When exercise is exciting and somewhat behind the point…Share your adventures
I'm talking about exercise as part of an adventure, be it an all day hike in the mountains or hiking trip, or a cycling weekend or tour, or kayaking to some island, or just doing something physical where there's a sense of adventure or great pleasure to be had in the environment. Do you know what i mean. It could be about the time you learnt to surf or kite surf or something else really fun and physical. And essentially it happens outdoors.
Share your past and present experiences.
I'll try not to bombard you with all of mine all at once - i've had a few but should do a lot more.
The idea is to hopefully inspire all of us to do more of this sort of thing and try it for the first time if you've never done it at all.
I love the idea of this thread. It thoroughly encapsulates my reason for losing weight and getting fit to begin with.
First, Pattience, wow you have had some wonderful life adventures! I hope that you continue to do and see such amazing things.
I love hiking, canoeing, biking, pretty much anything outdoors. It's a wonderful way to see this country (US). But being in poor shape and obese made it very difficult to do any of those things. I joined the gym almost entirely to help me get into better shape so I can enjoy my adventures more. But every chance I get I'm off somewhere exploring and being in the great outdoors. So far this year we have gone hiking in the Shenandoahs and we did a three day canoe trip on the Delaware River (well, that wasn't very physically exhausting...it was turned out to be more of a lazy float!)
The thing I'm most excited for is our trip to Colorado next week. We'll be backpacking for three days in the Rockies. We live at sea level so it will be challenging as neither of us have ever hiked at altitude, but I've been working my butt off all year to get ready for this (though in the end we won't be doing much in the way of mileage). The plan is to move there in a year so we will be able to go on those adventures more often. There aren't any mountains where I live so hikes are boring or require a long drive. I'll update when I'm back from vacation with pictures!
If you haven't already left, tell me what altitude you expect to go to. My hike in the himalayas was damned high up and i now know what that the feels like. I also know one or two things to do and not do to avoid serious altitude sickness.
My trip involved crossing a pass at 5000M whatever that is in feet. Trust me, its a lot! and i vomited on the way up on that particular day but i was somewhat better off than my partner who was painfully headachey at the top and had to descend immediately whereas i was fine at the top.
Anyway if you are at altitude of any serious height and struggling with any symptoms, the main thing is to not keep going up until you feel ok again. Take it more slowly is better than going faster and if you have to, go back down for a little while, rest. Go more slowly. Don't let anyone push you to go faster or harder or put up with symptoms.
I don't know how true it is exactly but they say that being fit does not necessarily mitigate against altitude sickness. On our mountain hike there were a few other groups of hikers around us and i was astonished at how well two smokers were doing. Its just quite weird though there probably is some rhyme and reason on some level.
Drink water, avoid tea, coffee, alcohol. Don't try to do too much.
That said, anything less than 2000 meters won't affect you at all.
At 3000 metres i got puffed noticeably sooner just walking around town. So if you are carrying a pack, it will be somewhat tougher. But its good you have been preparing because on some level it will help you.
The main thing is if your altitude is 3000m or high to allow yourself a little time, say a day or two, to adjust before you start doing anything strenuous. Don't force anything.
But you get over these things relatively quickly if you take it easy.
All that said, you've probably already been reading up on how to manage it. Its just that on a travel forum i was on regularly, it was noticeable how often people got into trouble, even when people were trying to do the right thing.
I think the highest we will be is 10,000 feet (about 3,000 meters?), but considering I live at about 6 feet above sea level lol...and the most I've ever hiked was at 5,000 feet. We will be staying at about 5,000 feet for a few days, then one night at 8,000 feet before we start our hike, which should help us get acclimated.
I've heard the same that being fit doesn't guarantee you won't get altitude sickness. Thanks for all the info! I think we're prepared enough and we planned the trip to prevent any issues as much as possible. It's also why we are only doing a total of 9 miles in 2.5 days (I forget how much of an ascent though). That way we can take our time, enjoy ourselves without worry, and we will figure out how much we can handle on our next high altitude hike.
Originally my bf wanted to do a 14 mile hike at like 12,000 feet in one day and I said no way! I've only done a few hikes with a backpack, and I really don't want to push myself to the limit when we're in the middle of nowhere. So I think we've come to a good compromise. The Rocky Mountain National Park office has been really helpful planning our trip, too. They helped us plan a route that would make sense for us as Flatlanders, and have kept us up to date on the weather and what to expect. We will have snow on half of the trail, and we may need snowshoes, plus we have Microspikes to put on our shoes if need be.
I'm a sea level dweller too. Well i think you probably won't suffer any serious altitude sickness probably but i think you will find it tough to carry your pack about. I know i did at 3000m. Thankfully on our hike, we were able to hire a man with a donkey.
But i wish you great trip. Its good you talked your bf out of the longer trip.
Pattience, your adventures, especially the one in France, sound like absolute heaven to me!
I've been wanting to do a cycling vacation for so long. I won't have the time or money for an overseas vacay for a while. You've inspired me to do what I can though in this regard. I think I could do a day trip or weekend bike ride in some scenic areas near me.
I haven't had nearly as many active adventures as I'd like. I've done some hiking in CO and the Southwest which I loved. Besides that, my outdoors time has been mostly logged as time swimming in the ocean, if that even counts. I also spend a lot of time at my local parks walking and running. Well, I used to anyway. I'm getting back into the habit of exercise after not consistently doing it since last fall.
Oh, I almost forgot! I also used to play sports with my friends pretty regularly, but we haven't done that for over a year. Baseball, kickball, basketball, touch football.
Sport outside doesn't count here in this thread lol.
I'll take ocean swimming as fairly adventurous. Here you could be eaten by a shark. It actually happened not too long ago, well not quite where i live but in australia. Here where i live, we worry more about getting eaten by crocodiles so we don't do that much ocean swimming.
But if you are sharing, please feel free to share some detail, you know a mini trip report to capture the atmosphere and experience.
of course i could go an considerable length about all my adventures but i don't want to bore anyone too much.
But i do have a plan, and have had it for a while alas, to go up a local bush track we call The Bump Track. Its a steep hill climb that mountain bikers love to use. I've done a bit of it when i was really fit. Alas the dog which came with us, was not fit and we had to abort the adventure. But it showed a fair bit of promise for a days walk. I'll tell you more about it when i get around to doing it.
Haha crispin The South of France comment made me giggle
I'd love to hear more if you do a bike adventure. Where would you go? Would you bring a tent to camp along your way?
I wish I was more of a cyclist. I've only just recently gotten into it and I'm still very nervous on the road. We do have some bike trails here, but nothing very long. I'm trying to work up my confidence and ability by doing more cycling on trails, and then we do some trips through the neighborhood so I can adjust to riding near cars.
Pattienc-Love hearing about your cycling adventure! I would be especially interested in hearing more about India. Me and my fiance are thinking of doing our honeymoon there.
Nonameslob-You'll have a blast on your trip I wouldn't worry about altitude too much. If you do start to experience serious signs of altitude sickness(tiredness, apathy, total loss of track of time, feeling drunk, extreme trouble focussing) you have to descend immediately though. I've dealt with people experiencing altitude sickness on my hikes and had to carry a friend down who ended up having a seizure at 10,500. She was very fit too, but tried going way too fast up the mountain. Seems like you have a very fun and well-planned trip so I'm sure you guys will be fine
I have many hiking and backpacking adventures to share My most recent hike was up Mt. San Jacinto where I do most of my backpacking training since its at a high elevation. I'm from Palm Springs originally so grew up going up this mountain a lot. There is a tram car that takes you from the base up to 8500ft(2591m) but to do any of the hikes you have to descend 500ft into the valley to get to the trailheads. The summer pass is super cheap too so I go up a few times a week. I went to Wellman's Divide which is an overlook at 9700ft(2956m), its a teeny bit over half way to the peak. I was happy because it was my second time up since getting my pass so I was more acclimatized(takes me about 3x up). I don't start feeling too bad with altitude after that till I hit 10,000ft. And once I hit 11,000 its like a struggle going up every 100ft lol.
The hike was about 7 miles and altogether took me 3 hours, although I did lay out in the sun a bit at the lookout. I felt very good on it and was happy with my time. The last 700ft is the steepest part of the trail and really daunting, but didn't give me too much trouble.
I'm going up again Thursday and haven't decided which trail to do yet. I'm thinking of going to the peak. I'll see how I feel.
I'm including some pics of the Wellman's Divide hike, including a selfie I took at the lookout lol
noname i never got my confidence on a bike until i decided i wanted to take up triathlon at the age of about 33. Then i got a bike and decided i would have to learn how to ride it properly so i praciced my corners and so on.
For confidence riding in traffic, i think it is important to never forget there are indeed risks and so just be vigilant and ride a lot. The more you ride the more your confidence will grow.
What about mountain biking. I haven't actually done it in rough roads much but some of the trails are really nice. I've done it once with my bike loaded for touring which is a bit tough on the bush tracks but the tracks are so lovely. And in the world there is such a lot going on with mountain biking trails now. Some really beautiful trails and its a lot faster than walking.
I actually don't really love bike riding but i love it as a way of travelling.
I do love bike riding on a road bike but i rarely get to do that since my brief triathlon career ended abruptly after a knee injury.
Dotti, do you hike alone? Feel free to report as much as you want on your hikes. I think on this forum, it is a nice break from all the usual stuff that i go on about.
India, I can probably bore you for hours about india. the last time i was there was in 2010 and because the commonwealth games has been since then, some things have a changed a bit but mainly in Delhi.
Some top tips from me:
Go where the climate dictates you should go. Its a big country with strong and often uncomfortable weather conditions so match your destination to the time of year. And don't plan an intense do a lot itinerary. Travelling time in india is very slow.
Read up on scamming practices in india. I think things are improving but you should be well aware of the types of scams that happen to new travellers in india. I used to be a regular on the thorntree.lonelyplanet.com forum. It used to be a lively forum but another good one is indiamike.com I haven't been to either for a while but you can learn about these things and much more from them. Probably go with indiamike.com first I expect it would be the most active these days. Do plenty of research and take a decent guidebook such as footprints or lonelyplanet so you don't get stupidly ripped off. YOu will get ripped off a bit but you just have to accept that. India is a very very cheap country, unless you are staying in tourist hotels and dining in tourist restaurants and going to government museums and then its just a cheap country.
Try to spend some time in smaller rural towns and not just big cities. India is at its best and most interesting in the country areas, although i do find delhi a fantastic city. If you are in rajasthan for your honeymoon, one bizarre place to travel to is the famous rat temple near the town of bikaner which i also liked a lot. For truly memorable indian holiday look for the really bizarre things like that. There are so many of such experiences to be had. The rat temple is a temple devoted to rats and they run wild all over and there are some guys who look after them. I have so many wonderful photos from there. You have to walk amongst them barefoot which feels challenging but its worth remembering these rats have been cut off from external diseases for centuries. Take some soap so you can wash your feet properly afterwards.
You can see photos of my india trips on photoblog.com/shangrila If you find my page, go to the very beginning of my blog for my best india pictures, including some of my hike in the himalaya. I didn't post many pics from my last trip i think.
When exercise is exciting and somewhat behind the point…Share your adventures
My most recent hike was up Mt. San Jacinto where I do most of my backpacking training since its at a high elevation. I'm from Palm Springs originally so grew up going up this mountain a lot. There is a tram car that takes you from the base up to 8500ft(2591m) but to do any of the hikes you have to descend 500ft into the valley to get to the trailheads. The summer pass is super cheap too so I go up a few times a week. I went to Wellman's Divide which is an overlook at 9700ft(2956m), its a teeny bit over half way to the peak. I was happy because it was my second time up since getting my pass so I was more acclimatized(takes me about 3x up). I don't start feeling too bad with altitude after that till I hit 10,000ft. And once I hit 11,000 its like a struggle going up every 100ft lol. 