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Mile 477.  Tortoise is happy today.  He has family gathered to spend Father's Day weekend with him, always a fine treat!  Wounded Duck wanted to walk with Tortoise, and he loves trails that go uphill, so they headed up to the Overlook for some fine views and good company.  But ... how wounded does Mr. Duck look up there in that picture?  Sounds like he should be named the "formerly wounded Duck", but, he insists the wounded description is still valid. 

Smiles were had all around, and what else matters, really?  The day's walking thought was provided by Thomas Monson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 347.  Lou went to lunch with his mom to celebrate Mother's Day a day early, then took her on a drive to show her some of the places Tortoise walks, just because she wants to know what her son is doing.  Very nice.  Following this, Lou did a walk of the La Verkin Scenic Circle trail, this time starting at the La Verkin Creek trailhead in Confluence Park, heading from there to the La Verkin Overlook, then down the old road that used to go to Zion and through Wanlass Park and some La Verkin streets to return to his starting point.  There are lots of pictures here, so enjoy, mom!  Walking thought today is by Gerrit Gong ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 993.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  Tortoise very much enjoyed the company of Wounded Duck on his traditional holiday morning walk, and asked him to choose today's title picture.  There are several nice ones to choose from on this fine day, between the walk down to the Virgin River and the climb to the ridge halfway to the La Verkin Overlook.  Today's walking thought is by James Hamula ...

Cheerio!

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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!

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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!

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I decided to continue exploring possible routes for the La Verkin Scenic Loop trail to come down from the Overlook.  This one utilizes the old roadway used years ago for the highway to Zion Park, the view above is from the current highway looking up at it.  Substantial rock work to support the road is still in place and is visible in this picture.  Today's walk was 3.21 miles with 256 feet climbed in 1:05:40 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.5; calories burned:  509.  More pictures and a map are waiting for you when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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Here's the view as I passed the one hundred mile mark for 2014 near the end of today's walk ... the La Verkin Overlook and Scenic Circle.  7.42 miles with 847 feet climbed in 2:40:45 hours.  Tortoise rating average throughout the uphill half of the walk:  3.7.  Calories burned 1209.

For an aerial view and more pictures, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

3-131

The walk was good ... but the highlight of my day was going with Willyne
 to watch our grandson Ethan play soccer.  You can tell
 Uncle Doug and Riley are having a good time too!

Continued work on a route for what I am calling the La Verkin Scenic Circle trail this morning, September 8.  I hoped to do the entire circle,  but only had a little over 2 hours, and now believe it will take me 3.  So I started from the top of the Confluence Park trail at 480 South, headed to the overlook, then down basically using the route from three weeks ago with one modification that hopefully you can see on the map below ... I found a path closer to the ridge line and didn't use as much of the overlook road.  Once I got down to Wanlass Park I continued to where the La Verkin Crescent Park will be, and then on to the Confluence Park trailhead on 560 West.  At that point I was at two hours, stopped the primary walk, and started walking towards home until Willyne met me en route.

I can visualize future trailheads and parking areas on the Scenic Circle trail at the top of the Confluence Park trail on State Street near the La Verkin-Hurricane bridge, the bottom and top of the Overlook Trail, Wanlass Park, Crescent Park, the 560 West trailhead of the Confluence Park Trail, and the Confluence Park parking area and information kiosk.  People will be able to enjoy all or part of the Scenic Circle trail that includes and connects these other trails as their time permits using these various trailheads.

Please click here for maps, pictures, a weigh-in and more ...

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An exploration walk!  I'm working on finding the path for the LaVerkin Scenic Circle Trail.  Today's portion was finding a second approach to the Overlook.  Click here for a map, stats, simulated video, pictures, and other fun details!