And his attempts to find variety in his walks, avoid Terreeeblay the treadmill, keep his doctor happy and himself alive and vibrant!
"The Blog Almost Too Boring To Be The Most Boring Blog in America ... for Over 5 Years!"
until it got too many red cards from Wounded Duck and the Boredom Enforcement Committee ... now the tortoise's goal is to get to 10 red cards so he can get Big Dog to drive down and take a good long walk with the tortoise
P. S. This blog listens to its readers. We have the Benjamin Category Override for 5+ mile walks and now, it humbles Tortoise to say he has been named "Lou", by Doug Jr, in memory of Mr. Consistency himself, Lou Gehrig. Tortoise can hardly type the words to think he is in any way comparable to the noble Iron Horse. Thank you!
Saturday, November 16, 2013
13-320
Did my first walk on the Rim Trail today, which is the final portion of the Hurricane Cliffs trail system I'm sampling before my attempt to do the full 21 mile loop in one day two weeks from now. Started at the Virgin Dam trailhead and did a 3.73 mile roundtrip walk to the junction with the J.E.M. trail in 1:20:18 hours. There are a couple sections of 3% grade along the way that HumanaFit rates category 5. Overall I climbed 246 feet, which gave it a TortoiseRating of 5.3.
Do tell me if you like my phone's experiment with putting random videos to 34 seconds of music. The first 3 seconds are gibberish, after that it's kind of fun recap of this walk from my perspective.
Please click below for a map, lots of pictures, along with calories consumed and burned detail ...
The road to the Virgin Dam Trailhead forks to the left off of Sheep Bridge Road
after you travel 1.8 miles from Highway 59 (or 2.9 miles from Highway 9 if you
came that way)
Signs guiding you to the Rim Trail from the Virgin Dam Trailhead parking area
It's 1.8 miles east from here to the end of the Rim Trail where it meets the J.E.M. trail
And 5.5 miles west from here to the Hurricane Hill trailhead
The construction of the Hurricane Canal is an amazing feat of human planning
and endurance. The Sons of Utah Pioneers honor this at the Virgin Dam trailhead
Guess they wanted the two picnic tables here to blend in with the environment,
they are all stone
Bano with a view. The white rectangle under the overhang has a map and info.
As you can see here
And here
Well, enough of the trailhead, let's start walking
The white dot in the distance is a camper trailer rig driving on Highway 9 towards Virgin.
Desert panoramas start immediately. This one is at 0.1 mile.
View down to Virgin Dam a couple steps from the trail, also at 0.1 mile
0.2 miles
Trail stays near the rim above the Virgin River at 0.3 miles
A particularly rocky trail section at 0.5 miles
Milepost 6 from the Hurricane Hill trailhead. 0.5 miles from Virgin Dam trailhead.
One of the 3% grade sections, this one at 0.9 miles
An especially nice view at 1.1 miles
Looks like a left over guide flag from a mountain bike race at 1.4 miles
Mile 7 from the Hurricane Hill trailhead; 1.5 from Virgin Dam trailhead
The view at mile 1.5 is nice!
A downhill section at mile 1.7
Mile 1.8
Another fine view at Mile 1.8
The two little posts near the top of the picture tells us the junction with the J.E.M. trail is near
No words needed.
The end of the Rim Trail. You can go left on the J.E.M. trail to its end near the Sheep Bridge
on the road named for it, or you can go right towards the J.E.M. trailhead on Highway 59
just over halfway to Apple Valley from Hurricane
Or you can retrace your steps on the Rim Trail, which is my choice today.
The full moon is rising over Zion Park as see from mile 2.7
Another gorgeous moon view at mile 3.0.
Good thing I'm out here for exercise and views, because if you were in a hurry
you'd want to go 0.1 mile across the scrub to the trailhead bano instead of
a full half mile sticking to the river rim (hence the trail name)
Nice river view at mile 3.2.
I definitely feel better when I do full hour walks and breathe in all this good air. Varied places to walk help too! Here's today's eating:
I love the video! Great job el padre. Looking at the pictures, I just completely took for granted growing up so close to Zion. Makes me think of the hikers we passed when the 3 girls went with you during the summer. They were from Switzerland and said all they had were the Alps! And we laughed because of how silly that sounded, makes you appreciate our area more
Walking these trails just makes me smile, and I do love sharing the joy. Thank you so much for taking time to visit here and telling me what you think as you read it, I know you have a million things you could be doing, so you choosing to bask with me for a few of those moments makes me very, very happy!
I love the video! Great job el padre. Looking at the pictures, I just completely took for granted growing up so close to Zion. Makes me think of the hikers we passed when the 3 girls went with you during the summer. They were from Switzerland and said all they had were the Alps! And we laughed because of how silly that sounded, makes you appreciate our area more
ReplyDeleteWalking these trails just makes me smile, and I do love sharing the joy. Thank you so much for taking time to visit here and telling me what you think as you read it, I know you have a million things you could be doing, so you choosing to bask with me for a few of those moments makes me very, very happy!
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