Friday, January 20, Inauguration Day Refugee Rights March

I put on my Deport Racism T-shirt and walked to Judkins Park. We staged at St. Mary's Church, 611 20th Ave S. Then we walked to Jackson, through China Town, and along 4th Avenue to Westlake Park. At that point I walked home. I was tired and decided to conserve energy. I spoke briefly on the church steps, stating my name, where I lived, and that Trump had given a bad name to deportation. I said there was a type of deportation we could all get behind, and I showed them my Deport Racism shirt. They liked that. My 30 seconds of attention.

According to Map My Hike, I walked 4.36 miles to get from near the condo (Green Box)  to Judkins Park, which is the light green patch on the lower corner of the graphic on the left. St. Mary's is situated in that little jog that heads north to Jackson and then west through the International District. The end of the march is indicated by the Red Box, situated at Westlake Park. From Westlake I walked another 1.53 miles home, illustrated by the map below. This totals  That comes to 9.4 kilometers.

I left home at 12:30 p.m. and got back at about 4:30 p.m.

The hike from Westlake Park home.

Just ahead -- a right turn near the King Street Station toward downtown and Westlake Park

Total distance hiked so far for 2017: 39.1 km.

Sunday, Jan 15, Health Care Rally / 100 Meals Program

I hiked from the condo to Westlake Square for an Affordable Care Act rally, then back home; afterward I hiked to Safeway and Trader Joe's for provisions. As part of the hike I distributed four sack lunches to homeless people. Details at http://100meals2017.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-overlooked-man-on-bench.html
Total Distance: 7.5 km.

Hike from condo to rally supporting Obamacare.

Total hike distance so far for 2017: 29.70 km

Vancouver, January 2017

Tammi Hermann and I went to Vancouver Jan 9-13, 2017, staying at The Canadian, a WorldMark Time share. Among our hikes:

• Spaghetti factory, on Jan. 10. Round trip on foot at least 4 km
• Pink Pearl Chinese Seafood Restaurant, Jan. 11. Round trip at least 8 km
• Granville Island Public Market, Jan. 12, via bridge and then False Creek Ferry, at least 4.4 km
• Lookout tower from WorldMark and return, Jan. 13, at least 5.75 km. This included lunch at Steamworks Brewing Tap Room, backtracking to retrieve my back pack, and some meandering for one last look at the city.

Total hike distance so far for 2017: 22.15 km
Weight packed: disregard
Elevation gain: disregard

Hike from WorldMark to Granville Island via Granville St. Bridge: 2.09 miles

Hiking Oberstaufen

View to east from Oberstaufen condo after the only snow day -- and a light one, at that.

Four Hikes in Oberstaufen

1. Dec. 19: From Condo to heart of Oberstaufen, a year-round health resort community perhaps 2 kilometers, along a cross-country paved trail that ran through open space, and past neighborhoods, across the road and onto a footbridge over the freeway. Oberstaufen elevation: 2,604 feet.
2. Dec 20: A free hiking outing sponsored by the time share for five guests (four German) across country, partly on paved trail and party in forest.  We drove to the "trailhead," which was located in a parking lot near a church, then followed the Christel-Cranz Trail to the Cafe Auwinkel at the ski resort in Steibis. It was an easy walk of 1.5 hours. One of our companions, Allan, said it was 10,000 steps, which would be the equivalent of 20-25,000 feet, or safely  3.78 miles or 6 km.
3. Dec. 21: Shopping trip to Oberstaufen for provisions and holiday gifts. Walked around the town. 2 kilometers.
4. Dec 22: Second sponsored hiking outing with same group. We traveled through forest and open grazing lands, past moors and again through forest to reach Austrian border, where we had patries at a viewpoint overlooking the valley between our resort and the adjacent mountain range. By my calculations, based on speed and time, we easily traveled 5 miles, or 8 km

So, for the four days we hiked at least 18 km with an elevation gain of at least 500 feet.

The elevation of Mount Hochgrat, viewable from my condo, exceeds 6,000 feet.

View to the north; the westward path into the town began where the driveway met the highway.

View of Mount Hochgrath on the first hike to Oberstaufen

The path to Oberstaufen shortly before noon on an overcast morning

The path crossed the highway and looped onto this footbridge that led into the city proper.

Cobblestones, meticulously arranged, glistened with snow runoff.

Left; a cat drank from a trough. Right: St Peter and Paul Church is a navigation landmark.

View into the valley below the condo during an afternoon hike following the shopping trip

On the second hosted hike we crossed land that had been lake, moor, peat, then solid ground.

At the border of Austria we traveled a trough created by excavation of peat.

The sign at the Germany-Austria border. There was no customs man waiting.

This is a cartoon character that acknowledges smuggling in past years.

On an overlook of the valley below, there was information on the cross-border nature park.

Accumulated distance for 2016: 456.987 km
Accumulated elevation gain: 60,356 feet

Hiking to Costo

New construction near King Street Station, downtown Seattle, Nov 16, 2016

It's been six weeks since I did a real hike of any sort, and that was in the Colorado Rockies. Today I simply walked to Costco with perhaps a 5-pound load in a small backpack, to check out an outdoor down vest to buffer me against the winter cold of Germany, where I will be flying Dec. 13. Yesterday I hiked to REI to check out these vests, after seeing one at Costco for under $50. (Distance: 2.4 miles). The REI vest was more expensive so I wanted to check out the Costco vest again. Enroute I passed Outdoor Emportium, which had an inexpensive fly fishing vest which I purchased for photography and travel. I also looked at their outdoor vests and their rain pants and I may return for the rain pants. I ended up purchasing the Costco vest, even though I couldn't fold it into one of it's pockets, which was possible with the REI vest.

The route to Costco was 7.8 miles round trip. To REI the day earlier, was 2.4 miles. Google gives the altitude change to Costco as 322 feet, but it was so spread out I'm not tallying elevation gain.

So: today's statistics:

To Costco: 12.48 km
To REI:        3,84 km
Weight: negligible
Elevation gain: Negligible

Total stats:

Accumulated distance for 2016: 438.987 km
Accumulated elevation gain: 59,856 feet

Three Colorado Hikes

A grove of aspens along County Road 3 enroute to Lake Evelyn show their fall color.

Sept 25-27

Tammi Hermann and I hiked for three days straight in the Granby CO area, taking in the scenery made rich with the fall colors of  aspen groves such as those pictured above.

First Hike: Lost Lake Sep 25

This 1.4 mile round-trip hike involved driving on US Highway 40 onto Highway 125 for almost 17 miles and from there onto NFSR 123 for 5 miles to NFSR 123.3 to the trailhead at 9,450 feet elevation. The trail passed primarily through woodland to the small lake at 9,650 feet, where the photos below were taken as we followed the perimeter of the lake. The hike was easy, but the hillside came down to the water's edge at times and there were several boulder fields that had to be crossed. I was wearing a backpack of at least 25 pounds, and navigating the boulders was difficult and posed some risk.

The view near where the trail reaches the lake.

The view from the opposite side of the lake

A view point adjacent to the final boulder field when we were almost done circling the lake

Tammi on a wood bridge crossing a small stream. A small amount of snow remained on the bridge.

Second Hike: Lake Evelyn Sep. 26

We reached the trailhead by driving West on US Highway 40 through Hot Sulfur Springs and from there south along County Road 3, which afforded us views of fall colors and valleys below.

Aspen at the foot of the hill; evergreens toward the top with aspen intermingled

An oasis-like pond below the road enroute to Lake Evelyn

The trip took us over Forest Service roads which were rutted, potholed and quite rocky, making the high clearance of my 2005 Honda CRV an asset. But the bumpy ride out also convinced us to take Route 50 back, which was much smoother and delivered us to the outskirts of Fraser, which is close enough to Granby that it proved to be a quicker route home. A couple we met on the trail made us aware of the route, but it wasn't well marked and we found ourselves back-tracking from a side road when they caught up with us,  and led us to Fraser.

Map overview showing locations of Fraser, Granby and Hot Sulfur Springs.

A closer view, showing Lake Evelyn in the lower center and the path, in red, that we hiked

A Google satellite view; The top arrow points to the trailhead; bottom to the lake.

There were a couple thrills on the hike: A turkey that followed the path ahead of us for a brief period then flew into a tree; and  large porcupine that lumbered across the road at dusk and then waddled over fallen trees and through low brush to evade us and the couple leading us to Fraser.

During the hike I showed a heart rate of 136 bpm. We ascended the better part of the 1,135 foot elevation gain mentioned in a park service brochure. My map My Hike program, which produced the first two maps above, suggests that we ascended 884 feet before we turned back to avoid traveling the rough road in low light. Overall distance according to Map My Hike: 3.56 miles. The photo of Tammi, immediately below, was taken close to the upper extent of our hike.

Tammi Herman

Tammi expressing the joy of descent

The corpulent porcupine fleeing in a waddle at dusk

Third Hike: Lake Columbine and the Continental Divide, Sep. 27

We reached the trailhead for this 7.3 mile hike on a road much more accommodating than the one for the Lake Evelyn hike, but the walking was exhausting because of all the rocks on the trail.

For much of the ascent my heart rate was probably 136 and above. (The next night, in Granby, I recorded a beat of 48 or less while lying resting in bed-- this at virtually 8,000 above sea level.) I rated the hike a 1,000-foot elevation gain to beyond 11,000 feet. I was wearing my standard hiking backpack with warm clothing and the 10 essentials, and figure that it weighed 25 pounds at the bare minimum. I also wore heavy mountain boots. Stones in the path caused us to stumble frequently. The path took us over creeks and along a stepping-stone path over a marsh. We stopped frequently to catch our breath. I hadn't hiked at this elevation since January 2015 when I ascended the crater of the Haleakala Volcano, whose rim was about 10,000 feet. And I was surprised to be ascending better than last year.

We almost quit before we reached the lake due to the appearance of the terrain, which, from some angles, suggested we had climbed to the level of the lake and that it had almost dried up. A couple told us the real lake was about 20-minutes farther, but it was probably twice that--although worth the effort, as the photo below indicates.

Columbine Lake, which is about 8 feet deep, is situated at the base of Mount Neva, which is part of the Continental Divide. The lake is fed from the concave west face of Mount Neva.

Although we didn't see moose, when we lost track of the trail during our descent and performed some cross-country navigation, I found a pile of shiny moose pellets near the waterfall pictured below, which I maneuvered around but Tammi crossed.

The waterfall likely is conveying water from Columbine Lake.

We didn't see moose (the couple we met were luckier and had a superb profile photo), but on the road home that night we saw deer as well as  another large porcupine. We also saw more colorful alder, as in the photo below:

Weight carried on these hikes: At least 25 pounds

Accumulated distance for 2016: 426.507 km
Accumulated elevation gain: 59,856 feet

August 26 (on or about) Mai Châu district, Vietnam

Distance: 19-20 km (est)
Elevation gain: Unknown
Packing: Probably 20 pounds, maybe 25-30 pounds
Weather: Approximately 95 F, 80% humidity

Notes: This was a grueling test over open terrain, the type of land American G.I.s crossed in the 60s. While the native's weren't hostile . . . the heat was exhausting. I may have drunk as much as a gallon of water. John Phillips, our team director, described it like being in a postcard for some of the scenery. But there were also times when I wondered whether I would be able to complete the hike. Despite all the water I drank, my urine was a strong yellow at the end of the day. I took some salt tablets along with copious amounts of water. Few hikes as challenging as this one, partly because of my backpack, which carried all the essentials I bring for hikes in cooler weather -- 10 essentials, and in this case probably 3 liters of water at all times.

Cameras: I had my GoPro strapped to my chest and was wearing my fly fishing vest for part of the journey, but took it off after a few hours. It was soaking wet. I hung it on my backpack, and that helped to cool me down. My phone became balky, and only afterward did I realize it was because the batteries were depleted, perhaps the heat was a factor.


Accumulated distance for 2016: 406.891 km
Accumulated elevation gain: 57,772 feet

Do I look hot? My GoPro was filming me checking to see whether it was working properly.