The grand plan

I keep on eluding to a plan I have hatched out for this summer, something about a long walk. I thought it was about time I let you in on some of the details.

Hold on.......iPad has turned upside down on me again. Love the way it can change orientation just by turning the pad but sometimes it does this just because it wants to.

Ok, back in landscape view again.

Was that a mouse that I just saw whiz past me? Pretty sure it is Tony again. We keep on catching this mouse (actually finding him in the sink) and letting him go free, further and further away from our cabin but the clever rodent just keeps on finding his way home. He is so bloody cute so we named him Tony after my dad because of his big ears! Most likely there is a whole clan of tony's but I like to think there is only one.

So I am leaving work the end of this week and fly to the UK next Thursday. Hubby, Curt, doesn't have to leave work because he has been unemployed since November 09. Ivan, our son, isn't coming at all, because being fourteen, he would rather hang out at the malls with his friends (and to his credit - honor his commitment to his soccer team)

"no offense mum, but why would I want to walk across England with my mum and dad?"
"because my dear boy it is an adventure"

I feel sure he will regret this decision but better he learn by his own mistakes than force him to come, so we all have a miserable time. So he will be staying with friends for whom I am eternally grateful and with his cousins in California. Curt will return in five weeks but I have the whole summer to complete my goal (yes I have the most amazing, patient and understanding hubby in the world).

My goal is to walk from Lands End (furthest south west point in Britain) to John O'Groats (furthest north easterly point in Britain) - for short LEJOG - about 1200 miles as the crow flies. I want to walk the national trails, rather than roads but not sure if I can link them all together. Doubtful I will complete the entire route this summer so I may have to cheat between trails with public transport or return next year.

I am sure that the many reasons for this trip will enfold as I blog, but above all I am drawn to the simplicity of donning rucksack and just walking, because....I can. As I walk I will ponder the meaning of my life, or perhaps I won't think at all. I will observe the British way of life and their odd customs from an American "resident alien" perspective, absent from my mother country for the last 22 years. And I have this vision of arriving in John O'Groats a changed person (hopefully way nicer and much wiser) looking Forest Gumpish with a long grey beard.

I am trying to find a way to put a map of my route on this blog but don't hold your breath.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:E Big Cottonwood Canyon Rd,Cottonwood,United States

Blog press

So I down loaded this blog press application and I am writing this from my IPad. Just wanted to see if it looked any different. It linked to my blog spot so no address change is necessary :)

We are up early with the intention of hiking this morning but it is snowing, not just lightly, but dumping. At least 4 inches and counting. Will take a picture as soon as I can be bothered to get out of bed.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cottonwood,United States

Introducing The IPad

I am very proud of myself. From a complete moron technologically, I have advanced this year considerably and can now use an Apple computer at a fairly acceptable skill level (although I am sure my 14 year old son would dispute this); I have a Facebook account and can post things on it; I have this blog of course and I now have the very latest in technology - an IPad (no, not a feminine hygiene product Kristin!).
A 16 GB, 3G IPad. Wow.
Excitedly I turned on this beautiful, sleek machine to write a blog but fairly quickly encountered a problem. It will not allow me to post or edit my blog :( It seems that I may have to buy their blog App, which is only $2.99 but I assume it means I will have to change my blog address? So far I absolutely love my IPad but it is a little bit of a scam as you have to buy a whole load of "extras" in order for it to do anything. Extras such as a case to prevent it from scratching, an additional piece of equipment to enable it to download pictures and all the Apps to make it do really cool things (or in my case to make a blog). You can't download directly to an IPod, it doesn't have a web cam or a USB port.
Pause for a sip of tea................
The touch key board takes some getting used to and seems to have a mind of its own. My typing thus far has required multiple corrections for it to look anything like English. Of course this could be something to do with my arthritic, stiff, sausage-like fingers that touch multiple keys at once and perhaps it is not possible for me to get used to it. Whatever, because the one finger approach seems to work quite well.
Anyway, enough of the negative. The big plus is that it only weighs 1 point something pounds. This is very important to me because as the title (or rather the description) of my blog suggests, I AM GOING WALKING and taking this IPad with me. H-ha really, really excited and not long now!
For anyone who is yearning to break free of the daily treadmill of predictability, stay posted to this blog because I am off on an adventure.

Spring at Winterbourne

It is raining outside and there is a fly buzzing around the cabin. Seems that Spring has finally arrived.

If I open the windows I can hear the creek flowing freely. Not long now and the noise will be deafening as the creek fills with spring melt off and roars down canyon.

The snow is disappearing fast revealing various piles of objects (rusty old fire pits, construction debris, tools) left out sometimes unintentionally to overwinter. It's always fun to see the ground again and to see what does emerge from the depths of winter snow. Phrases such as "I've been looking for that" are not uncommon at this time of year.

The Aspen trees are still barren but the buds are present and just waiting for that perfect Spring day when they will burst forth, bringing color to the landscape and shade to our cabin. The Honeycomb cliffs will then be lost again from our view until the leaves fall once again in the Autumn.

The meadow although now very brown and extremely dead-looking, seems thankful that the snow has finally melted so it can breath again. Amazing that in a few months it will be alive with wild flowers.

Soon the moose will be visiting our cabin and if we are lucky like last year, a stray baby deer. The Pika's are emerging from their long slumbers, playful and hungry. The birds are plentiful and happy to serenade us with a wonderful dawn chorus each morning.

The ski areas have closed and the canyon is quiet. No traffic, no snow cats, no avalanche control. When the valley heats up, the people will return but until then we have the canyon to ourselves.

This is a truly wonderful time of year up at Winterbourne Cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Oracles and anti-inflammatories

Another successful training day today walking up Mount Olympus. Not "The" Mount Olympus in Greece (I wish, how fun that would be?) but the fake one here in Salt lake City. Not sure of the connection but I do know you won't find Zeus inhabiting this

mountain, but perhaps the Mormon Moroni blowing his trumpet? (sorry, couldn't resist, hope I haven't offended anyone).

I have never understood why Americans can't make up their own names for places. For example, why would you bother to take the perilous journey across the Atlantic from Plymouth to escape a place of persecution only to name the place of arrival Plymouth as well? How utterly uncreative.

But I digress.

Curt and I know this mountain very well and have summited it several times over the last 22 years.

It is a good mountain for

early spring as most of the hike is

south facing and gets way too hot in the summer. It's not very high at just over 9,000 feet but it is steep and ascends 4,800 feet in 3.1 miles. There is a fun scramble to the summit and once on top you get the most amazing panoramic views of the Wasatch range and the Salt Lake Valley.

Despite having to negotiate steep slippery snow, it only took us 2 1/2 hours to summit and this seemed like a fairly decent, about normal time for us. Interestingly enough we didn't begin to notice our age until we started to descend. That is when we realized that we were indeed middle aged. Knees and ankles started to creek and our pace slowed tremendously. Gone are the days of running down to get to the pub quicker.

This seems to be an appropriate time to put a plug in for "CHANDLER'S WALK SHOPPE". If you are ever in Salt Lake City and in need of a pair of shoes, visit Skip and he will fit you with a pair or modify any pair of shoes in the shop to fit your feet - even bizarre contorted feet such as mine. Today I was wearing my new Keen gortex boots kitted out with custom-Skip-made inner soles . I am happy to say they were fantastic. And they really do need to be fantastic because I have a major problem. A recent CAT scan of my foot showed my bones resembling chunks of Swiss cheese, nibbled rather severely along the edges (joints) by a large family of hungry mice. Even my untrained eye could tell that this was not good or normal and that my Rheumatoid arthritis was having a hay day - and potentially ruining my long walk this summer. Lovely Dr Rhodes (great podiatrist at the Salt lake clinic) gently suggested I take up an alternate sport other than running or walking, something like "water aerobics or knitting".

He told me my feet are not meant for walking. Bit of problem really, considering I am planning on using these feet to walk 1200 miles over the length of Britain this summer.

So this summit meant a lot to me today because I proved to myself that I am still capable. I won't be needing that swim suit or those knitting needles, just my Keen boots and inner soles from Skip! Oh and handfulls of anti inflammatories, a cortisone shot and various other pharmaceuticals.

Crazy spring weather

I refuse to let this weather prevent me from getting in shape. I have less than one month to go and I am feeling far from fit. Could go to the gym I suppose, but no, I also need to get myself psychologically in shape. Gym is too comfortable of an environment. I need miserable. I need cold and wet if I am to truly create the hardships I will experience this summer, walking the UK.

So, today was perfect. As I rode 3,500 ft down canyon to work, the snow turned to driving rain. My sunglasses proved useless without windshield wipers and defoggers but sans glasses was no better. Road grit and dirty water splattered into my eyes, wedged between my teeth and covered my clothes from head to toe. Water saturated my pants and trickled steadily down into my boots forming a very cold pool of water around my toes. My gloves became saturated, my fingers numb and it felt like I was trying to brake using boxing gloves against slick, wet tyres (English spelling - just practicing) that had no intention of stopping.

There I was barreling down the hill, dodging rock and mud slides, with very little ability to stop and zero visibility. I did survive the experience however and arrived at work far from presentable. I would like to say I enjoyed it, but..............

Yes, like I said, today's training was perfect!!

So perfect I decided to blog about it.