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The tortoise was reminded today that magical mystery tours, whether walking or otherwise, can take you to multiple dead ends.  Sometimes those dead ends reveal some of the best views such as the one pictured above near the end of today's 4.28 mile walk with 256 feet climbed in 1:21:59 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.7 on the 1.83 mile uphill portion of the walk.  Calories burned:  671.

For a map, more pictures, and ... the rest of the story, as gentleman Paul Harvey would say, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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The highway.  A necessary evil to get to the next section of the walk ...

... Which would be this fabulous morning view.

The top of Tortoise Track has a nice view of the lava rocks below.

Dead end #1.  I tried going down 20 West in Hurricane from 975 North to 600 North, thinking I would then walk by the cemetery to get back to State Street so as to avoid the steep decline on 870 North and repeat less of what I passed earlier in the walk.  The street sign says 20 West is not a through street, but my logic said it goes north from 600 North and south from 870 North, so maybe it was one of those streets that isn't through for cars but is for fine tortoise pedestrians.  No such luck.  That is the explanation for the hook in the map above.  It's where I retraced my steps.

Dead end #2.  Former LaVerkin Mayor Karl Wilson has encouraged me to walk across the Virgin
River on the old bridge by the hot pots.  I decided today was a good time to try it,  the trees
were inviting.  Until I got to this pretty clear signal that the property ahead continues to be
privately owned and visitors are, well, let's say, not welcome.  Not one little bit, Cat in the Hat!

So I turned left, revealing this view of the La Verkin welcome sign.  As I
walked towards it, I saw the brilliant view pictured at the top of this blog post.
I love magical mystery tours!   (As Steve Winwood says in the song that
follows ... While you see a chance take it!)

2014 Stats:

520.32 miles walked, which is 51.98% of my 2014 goal.

162:22:52 hours walked, which is 51:88% of my 2014 goal

23,961 total feet climbed 

83,136 calories burned

 50.48% of the year has passed

I've walked 28 consecutive non-Sundays since my last missed day on May 31, and overall have walked on 147 of the 158 non-Sundays thus far in 2014, a 93.04% consistency rating.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of distance and time walked than of the year. This tells me I am on track. I'm sure this is more numbers than you are interested in, all I can say is I'm really good at setting high goals and having them slip away because I don't do them every, every day.

The tortoise is smiling!