Sunday, February 19, 2017

Week of Feb 12 running tab

Feb 13:

Group Health Radialogy round trip: 1.1 miles
Ivar's Acres of Clams with Mary Vesper 2.8 miles
Budd & Co for Del Sol Work: 1.5 miles one way
Total: 4.4 miles = 7.04 km

A dessert at Sarajevo Restaurant


Feb 15:

To Sarajevo Restaurant on First Avenue via theater at Pacific Place. Watched "Hidden Figures," talked to woman in wheelchair, walked to Sarajevo restaurant to consume Amazon coupon, talked to bartendress who was from Sophia, walked home.
Total: 4.4 miles = 7.04 km (again!)



Feb 16:

To GHC Radiology: .5 miles
To Trader Joe's and Budd & Co. via condo: 2.23 miles*
To AMC and back to see Rogue One: 2.2 miles**
Total, using a factor of .91 to convert Map My Hike to actual distance: 4.72 miles or 7.5 km

*Map my hike, which may understate distances based on a test today comparing the Del Sol's odometer to Map My Hike, from Budd & Co to the condo.
**Double the one-way distance of 1.1 miles based on Google Maps. Map My Hike calculated the distance at 1.21. This calculates to a 10% exaggeration for MapMyHike compared to Google Maps.

From home to AMC. Map My Hike: 1.21 miles; Google: 1.1 miles

Feb 17: 

GHC Radiology round trip: 1 mile
To Ferry Terminal to meet Darlene Burt: 1.5 miles
After lunch with Jay Hastings, from Ferry Terminal with Darlene to Chocolate Box: 1 mile
From Chocolate Box to home: 1.4 miles
Total: 4.9 miles, 7.84 km
For the week: 29.42 km
For the year: 87.12 km



Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Saturday, Jan 28, 2017, Mazatlan urban hike

A boat awaits refurbishing at the astillero (shipyard) where Gilberto Landazuri works his 18th year.


This was the only significant hike I engaged in while visiting Mazatlan. The purpose was to deliver a piƱata to Gilberto Landazuri at his home in Playa Sur. I set out in the morning and walked to Panama Restaurant, stopping enroute to purchase a cotton summer "suit" -- pants and a nice shirt, both white. At Panama I had a Mango Mambo, because I was hot and thirsty. Then I hiked to Valentino's, and at that traffic circle headed east and then south to Gran Plaza, where I planned to  pick up a "tarjeta cumpleaƱos" (birthday card), which had, in Spanish, the statement that "I'm so old that my birthday candles cost more than my cake." Gilberto's birthday is Feb. 4. He will be 78 and he and Gloria will have been married 51 years.

At the Gran Plaza I ran into a young woman at a booth who spoke excellent English. She had studied in high school and college and had worked cruise ships to Alaska, Costa Rica and Hawaii.

From Gran Plaza I headed toward the Marcado, but caught a bus on Ave. Del Mar enroute. From Marcado I hiked to Gloria and Gilberto's home via the Machado, another Panama Restaurant (a small one) where I bought an orange fanta and rested, and theng a small book store along the way, where I purchased two paperbacks for the women in our foursome. I walked right past Gloria's, not seeing the iglesia, and had to backtrack.

Gilberto was there. I delivered the present and card, we talked for a while, then Gilberto went to work, and I went along, to the shipyard, where I shot photos. Afterward Gilberto drove me part-way to the bus stop. I told him it wasn't necessary and got out just past their home, and walked to the Marcado, where 10 pesos put me on a Sabalo Central back to Pueblo Bonito.

What follows are the maps of different legs of the journey: .76 m; 1.25 m; .98 m; 1.3 m and 1.76 m for a total of 6 miles, or 9.6 km.

From Pueblo Bonito to Panama restaurant



From Panama Restaurant to Gran Plaza


From Gran Plaza to Ave. Del Mar



From Marcado to Gloria's House



From near Gloria's to Mercado where I caught the Sabalo Central back to Pueblo Bonito

Total estimated distance hiked Jan 28: 9.6 km
Total distance hiked to date in 2017: 57.7 km


Saturday, January 21, 2017

Saturday, January 21, Women's Rights March

I walked from my Condo to Judkin's park, then followed the same parade route that I did yesterday. There were an estimated 120,000* marchers. We started off with a sky made more interesting buy hovering helicopters and a pair of eagles, making lazy circles above St. Mary's Church, with a backdrop of cloudless blue. And we were neat. The martialing area was virtually litter free, and along the parade route the cups and other containers were neatly placed in at least one location in a cairn by the overflowing waste container. From time to time a thunder of voices rose at one end of our endless  line and tumbled over it's length it like an enormous wave of determination.

* At 45 p.m. Sunday, Jan 22, the estimate was boosted to 175K.

Our parting thought before we began the march:  "What ever you do will not be enough, but it it matters enormously that you do it."  -- Ghandi.

Here are some of the sights:











Total estimated distance hiked today: 9 km
Total distance hiked to date in 2017: 48.1 km

Friday, January 20, 2017

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.





Tuesday, January 17, 2017

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


Thursday, December 22, 2016

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