Mile 643. After the day's work was complete, Tortoise started for home on a longer, alternate route because the Blue Cut fire closed down a major stretch of Interstate 15 yesterday. The alternate put Lou on Interstate 10, so he made the best of it by getting off at Exit 110 near Cabazon where the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) passes underneath the busy freeway at mile 209.5 of the trail's journey from Mexico to Canada. Tortoise parked his car on the ample dirt shoulder of the frontage road near the freeway exit, and started walking south on the trail to the secluded village of Snow Creek, where he started his last PCT walk on May 12. Come enjoy the pictures he took along the way there and back, as well as the walking thought by David Evans ...
Cheerio!
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| High on the support beam is the medallion confirming the trail is going underneath the busy transportation corridors. |
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| A couple places you have to look carefully to see where the trail is going. |
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| Approaching today's turnaround point at the start of Tortoise's previous PCT walk. |
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| Tortoise took a few bonus pictures for his sister who loves trains! |
Today's walk was 5.16 miles, done in 1:53:23 hours at an average pace of 21.58 minutes per mile. This route had an average tortoise rating of 5.4, earned by climbing 211 feet in the 2.58 mile uphill portion, and deducting a half point for the frequently sandy walking conditions. No further adjustment was made for the 100 degree temperatures, although plenty of water was consumed along the way! Average elevation was 1272. As it turns out, this over 5 mile walk qualifies for a Benjamin Category Override to a 5.0 tortoise rating.
According to Halfmile's PCT maps, conveniently located on Tortoise's phone through Halfmile's free app, this walk was 5.4 miles. Which brings us to some parenthetical smiling tortoise commentary on mileages reported here at the ever boring Terreeeblay blog: Lou uses the free Map My Fitness app to track his miles, elevation gained and lost, and to map his footsteps. The app provides one set of statistics based on its calculation from the various GPS readings along the way. It is supported by an internet site, which provides another set of statistics based on maps. It is nice to have both to offset errors that can creep in. For example, when crossing the La Verkin - Hurricane bridge on state highway 9 high above the Virgin River, the app thinks the walker went halfway down the cliff and climbed back up, when in fact the bridge is close to flat. Lou is ever vigilant at wanting to err on the side of understating miles walked and feet climbed to make sure he has done at least what he states, if not more.
In this case, Tortoise believes halfmile's version of 5.4 miles, and the GPS version of the app agrees. The map version says 5.16 miles, so that is what the official Tortoise record will show for today.
Here are the overall stats so far for 2016:
643.91 miles walked, compared with Lou's goal for this date of 627.39.
44,335 total feet climbed so far in 2016, compared to a year-to-date goal of 38,612. Lou hopes to climb more than the 61,316 feet he climbed in 2015 -- but in less time each day than his 1:07:04 hour per day average in 2015. So far in 2016, Tortoise's walks have averaged 58:44 minutes each.
His average pace so far in 2016 has been 17:58.0 minutes per mile, compared with his 18:25 minute per mile pace in 2015.
Lou has walked 398 consecutive non-Sundays since his 8 missed days May 2-11, 2015. Overall he has walked on 501 of the 510 non-Sundays in 2015-16, a 98.235% consistency rating.
And now for today's walking thought:
"My counsel is the same that President Monson has given so many times from this very pulpit: 'Never delay a prompting.' As you act on the prompting and do it with love, watch as our Heavenly Father uses your willingness to act to bring about a miracle in your life and in the life of the person you care about."
David F. Evans, "Was It Worth It?", LDS General Conference, April 2012
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