Mountain Dew

:lmao:

OK, OK, I admit I really look more like this...

My friend... Let's call him C-bone. He is an ex-infantry guy who has shot several "bad guys" in the war...tuff guy; macho man, etc etc... Well today, I drive him up in the car to the farest I can drive to Cap Peak so we can walk up to the 'summit' and he can see the views I described to him. He would not get out of the car without his 45... the reason?? Because he has seen a bear before on Ft Lewis and it 'chased him'!! He spent the rest of the day (when we were back at work) showing me statistics on Bear attacks, and how many thousand bears there are in Washington, and how a 45 hand gun won't stop them, and how they want to eat you, and kill you, and spit on you, and moleste you, etc etc etc .... Any thing bad about bears he could find he showed it to me... I have to admit, that this "macho" man-slayer now has me nervous of Bears in the mountains/peaks/valleys/trails, etc... PLEAAAASSSSEEEEE tell me how to overcome this..!!!!!!!!! If I cannot overcome this anxiety, I might as well dress up like a indian cheif, or a cop, and become a member of the

You want a photo?? OK, here I am in all my "Chubby glory"... Oh the agony of being sooo overweight... I cannot wait until I firm up

Thanks to both of you. I will look for the liner socks this weekend, and I will make sure to tighten my boots. I do have a bad habit of wearing my shoes/boots loosely tied. Now I just have to find a good place to hike (3 hours or less one way). Taking my 2 yr old to Niqually wildlife place tomorrow, but want a longer one for me and my 14 yo for sat or sun....

To answer the questions I have hiked in regular tube socks and also in "smart wool" (but they are pretty thick). I will try nylon... do you mean like panty hose?, or more like dress socks? (or are these nylon socks special socks from an outdoor store). As far as boots, I am wearing the brand Merrell. DAY 17 10-07-09 Not a ton of excitement yesterday. Here is an update on my "habits". Eating: Raisin bran for breakfast (small bowl) Half a can of lite syrup peaches and 1/2 can of navy beans for lunch Green salad/fat free dressing and 8 green onions for dinner. lots of water all day long (still no sodas) and ** 2 tic tacs with dinner ** A little of this + A little of that ='s a Tic Tac as far as excercise goes, my Calf's felt like I had over done it the last couple of day with the stair stepping stuff, so I just went for a walk with my 2yo/built in back pack for an hour after dinner! I am off again tomorrow, so all today I will be trying to plan my weekend around some good hikes with my daughters, and also maybe a tougher one with just me!! (Any Suggestions)? Have a great day To be cont...

My daughter loves Mango Icecream But my wife slices up Mango's, soaks the slices in a weak/watered down soy sauce all night...then eats them..

I am a Tigers fan... I puked in my sleep

DAY 16 10-6-09 Well thanks for the input... I guess the reason I felt bad about the ETOH is because I had told myself, my Inner self, that I could go cold turkey if I wanted... but I am not there yet. It is ok, I accept that now Yesterday typical work day, ate a couple of my Choplets with some cottege cheese. Got home a little late; Ate my last Choplet in my can around 6pm (along with a tic tac) then had to drive 40 miles to watch my Daughter play in her HS soccer game. They won! (one of their few wins), and she scored 2 goals so she was very happy. The rest of the evening was spent just driving home... I was pretty depressed along with my friend: Our poor Tigers got knocked out in the last game After buying the family some post-game McDonalds (I didn't get anything), and getting home it was around 10pm already. Didn't feel like eating anything and didn't even get a chance to walk yesterday, so I plopped down my babies Pooper stool and did my stair stepping for 30 mins. Not so exhausted as the night prior, I think I will try to do that at least 3 times a week along with my walking/hiking! Have a great "Hump Day"!!!! It's almost Friday baby! to be cont....

Well read some more of Freedom last night... It is kindof hard to read for me because it is not so much a "Book" as it is an instruction manuel... So I am just trying to read small parts at a time... As far as what I would like to see on video....well I decided on the WHOLE thing! I would like to see each chap on a video. Maybe 30mins per chapter. I could see a person talking about like Camping and tent set up (chap 3), and then also demonstrating how easy it can be etc... In my mind, I would kind of see it as a "Freedom Video for Dummies" type of thing. A lot of people may not agree or want to watch it, but I sure would!! The Map reading section may need to be longer then 30 mins... I have taught map reading in the past, and a lot of people new to it are Very slow to catch on... Cheers

Thanks Hippie, I will try a few of those suggestions Back in the day (1986ish), I used to walk as fast as I could 10 miles a day with around 50lbs on my back and wearing Jungle Boots (was training for Special Forces selection at the time) and I remember my feet were bad then... of course back then we would get a 21 gauge needle and syringe from our Medic friends and shoot T of B into our blisters!! It worked to toughen up my feet, but the bottom of my feet were dark brown for months LOL DAY 15 10-05-09 Did pretty good today. Added a couple of more things to my 'diet'. Found a can of Choplets at Fred Myer: Used to eat them as a kid when at a relatives house. They are Veggie and people either love them or hate them.... I love them! I ate a couple of pieces for lunch and also had some with rice at home for dinner. On the ETOH subject, I might not be as strong as I thought... I knew on the way home I had Zero to drink in the house...it really weighed on my thoughts... I could not help but stop and pick up a bottle of Madarin Vodka. (I mix a shot with around 6oz of RedBull...called a tic tac). I took my 2yo for an hour walk before making dinner and carried her half the way...(she is a big help with not owning a back pack). I felt guilty the whole walk about buy the booze, but still had a tic tac while making my families dinner and had one with my dinner as well.... Oh well, I guess it is still better then 6 beers After dinner I read some more of Freedom (which I will comment about on the other post) Still feeling like I wanted to do something I pulled out my 2yo's "potty step-up" from the bathroom. It is a small step used for kids to reach the toilet (around 8 inchs high), and while I was watching TV I "Stair Stepped" for 30 minutes straight (keep up a good 120 beat pace), now That pooped me out more then walking!! LOL I think I will keep that up! Well, getting ready to have a small bowl of Oatmeal for breakfast and start my work day. Hope you all have a great one!!! to be cont.......

...The crowd enjoyed the "Free meat Parade" and everything was going smoothly until Stuart grabbed the Bull by mistake...

I will look that up tonight. (it might just have to do with never really walking for the last 10 yrs or so LOL)

All good responses, but this made me LMAO!

Among all the other stuff I did this weekend, I also watched this movie last night: I enjoyed the movie and the special features that showed Joe and Simon's trip back to the mountain where it happened... My question is; What were your feelings about what Simon did? When I first saw it I was mad at him... but the more I think about it I understand why... What was your initial reaction when you first saw or read about this story?

I have the book but just started reading it. I will cover each chapter one at a time, and I will report back here the things I could not grasp by just reading it

Thanks! I am curious to how "Overweight" I still am... I feel like I am getting a little lighter and my face looks a little less full, but I don't want to check my weight until I have been at it for a month;) Now that we did the Capitol peak what would any of you suggest for my "Next peak"? I don't really feel I have the energy yet to do one much harder then that one... So I am looking for one that will take 3 hours or less to get there....

DAY 14 10-04-09 Well I did it! Along with my 14 yo we climbed our first peak Even though it was not huge, I look at it as one small step that I had to take. We arrived at the Cap Forest and the TH around 10:00 am. We both brought along two bottles of water and a couple of granola bars and some jerky. I am not going to bore you with a step by step discription but I will just tell you it took us 3 hours to stand on top of the peak! The view up there is beautiful and it saddened me a little that I have lived here since 94 and had never taken the time to go up there (considering you can even drive up there). We walked around the peak and my daughter took some pix's with her cell phone and we called her mom to let her know "we did it" and were safe. The trip down was harder then I thought. Very hard to keep from turning your ankle while descending in some spots with all the loose rocks on the trail. About 15 mins into our descent I felt "Fire" on the back of my left calf and yelped! I knew right away I had been "Bit or Stung"; (still not sure which). The red area where I was attacked burned like someone was holding a ciggarette to my skin for a moment or two and it swelled to the size of a dime. We looked in the 1st aid kit and I grabbed some tape; placed it over the reddened area and pulled it off quickly (I figured it there was a stinger I might pull it out). After a moment to do that I figured we should just keep going. The site stung most of the way back but never got anyworse and the swelling never got any bigger. (I have been bit or stung several times in my life and have never been allergic to anything, so I wasn't too worried). It took 2 hours and 20 mins to get back to the TH, so the decent shaved 40mins off our time. We had both ran out of water with about 2 miles to go and I noted to myself to bring "too much" water on our next outting. We were so thirsty that I told my daughter we would stop and get something to drink as soon as we saw a store. We treated ourselves by getting whatever kind of drink we wanted. My daughter got a mountain dew (she never drinks soda), and I rewarded myself with a 24oz can of Coors When we got home I limped inside the house like I was 80 years old LOL My feet had around 3 blisters on each foot and my knees felt the hike all evening. All in all though, I felt great!!! It was a wonderful feeling to set out to do something and accomplish it! Can't wait for my next one :) to be cont....

DAY 13 10-03-09 Well yesterday night I finished my "Rainier" book by Mike Gauthier and I just LOVED IT!!! What a great book, felt like I was there climbing Rainier with all of the great discriptions! Great Job Mike and team! Besides reading the books, I wound up going for another walk late in the evening with my Wife (yes she finally came with us) LOL, and my 2 year old. We had walked the falls early as I said and then in the afternoon we went for a short trail walk near my house...then in the evening we went (with mommy) for about a 2 mile walk. Baby was so pooped by the time we turned around at the 1 mile mark that she fell asleep on my shoulders I finished reading the Rainier book before trying to watch a small part of SNL on TV....needless to say I passed out as well and had dreams of climbing last night. This morning My feet still had a couple of Old blisters. My "problem" still hurt. My butt was still slightly sore from the bike ride............BUT........ I awoke this morning bound and determined that I would Climb my first "Summit", even if a small one....... and I did........... Tell you about it tomorrow. To be cont...

Day 12 10-2-09 Quick summary of yesterday (and most of today).. Rode my bike home after riding it to work (was my dtr's bike actually)...Bad idea. My butt was killing me last night LOL Ate some baked chicken breast, rice, and corn for dinner and even though I was sore from the bike ride I took my youngest on a 1 hour walk around 8pm. Carried her on the way back on my shoulders, so she is filling in nicely for my "Early back pack" training Friday is my night to "Par-tay", but could not drink more then 3 Kalua's and milk.... mmmmmmm maybe I am not as much of an "alcholic" as I thought Today my problem is still with me, so just took my 2 yo to walk around Tumwater Falls area and then came home to make early dinner (cause my oldest is going to the movies). After making pasta and a salad me and my youngest went for another little walk for about 45 mins. Best news of all though.....I got Freedom of the Hills in the mail yesterday!!! I also got a mountaineer book just about Mt Rainier; I dove right into the book and read the 1st two chapters last night.... then I realized the book is WAY more detailed then I thought... So, I am going to hold off on Freedom and read the Mt Rainier book first. The main reason is because when I read Freedom I don't want to rush though it and I will probably pull out a highlighter to note important areas.... All in all, a great start to my weekend! To be cont.....

I would love to watch a video that covers what Freedom does!

DAY 11 (10-01-09) Well yesterday I started my 3rd day of mostily inactivity. I did eat right by eating a small breakfast then I even packed my own lunch for work... I ate about a half a cup of: and a half a cup of: Some of you may say "Yuck", but I am not punishing my taste buds, I really do like Navy Beans and Cottege Cheese (fat free or other wise) After work we went to our Thursday night soccer game to watch my Daughter play and then later I prepared our dinner (I am the cook in the house if you haven't noticed yet) I baked some filets of Flounder and some baby peeled shrimp, along with some angel hair pasta. With Dinner I drank Cranberry Juice (I had drank my Kalua and Milk while I made dinner). I will admit that dinner took a little longer to prepare and I wound up drinking 2 K&M's instead of one My "problem" was feeling a little better and I felt the Urge to excercise after dinner...it was weird, it was like I "had" to excercise... it really bothered me. So I threw on my shoes and a rain jacket and went for a 50 minute walk by myself. I was a little sore "down there" afterwards, but I felt so much better This morning I decided to do something a little different and grabbed my teenagers old and rode it to work!! Now that felt Really Really weird LOL, it has been forever since I rode a bike!!! Hope everyone has an awesome Friday, and a great weekend!!! More to come....

I will check that out T_Rutl Bstach, Mountain Do would be good, but considering some of the "Medicine" I have been taking because of my "Problem", my name right now is more like Mountain Doo Doo

Great idea! I am looking forward to my copy of Freedom of the Hills and the other book about Rainier... I recvd an Email on Tuesday saying it shipped!

DAY 10 (9-30-09) Whoa, time sure flys by...10 days already LOL Thank you for the well wishes and you'll be happy to know none of my wife's family was killed. Yes she is Samoan, but you would never tell by looking at her...most people think she is from someother country because she is smaller and more petite then most people expect a Samoan to be. As far as me, not much happened yesterday. Eating habits were good and even did my grocery shopping and bought a ton of "healthy type" foods for my lunch and breakfast and dinners. (of course still bought good things for the family too) My little problem is feeling better with the start of a couple of medicines...I hope to be at my normal "overweight feeling self" soon so I can start doing some excercise again. I am really hoping that I feel better by Saturday so me and the kids can go hiking again, but I won't push it. I would rather wait and be safe then rush into it and start my "problem" all over again. As far as drinking, I am Shocked to say that I am not missing the Beer at all.... My body (and mind) seem quite content with just that little shot of Kalua and Milk... Hope everyone here has a great day!!! To be cont.........