The Trail to Philmont started moving a lot faster – and got a lot more real – in March 2021. As I mentioned in the February update, during the winter we lost four members of our crew to COVID concerns. That left us with six participants, and two below the minimum crew size of eight. … 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
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
Like an astronaut hurled far into deep space, Nuketown Radio Active returns to Earth a year after it left to find the planet utterly transformed. Fortunately, there are no super-intelligent apes. At least, not yet. On this episode of Nuketown Radio Active, I reintroduce folks to the podcast, catch up on the state of Nuketown, … 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
I’m looking for fellow travelers on the road to geek fitness, specifically geeky blogs that talk about fitness or blogs that discuss the intersection of geek culture and getting fit. These don’t need to be hardcore fitness blogs, or blogs only dedicated those two topics. I’m looking for sites like Nuketown, which cover a variety … 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
Three years after I started running, I’m returning to 5K training. Specifically, I’m re-playing Zombies, Run! 5K, which is a couch-to-5K training app that includes — you guessed it — zombies. Zombies, Run! 5K is an 8-week training course meant to take you from a low activity level (the aforementioned couch) to running a 5K. The first … Read more