Rule # 2

Rule # 1 of any outdoor recreation is never go alone but, if you are like me and ALWAYS break rule # 1 you'd better adhere to rule #2. Rule #2, ALWAYS make sure you let someone know where you are going, an expected time you will be out AND a "worry" time. The worry time is critical.

Jodi always knows if I am not out by the time I told her to worry call the appropriate agency to begin a search or rescue. Adhering closely to this can make the difference in this being a rescue or it becoming a body recovery. I really don't want that!

I hike and bike alone ALL the time. I backpack alone. I've kayaked alone MANY times in bad conditions including after dark in very high winds and near dark when it was so cold and windy that all the water that splashed on me froze immediately and by the time I got out of the water my lifevest was a total sheet of ice. I've dived alone in the Mexican Carribean. And this year I plan to take a class in self-belaying so I can climb alone. BUT, Jodi will still always know my planned route and a worry time.

I do not change the trail I'm traveling or the route etc unless I am able to let her know. If I have cell coverage I will text it to her so she doesn't even have to write it down. If I do not get acknowledgment that she got the change I do not change.

This has been the way I've done things for as long as we've been together (except the cell phone part of course!) but it was drilled into my being even more as I was reading "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" the story of Aron Ralston, the young 20 some year old guy who went mountain biking, hiking and canyoneering in Utah without telling anyone where he was going (he lives in Denver, CO). I won't spoil the book other than just saying that his trouble started on Saturday afternoon and help did not get to him until Thursday afternoon. Read the book, it's great!

So, added trail-running to my workout today

1.5 miles isn't a big deal at all, a warm up in fact, to a runner but for a guy who 6 months ago weighed over 273 pounds and wouldn't think of doing that to me knee, I thought it was pretty good.

Averaged 4.5 miles per hour with a top speed of 6.9. We'll see how that improves. Did 1 mile in 9 minutes 20 seconds yesterday at the gym but that was on an elliptical trainer so I had the advantage of arm movement to push me a little faster. I'll get to that speed on trail this spring!

Then Jodi and I took off for an exploratory road trip to the Mt. Taylor area. I stopped and did a quick check-it-out hike on another section of the CDT (Continental Divide Trail). Definitely have to go back there with a backpack. Drove up to almost 9,000 feet toward Mt. Taylor but the road was so covered with snow and ice we decided to bail and return in the spring. BEAUTIFUL up there though. I see some camping trips this year!

SO happy that I will have Saturdays off this year so we can explore and camp more.

2011 is good so far

Good hiking the first week of the year, great working out this past week, good bike ride this morning and a bit of geocaching just before dark this evening.

Also stopped by Stone Age Climbing Gym to check it out. I had tried on my old harness this morning and it fit so I got all fired up about climbing. Can't wait to hit the wall again.

Now I just need the job at Westside to go full time so I can have weekends off and get to hiking and biking more. That with the gym and I'll be more ready for spring than any year since I left WA!!

Planning to top out on the Sandia Crest,10,678', on my 51st birthday and make that the first of many 10,000'+ trips for the year. It's time to get serious before I really do get old!!

Hiking on the east side

We waited until well after noon to hit the trail so it would warm up a little bit. Still only about 25 degrees when we set out on trail #365 from the parking area off Montgomery and Gleenwood Hills Dr.

We walked right at 2.5 miles, some in the snow believe it or not considering Jodi was with me, in the very cool but beautiful sunshine.

We spotted several pinyon jays, a lot of western blue birds, a towhee, a roadrunner, of course crows and a couple of what we think we might have been red-naped sapsuckers.

Then home for Jodi's typical New Years dinner of sauerkraut, a day late because we had "date night" last night. Hopefully being a day late will not negatively effect the "good luck" charm of the annual dish.

Long week ahead, Monday I have to work at Lovelace Women's Hospital, Tuesday Jodi has to go to Women's for a meeting and I have to work at Prime, Wed and Thurs I will be at Lovelace Westside and at Prime on Friday and Saturday both. That's the way it goes for the next three weeks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 !!

Hopefully 2011 will be the year I do a better job of keeping up this blog along with my other sites.

Copied from my Facebook post: New Year resolutions: see my sons and grandkids more, explore lots more of New Mexico, get back into climbing, dive Conchas, Elephant Butte and Navajo lakes, hike and mountain bike in CO, AZ and UT, take a canyoneering course in UT, do more home projects and last but most important, spoil this woman sitting next to me, that is crazy enough to still be putting up with me, even more than usual!

Well, the year started off right. I had a weight goal to meet for 1 January and I did it!! Christmas almost backed me up. Damn cookies! Now to the next level. A little bit at a time is the way to do it! Over 25 pounds lost since summer.

It's 9:30 a.m. and 11 degrees with bright, beautiful sunshine If it's not as windy as yesterday I (maybe we) am going for walk down by the river. Then later we're celebrating our anniversary (we met 29 years ago today) by going to grab a nice lunch/dinner then catch an early showing of "True Grit". I've heard mixed reviews but Ruben, John and Monica said it was good and I trust them way more than some of the other people I heard talking about it.

Time to workout.

Writing for Hubpages lately

As you can tell I haven't posted anything here lately. Sorry, I have been working on a pretty big project for hubpages.com, and I have more followers there than here.

Here are links to the latest few articles on there:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Exploring-North-Carolina
http://hubpages.com/hub/Travel-and-Recreation-across-the-US-Part-2

Enjoy there for now please. I am too tired to do both for now.

Camping and Hiking in El Morro National Monument

WOW!! Another great weekend. And this time it was much cooler so we started off with our good bags and loved it. It was so toasty warm in that tent and in the bags we slept like babies.

Trip started off rough as we headed to El Malpais because I had called the visitor's center to make sure the campground was open since it's a pretty good drive. "Yes ... " was the answer I got, so we drove over 70 miles to the Ranger Station to find out "No. They are closed for renovations!" So this guy told us go on to Grants to Lobo Campground it's open. So we drive to Grants and thought we had better make sure before heading several miles north. Sure enough, "NO. It is closed for the season is what we heard there!" I'm ticked at this point but we were told El Morro Campground is definitely open. ANOTHER 50 miles but turned out to be well worth it.

MANY more photos here

Great campground. VERY basic but that is the way I love it. Picnic table, fire grill and a pit toilet not far away. Not even water this time of year. Remember we're at about 7,200 feet so they don't even try to keep pipes from freezing. But there are no streetlights no electricity etc so when we killed the lantern is was dark as could possibly be considering how lovely the moon was shining!

Awoke to totally overcast and quite a breeze. Pretty chilly morning while making Jodi's coffee and our breakfast but certainly not cold enough to not enjoy. Even for Jodi.

Talked for quite a while with Dave and MaryAnn, folks from New York that camped just down from us. He showed me some great travel books and I showed him my hand held GPS. Very enjoyable time. Swapped e-mails so they can let us know when they're coming again. They come west once every year.

After they had to leave we broke camp and headed to El Morro visitor's center and to the hike. Nice VC where we bought a couple books for Nora and a couple more medallions for my hiking staff.

We took the not-as-common clockwise route because there were 120 steps and my knee does better climbing steps than it does coming down steps.

From the very beginning the trail is beautiful. As you go you see phenomenal rock, views, cultural ruins, petroglyphs and historic rock carvings from as early as 1605. All in all a phenomenal day and a totally phenomenal value at $3 per person! We also spent quite a bit of time talking to Fred Moosman, a Ranger at the park, who provided great information not on the signs or in the guidebook.

After the approximate 2.5 miles we hiked here we drove back up Hwy 53 to the Zuni - Acoma Trail and walked approximately a mile of it just to explore and check it out for future hiking/backpacking.

WHEW!!! What's up next weekend??