Ancient history

So by now you’ve all heard about the 105,000 year old grain processing and I know what you are thinking – so much for the grain-free Paleo-diet as a product of evolution theory. Well I decided to dust off my 5 years of post-secondary training and investigate these claims.

The first thing I noticed is that the evidence in question consists of starch residues on ancient tools. The source of the starch was determined to be Sorghum grass a plant food currently in wide use in the area. Albeit one that requires a lot of processing.

The Achilles heel of the Big Grain conspiracy in my opinion is the drill. Starch residue on the drill implies to me that the Sorghum grass was probably being used as tinder. One could probably also presume being used as bedding and even basket weaving are uses much less complex than processing the Sorghum as food. I’d be more inclined to buy into the assertion of Sorghum as a part of the ancient diet if they could turn up some likely grain processing specific tools with grain starch residue –like the grinding stone that pushed the grain date back to 20,000 years ago.

In a nutshell (ha ha) I agree with these guys:

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sciencenow;2009/1217/2

A search for meaning

It occurred to me that I don't really know what those numbers off the scale mean so I decided to be industrious and look them up. For a man of my advanced years a healthy body fat would be 11-17% - on the low end of that range if I wanted to call myself fit. My current water content should be 57%, anything less and I’m dehydrated. So far I’m fat and dehydrated which goes a long way to explaining the next result.

The Metabolic age is the age of a healthy person in your condition. At my age I want it to be lower than my actual age - 39 is not.

I also calculated an adjusted for frame size BMI using elbow width measurements. That too says I am overweight at 27.13. To get my BMI down to the heavy side of the healthy range I need to lose 20 pounds. That’s 10% of my body weight. If I can manage to exclusively lose fat that should lower by body fat percentage to 11%.

So the maximum healthy BMI is the same as my minimum acceptable body fat? Is it just me or does this seem odd? The only answer I can come up with is that for a large framed, physically active, adult male human I am at the maximum healthy muscle content. If I was any more muscular than I am now it would be bad for me.

It sure isn’t my hair tipping the scales…

Baseline

The Boss has a fancy magic scale. It measures how unfit you are so this morning I decided to take some baseline measurements as tonight the Holiday season of gastronomic debauchery begins. Then I'll take some post Holiday measurements as we set out on the Paleolithic diet adventure. During the diet I will try weekly updates.

So here are the baseline measures:
Weight: 199.6 pounds
% body fat: 21.8 (!)
% water: 53.2
muscle mass: 148.4
BMR*: 2075
Metabolic Age: 39 (!)
Bone Mass: 7.8

* BMR somehow means the number of calories it takes to maintain my system each day.

Castor canadensis

The Castor Oil worked very well. Although it takes a few hours to work I would suggest if you were to try it you do it some day you'll be around the house rather than right before bed. It didn't take all night to get things moving.

Oh yeah and it doesn't exactly taste great so might I suggest you drink it like a Mexican beer. For that matter the results are similar :)

Cleaning house

This week I had to clear out the drain in the tub. It got me thinking bout how gross clogged plumbing is. So last night I drank some herbal laxative tea. It smelled vaguely familiar. The results were less than impressive - it gave me a headache without any noticeable result. So tonight I am going to try a castor oil shot before bedtime.

Part two is that having rudely crossed the 200 pound Rubicon I can feel the icy hand of death rubbing my buddah belly so the fight must begin now. I am planning to transition to the Paleo-diet sooner rather than later and since it seems I should plan on some digestive discomfort as I transition from a carbohydrate to a fat based metabolism I figured it would be good to get the pipes cleaned as preparation. But I'm wary of colonic hydrotherapy (http://www.colonhydrotherapy.ca). What can I say, I'm still a hillbilly at heart.

Oh and the familiar smell of the tea came back to me - Oolong. Oolong always gives me a headache. So now I've got 19 bags of herbal laxative tea going cheap...

Settling in

So I've been here in the GTA about 6 weeks now. I don't much care for it. 7125 sqaure kilometers of broken concrete and patched up asphalt. And it doesn't smell very nice either most days. Maybe I would like it better if I was into the nightlife but so far I haven't seen anything positive to write home about.

Between getting unpacked and spending about 4 hours a day commuting to work I'm not getting an exercise. I am getting fat. Even a dose of the flu couldn't rot off a few pounds. So satrting in December, or maybe the new year I'm going to try the Paleodiet (www.paleodiet.com).

Hopefully ot will turn out as well as the hypoallergenic diet. If not I'll give the hypoallergenic diet another go.

Now I just need to figure out a way to work in some exercise...

Plans within Plans

The tentative 2010 schedule is now to do Physh camp Olympia the first weekend of May. Stagger through La Cloche Silhouette in the burning heat of early July and then hit the ‘Dacks in the crisp fall air.

In between I want to get out and do some Geo-caching. I still haven’t settled on a GPS though. I know more or less what I want but the question is can I afford it? I need to sit down and do the financial outlook for 2010 to match up to my schedule.

Who knew stepping off the rails would require so much planning? I suppose I could just do whatever I feel like but really I think that will lead to either a voluntarily permanent debt induced indentured servitude (the exact state of affairs I’m trying to escape from) or at best a massive delay in my escape.

I’ve got to find that balance that will allow me to set off on the road I want to be on as soon as I can without sacrificing the now.

This weekend I’m heading out to spend a small fortune dragging my anchor(s) to Toronto. I’m sure by Sunday night I’ll hate my mountain of stuff even more. Which might be good. It might make it easier to part with even more of it.

I hope.

Yeah, it’s a pretty complicated love-hate thing that I have with my stuff at this point.

The Big Smoke

So here I am in the Big Smoke. It's big. And it's warm. I'll have to switch back to my September coat.

Did the GO train Subway commute today. This mass transit thing is not for the poor. I guess the poor are supposed to stay home and watch TV or something. And it's pretty time consuming as well but all in all not too bad. At least I got to sit down and relax which makes it better than driving by a long shot. I'm going to pester the manager about moving to an off peak schedule, probably 10-6 in the hopes that it will help the commute. As a bonus if I go in late I'll be able to stay up all night getting wasted!

The house is nice. And spacious. Good thing too. The Boss has a ton of stuff and when my ton of stuff is added to it the house will be full. Then the Boss will start selling my stuff that I have in duplicate of hers. I'm sure she'll sell a few of her things too for show ;)

The long and winding road

Even the road to the start point of the road can have many twists and turns. I’ve already been diverted from the AT to the Camino. Now it look like the financing has evaporated for the time being.

We bought land. Nice land and lots of it. At a good price even. But this means no Camino in 2010. Three months of leave without pay plus the expense of the trip is no longer financially viable.

I’ve got mixed feelings. I’m very glad to get the land now and at this price but I’m a bit sad that I’m going to have to delay my big trip by at least a year. I am still determined to go on a long distance hike (or two) it’s just that the time lines are changing.

So now I’m looking at 2011. That’s not too bad – the next oil crisis is only predicted for 2012 and even that assumes a swift global economic recovery. So in 2011 things should still be affordable.

For 2010 I will need to come up with something smaller. Less expensive and that will fit into my paid vacation time. Probably another go at La Cloche Silhouette. Or possibly the Adirondack Trail that I was going to try this fall but that got derailed by my imminent transfer to the GTA (which happens this weekend BTW).

On the bright side I should be in for a Physh Camp 2010! I'm looking at a return to the Booth Lake area maybe around the first weekend of May.

Muskrat Falls

Muskrat Falls is more than a brutal portage. It's also an impressive display of the powerful combination of water and gravity. The falls do not have the grandeur of the old Grand Falls as the drop is not as far and is split into two sections but given all the water that flows into the Churchil/Hamilton/Grand River after the falls Muskrat is probably bigger in a GPMS (Gallons per milli-second) sense. Either way I wouldn't choose to go over either set of Falls in a canoe.

The upper section:



The Lower Section:



The Boss and I spent some time looking at the falls then in a fit of madness took a "short cut" around the south side of the mountain rather than hike back up the path. If you try this when you get to the big rock with "GO BACK" spray painted on it. You haven't gone to far to turn back and this rock is good advice.

I've posted two road videos to YouTube: Sasquatch? and Firelake55. My YouTube username is Kensapiens. If they look OK I might try to post a couple of others.

The Churchill/Hamilton/Grand River Trip

One of the big reasons we chose to go home this summer was to try to get out on the Churchill/Hamilton/Grand River (all one river) before the lower Churchill development makes it off limits and then floods the valley. We watched the weather and when we saw two days of sunshine we went for it.

We put in at the lower end of the Gull Island Rapids. Low water at this time of year meant we had a little bit of rough water to pass through in sight of the start. You can almost see it in this photo of our start point.



We ended up having a little trouble getting through this spot but luckily the Boss had some duct tape that saved the trip after a bump on a rock put a small crack in the bottom of the canoe. Thanks again Boss!

For the most part the river was fast moving but clean. Lots of current but no trouble with rocks. We made camp on the first night on the downstream side of Tom's Island on a big sandy point. This is our Dad and the J-Set pitching a tent. You can see how clear the weather was.



That night was chilly for me who foolishly brought only a +7 rated summer sleeping bag but the morning was beautiful.



It was another great day on the water on day two. We went from Tom's Island all the way down to Muskrat Falls portage. Along the way we made some stops and found an old trappers river tilt. A tilt is a small cabin. This one is no longer habitable.



The portage at Muskrat is crazy steep which sadly cannot be expressed with my photographic ability. Suffice it to say I held the canoe with one hand and used the other to help crawl up the trail. And it obviously doesn't get used much as it's a very narrow overgrown trail. Once we got into the trees the black flies became wicked. Evil. Cruel. In 30 seconds the bug dope was sweated off and the claustrophbic heat of the bug net was preferable to eating a steady diet of blackflies with each breath.

We camped on top. It wasn't chilly this night. It was downright cold. I survived but barely and I certainly didn't sleep.

In the morning the wind came back up pretty stong. The Boss wanted to see the Muskrat Falls before they became another victim of "progress". But hey, Air Conditioning is a need. It's not like people could live without it. Really, why would they want to?

So the Boss and I did the hike down to the falls and we all got a ride back to the valley rather than paddle the last of the river. In theory that part will remain untouched so we can always paddle it later.

OK enough for today. In my next post I'll try to give you a photo impression of the falls.

Part one of my thoughts on the trip home

I am disturbed by the proliferation of cabins/cottages. Rabbit Island has 8 cabins facing the mouth of the river and a spot cleared for a ninth! The last time I was fishing off Rabbit Island there were two small cabins tucked into the woods. The town still has a population in the 7-8000 range. I think it is symptomatic of the runaway consumption in our society. Same number of people, twice as many houses and 4 times as many cottages.

I think this is a large part of why outside of my parent's house HVGB doesn't feel like home anymore. I know the other half is that I have changed too.

We got out of town a bit, a boat ride up Goose Bay which was neat and a canoe trip on the Grand/Hamilton/Churchill River but I'll cover that in a later post. I didn't get everything done that I'd have liked. Visiting was almost nil as I took a few days to relax and the rest of the time just flew by.




This reflection I'd like to touch on Geocaching. I like it. My bro who mentioned it in comments here earlier as a new hobby introduced us to it on the drive in. Now I have to eat my previous words. I want a GPS because geocaching is fun. We used it to break up the long drive into HVGB and for anyone planning to do that trip or drive the loop when it gets completed (next year?) I highly recommend it. It really made the drive part of the holiday and not just a marathon to be endured.

On the Labrador

I'm back in the Valley for a couple of weeks. I foolishly brought the cool wet weather here with me.

It's nice to look around. Things haven't changed much in the last three years but things seem smaller than I remember them. Especially the grocery stores.

Time is flying.

Of Skywalks and Frogger

Looking at my post of yesterday I'm having trouble explaining the anti-Ottawa west rant. I am trying to think of how it is significantly different from Ottawa east. Orleans was also obviously built around the automobile and, if anything, has recently become worse than Ottawa west in terms of blatant consumerism as the 10 kilometres of big box stores that line Innes Road has supplanted Kanata Centrum as the region's largest temple to Mamon. And, as far as I know, Orleans doesn't have nearly the recreational trail system of Kanata.

But then I guess that's exactly it. Kanata has recreational trails but almost no continuous sidewalks. It gives me the feeling that in the west end walking and cycling are meant to be hobbies not transportation. Orleans has few trails but most streets have separated sidewalks which implies to me that it is perfectly acceptable to walk (or bike) to the store.

For example, scads of people live within a half hour's walk of the Eagleson Park and Ride but I don't see any good walking routes (at least not from my side) and so I get to dodge on-ramp highway traffic not exactly dangerous but not exactly encouraging either. In the east end they have over-the-highway walking tunnels to get to the transit major stations.

So if any city planners out there want to green-up their towns take note of the things that create an atmosphere that encourages walking and cycling as a practical way to get around not just building an obviously secondary network of recreational paths.

And what does all this have to do with taking a long hike? I guess it's my feeble attempt at an excuse as to why I haven't been focussing on fitness like I'd planned to do when moving to the west end. Obviously I have no excuse. I'm just in lazy mode.

Schedules are evil

I'm trying the bike in, bus home, bus in, bike home, idea. AT the moment two 36km rides a day is too much biking. It would probably be fine if they were good clean rides like the 24km ride I sed to have down Innes Road but they're often not. Downtown is a mess to bike through, much worse than I recall. More congested and the "free money being spent to delay the collapse" construction only exacerbates matters.

Living here has also revealed to me why I have never been comfortable with western Ottawa. Don't get me wrong, staying with the Running Man Clan is great, it's only when I leave the house that it bothers me. I've concluded that Ottawa west wasn't built with human beings in mind. It was built on a basis of automobiles and consumers. If, when I leave the house, I get in my car everything is fine. Driving is good, wide open boulevards lots of parking. There are also lots of recreational trails but it's all constructed very much the idea that walking, running and cycling are things you can choose to do as hobbies. If you want. Just stay out of the way of the consumers driving their Explorer's to and from. If I try to do something without using my car there's this pervasive aura of "you don't belong here bicycle as transportation man".

But I'm off topic. I'm here today to rant about schedules. Why post a schedule if you're not even going to try to follow it? Yesterday I bus home. I want to run a quick errand downtown so I decide to change buses there. I get off my 95 bus and lo and behold there is a 96 right in front of us loading. 96 is the route I need from here. A quick look at the schedule says the 96 comes by every 6 minutes. Excellent, I'll quickly do my business and catch the next 96. I get back to the stop after about 3 minutes. After a 23 minute wait a 96 arrives and I'm wondering what happened to the three route 96s that didn't show up in the meantime? At least when this used to happen to me years ago with the 95s all four buses would show up at the same time as a violent reminder that light rail is long overdue.

This morning I catch a 96 in Kanata a little later than I'd like my fault. According to the schedule it's 36 minutes to Hurdman station. In real life, during summer vacation light traffic and on far from packed buses it took a little over 50 minutes. At this point I'm too afraid to wait the "15 minutes" for the 190. If it's anything like the 96 I'll be over an hour late for work. So I take the next bus I see headed east and walk the last 15 minutes to the office.

How, I ask, can the government expect people to take public transit under these conditions? Is it reasonable to ask people to replace a 45 minute commute by car with a 120 minute (just in case a driver calls in sick) public transit ordeal? Not until the oil runs out.

All this to say the guy who invented the clock should be even more ashamed of himself than the guy who invented the calendar. I am so looking forward to passing my days by rising with the sun and walking until I get where I'm going that day.

I'll ett when I'm hungry,
An' I'll drink when I'm dry,
An' if moonshine don't kill me,
I'll live 'till I die!

Book update

In the book Bob makes the Camino sound pretty social. He has a regular cast of characters that he keeps meeting up with, passing them one day and getting passed by them on another only to meet them again a week later. This could be a problem. The Boss is a very congenial person and I occasionally get visions of us trekking from town to town with an assortment of cheerful English speakers trying to make a party of the whole thing. The whole being a Canadian thing is probably not going to help either.

Of course the same risk would probably apply to the AT to some degree.

As I'm getting on in the book and Bob is getting on in the trek I notice there are ever more references to blisters and leg aches and people dropping out or feeling plane ticket pressure. Blisters and achy knees I have accepted will just have to be part of the "fun". Dropping out is not an option for me since I don't expect to ever be able to go back. A period of rest might be required but not dropping out. This brings me to the last issue of plane ticket pressure. I need to figure out some way to avoid this that doesn't involve spending a lot of money on a last minute or open date plane ticket or the possibility of two weeks of hotel fees and meals.

Any suggestions?

Car "Camping"

I went car camping with the Boss this past weekend. It's been so busy ever since this is my first chance to post about it. Car camping is not like real camping. You get to bring almost all the comforts of home and get pretty much none of the benefits of real camping. We had an ulterior motive in that we were at a campground in the middle of where we want to buy some land and the days were for scouting.

I borrowed a nice stove from Heavy-C (thanks again) which made cooking a breeze so combined with the Boss' culinary expertise I ate like a king a weekend! Not at all like real camping when I mostly eat gruel fancied up with artificial meat flavours. We sort of lucked out weather wise as it was a mostly sunny four days in a very rainy summer. We did wake up one morning to discover the tent leaked but a quick tug under the ubiquitous overhead blue tarp that signifies an occupied campsite in Ontario solved this issue.

The flies were cruel which I guess is due in part to a cool wet summer so far keeping them out longer and the fact that Silver Lake Campground in a triangle of dry dirt between Silver Lake, Highway Seven and a swamp.

The neighbours weren't that noisy but honestly, I don't get the whole going off to the park to drink beer thing. At least not once you're of an age to have your own apartment.

So basically car camping to me is most of the negatives of camping, rain and bugs and critters stealing your food but none of the serenity and non-pollutedness (less pollutedness?) that makes camping great.

We did get a lot of looking done, didn't find the dream location yet but that's probably for the best.

And the lake was nice.

For the love of stuff

Yeah, a 20L pack might be a bit extreme but I already own a kick ass 20L waterproof pack. Once I get around to packing I might find I have to consider something around 30L.

For me the minimalist thing is one of the great attractions in the idea of a long hike. For some time now I have been growing associations between minimalism and simplicity and comfort and complexity. One thing I certainly took away from the cross Canada tour last year was the simplicity of living life uncluttered. I certainly didn't miss having to clean the house or sort through my mountain of stuff to find the right item. That said, back in the real world just one year and I can already see myself slipping back into "needing" the exact right bag or jacket or shoes and not just making do with what I have.

In this sense I like the minimalist element as a device in the transition to a new way of living. In the future I want to learn to make do with less stuff. I think that will be easier to do after a few more months living with almost no stuff. It's like this: to go from having 20 pairs of socks to having 8 pairs of socks might seem like a big sacrifice. But to go from 20 pairs to 3 pairs for a few months and then back up to 8 pairs might not seem so bad. Once I've learned how to live with only 3 pairs of socks 8 pairs will seem like more than enough socks rather than less than half the socks I had.

That's my theory anyway.

I can say for sure that when I first got back from the bike trip I seemed to have an overwhelming amount of stuff. I got rid of what I thought was a lot that fall. Then I cleaned up to sell my house and realized I still had way too much. So I got rid of more stuff to ready the house for showing. I've gotten rid of still more stuff during the move and I still have a ridiculous amount of "essential" stuff in storage.

This needs to change

Monkish Luxury

After reading the start of the book I'm pretty much convinced that I want to do the Camino this spring and I think I've settled on a three pronged approach to assuage my concerns about dodging the deprivation of the AT for the luxuries of the European tourist industry.

Step one: go early spring rather than late spring. 2010 is a holy year of St James so I should expect the trail to be crowded with throngs of pilgrims. The best way to avoid that is to go in the off season or the shoulder season. The weather is cooler (snow is possible!) and the boots on the ground are much thinner. The downside that for me is an upside is that a lot of tourist sites and pilgrim refuges and such are still closed. This means that there will be a bit more roughing it, finding a place to buy food and a decent place to sleep will be a bit more haphazard.

Step two: no boots on the ground. I'd like to get off the freighter in Barcelona and wear the "gloves for your feet" all the way to Santiago. I wonder how many pairs it will take? The sole is kind of thin.

Step three: a small backpack. 20 litres capacity? The idea is to enforce a minimalist approach on myself. The thought is that since shelters do exist and food can be bought regularly, by using a very light pack I will be able to push on if conditions insist. In that way I will be able to just carry what I really need and still maintain a level of safety. The AT will require a lot more gear to maintain that level of safety.

I have no interest in dying of exposure. Or even coming close to dying for that matter. Just enough discomfort to remind me to appreciate the everyday luxuries of home will suit me just fine.

Biggest Day Ever Anniversary

One year ago today I rode my biggest one day total 194.73 kms. Mostly in the rain and against a headwind. I slept well that night.

On Monday I discovered the new bike commute is about 1:40 minutes and closing in on 40 kilometers. Bear in mind when you look at that time the traffic lights when on the roads and the crazy heavy pedestrian traffic on the bike paths around Ottawa. You can't really go fast or build up a decent rhythm when commuting in this town. I figure that's too much time to do it every day but I am going to try to do it a couple of times a week. Maybe Bike in, bus home, bus in, bike home.

Yesterday I went for a run. My first run in too long. 45 minutes, not sure how many kilometers but my quads are not my friends today. I'm still at a level of fitness where I burn out my legs but my cardio is fine. It's funny that I'm undisguisably fat and I've got none of the strength I had and yet despite months of not using it I still have decent cardio. Good cardio seems to be a lasting effect of the 11,000+ kilometers I rode in 2008.

Just for badness I did the run in my new Five Fingers Sprint shoes, also known as "gloves for your feet". For those who do not know what "gloves for your feet" are here is a picture:



It's like walking around barefoot minus the cutting, burning, puncturing and fungal sensations. And, so far at least, I haven't been refused service in a restaurant while wearing them. To date I've mostly run on the treadmill in the Five Fingers but there were good for running out doors too. Even the short stretches of concrete. Most of my run yesterday was on grass where the shoes give surprisingly good traction.

Seeds of Dissent

The seed of the AT trip is Bill Bryson’s humorous travelogue A Walk in the Woods so I decided that in all fairness I should read a travelogue of the Camino de Santiago before making any firm decision about which to do. I checked out a local bookstore and quickly narrowed my search down to two choices – a humorous book written by a German guy and a Canadian book written by a guy who has hiked the Camino de Santiago 5 times.

In the end I chose the Canadian book (buy local!) because it was published more recently (2007). The book title is All the Good Pilgrims, it is written by Robert Ward – his first book. I’ll let you know how it reads. The reviews on the back cover are positive…

Freight

I looked into booking passage on a freighter. There are travel agencies that will do it and some shipping companies take direct bookings. On the interweb it says $50-$75 per day. I found a company that takes passengers and does a fairly regular grain shipment of Montreal to Barcelona that takes about 10 days. That's $500-$750. Cheaper than flying but not exactly hoboing it. I did see some scant mention of working for passage on some shipping lines which would be even cooler.

As for training for a long hike - I've done nothing for far too long. The result being that I'm in pretty poor condition. As is if I tried to book passage on a freighter they might want to charge me as freight by kilo rather than human passage... So I'm going to have to make some kind of fitness plan for once the move is completed. That's in one more week and I'm looking forward to it. As an aside - if you are a single person and your main hobbies aren't watching TV and shopping, my advice is don't buy a house. A condo maybe.

As for a new exercise regime the relocation to Kanata will have a huge impact on what I do. I'll be living with the running man and family ans they are a pretty health conscious crew so I'll have the moral support. I'm thinking there will be some trail running at Kanata Lakes, some work with the weights and more yoga. Anyone have any recommendations for a good Ottawa west end yoga studio?

El Camino

I've done some background reading and I am liking the sound of the Camino pilpramige more and more. I am intrigued by it's pre-christian roots. Mostly because it speaks to a great antiquity and not due to some highly fashionable anti-christian sentiment.
The main Camino trail is 780 kilometers and is pretty civilized. You can do the whole thing without a tent as supposedly the longest streatch without a place to stay is 15 kilometers. I'm told rates are reasonable at 7-10 euros a night. Two months at $20 per night is $1200 lodging, lets double that for food and it becomes comparable in price to doing the AT. Three times as expensive but in one third the time.

I know what you're thinking - I still haven't gotten to Europe yet. Well that's part of the attraction of the Camino for me. I figure I could combine the hike with another trip I've been wanting to take. Namely to cross the Atlantic on a cargo ship! I understand that rates are reasonable and I think if I started my pilgrimge by walking down to the docks in Toronto and getting on a container ship to Barcelona would be an awesome start to a pilgrimage.

My big hangup is that while it's on a different continent, the Camino seems less adventurous than thru-hiking the AT. Partly because it's shorter but mainly because it's not a wilderness trail. That allways brings to mind a quote from, I think it was, Yvon Chouniard about how you never see country people climbing high mountains, only city people. He explained it by saying city people need the extreme wilderness of the high moutains because they have to get their dose of "nature" in the tiny amount of time their job allots them. Country people live with nature everyday so they don't need the reader's digest. something to that effect anyway.

What does that have to do with anything you ask? Well I plan to leave the city and go live on a farm in the country, hopefully a pleasant bike ride from a smallish town. That brings up the question of do I really need the exterem dose of nature that would be the AT or would I be better served by a long walk through a well civilized countryside as my transition?

Opinions?

PS: If anyone else is doing a hike soon I would certainly like to hear about it. Maybe a linnk to a blog or a coment post, hint, hint.

A new deal?

I recently attended the cross Canada bike trip Ottawa contingent's one year reunion. It was good to see everyone again and hear what they have been doing in the almost year since we set off on our big ride. And also to share thoughts on the tour that have had nine months to percolate.

I am pleased to say that, in the main, our attitudes are still positive and the few negative issues are still there but softened. One of the riders is about to set off on a self supported circumnavigation of Lake Ontario which sounds like fun. Another spoke to me about his attempt this winter to hike the Camino pilgrimage in Spain. It too sounded like fun.

This has given me second thoughts about doing the AT in 2010. I’m thinking I want to look into the Camino. I nkow it wouldn’t take as long to do and therefore wouldn’t be as punishing financially (or physically) as the AT. In those respects it might also be a smarter progression than to do these hikes AT first and then Camino. (I had been thinking to do the Camino when I got older.)

It may come down to land. If I find the right piece of land this summer I could walk the Camino in February and March maybe a bit of April and still be back in time to plant in the spring - presuming I had cleared a good patch of ground in the fall. To do the AT I would have to plan to walk from February until August and then clear land in the Fall of 2010 to start farming in 2011. That added year is where the financially punishing comes in.

The rub is: if I do the Camino in 2010 and then start the farming when do I ever get to do the AT?

Ascalon and on

On the second day the sun was out and full of pith and vinegar the J-set and I decided to bushwack our way up the hill to a little lake called Ascalon. The map indicated it had brookies and with no formal trail to the lake we thought it might yield up a meal early in the season. It did. Just not to us.

We hiked along the old rail bed and then followed a stream up through the birches to the lake. There weren’t any good spots for fishing from shore and the lake looks to be about three feet deep. By the time we had found some reasonably open spots for casting (on the far side of the lake of course) the day had warmed up considerably and was quite nice compared to the recent cold. The clouds of voracious black flies that feasted on us as seemed to like the warm temperatures too.

Eventually the rotten log I was standing on broke and I got my feet wet and we headed back to camp. "not a fish, not a bite".

Heavy-C, who had stayed in camp, greeted our return with a farcical story of landing a giant Bass some feet in length. The map and guide book mention only trout in these lakes. Obviously he had misidentified and released what should have been our supper.

The next day the forecast called for Showers. Well it was half right. There was only one shower. It did last for six hours though. So I lay in my wet tent and read my book between cup-o-soup forays. In the evening, after the six hour shower, I finally found the fish but due to my lack of skill I was unable to get any into the boat.

When Wednesday arrived it was time to pack up and head back to the grind. It was raining again but true to form it turned nice as we left the park. Physh Camp ‘09 was a rough trip, cold, wet, no fish, blackflies and man, the rental kayak was miserable to portage. Still good clean fun though. I hope the boys keep it up next year while I’m on the AT so I can come back in Physh Camp ’11.

Part Deux

It rained again Saturday night so I packed up wet stuff and dropped the Boss at the bus terminal in Sudbury and raced down the road to meet Heavy-C and the J-Set at Kiosk. They were already there by the time I got through the police blockade. It was insanely windy at Kiosk so we put my wet tent on a line to dry in the wind. It worked. Steak for supper. Bratwurst for desert. That's living large!

It was still pretty windy when we headed into the wilds of Algonquin Park Sunday morning but fearless adventurers that we are we forged ahead. Really we did. Into the dragon’s maw as it were. At our first portage we met a pair of less intrepid adventures staring fearfully out at the unforgiving expanse of raging half frozen lake. They greeted us with bad news: "not a fish, not a bite". With some encouragement, they decided to test their metal against the waves. We never saw them again.

The portages were almost good. Not too long and only the second one had some rough spots in the form of mud reminiscent of the lowlands of La Cloche Silhouette. The main issue of the day was that the rented kayak weighed about 9000 pounds. In the future we will have to book Physh camps as canoe teams. Too bad they don't rent 14 foot canoes. I'd probably be willing to take a 14 footer out by myself. But in that wind a 16 foot canoe with one paddler wouldn't have gone anywhere but back onto the rocks.

The Wheels come off

The three days of day hiking didn’t materialize either. The first full day back at the car camping (Wednesday) we felt it prudent to let the Boss' feet and IT bands heal up some. I honestly have no idea what we did that day, it just sort of passed. We didn't do anything but I don't recall getting bored. That night I learned that it doesn't rain in Killarney but occasionally Georgian Bay overflows it's banks and inundates the park. Oh and my tent is now more water resistant than water proof - and not particularly resistant.

So we drove into Sudbury thinking about shopping for a new tent. First we ate a huge breakfast at Gonga's Grill - now with 6 locations! Another good meal IMO, really liked the sausages.
Who knew that Sudbury was such a culinary delight for a working man's appetite? After checking both outdoor stores and deciding that neither store had what I was looking for we went to the IMAX and watched the Grand Canyon movie. Lots of nice visuals that make me want to visit it even more but like pretty much all environmental films a bit too much preaching to the choir.

When we got back it was warm and sunny so we got to dry out our stuff more or less.

Friday we finally did a day hike. We chose the Granite Ridge Trail which is rated as medium. The otherl choices were a trail called Cranberry Bog but after the flood I thought about the mud on La Cloche back when the forest fire index was high and figured a trail called Cranberry Bog might need SCUBA gear now that the index was down to low. The third trail involved a short drive to the trail head.

There is a colossal gap between medium and difficult. Good views of Georgian Bay from the granite ridge and we met some dude who was sending cell phone pictures from the Ridge to his GF to show her what she was missing. Apparently she doesn't go in for the camping and hiking. I was jealous of his awesome day pack. It was a bigger version of my own waist belt day pack.

We finished the Killarney leg of the trip with a trip to Herbert's World Famous Fish and chips in the cool village of Killarney. $13.00 for whitefish and french fries! It was delicious. Killarney is a nice little town. Not overly touristic but it obviously has a tourist industry with the Georgian Bay boaters and the Park goers.

La Cloche Sillouette

The weather was beautiful as we set out on the La Cloche Silhouette trail Monday morning and we made some good time in the early going. Before too many kilometres though the trail began to earn it's reputation as difficult and the hubris of doing a 7-10 day trail in 5 days began to look more and more like folly. After lunch, with the Boss' feet covered in a layer of moleskin, we didn't make such good time. At 3 PM we had done about half the planned first day of travel and decided to pack it in.

We both figured another 5 kms was possible but it was pretty obvious we weren't going to do the loop in 5 days. Maybe we'd do two days in and two days out? We had gone about 10 kms most of it over broken rock or through ankle deep mud filled with wet roots. And this is the easy section... At camp that evening we decided that the Boss' flesh eating hiking boots were not going to drag a heavy pack over these mountains and that we would head out in the morning.

The campsite (H7) was difficult to get to and on a sloping hill but gorgeous! Pine forest over looking a glacial looking lake surounded mostly by white quartzite cliffs. A small waterfall on the far side provided a relaxing background noise. I expect it would be a glorious spot in late summer when the lake is warm enough for swimming.

Tuesday morning we headed back out. The new plan was to car camp at Killarney test the camping gear and camp routine while doing the three day hiking trails offered at the park. Another nice day of weather but the trail didn't get any easier and the day did exhaust the moleskin supply. I even had to put some on my heels and I was wearing my New Mountain Lites and they haven't caused me trouble in about 15 years!

I also decided that trekking poles are a good piece of gear to have. They can seem annoying at times but on the descents they are a huge help. Trekking poles = Ken sans knee pain! And yeah, I cheaped out and just bought $10 rubber feet for my $30 snowshoe poles. Imagine what I could do with $200 poles...

Maybe finish the trail?

It will take more than $200 trekking poles.

The Big Nickle

The La Cloche Sillouette hike didn't exactly go as planned. Mostly because the planning was not very good. It started out with me mixing up my days so on Saturday we drove to Sudbury and stayed in a motel (The Belmont - probably should have gotten the Grecian Suite) and ate at an all you can eat Chinese Buffet. It all worked out in the end as I got to fulfill a dream and on Sunday morning had this photo taken of me at the Big Nickle :

Awesome! All in all I rather liked Sudbury but the poor planning did add to the expense of the trip. Oh, and it was chilly so I bought a long sleeve Under Armour shirt to take the chill off. It was on sale at least.

I've decided to post recent events in instalments over the next couple of weeks rather than do one massive update.

And Happy birthday bro!

A short note to civilization:

You can collapse at any time now. I am ready. It says so right on the box! Ready for what you ask? Anything. With my shiny new Leatherman Charge TTi.

And now it's off to Killarney!

May already?

Hey y'all. I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya but I've been busy with year end at work and with prepping my house to sell. My house was colourful so I've had to make it bland for the masses. So now my house is a slave to conformity - just like The Man wants it.

But enough of that depressing topic. The Killarney hike is imminent. This time next week I'll be cursing my descision to do an 8 day hike in 5 days after a winter of sloth.

In preparation I recently bought even more new stuff. I finally got some zip-leg pants/shorts, a new, modern (not itchy) camp towel and two pairs of quick dry underwear (which should come in handy if there are any bear or cougar encounters) and some Superfeet, Superfeet, shes a Superfeet! Superfeet are the cadillac of insoles. They are highly recomended by Bill and I will be testing them on La Cloche Sillouette. Around the yard they feel like they are going to rock.

One last thing to purchase is a Leatherman. Survivorman always has a leatherman and it looks like he uses it a lot. I didn't get one yet because I was paralyzed by choice. Any recomendations out there as to what model I should get? Please bear in mind I am trying to keep an eye on the grams so I have already ruled out the giant total package one.

Immediatly after La Cloche Sillouette is Physh Camp '09 which promises to be relaxing - lying about in the quiet of a northern forest being hand fed foie gras by beautiful native girls... Or maybe not. In any case we have a last minute opening so if you don't mind some light portageing contact Heavy-C or the J-Set before they change the canoe reservations.

String (and Map) Theory

I have plotted the reserved campsites on the Killarney trail map. I based my reservations on quality recommendations from the dude at the Friends of Killarney site. The end result looks a bit uneven in terms of distances but apparently none of the early sites are very impressive. So I decided to check the distances for each day to help with planing and expectations.

The best way to measure trail distances on a map is to use a piece of string. You follow the winding trail with the string and mark it at each end. Then you can measure the string and compare it to the map scale. It`s still pretty rough but it`s better than trying to count squares.

So here are my results with some contour comments:

Day One: 22km that starts off with a bit of up and down but looks to have only one serious hill and the last half is flat and if time is running short I might brave some rapids to cut off 4 KMs. Although it will be May so the water will be cold and high... The site is out on a point of land.

Day Two: 18km that starts off flat and easy and then gets crazy steep in places. I expect this will be a harder day than day one as it has several big climbs and some steep descents.the topography of today is why I haven`t considered moving the day one campsite a couple of kilometres closer. The site is on a small lake at the base of a steep hill.

Day Three: 14km with a 6 km option that is a must if I want my hardcore badge. Short and with one big climb if the option is passed on. The option is a three kilometre hike up to Silver Peak at 539 meters. No problem, I`ve done worse in the `dacks. With no water. On a hot day. Anyway, toss the heavy pack into the woods and go to the summit in a flick. Easy day. Camp on a small lake, near another campsite that is already reserved so we can all share our summit stories...

Day Four: 12km of constant up and down. Not big hills but some rugged looking terrain. Camp on a small lake.

Day Five: 14km one last hill and out to the George lake Campground for a shower and to put those beers I hid in the car on ice!

I think it looks like a good training hike, days one and two to cover some ground while you`re fresh and then days three to five to work on campsite routines.

Reservations are made

Next up on the training schedule is La Cloche Silhouette. A majestic 79 km loop through Killarney Provincial Park. The route is considered difficult and looking at the topo map I believe it. some places it looks like you are walking up cliff faces! Another stretch looks to be 20kms of constant up and down.

The loop features beautifully rugged white quartzite cliffs that are older than dirt! Dirt being the stuff that used to sit on top of the quartzite when they were mountains taller than the Rockies. So now you know why there is so much dirt. The name of the trail comes from the painting by Franklin Carmichael, a group of seven artist. Here is the painting:

I would say one of the better efforts from the group of seven but then I'm not a very good Canadian - I don't care for the music of Rush, hockey is dead to me (murdered by Garry Bettman) and I'm not a fan of the group of seven. At least I've still got a love of beer (mostly UK beers) and that special skill where I can always find something to whine about and blame on someone else even when things are going awesomely well. And let's face it, that last one is what really defines Canadian.

I will be doing this hike in mid-May while things are still cool and damp. Considering my planned February 15th start date for the AT I'm going to want to test all the gear in cool and wet weather. The plan is to pack for Killarney as if I was starting out on the AT and at the end of the week re-evaluate all my choices.

It will also function as an evaluation of my fitness. The pace of the Killarney hike will average 16kms per day which is the suggested starting pace for the AT. Based on how difficult I find Killarney I will know how hard I will have to work all summer. (Here's hoping it's beer and nachos on the patio hard!)

A 16km per day pace would be about 219 days of walking to complete the AT. Considering one of the things I learned on the cross Canada bike trip is that a weekly rest day is invaluable that ramps it up to a 256 day trip. Or about 8.5 months. Now where did I put that 11 tons of food...

End of the season

Another Mad Trapper season is done. I came in last again with a time of 1:27:26. This time I can defend my placing by mentioning I`m only last because I went out on the second lap. Overall I came in 9th out of 10 men to do at least 3 10k races this year. Not last! More importantly it was challenging and fun again this year. with excellent after race food! Saturday I ate two bowls of delicious chili, a big chunk of delicious hot casserole, a handful of potato chips, 3 cookies and three mini croissants. When I got home I ordered a pizza for supper and ate the whole thing. Then I woke up early this morning hungry again. Nuts.

So what does this tell me? It tells me that I might be fat and slow but I`m no quitter and that`s how I`m going to thu-hike 3500kms of Appalachian Trail. I just hope it doesn`t take 9 months and 11 tons of food.

I think I`m going to sign up for the 5 peaks this summer too even though that means I will have to buy a new pair of trail runners. I know what you`re thinking - I can get by with old road shoes for trail running. Well another thing I learned this weekend is that when it comes to ankle support a half an inch is HUGE. I ran this race in my old road shoes and on the unstable snow surface the lower ankles were killer. I blame my poor time on it. Honestly. So if I do the 5 peaks I`ll have to budget about $400 - $100 admission, $150 shoes, and $150 for gas.

Today I tested the Vargo Triad Titanium Stove. It seemed hard to light but it actually wasn`t. It`s just that I couldn`t see the flame. It took a little over 10 minutes to bring my two cups of water to boil but it was near zero and a slight breeze. I figure if I make a wind shield for it it will boil a litre of water on one stove of fuel which would be pretty sweet. At one ounce I may have to get another one just to get two burners going - coffee and breakfast in the morning, tea and supper in the evening. Leave more time for hiking. I also need a better fuel container - something with a small spout. The bottle that paint thinner comes in is not so good for pouring fuel into the stove.

I figure a $4 bottle of fuel will fill the stove at least 25 times which is pretty sweet. So one litre of alcohol should cook all the food that will fit into the bear barrel.

Gearheads

Me and the Boss went out to the stores this weekend to check out some gear she was interested in. The plan is to have the first draft of AT gear in place for Killarney. Killarney will be a practice hike as everything is put through the "is it tough enough?" and "is it worth the weight?" tests.

Anyways, we took a look at Trailhead, Bushtuka and MEC for bear barrels. In the end we decided on the Backpacker's Cache model from MEC. It was $4 more expensive than the one at Bushtuka but we preferred this barrel:

Pretty cool eh. The lid mechanism seemed the best and the barrel is smaller and feels sturdier. BTW the coffee you see in there is excellent. Much better than what you are drinking now.

Another piece of gear in consideration is the UV pen light. It`s $97 but it`s small and lightweight and ``cleans`` 2000 liters of water! All of which destroys my pump filter and in terms of volume comes out cheaper than the tablets.

Among some other odds and ends she needed the Boss also found a new stove. It weighs one ounce and runs on methylated alcohol (paint thinner). Yes a mere 28 grams of stove!

It claims to boil 2 cups of water in 6 minutes. I will be testing the veracity of these claims on the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, the forecast for Saturday is 7 degrees Celsius. Saturday is the Mad Trapper finale. I don't see myself breaking 1:20 in warm weather. Mostly because by the end I'll be carrying and extra 15 pounds of water in my clothes. I checked out the trail runners in the stores as well. the new models don't have the plastic tabs of my shoes so I guess I'm not the only one to have this problem.

Halfway

So I weighed in at 185 this morning after subtracting my clothes. 2 more pounds lost in week three. All water I imagine. I've sunken to the level of applying moisturizer to my desiccated remains but even that is little help as my finger tips are cracking open. anyway I`m halfway to my weight loss goal.

I'm back on the dairy again with no ill effects. Today I reintroduced the gluten. I am invited out to supper Thursday so I had to speed up the challenge phase of the diet because what if they serve something like spaghetti? Then I've got both nightshades (tomato sauce) and gluten (pasta). So I bought a bagel. No problems so far although that bagel really sat in my stomach a long time and I was a bit noddy this afternoon. I probably should to pick up something else though to have some more gluten tomorrow and see what happens.

The danger of reintroducing two groups at the same time is that if I have a negative reaction I won't know which group caused it. Then I'd have to start all over again and only the Boss wants that. What exactly is a negative reaction? I'm not really sure. I'm going on the assumption it will be heartburn or an upset stomach or the runs or a noticeable drop in energy and hopefully not all of the above.

Nationals

I ran in the Canadian National Snowshoe Championships today. I came in last in the 10k event. However I did beat my December time by about 13 minutes! I ran it in 1:23:22. I`d had this plan to run to trance music but about 20 minutes in my MP3 player ran out of juice. I think if I have it charged up for the Mad Trapper finals in two weeks I`ll be under 1:20:00. That`s going to be my goal - sub 1:20:00. Bear in mind a snowshoe 10k is harder than a trail 10k which is harder than a road 10k.

In some bad news, I broke one of my trail runners. A plastic clip on the alternative style lacing system broke. One near the top and now they cannot be cinched down to the foot. I don`t see a way to fix it so I guess my Salomons just became my new around the yard sneakers. It`s a shame, I had grown fond of those shoes after a rocky start .

In some good news I now get to enter the challenge phase of the HAD. Tomorrow I start in on the dairy products. Thursday I`ll bring back the nightshade group and next Monday gluten. A few days after that and it`s full on toxicity. That means coffee, real tea and beer!

The third week of the HAD was not so good. I`ve gotten more used to the strict diet and I`m finding more and more palatable food combinations but the side effects are freaking me out. I may have mentioned in week two that I was getting dry skin. Well in week three I have been feeling generally dry and stiff all over. I`m not a flexible guy to start with but this last week has been ridiculous. I`ve been eating myself into the poor house with the almonds and olive oil and I am drinking the 8 glasses of water a day but it all seems to pass through me without being absorbed. Hot yoga last night helped some.

I think I will do the HAD or some variation thereof again in the future periodically but only for a week or two at a time. It`s not comfortable but I think it does give the digestive system a rest and the body a chance to repair itself some. Sort of like how you keep your house clean but every now and then you would like to have a few extra days off work to really clean stuff.

Eye of the Tiger

I got on the scale at the gym today. I weighed 189 pounds in gym clothes with a light breakfast in me. I'm willing to call that 187 and another four real pounds lost this week. So there is the healthy weight loss diet plan. You can eat as much as you want as long as you limit yourself to foods that do not taste good.

I was in the gym to go for a treadmill run. I couldn't believe how stiff I was from the run on Sunday and after 20 minutes of warm up running I decided to do some stretching. Not enough sleep I think. So don't call me Sunday morning I'm sleeping in.

I went to the heart and health fair at work today and got my vitals:

B.P. 131/73 very good said the nurse.

Pulse: 53 I'd like to shave off three beats.

Glucose 5.4

Cholesterol: 3.89 my best ever!

I attribute the cholesterol and good glucose to the HAD.

The weather in Georgia today was 14 degrees celcius and partly cloudy. Next year around this time I hope to be on the trail. I'm of a mind that starting out on February 14th might be cool. It's the Chinese new year in 2010 - the year of the Tiger.

Last year was the year of the Rat which signifies new beginnings. This year is the year of the Ox which is associated with slow, sure action building to last. Next year (starting February 14th-15th) is the year of the Tiger which is associated with good fortune.

Eye of the tiger!

31 pounds

It was abeautiful day so I went for an outdoors run yesterday. As usual, the legs wore out before the lungs. Then this little girl ran past me. It`s gonna be another tough snowshoe race Saturday. It`s the Canadian National Snowshoe Championships so I`ll be running with my ``last place is better than DNF`` approach. Then again, now that I`m down to 160 pounds maybe I`ll be super fast!

So in the last week, my second on the HAD, I`ve dropped 31 pounds. Or my scale is broken. Probably the latter. I certainly don`t look like I did when I was 160 pounds. This means I don`t know if I`ve continued to lose weight on the HAD. I think so but I don`t know. At any rate i`ve decided that the race Saturday is the end of the HAD. When I eventually drag my carcass into the Ark I will be famished and the spread is not going to be HAD compliant and I am going to eat. A lot.

Having said that the second week on the HAD has been much better. I`ve made some better tasting concoctions and I think if you have superior culinary skills than my own limited abilities it might be something you want to try. I think my real problem with the HAD is while I know it`s doing me some good I don`t know that it`s doing enough good to be worth the hassle. I have this sneaking suspicion that it`s really just the sugar part that is helping me. I am going to phase the foods back in to watch for any reaction. If I get a reaction to something other than sugar (which I already know I will get) then I`ll consider doing the cleanse again.

I think the order I`ll phase in is dairy first (cheese!), then gluten (bagels!) then nightshades. the known poisons, sugar, alcohol and caffeine will wait until March.

the HAD

I got on the scale this morning. I've lost four pounds in the eight days I've been on the HAD. At this rate in 32 days I will achieve my weight goal. 32 more days eating like a medieval Japanese peasant. That seems like a long time. Monday I will check my weight again and make a decision to stay the course or not.

I'm considering a modified HAD in which I allow myself one flavour category per week. The idea being to see if I feel better some weeks than others to identify a shorter list of problematic foods. So one week I could eat my HAD foods but also the nightshade group (potatoes, tomatoes and peppers) the next week I could eat the HAD foods plus gluten (bread) and another week I could eat some cheese. I don't miss milk. The nut milk and rice milk are good enough substitutes but man,

I miss cheese.

Boil-up 2009

First things first - congrats on the FTF bro! Sounds like you are having lots of fun with the geo-caching.

Today was the annual boil-up day. On the off chance that someoen reading this doesn`t know what a boil-up is a boil-up is when you go into the woods and boil a kettle of tea over an open fire. Those little gas stoves don`t count. Why you may ask? Simply put: tea boiled over an open fire tastes better. Same as applies to toast and weiners. Participants today included yours truly, the newly nick named tank and Prometheus and a beautiful woman! all good Labrador folk so there was no messing around. Once we got into the woods.

This year`s boil-up was in a slightly differnt part of Marboro Forest. We like Marlboro Forest since it`s not so busy as the parks. We started at the same place but different times as Tank and beautiful woman arrived a bit late so Prometheus and I had gone for a walk to keep busy but we all met up at the bridge as Prometheus and I back tracked figureing to meet up with the latecomers deftly tracking us. We met up by the bridge at Roger`s Pond and procedded around the pond. It was the best weather day we`ve ever had for boil-up in Ottawa and I liked the area we were in. Lots of deer tracks but no sign of birds, not even chickadees? We probably walked about 7kms today, 6 for the loop I think and I`m giving an extra km to Prometheus and I for our early stroll in the deep snow.

The hardest part of the day was this stupid hypo-allergenic diet. I`m torn at the moment. I can already feel a positive difference in my health eating this restrictive diet. I`m caffeine free but without the usual tiredness (I did still have the withdrawl headaches a few days ago) so I guess that means I have more energy as promised which presumably means the immune system boost is also happening but today, watching the others enjoy redberry jam on tea biscuits with real tea, I had to ask myself: is it really worth it?

I`m going to give it one more week before I decide.

Oh and I think I may need to take my carea into the shop. WDYT?

A month gone already

Went out for some snowshoeing Sunday pre-Superbowl. Me and the two J's decided to break the pre-game tension by hitting the Gats. We choose Wolf Loop, us and about 400 other people.

After a short wait we snagged some parking and set out to climb the big hill. You can do Wolf Loop in two directions (of course), one way is a steep climb followed by a long gradual downhill. The other way is a long gradual climb followed by a steep descent. We chose the former. It was an excellent day for snowshoeing, cold enough to keep you moving but not freezing. the frost was still on the trees in mid afternoon making for some very nice views from the ridge. I have no pics to share because my camera is acting up again. I am going to have to break down and put it in for repairs. We ended up taking the shortcut down the main cross country ski trail because we took a longtime climbing the hill and were concerned about getting to Jones' for the festivities. We got there early in the end.

So day two of my hypo-allergenic diet is over. So is the idea of following Canada's food guide. That thing is a cruel joke and a half. I'm not a small guy and fairly active and I can't recall the last time someone accused me of not having a healthy appetite but there is no way I can eat that much food and not explode. In two days I have not yet been able to eat my full daily amount. It seems pretty obvious after two days that Canada's food guide is a devious plan to make people eat buckets of grain until they are morbidly obese. The question is why?

I am going to stick with the hypo-allergenic diet though. I'm just going to reduce the grains portions since they are the blandest part. Vegetables without added flavours are fine but boiled grains without sauce make me wonder why ancient people gave up the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in exchange for agriculture. So far the only answer I can come up with is beer.

Wimpy

In the end I didn`t race yesterday. A short run on Thursday (very short) led me to believe trying to do the 10km in snowshoes would have been painful. Instead I`m going to let it heal and then get back on track. I`m planning to walk Wolf loop as a Superbowl warm-up next Sunday if anyone is interested in coming along.

I`m adding another practicehike this year as well. The La Cloche Silhouette trail in Killarney Provincial Park. The trail is approximately 80 km and the website says to be prepared for the 7-9 days it will take to hike the park. 7-9 days! I`m going to plan for 5 because even if the terrain is rough, 80 kms of trails should be manaegable in 4 days. The dates for Killarney are May 10-16 including the 10 hour drives to and from. Let me knwo if you are interested in joining me.

I`m thinking that I am going to do my annual spring fishing trip in Algonquin on the long weekend rather than drive back toOttawa and then back out to Algonquin. I`m not a fan of going to the Parks on the long weekends due to the crowds.

Second Race Comming Up

Saturday is the second of the four snowshoe races I have signed up for this winter. I wish there was a word for inbetween race and course. When I read race I think of challenging to win but really I'm just running against the clock to test my fitness.

The rib is still bothering me so I'm going to go for a short run tomorrow to decide if I will try the "hilly" course Saturday. I'm not enthused about doing the race anyway since this stupidest of injuries has kept me from doing any training so it's not like there will be any progress to measure from the last race and it's going to be really cold again (-18).

But then, I've already paid my entry fee...

Hard Going

It`s been a rough start to 2009. The bus strike and a snow filled driveway have played havoc with my free time. A bruised (cracked?) rib has kept me in from getting out and about much but this is to be expected. Whenever I let my weight get up like this I tend to stagger from one injury into illness and to the next. Hence the need to be in reasonable shape BEFORE I start on the AT.

At least I have managed to get some work done on planning the diet. It looks like I`m going to be eating more than I do now and I might even save some money! I just hope at least some of the stuff I haven`t tried before doesn`t taste too bad.

A New Dawn

December 2008 was a month of unprecedented gluttony for me in which I literaly ate myself sick. Sick to the point of having to take time off work. Needless to say I am fatter now than at any time in my life, just 3 short months after an 11,000 km bicycling season. If I am going to hike 3500 kms in 2010 I am going to have to change direction. To this end 2009 will be a year of aesthetic living such as I have never before attempted.

For starters I will be foregoing my usual "caffeine free January" as it will be replaced with a January of diet normalization. Eating the leftovers and clearing the cupboards of my "regular foods". In February starting the day after the Superbowl (!) for 6 weeks I will be adopting a hypoallergenic-low glycemic index diet strictly following the Canada food guide proportions (by weight) for middle aged men. This is a period of cleansing to boost my immune system. If it goes well I will do it again right before the AT. So from February 2nd, 2009 to March 15th 2009 I will be unable to accept dinner invitations. I'll probably be pretty grouchy anyway...

After the cleansing I want to sit myself down and re-evaluate foods based on my experiences from the diet. I'm pretty sure I also want to increase the portion of raw foods to at least half my calorific intake. My goal is a lean 175 pounds by the end of the Adirondack Trail (CDN Thanksgiving). If I don't meet that goal then I'm going to get stupid.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to cut my stemu ration to $100 for 2009. Considering the number of canoe and hiking trips I have in mind for 2009 this may not be as easy as it sounds. That said, after rationing myself one stemu per day for 2008 I never came close to my limit despite an eleven week long trip. This year, in order to account for multiple platforms, I am going with a dollar based system.