16-219

Mile 608.   It was a bright, sunny Saturday morning after the various evening thunderstorms this week.  Tortoise has been eyeing the knoll towering over his new Hurricane office for some time, which he has now learned is called Sullivan Knoll.  He decided today would be a good day, not necessarily to climb it, but to go up and down the various residential streets, get in some hills, and see if he could find the trail up.  Most of the streets simply end in a fence.

He did find the access and once he did, found it was reasonably within the length of his typical walks.  You can see it on the map below after all the pictures from the top and along the way.  It is a fine walk, but if you do it, be sure to take good walking sticks.  The grades up reach 22% and down are 24%.  Mix in small loose rocks on the trail, and you'll want those sticks! 

The views from the top are unobstructed in every direction, and worth the effort!  Today Tortoise was accompanied by a walking thought by Russell Nelson ...

Cheerio!

16-121

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!

16-76

Mile 191.  Tortoise is up north for the next couple days.  This evening he went exploring up Battle Creek Drive (200 South) in Pleasant Grove, parking his car at 600 East and walking up the hill as far as the street would take him, which wound up being to Kiwanis Park.  There he discovered a trail new to him, and continued a short distance ... to see what he could see on Battle Creek Trail.  Including the view above, and several more, if you scroll down a ways.  On the way down he explored a second trail he discovered, named for Murdock Canal.  Lou had a fun walk for sure, accompanied by a Stanley Ellis thought...

Cheerio!

16-36

Mile 85.  Tortoise returned to the North Etiwanda Preserve this clear, warm, windy morning before beginning his appointments.  Almost a year ago to the day, Lou discovered this fine place.  The wind blew away most of the smog in the valley, so Lou was treated to especially nice views.  The snow dusted mountain at the top of the picture is Cucamonga Peak, which is a little over 8,800 feet and a couple peaks over from Mt. Baldy, where, sadly, a hiker fell to his death a few days ago on the Devil's Backbone portion of that trail.  One can't be too careful when treading one icy, slippery ground.  Thankfully, today's path, though nearby, is more than 6,000 feet lower and dry.  Just in case you, dear reader, was worried about our friend Lou venturing nearby.

There's the day's walking thought by Jeffrey Holland and some more pictures waiting for you when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

15-339

Mile 1,026.  Tortoise visited his long lost friend Terreeeblay, that most trusty treadmill, to start his day.  Wounded Duck would be well pleased.  Later on Lou was treated by several of the women in his family to a heartwarming performance of Christmas Around The World by the BYU International Folk Dancers.  That's what Tortoise would have liked to have shared pictures of ... the costumes were colorful and delightful, and the dancing and music were better than that.  However, no pictures are allowed, so you'll just have to trust Lou's opinion on this.

After the performance, the group took a short walk through various parts of campus as shown on today's map ... ending with a generous scoop of caramel cashew ice cream at the Creamery on Ninth.  Today's walking thought is by David Bednar ...

Cheerio!

15-268

Mile 778.  Welcome to La Verkin!  Lou thought this was an especially good time of day, and of year, to go get an aerial view of his home town, so he climbed to the observation point ... and then kept going and made it a loop (and it's easier on the knees coming down that way).  There's more pictures where this one came from, so please click below and check them out ...

Cheerio!

14-253

Tortoise got great exercise climbing 430 feet on a segment of his 3.26 mile walk tonight, as shown in the video slide show above.  Total time was 1:17:27 hours on this 1.9 tortoise rated path, which got an extra tortoise for the abundance of loose rocks throughout the walk.  557 calories were burned on this attempt to find a more gradual way down from the Overlook on the LaVerkin Scenic Loop trail Tortoise dreams of getting his city to create.  His initial reaction is that the search continues.  This path was still quite steep and rocky, making it easy to fall.

For a map and a genuinely kind parting thought from Barbara Winder, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-136

Went to our ward's father and son's to visit a few friends and listen to the program, then went back home Did a quick 2.16 mile walk with 417 feet climbed in 40:59 minutes while I was up there...the first mile of the Flying Monkey Trail, then back.  Mostly it's used by mountain bike riders to basically jump off a 1500 foot cliff, but I didn't go that far ...  Tortoise rating:  2.0; calories burned:  338.  Please click below for a map and yearly stats ...

Cheerio!

14-39

Until we meet again ... dropping Sarah off at the SLC airport to head home to Florida.  She won't need that coat there! 

It was a great visit!

Not to be outdone, today was a 4 walk day, albeit one of them is in the running for the shortest Terreeeblay walk ever.  The walks totalled 3.39 miles with 393 feet climbed in 1:18:54.  We had the walk to the Salt Palace, followed by the walk back to the hotel to retrieve the car and take Sarah to the airport.  A little later, I started walking around the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Springville while waiting for Benjamin to arrive.  That walk lasted all of 1 minute 38 seconds of brisk air goodness, then Benjamin arrived and we headed inside to get to the important business at hand.  Breakfast!  

After saying goodbye to Benjamin, I studied the weather map, thinking about where I could walk to avoid the storms and get some hills to climb.  The Scipio Wild Goose trail was discovered!  Tortoise rating:  1.9 (including a half point for the snow I walked uphill in)  Calories burned:  571.

Please click below and let's continue together!

Cheerio!

14-29

So ... I had about an hour and fifteen minutes to get in my walk after finishing work and before heading to my third of three introductory classes at the local family history center, not all of which would be in daylight.  I really enjoyed picking up a little incline along the way yesterday (felt similar afterwards to the way I feel when I eat an especially fine plate of "scrubbers") and wanted to do something like that again today.

The result was 1.29 miles from the Parley P. Pratt memorial at the end of Hurricane Main Street, down to the Virgin River on the Confluence View Trail then looping back up the aptly named Tortoise Path back to my car.  This was followed by driving to the family history center and walking a 2.10 mile round trip on Hurricane State Street.  Totals:  3.39 miles with 367 feet climbed in 1:08:40 hours.  Tortoise rating on the 0.83 mile uphill portion:  1.9.  (Average grade there was 8.4%.  This probably has something to do with the name "Tortoise Path" ha ha)  Calories burned:  576.

It would be fun to see in the comments how many of you can remember walking with me on either of a couple of Confluence Park paths on the La Verkin side of the river that are visible in the picture above ...

Please click below to continue reading for maps and another picture.

Cheerio!

13-299

Nothing quite like a fall evening view of LaVerkin from the Overlook Trail

It was a fun Saturday.  Started at the Temple, then dodged the traffic around Dixie State's homecoming parade to go watch Riley's and then Ethan's soccer games.  Had a nice lunch with Willyne and Josh & Megan's family at Chick Fil A in between the games.  Midafternoon we went to Joy Gubler's 80th birthday party, then went to the store with Willyne followed by a dinner of home cooked hamburgers.  Yum!

Guess I could have made a guess how much walking I did to do all this, but I decided to squeeze in a quick walk up to the halfway point on the Overlook trail.  1.15 miles round trip with 302 feet climbed in 35:52 minutes, on a clear, calm, 72 degree evening that was warm enough for me to work up a good sweat on the 10% grade.  Tortoise rating on the uphill half:  1.1.  HumanaFit rates it as category 3, probably because it is short.

Please click below for a map and details of calories consumed and burned today:

Cheerio!

3-68

The dark volcanic rocks ahead make a pretty contrast to the blue sky and the
almost white dry grass  just a quarter  mile up the La Verkin Overlook Trail

Finished my last dose of antibiotics today.  I think Floryne was right, I was at least bordering on going from a virus to pneumonia.  The congestion was deep and is just today finally seeming to mostly be past.  Yea!  To quote Darin, I "derecommend" sickness as a weight loss technique, and we will see if the tortoise can keep it off as health returns.  With that said, my weekly weigh-in this morning was 252.6, down 4.5 pounds over the past week, and 17.2 pounds total for chapter 3 -- my recommitment since May 1.

I basically repeated last Saturday's walk today ... another attempt to increase lung capacity.  I am beginning to believe my lifetime of dealing with serious allergies had even more impact on me than I thought ... so I need to work harder to get enough air to do the everyday things I want to do.  So ... today I went 1.38 miles    in 42 minutes, climbing 312 feet in the process.  It was my first HumanaFit rated category 4 climb, which is interesting since last Saturday was rated category 3.  Tortoise rating:  1.8.  (Please continue reading to see a couple more pictures, map, and other details of the day)

125

Day 41 -  I walked 4.07 km (2.53 miles) in 1 hour 37:40 minutes, including several stops to let my breathing catch up with me.  President Grant, I admit to having plenty of repetitive effort left before my "capacity to do increases".   I climbed 192.0 m (630 feet) - a HumanaFit category 2 climb!  (Tortoise rating:  1.3)

Series 2B totals 88.33 km (54.89 miles) in 19 hours 19 minutes, with 1354.2 m (4443 feet) climbed.

The total of 7 Series 3 walks is 35.51 km (22.07 mi) in 9 hours 31 minutes. Total distance climbed is 1179.9 m (3874 feet).  The seven walks so far were on February 12, 19, 26, May 7, 14, 21, and today, June 11.

And now that I have learned this is only a two and a half mile round trip, not the four I thought it was, I no longer consider this a series 4 walk.  As mentioned a few lines ago, I can see that I have a ways to go at Series 3 before I am ready for Series 4.  And the trail is as slippery as ever.  I recommend boots with Vibram soles.

Here's some pictures followed by a map...


View of La Verkin after the first half mile

A rare side view of the LaVerkin Arch Bridge, also taken about a half mile up the trail

Hi, Benjamin!

A view to the west from the overlook

A view to the north from the overlook.  Sally, that's Toquerville in the distance ...

A view of the Virgin River "on the other side of the mountain" on the way down