My book review-The Great Alone: Walking the Pacific Crest Trail by Tim Voors |

On December 28, 2019 By Tom JamrogIn Uncategorized2 Comments

screenshot 9

Exerpt:

I really enjoyed this unique book. Published in Berlin and printed in Italy in 2019, this book was written, richly illustrated, and photographed by the Netherlands hiker, Tim Voors. I picked it up in a bookstore in Maine, lured in by the striking black and white photo of Voors on the front. It’s a cut above the usual hiking memoir, due to the hardbound cover, and also the graphic content: multiple double-page panoramic color photos, professionally illustrated maps, and colored drawings. I’m increasingly intrigued by the use of hand drawn renditions of trail location that accompany text reports….

Continue to whole review here: The Great Alone: Walking the Pacific Crest Trail by Tim Voors

Reclaiming Fitness

On December 25, 2019June 1, 2021 By Tom JamrogIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’m reminding my myself of my mileage goal for this year:

The graphic above is from a New York Times article about fitness trends and facts and it also is my mileage goal for 2020.

I’ve worked up to 2,000 over the past several years after one the the most active hikers I know, Carey Kish, first posted a plan for hiking 1,000 miles up here in Maine on his blog, Maineiac Outdoors . Kish suggests walking for one hour three times weekly, adding a couple of longer half-day weekend hikes a month, and to consider adding an 8-to-10 day traverse of the Appalachian Trail’s Hundred Mile Wilderness to reach a 1,000 miles of hiking. Check out the original 2014 challenge here-> 1000-mile challenge kish .

In 2015 I reached 1,000 miles of hiking by following Mr. Kish’s program and have evolved to doubling that mileage for figure the past 3 years, with 1,000 miles of mostly mountain biking and another 1,000 hiking. I believe that alternating both sports reduces injuries from repetitive use and varies my outdoor experiences as well.

I’m a data driven individual, always have been. It’s one of the reasons I liked being a school psychologist. A big reason I go out on days when the fickle Maine weather says, “Stay in” is the reinforcement that I receive, both positive and negative, from the Strava app that I mate to my iPhone.

Last December, at the end of the year my cycling tally looked like this:

and for hiking:

I’ve been working with yearly fitness goals long enough to know that it helps to log mileage when the weather is more favorable. For example, last December I discovered an error that resulted in my need to cover 100 more miles in 3 weeks of dark, cold, and unusually frigid conditions. It was not so much fun making up those miles. Another reason I try to bank miles to ensure that I had miles to draw on when injured, which generally ends up in me having to lay off hiking and/or biking at least a month out of the year. This year, I was really out of commission for most of the Fall. My back pain worsened from January until I had two successful lower spinal procedures on April 7.

As of today, I’m 257 miles behind goal pace for biking and 93 miles behind in hiking for 2021. Right now I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve been cleared by my back surgeon to finish the last two of my New England 4,000 footer list, and to attempt another thru-hike of the 272-mile Vermont Long Trail this Fall.

I track of my rides and hikes through the Strava app. Strava is a free digital service accessible through both mobile application and the web, which offers additional advanced features for a monthly payment. If you want to check out the goal setting features for either distance or time, get a free trial, and if you like the new features, pony up for $2 a month to bolster your chances of sticking with more frequent rides or hikes.

Disclaimer: I have not received any compensation for my review from any particular company, product, or service mentioned in this post.

Walk Like Groucho Marx !

On December 24, 2019December 24, 2019 By Tom JamrogIn Uncategorized2 Comments

I live on the coast of Maine, where the winters appear to be increasingly warmer and freezing rain is a more frequent event. Sometimes it warms up outside and rain falls on top of a fresh snow cover to make a real mess, with the weight of that sodden snow making for tough plowing and snow shoveling.

The winter of 2018-2019 was particularly bad. Hard times prevailed when it rained before a sudden deep freeze, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the addition of powder snow over the ice layer. This is the worst of all conditions to walk over, because you can’t see hidden patches of ice under the snow’s mantle. Fresh powder on top of ice is a wreck of a situation to walk on and sometimes even drive over as the unconsolidated crystals of snow lubricate the surface of the ice and make the pathway ultra slippery, and prime territory for a hard fall.

Falls last winter resulted in higher than normal emergency room admissions for wrist, elbow, back, and even head injuries. Luckily, I escaped any falls. Part of the reason was my choice of winter footwear, especially when I ventured out of the house and crept uphill on my driveway to get the morning paper and the mail from my street side boxes, one for the US mail and the other for my Bangor Daily News.

My footwear of choice for ice are Muck Boots with a set of Stabilicers strapped to the bottom.

I keep the Stabilicers mated to the boots during the winter where they stay on the porch for easy on easy off.

I just saw a media post from a friend that featured a recommendation to Walk Like a Penguin on ice. Here’s the graphic:

For, me, there is a better way of walking over slippery conditions- walk like Groucho! I use the “Groucho glide” when hiking over uneven terrain, especially when it coupled with going downhill. Here are a couple of examples, first from the original master:

Here’s a brief clip of students in a martial arts class practicing the “Groucho walk”:

So… get traction, stay low, keep movin’ like Groucho and even grab a couple of hiking poles as you deal with the winter’s ice. Best wishes for all in 2010 !