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Mile 324.  For a second day in a row, Tortoise enjoyed an accompanied walk with one of his children.  Now there is a true treat!  Today it was with Benjamin, and it set 2016 year-to-date records for hardest trail (with a tortoise rating of 1.3) and most feet climbed (802).  Benjamin likes to encourage Lou to get his heart rate up by adding more elevation gain to his walks, so he suspects this record won't last long.  He's already talking about new attempts on Zion's East Rim and on Timpanogos, for example.  

As with yesterday's walk, the company was excellent, and there are some lovely scenic views as well along the way from Indian Road Trailhead (just off Canyon Road at 5500 North near the mouth of Provo Canyon) to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  Today's thought is by Bonnie Oscarson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 321.  Tortoise had a glorious evening with Becca!  We started our evening at the Vernal LDS Temple, then we went to a restaurant neither of us had been to before on the recommendation of Becca's "native of Vernal" friend, and wrapped things up with a walk on well lit, flat, and basically quiet streets near the temple (except for a particularly pesky dog who kept trying to jump a fence to get to us).  The restaurant was great, flavorful, but not overpowering, and gentle on Tortoise's stomach.  He appreciates this in his post-radiation life.  The decor and service were delightful as well. (Not to mention the company.)  On accompanied walks, Lou listens to his thought in advance in his car -- this evening it was by Thomas Monson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 319.  So thankful for all this rain.  It's just wonderful!  Tortoise was able to quickly get in a shortened walk this evening without getting too wet, accompanied by another of Thomas Monson's high quality stories ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 316.  It was an unusual third day with welcome rain in southern Utah.  Tortoise had tired bones and muscles and actually didn't much feel like walking, but seeing how that is unacceptable, he walked anyway, slowed the pace a touch and enjoyed the air freshened by the rain.  This family shown above playing ball were enjoying it too.

Today's walking thought is different than our usual pattern here.  It is a poem written by Bruce McConkie, set to music by John Longhurst, and sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Wounded Duck sent Tortoise a link to a 1976 BYU devotional address by Elder McConkie, which brought back many memories, because Lou was there just beginning studies towards a masters degree and heard it live.  It also brought back memories because Elder McConkie three years before that, in 1973, had toured his mission in London where Lou heard him speak several times in the course of a week. Lou also had a very brief personal interview with him in the Medway LDS Chapel in Gillingham, England.  .

A picture of a picture is not the greatest technology, but through the trees
is the Medway chapel, kind of gives you a feel for the location.

A better view of the Medway chapel

Elder McConkie was a large man, 6 feet 5 inches tall, and his voice matched his size.  It was full of passion and energy for his subject matter, which always seemed to focus on the life and ministry of Christ.  The full devotional address is a true classic, and Lou thoroughly enjoyed hearing it again on his walk.  However it is long for this blog post at about 44 minutes, so Tortoise hopes you will enjoy its distillation into 5 minutes of glorious song.

Cheerio!

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Mile 313.  Lots more rain today.  Then as evening approached, the clearing storm clouds made for beautiful walking weather for Tortoise to head up the hill from his office.  The walking thought was by Henry Eyring ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 310.  Today brought another answer to prayers for rain, so when Tortoise finished some errands in St. George, he picked a time when the rain let up, and a place he could retreat from quickly.  Lou started his walk at the Sullivan Soccer Park in Washington and took the Virgin River Trail upstream from there.   The walking thought was by Dieter Uchtdorf ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 306.  Lou was invited to one of the more unique church sponsored community social events he has encountered -- the Rocket Car Derby!  Shown above is Starfleet 2161 Bob's speedster racing past the swift red machine.  There's more pictures, even a few video clips here ... but don't blink or they'll be gone!

The walk today was to the Derby and back ... of course it was by way of a magical mystery path ... what else would you expect from Tortoise?  Walking thought was by Stephen Owen ...

Cheerio!

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Lou gives thanks to the mile 300 rocks on the PCT -- he finished today's walk at mile 302.  Pictured above is clean-up time at the Concert in the Park tonight.  Not every day you can hear local Chris Steglich strumming away a Kansas tune, which made Lou smile.  After the concert was done and a tasty hot dog eaten, it was off for a walk up and down the nearby hills.  Walking thought was by Russell Nelson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 298.  Thursday, April 21st was a nice evening to walk up the hill from the office, accompanied by a thought by Russell Ballard ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 294.  Lou had meetings most of the evening in St. George, so he snuck in a quick walk a little after 5 pm -- and made it count by doing the Tortoise Track loop from the new trailhead at the north end of Hurricane's Main Street.  He's included some pictures at the trailhead later in this post.  Walking thought was by David Bednar ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 292.  By the light of the beautiful full moon rising over the mesa, at 20:40 Tortoise embarked on his circuitous course up and down the hills near his home.   Walking thought was by Jairo Mazzagardi ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 288.  Deadline day.  Tortoise started work at 02:30, and both to stay alert in the cool morning air, and to make sure he got his walk in, he took a break at 07:10 to do a quick loop up the hill to the middle school.  Nothing extra today.  Walking thought was by Mervyn Arnold ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 286.  Tortoise walked back to work on this beautiful, clear, spring day, which had been cleansed by two days and a night of heavy winds.  The Hurricane valley did not get its name by accident, but it does keep the local air clean most of the time, which is a real blessing.  He went by way of the Hurricane Family History Center, a free service offered to all of the community by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They had an open house to let folks know of the new resources available to help them learn about their family heritage.  Damien English, a bright, enthusiastic young man, helped Lou with several of these resources, including Findarecord.com (which helps with suggestions for family records that need corrections, such as eliminating duplications) and Rootsmapper.com (which shows you on a map where each generation of your family came from to get to where you were born.)  It was a fun and informative hour.  You don't need an open house, just go whenever they are open (9 to 5 Monday to Friday plus evenings Tuesdays, Thursdays, and by appointment).  Ethan was asking his grandpa about this just this week, gave him some good ideas!

There is a bonus feature in tortoiseland:  Slowly, so slowly, Lou is catching up on posts from days last year that he walked but did not publish his pictures and spreadsheet data.  This evening he brings you this gem from April 18 last year, including lots of smiles from the Golden Butterworth's awards night with Jacob at Dixie State!  Today's walking thought is by Neil Andersen ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 282.  The LaVerkin bridge welcomed Tortoise home tonight as he completed his fiftieth 5k walk thus far in 2016.  It was late, the walk home started at 23:59.  At least Lou walked on this year's edition of April 15.  It remains to be seen what he does when this year's biggest tax filing day hits on Monday.  Tonight's walking thought was by Ronald Rasband ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 278.  A delightful evening for a walk after a full day of work for Tortoise.  Walking thought was by Dale Renlund.  Lou will go get him a scoop of black cherry ice cream and come back and tell you about it ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 275.  Another peaceful late night walk in La Verkin, accompanied by texts from Ledge and the walking thoughts of Steven Snow as Tortoise went up and down five different hills.  Feels good ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 271.  Tortoise enjoyed a late night, quiet, moon-lit walk through the east hills of La Verkin, accompanied by the healing walking thoughts of Kevin Duncan ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 268.  The rain has stopped, leaving the air cool and invigorating.  Tortoise enjoyed his walk up the hill this evening, accompanied by a thought by Gary Stevenson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 265.  A second day of rain, this one steady for several hours.  In this desert country, folks are thankful for every drop.  About 1 pm, the steady rain became a hard downpour.  At 2, it paused.  Tortoise wasn't sure for how long.  The forecast called for 30-40% chance of rain for the next several hours.  What that means in this case is one can figure on 15 minutes here, 30 there, adding up to 2 or 3 hours over the rest of the day.  But what one doesn't know is when those minutes will come.  So when the 2 pm pause came, Tortoise jumped into action, parking his car on 300 West in La Verkin a little south of Center Street, then heading off on an interesting shaped loop that included about a mile of Confluence Park when the plants were especially green and the river had more water than usual.  Nice!  It sprinkled on him once, briefly, but other than that he timed it well.  Later on he went to meetings, one of which he came out of and got rained on.

It worked out well all the way around!  Today's walking though was by Donald Hallstrom ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 262.  It rained a little this afternoon, and it's thinking about raining some more.  Wouldn't that be nice!  It made for nice walking conditions this evening, accompanied by the walking thoughts of Mary Durham ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 258.  Is this a pretty place for a playground or what?  This was about a mile and a quarter into Tortoise's walk up the 870 West hill, and beyond, this evening.  Walking thought was provided by Henry Eyring ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 255.  It was a windy night in old H-Town tonight.  The first mile up the hill from Tortoise's office was directly into the wind, it was real work for him to walk it in 17 minutes and small change.  From there, the wind calmed, the fresh air did its work, and Lou truly enjoyed his journey.  He was accompanied in thought by Henry Eyring ...

Cheerio!

16-96

Mile 252.  After finishing work in Mesquite, Lou looked for a different hill to climb and found it on Mesquite Heights Road.  This is also the road to the city landfill, and like several others in Mesquite, it has houses built up right to the Lincoln county line.  Mesquite is bordered by a county line to the north, a state line to the east, and the Virgin River to the south, and is filling up quite nicely in between.  Tortoise parked at the last intersection and went up the hill to see what views he could get on his first walk in Lincoln County.  Walking thought was provided by Linda Burton ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 249.  Ledge recently sent Tortoise a link to the new Quarry Trail in St. George.  This evening he checked it out for himself.  It packs a lot of scenery into its 0.7 mile round trip, which starts at the north end of 700 West where that street dead ends at a golf course.  Lou was hoping this would connect to the nearby trails in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, but apparently no.  So to complete today's activity, he drove to the Pioneer Hills trailhead parking lot and did part of the City Creek trail, including over 30 pictures.  Today's thought is by Neill Marriott ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 245.  Long walk last night, short one this morning.  Lou took Ledge's suggestion and checked out the new section of The Tracks at Brea Trail.  It is very nice.  The walking lane is hard packed dirt making for a most pleasant experience.  The adjacent bike line is nice too.  The day's walking thought was by Cheryl Esplin ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 243.  Tortoise finished work for the day about 6 pm, and headed to where Brookhurst meets Pacific Coast Highway and started walking the Huntington Beach Bike Trail.  Hands down, this is the busiest trail Lou has walked.  Maximum speed limit for bikes is 10 miles per hour, dropping to 5 when walkers are present, which appears to be always.  Beach bikes with large tires were the order of the day, as were skateboarders, runners ... and people just plain hanging out.  It's a fun place to be!

There's many pictures for your viewing pleasure.  Following them, and the numbers of the day, Thomas Monson provides a story and an accompanying thought ...

Cheerio!

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Today's walk was 3.25 miles on the treadmill late at night.  It had a 5.8 tortoise rating earned by climbing 343 feet at a steady grade of 2%. Average elevation was 640.  This walk burned 531 calories.  The best picture of the treadmill came at the end of a five minute cool down period, which wasn't included in the numbers shown above.  :-)  It was Tortoise's thirty-eighth 5k walk of 2016; the day's thought was by Tom Perry.

Cheerio!