs and 6 summer homes doesn't make a city. But a great destination all the same.

Cliff City Beach. This ain't your momma's Jersey Shore!

"Oh-boy Oh-boy! Throw the stick..THROW THE STICK!"

"YEAH!"

Patton supervises the return swim.

Throw a small tree?

No problem!

Not bad for a group photo.

Camera on timer, sit..stay..stay..almost had it.

Tired pups...mission accomplished!

Greetings from Reilly and Patton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland!



Cross Training

Saturday was my day to run, but we had family down for the day and went to the Chestertown Tea Party and then ate Chinese Food on the porch. Perfect day, but running was low priority.

On Sunday, we started the big project of clearing out the last remaining garden of weeds, small trees, stumps and other unwanted growth.

This garden at the corner of our porch was the last remaining challenge to our dream of having all the gardens weeded and mulched simultaneously in one year. And it was not random fate that this one was saved for last. It was infested with spider wort, weeds, volunteer trees and root suckers from 3 Russian Olive trees that I cut down a year ago. A week ago I made a declaration to Irma that we were not going to kill ourselves on this garden. I was going to rent a Bobcat and bulldoze the evil mess into submission. But one thing led to another and we thought maybe if we just work on it a little at a time....but that concept doesn't exist for us. So that's how it started.

By the time we were overheated and physically spent on Sunday, we had cleared a good 3/4 of the area. And I knew running wasn't in the offing this weekend. But cross training is always promoted in the running mags, and hey, by my reasoning, this definitely qualified as cross training.

Early Monday, I started finishing the job. What better way to honor those that sacrificed for our Country than sympathetic abuse of my body. I'm joking obviously, but the effort was intense.

Patton and Reilly, helpful as always.

"I wish he'd finish getting this stump out so he can chucker me"

Vanquished by the saw!
You may be wondering why I need a saw that big.
Because occasionally I have to cut up something like.....

...this!
Usually after a hurricane.

2 yards of mulch delivered and dumped.
I'm a dirty, sweaty mess, but this is getting done if it kills me.

All done and it's only 1:00 PM.
Now there's a cold shower and a Yuengling with my name on it.
And I probably won't be out of the house again today.
Happy Memorial Day! Thank a Veteran!

Couch to 5K - 3rd week

A while back I ordered a book from Amazon called "The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer"

I didn't at the time, nor do I now intend to run 26.2 miles. After all, 56 year old knees can't take that, can they? But I have noticed that since I started running and reading, the first real attempt at it in about 15 years, my perception is changing. It doesn't matter that I am starting slow, almost at a laughably slow rate, what matters is that I am able to keep doing my runs every 3 days. And my knees are ok with it. So instead of getting impatient and trying too much, I maintain the program and it leads me where I am going. My goal is still 5K, or even 2 miles on a regular basis would be a huge success. But after that, who knows.

My mind and body will be the determining factor.



"The power of inertia is in our perception. If we think we have yet to begin, the power of perceived inactivity can become a slow setting concrete that keeps us from starting. If instead we perceive that the journey has already begun, and contemplate the successes already registered (however small), inertia becomes and illusion and loses its relevance to a process that is already underway."

-Tanjala Mabon Kole, from The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer