Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Go Hiking And Build Your Best Life

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Hiking for me is the best part of living the life I want. Being in nature, challenging my body, moving. If you hike you know it can become an important part of your life.

At 78 I ask myself, “Will I be able to do it this next March?” Right now I am not so sure, but I will know better in February.

An Alternative

So what if you can’t hike anymore? You have some disease or a heart condition and the doctor says you can’t stress yourself that much. I am not so naive to think that I will never not be able to climb mountains, but I prefer it be at least after my 85th year. Only six and a half years to go with this going wrong and that going wrong.

Let’s say you are 86 and you just van’t get the body up the mountain again. What is an alternative. You start walking up the hills where you live. You can even walk for a longer time because you are not driving to a trailhead. Of course you will be hitting the gym as usual, right?

Building the Life You Want

Maybe you are in your 40s and just started hiking. This is when you can make it a habit. Hiking will become like brushing your teeth. You will make sure your career doesn’t get in the way. Only take the job if you will have time to hike.

Hiking becomes a part of your identity. It is a big part of who you are. Or maybe you will become a trail runner or a rock climber. Nothing wrong with those except I think hiking is best.

Always Anticipating

This time of year when I am on my winter break from hiking I begin to anticipate the next season. What challenges will I face? Will I see another UFO (UAP)? Will I be able to climb Mt Si twice in one morning again? Do I even want to do it. What about Mailbox Peak?

This next season Mt Pilchuck will reopen. They were fixing the potholes on the road to the trailhead so seeing the results of that will be interesting.

Go Hiking and See A UFO

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Dirty Harry’s Peak is not a hike I look forward to every year, but it is a good challenge and great for conditioning your legs. Old legs need all the conditioning they can get.

This year was no different in that regard, but the hike did hold a couple of surprises.

Early Morning

As anyone knows if they have been reading these posts, I like to go hiking very early in the morning. So I pulled up into the Dirty Harry trailhead parking lot at 3:45 AM. I got out of the car to make some last adjustments to my pack and looked up past the sky. It is my custom to see how much cloud cover there is or just to look at the stars.

When I look up I see what appears to be a passenger jet going across the sky from y right to my left. It appeared to be higher than most passenger jets. Then it stopped. It did not slow down.It stopped.

Arrested Attention

Haver you ever had something happen where all of s sudden all of your attention was focused on that thing? This is how it was that morning. The “jet” moved down to the right. I grabbed my phone and started taking a video. It moved around some more and then I stopped filming it and I put my phone down and looked back up. It was gone.

Where did it go? I had no time right then so I went on my hike. A typical brutal last two miles to an area that doesn’t have much of a view compared to other places I go.

The Answer?

When I finished my hike it was about 9:45 AM. As I drove from the trailhead to the freeway along a cement but potholed road, there on the side of the road were about six or seven military jeeps and trucks and soldiers walking around.

“That was it,” I said to myself. A military drone. That’s what I saw. This explains it. The military has some cool stuff.

Then I got home and watched the video: https://studio.youtube.com/video/D_g_oYl1YnA/edit

Go Hiking And Do Some Men’s Work

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It’s Sunday and of course that means I climbed a mountain this morning. I think I might have seen more women on the mountain this morning than men. Not sure!

As usual I begin my climbs very early in the morning so when I am coming down the mountain I see all the people coming up. I often wonder how the top of the mountain accommodates all those people. I am going to find out next week.

Doubles

Yes, on the 14th of May, two months before my 78th birthday I will attempt to climb Mt Si twice in the same morning. I think it might bleed into the early afternoon. On the other hand there is always a chance that I will collapse.

Have gone so far as to arrange to take Monday off of work (yes, I still work). That will give me some time to recover or get in and out of the hospital. Five months ago I had knee surgery. I would like to say it has completely healed but I would be lying.

It’s Nothing or Is It Something

It might seem like a pretty big deal for an old guy my age to do something like this, but I am reminded of Bronco Sundstrom who at age 77 summited Mt Rainier. The little mountain I will be climbing twice is just 4000 ft not over 14,000 ft. If I recall correctly she continued to climb it for many years. So doing doubles on Mt Si is nothing really own the bigger picture.

However, for me it will be a huge challenge. It is s supposed to be hot that weekend so that will present more of a challenge. The other thing is I have never done it before. No, not even when I was younger.

Go Hiking And Endure Or Not

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I know what you’re thinking! He’s going to tell me I need to endure the hikes even if I am sick and tired or over trained. If I had written this a year ago, I would have said you were dead right.

However, climbing a grueling mountain trail when you are over trained doesn’t make a lot of sense. Like I said, a year ago I would have done it anyway, but I changed my mind.

Pay Attention

If you are fortunate or nerdy enough to use the NatureBeat (Sweetwaterhrv) App, Whoop, or even a Garmin watch, you are paying attention to your heart rate variability. With NatureBeat it will give you both your Sympathetic and Parasympathetic numbers. Those to numbers make represent you autonomic nervous system. The first one is your “flight or flight” readiness and the second your “rest and digest” score. With the Whoop you also get a recovery score.

So what do you do if you don’t have any of this technology? Listen to your body! If you are overly tired maybe a day off would be the wisest choice. Then you will have less chance of getting an injury or even sick. Now don’t think you can just be a slacker. You can get improvements in fitness by pushing yourself when the numbers are bad. Just don’t do it all the time.

Pay With Your Heath

If you do not listen to your body and push through there is a good chance you will not do well. I learned this myself the hard way. A pattern developed where I was not getting enough sleep and was exercising hard every day and then of course, climbing a mountain. All my numbers were bad. So I thought I would see if I could get the numbers to go back up after taking a week off from exercise. It worked. They went up a little. More on that other time.

After once again hitting the trail, a late night (anything after 5:00 PM) wedding resulted in making me even more tired than the exercise. Of course I had climbed a mountain the day before so I was primed for weariness.

My Permission

It is official. You have my permission to take a week off from s hike if everything is stacked against you. You do not have to endure! Of course you don’t need my permission for anything!

The most important think to remember as a general rule with some exceptions: Go Hiking!

Bookish Weapon Number 69

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Cameron Hanes runs up mountains to train himself to be the best bowhunter in the world. He likes to hunt far away from the typical hunting grounds in places that are hard to reach unless you’re in his kind of physical shape.

His book “Endure” captures his story which is a great one and one that continues. I was drawn to the title, because I though my word for this year was “endure.” There was one other box with the same name, but Cam’s subtitle included the words “keep hammering” and that spoke to me.

Focus

The thing that stood out for me right away was the intense focus this man has put on one thing, hunting. Maybe two. Hunting and training to hunt.

To some, running 100 mile races might seem over the top, but not for Hanes. He knows they give him the edge he needs to be a successful hunter year after year. It all provides meaning and purpose to his life.

Learn From Cameron

There are lots of excellent lessons in this book like how not to let your critics get to you. How to learn from others and how to “burst through the bonds of low expectations.”

He stresses the importance of believing in yourself and being obsessed with improvement. He thinks that obsession in successful people is not because they think they are great, but because they really think they are not that great at all and need to improve!

Get Used to Being Uncomfortable

This book is about what I have learned to be expansive discipline which is putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. They induce growth. Cam says that “My good friend Misery and I have become real close over the years.

Now remember this not about being yourself up for the sake of beating yourself up. Hanes has a purpose and a mission. Getting used to being uncomfortable helps him hit the mark time and time again.

Greatness

Cameron Hanes believes in you and me. He says, “The good news is I believe each and every one of us is capable of greatness in something. He continues, by saying, “Your bowhunting is out there. I promise. It will open doors for yours well. But be warned: when you become obsessed, it takes over your life. This obsessive approach works for me.”

What’s it going to take. You might have guessed it. Hard work or as Cam says, “…damn hard work.”

Your Body

Frankly I can’t say it better than Cameron Hanes, “Your body gives what you ask of it. Don’t ask much and it won’t give you much. Ask a lot and it will give you a lot. I haven’t found my limit yet, but I am trying.”
This book is very inspirational especially for those who want to strengthen themselves. He talks about putting his body through the wringer. However, he might disagree with me when I say you do need some rest from time to time. Even then your main focus must be to “keep hammering!”

Go Hiking But First Take My Course – Attacking Mountains At Any Age

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If you want to be a hiking warrior, then it is time for you to take my hiking course. If you are a beginner and want to learn the basics in a fun way, plus avoid a lot of mistakes (ones I have made), then let’s go! If you are a little older and would like to get into the mountains but you have some challenges then I can help. Go to the course:

https://bmontgome.mastermind.com/masterminds/25439

In the course I give you the basics and discuss how you can prevent injuries. If you have bad knees I talk about how to get around that. There is always a way. Maybe you say, I climbed this one mountain in record time when I was 18 years old, but now you are 50 and all you talk about is when you were 18. You can do it again! Don’t stop living just because you are a little older.

Training

You will learn how to train for hiking. What I do and don’t do. If a 76 year old man can keep himself on the trail for 30 years think how much you can learn and how much pain you can avoid!

Did you think you could just go climb mountains every week without training? No! You need to get in shape and stay in shape.

Mindset

This section of the course is worth the price by itself, because it will give you tools to help you achieve goals you set in every area of life. Find out what your “why “ is in every area of life. Learn the motivation formula so you can get yourself to do what you say you want to do.

Mindset is so important if you set a path to climb mountains once a week, three times a week or even once a month.

Diet and Nutrition

I don’t have a diet for you, but I call this section “The Chocolate Bar Diet and Nutrition Plan.” I tell you up front it is really not a diet but my philosophy about diet. I also give you some recommendations for supplements.

However, twenty years ago I weighed 214 pounds and I dropped that weight and kept it off. I am 165 now so I know something about this area. As I say in my book, “Attacking Adversity,” diet and exercise are strategies one and two for getting through any adversity. Simple? Yes, but not easy! Don’t stay on the SAD (Standard American Diet).

Click on the link above and take my course. You will be glad you did!