14-181

Here's a big happy 30th birthday wish to Jacob, who with his sweetheart Hilary just completed hosting an amazing family reunion, themed La Vie En Rose.  We've been celebrating France in general and the arts and cuisine of Paris in particular for the past year leading up to our three days together in person.  Well, Jacob and Hilary, I'm not quite ready to let go, so I got my goofy hat on one more time and dedicated this morning's walk to A Tour Of La Verkin Wards ... a play on words to Le Tour De France, the amazing 2000 mile bicycle race that kicks off July 5 ... in Leeds, West Yorkshire!  Yes, the same tour I love to watch in part because of the amazing scenery, is giving us the gift of three days in England before continuing throughout France.  The third of these days could be titled Le Tour De North Zone, starting in Cambridge (my final missionary area, and the fine university town for which William and Kate have been named Duke and Duchess) and winding through the north part of my mission, through the stunning Epping Forest, and into central London.  I'm getting misty just thinking about it ...

OK, enough of that before the Boredom Committee permanently shuts down the tortoise's meandering prose.  Today's walk began at 5:46 am in the hopes of hitting the cool of the morning (77 degrees, so you know it's going to be a scorcher this afternoon ...) and started in 1st Ward, then passed through 2nd, 6th, 4th, 7th, 3rd, and 5th before returning to 1st.  A fun 5.04 mile walk (hmmm, sounds kind of like the New Orleans telephone area code) with 251 feet climbed in 1:31:21 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.2 for the 1.23 mile uphill portion; calories burned:  787.

If I haven't scared you off yet, I have more pictures and a map waiting for you when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-179

I got to walk with Josh this afternoon, he took this picture of me by these pretty purple flowers across the parking lot from La Verkin's Wanlass Park.  Our walk was 2.20 miles with 59 feet climbed in 44:20 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  348.  For a map and more, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-178 3/4

The picture above is at the 500.00 mile mark so far in 2014, reached earlier today.  So why a second post in one day (labeled with the "3/4" add-on to hopefully put a smile on Becca's face)?  Because of my self-imposed two mile daily minimum.  So ... later in the evening when I was running errands, I took a short break to get that completed.  The second walk was 1.33 miles with 105 feet climbed in 27:07 minutes, up and back on the hill near my Hurricane office.  Tortoise rating:  4.6; calories burned:  210.  This in turn made the total miles today 2.12 in 46:29 minutes.  For a map and updated yearly stats, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-178

Look at this fabulous family I have that all walked around the block with me to finish the first 500 miles of my 2014 quest to 1,001!  Pretty nice birthday eve present if you ask me!  We walked 0.79 miles with 19 feet climbed in 19:22 minutes. Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  137.  Lots more pictures with the map, so join in the celebration and click below to continue reading (boredom committee, I dare you ...)

Cheerio!

14-177

The tortoise tried unsuccessfully to get a boredom committee representative to accompany him on this morning's walk, partly on the grounds that the temperature would already be too warm even early in the morning.  I waited until 9 am to walk in this attempt, and now present the Shady La Verkin walk to show the delights of summer morning walks here.  It was 78 degrees and just the right amount of breeze when I started walking, and there is a surprising amount of tree shade available almost immediately after starting a walk, as illustrated in the picture above.

The walk continued for 4.21 miles with 325 feet climbed in 1:30:00 hours.  Tortoise rating:  3.3 (based on all the climbing occurring in 1.08 miles of the walk) ; calories burned:  682.   For a map, a plentiful array of additional pictures, not to mention the ever boring year to date statistics, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-176

Today's walk ended with a view of the official pace car used by the Boredom Committee to hand down warnings and sanctions against this blog when it provides insufficient boredom to the masses.  This followed a 3.20 mile walk with 65 feet climbed in 1:01:59 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.7; calories burned:  501.  Clicking on the link below will reward you with a map, another picture, and more stats for anyone feeling stat deprived at this point ...

Cheerio!

14-175

The lights of Hurricane ... worked until 10:15, then hit State Street for a 4.26 mile walk with a 91 foot climb in 1:07:32 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.7; calories burned:  719.  For a map, a picture, and the continually boring yearly stats, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-174

It's 9 pm, do you think it's cooled off enough to leave the office and head out on a walk?  (In the interest of full disclosure, I did take a 2 hour dinner break/FHE with my sweet earlier in the evening before heading back for another round at work).

Sure!  And thus it was that on a clear, still 85 degree evening, I walked 4.33 miles while climbing 187 feet in 1:10:46 hours.  This path is designed to load the uphill portion in 1.29 miles with a nice easy on the knees decline for the remaining 3.04 miles.  The tortoise rating on that uphill portion was 4.7; calories burned were 708.  For a map and more, please click below ...

Cheerio!

14-172

I did another 1.25 miles finishing packing camp this morning, then got in 2.8 more walking out Oak Valley Road to the east of camp refreshing memories from Encampment a year ago, and seeing some great views!  Total today:  4.05 miles with 330 feet climbed in 1:30:42 hours.  Tortoise rating:  3.3; calories burned:  648.  For a map and more pictures, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-171

I went to our stake girls' camp for dinner tonight and stayed for testimony meeting and overnight to help pack camp and head home.  I left the GPS feature of my phone on while making dozens of little trips all over camp to help get things done, and since there was no cell phone reception and thus no way to transmit a completed walk to the Map My Fitness website, I left the walk open overnight with the phone on my car charger, and continued with it the next day.

Today's portion was 2.10 miles, this included a mile walk at midnight to the zip line and back plus a loop around camp so that I could get to my two mile daily minimum.  Estimated elevation gain was 20 feet, and estimated time (assuming 2 miles an hour) was 1:03:00 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.7 (because of the average 7419 foot elevation despite the basically flat walk); calories burned:  336.

For a map and more pictures, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-170

I walked to Valley Academy for my final board meeting this evening ... the long way so that after the meeting I could quickly walk back to the office, pack and go home, and have my walk done for the day.   3.47 miles with 162 feet climbed in 1:03:43 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.2; calories burned:  540.  For a map, another picture, and more quite boring stats, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-169

Willyne is at camp giving the church Young Women the time of their lives, Sarah is at the house with her 3 and could use my car today ... so I walked to work by way of Tortoise Track to add a little to the uphill portion.  Then later I walked to and from lunch. Total of both was 4.91 miles with 298 feet climbed in 1:32:17 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.9; calories burned:  765.  For maps and much, much more, please click below ...

Cheerio!

14-168

I sent off Willyne to stake Girls' Camp early this morning, loaded to the gills with every surprise imaginable for some very blessed young ladies, then headed out on my walk ... to the church, where I could say goodbye again.  When I had waved my last goodbye, I continued my loop walk through La Verkin.  4.05 miles total with 102 feet climbed in 1:09:14 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  629.  I have a map and more pictures waiting when you click the link below ...

Cheerio!

14-167

Walked before work on a pleasant, cloudy 75 degree morning in La Verkin.  3.23 miles with 65 feet climbed in 55:25 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.7; calories burned:  500.  For a map and more, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-166

Steve, Marnie, their children and I showed up at the same time to wish my dad a happy Father's Day as my mother joins in the conversation. Willyne and my children had already made it a memorable day and weekend, so my heart is full. We timed it right, just as dad was finishing his weekly check in with his ham radio emergency preparedness network. Glad they are always ready to go!

I talked with Benjamin by phone while walking home from my mom's, he encouraged me to post this, so you get the unusual Sunday post for a short 0.6 mile walk with 15 feet climbed in 12 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  96.  If you're as in to numbers as me, click below to see the updated yearly totals ...

Cheerio!

14-165

The trail goes where?

Yes, that's the trail marker on the other side of the river.  We need to ford it to continue walking.

I'm not fond of getting my boots wet, I guess I think they are going to shrink and I don't like the thought of that.  But this was an unusually nice day.  The meterologists are calling it a cold front.  The projected high temperature today is 88, I guess compared with 103 that is a cold front and I'll take it every time!  And it was 67 and breezy at 7 am when I started walking, on its way to 73 as the walk continued.

So, off I went.  Fortunately the Virgin River is quite shallow in most places.  My shoes and socks were getting wet, and that was about it.  Then near the other side the sand bar disappeared and I got wet most of the way to my knees ... for two steps ... and then it was over and I continued along the Virgin River Trail and then up Tortoise Track to head back home.

Totals today:  3.63 miles with 394 feet climbed in 1:23:28 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.0; calories burned:  609.  Please click below for a map and more pictures of today's magical mystery walk ...

Cheerio!

14-164

I presented a bid this morning, always an exciting thing, and then headed to St. George to participate in the memorial service for my friend and associate, Bruce Stringham.  I worked with him ten years, and you think you get to know someone in that time.  For example, I knew he loves to sing.  A lot.  Still you always get fun tidbits at times like these, like his love for horses.  Never would have guessed!

After the service I changed clothes and walked on the Santa Clara River Trail before heading back to Hurricane.  The battery died with a quarter mile to go, so I've improvised a little, but I believe it is fair to say I walked 4.46 miles with 101 feet climbed in 1:27:00 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.8; calories burned:  693.  For a map and more pictures, please click below ...

Cheerio!

14-163

Today's walk was 3.40 miles with 58 feet climbed in 1:01:35 hours beginning a few minutes before 9 pm.  Temperature was 91 degrees, clear and dry.  Tortoise rating:  5.8; calories burned:  529.  Please click below for a map and more ...

Cheerio!

14-162

Walked 2.93 miles with 45 feet climbed in 54:28 minutes this evening after work.  Tortoise rating:  5.9; calories burned:  457.  Please click below for a map and more ...

Cheerio!

14-161

One of the ways the tortoise has been trying to step up his game in 2014 is to establish a minimum standard of two miles walking to count it as a walking day.  In past years, if life was especially busy, I might try to get away with saying that 30 round trips throughout the office to the copier, the bano, the filing cabinet, etc. was good for a half mile walk in ten minutes.  Seeing as how the whole point of this effort is to keep el padre alive and his ticker ticking brilliantly, somewhere a few months ago I came up with this two mile minimum idea as a way to do that.  At the time, I had only counted one 2014 walk that was less, back on March 4 on the Oak Valley Trail in Kern County, California, when my phone battery was dead and I walked a little over a half hour on a hilly trail, so I estimated 1.5 miles in 30 minutes and recorded that.  (You can read about it in this memorable (i.e. not meeting terreeeblay's boredom standard) post describing the walks of the week of March 3-8 when I was in travel mode all over the place.  Just click here:  http://terreeeblay.blogspot.com/2014/03/14-69.html

Fast forward to today, another day where I find myself trying to cram twenty-five hours of activity into a mere twenty-four hour day

14-160

Bruce Stringham, a CPA who has worked with me for about ten years, completed his battle with cancer early this morning and passed from this life.  After sharing the news with Willyne, the office, and a good number of clients, I headed out for an unusual midday walk of 4.72 miles with 234 feet climbed in 1:30:53 hours. Tortoise rating:  4.8; calories burned:  739.   It felt good until the last half mile, and even that wasn't too bad.   Please click below for a map and more ...

Cheerio!

14-158

Before it got too warm this morning, I walked 3.53 miles in a loop starting and ending at my office in Hurricane, climbing 148 feet in 58:55 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.3; calories burned:  564.   Please click below for a map and more ...

Cheerio!

14-157

I'm thinking about, and very thankful for, every soldier who bravely stormed the beaches of Normandy 70 years ago today.  Can't imagine what our world, and our daily lives, would be like if you had not made the ultimate personal sacrifice that you did.  Thank you.

I walked to work this morning.  The path today took me 3.81 miles, with 258 feet climbed in 1:11:09 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.8; calories burned:  594.  For a map and more, please click below ...

Cheerio!

14-156

Walked home from work.  3.50 miles with 207 feet climbed in 1:02:19 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.9; calories burned:  462.  Please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-155

Took the long way walking back to work today so I could get in a little more hill climbing and get my heart rate higher.  3.77 miles with 247 feet climbed in 1:06:27 hours.  (So the long way took 16 minutes and 8 seconds longer than the direct way home took last night.  Not bad!)  Tortoise rating:  4.8; calories burned:  585.  For a map and more, you know what to do next ...

Cheerio!

14-154

Walked home from work.  Late, even for a near summer night, so I took the most direct route which is along the well lit highway.  2.96 miles with 110 feet climbed in 50:19 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.4; calories burned:  544.  For a map and more, please click below ...

Cheerio!

14-153

Struggled to not make this 3 missed days in a row.  Amazing to me how hard it is to walk when you miss just a few days, but managed to get this in before it got too dark ... 3.05 miles with 79 feet climbed in 52:45 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  472.  Please click below for a map and more ...

Cheerio!