Adventure, written by Warren Robinett and released by Atari in 1980, is a fantasy adventure game for the Atari 2600. Using basic graphics, the game allows a player to navigate a series of castles and mazes to recover keys, collect treasures, and slay dragons. The game plays a pivotal role in Ready Player One, not so much because … Read more
After one false start and two 5-mile primer day hikes, our Philmont crew finally went on an extended backpacking trip. We did a two-day hike in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in New Jersey. Friday night we stayed at campsites next to the Millbroad Road Trailhead. On Saturday, we hiked from the Millbrook … Read more
In January 2020, my son and I started on the trail to Philmont – a six-month training project aimed at developing the strength, endurance, and skills needed for a 12-day, 60-mile backpacking trek at Philmont Scout Rank in Cimarron, New Mexico. We were supposed to go in late-June/early July 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced … Read more
After six months on the trail to Philmont … we finally got on the trail. In August, we went hiking twice: first a 5-mile day hike on the Monocacy Creek Trail in Bethlehem, Pa., then a more rigorous 5-mile day hike on the Rattlesnake Swamp Trail and Appalachian Trail (AT) in Delaware Water Gap National … Read more
The long, winding trail to Philmont continued in June as I launched into training for a 10K race. I don’t have a particular race in mind, and given the state of the COVID-19 world, it’s likely any race I do will be virtual. That said, this is very much a journey-before-destination sort of thing, so … Read more
May started with our trip to Philmont being canceled. We moved our reservation to 2021 in the hopes that we’ll be able to travel (and hike) by then. The challenge used to be getting ready for a 60-mile backpacking trip by June; it became staying motivated when that trip is now more than a year … Read more
April was the countdown to the inevitable. We knew mid-month that Philmont Scout Ranch would update their COVID-19 strategy on May 1 and that announcement could mean the end to our 2020 backpacking trek. Throughout April, NeutronLad and I maintained our Philmont routines and started thinking about how we could kick them into higher gear … Read more
We started actively training for our big 12-day backpacking trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico in January, and got into a good groove in February. And then everything changed. During the first half of the month, we maintained our regime of working out three times a week as a group, but by the middle of the month, … Read more
I expect to learn a lot on the Trail to Philmont. In February, I learned that if you run a lot … you need to periodically buy new running shoes. I bought my Hokas when I started running again after breaking my ankle. With thick soles and excellent support, they were like running on pillows … Read more
The Trail to Philmont started in January with three-times-a-week workouts at our local college. We exercised in a variety of temperatures, from a low in the 20s (maybe high teens) to a high in the low 40s. We ran the quad, we ran the track around the football field, and we ran the utility loop … Read more