Monday Morning Mountain Walk

Early this morning the dogs and I walked about a mile and a half through the neighborhood. And once again I was left thinking, This is not the kind of exercise that’s gonna take the flab off the belly. Wrestling a half-trained dog around a park and up a few sidewalks does not, alas, fill that bill.

We got back to the house early enough, however, that I realized that I could lock up the puppy, throw on a pair of boots, and head over to North Mountain Park for a short hike over at least some terrain that offers a little up- and downhill walking. It’s been a year since I’ve been on the mountain. It’s a time-sucking hassle to get over there, and so not something one readily does without the impetus of a companion who wants to make the hike, too.

Entered by way of one of the south-side entrances, having no intention of actually climbing either Shaw Butte or North Mountain. There’s plenty of rolling terrain that will serve to get you started before you try for a stroll on the highway to heaven.

On the south side of Shaw Butte there’s a low rise, a hill with a trail that takes you to the top of the mound and then, if you follow it further, up a pretty steep incline to the main trail on the butte’s backside.

What the hell, thought I, and proceeded up the rise.

Well. It’s not very far. And when you’re on top of that thing, you’re almost halfway up to the junction with the Shaw Butte trail. So naturally, I kept walking.

It’s a less than perfectly pleasant place to walk, especially when the weather’s nice. The park has become very crowded, largely with stupid people who haven’t got enough sense to keep their yaps shut as they’re hiking. Apparently they think everyone within a quarter-mile of them wants to hear about the intricacies of their office’s politics or their boyfriend’s behavior. Yakity yakity yakity yakity yak yak yak yak!

More kindly, I expect that most people don’t realize how far their voices carry across a desert landscape. In the county’s mountain  parks, you can hear people talking a half-mile away — especially women, but a tenor male voice will carry a long way, too. I find that annoying…but I suppose it’s because I’m the rara avis that happens to relish solitude. And I’d really rather hear the doves cooing, the quail hooting, and the thrasher calling than to hear a human’s voice babbling on.

Oh well.

Before long, I’d hit the main trail. Decided not to proceed to the mountaintop, figuring discretion was the better part, at least for today. The southside trail has two or three fairly steep sections — one of which I’d just traversed — and I’d just as soon not be crippled tomorrow. Considered following the main trail down to its starting point, but that would put me on the flat about a mile and a half from my car. To get back to the car, I’d have to walk along a main drag through a dangerous district: Meth Central, we might call it. Since that didn’t seem like the brightest of strategies, I turned back down the trail I’d come up and before long, voilà! arrived at the trailhead parking lot.

The other reason these trails are less than perfectly pleasant for hiking — besides the ubiquitous yakkers — is that all the trails in North Mountain are paved, at least in part, with loose scree. This debris turns into roller-bearing rocks when you’re walking downhill. It’s pretty dangerous: real ankle-twisting terrain.

It was 10:30 by the time I got home, soaked in sweat: half the morning was gone and now I had to bathe and wash my hair and wash my clothes, and that burned some more time. It’s now after one p.m. and so far I have not done a SINGLE ONE of the several things I really need to do today: read 25 pages of the client’s magnum opus, ride herd on the course that starts today, read and mark up notes for the Boob Book, or even write this silly little blog post.

And therein lies the problem: getting enough exercise by hiking, while it’s a quintessentially effective way to build health and shed flab, consumes a lot of time. It often doesn’t leave enough time in a given day for me to do the other tasks I need or want to do.

I guess I could take the attitude that dedicating a couple of hours a day to moderately strenuous hiking is something that I need to do, as much as I need to do paying work. For some reason, I find that difficult to do. Don’t know why.