The Aptly Named, Sam's Blog

Two and a half years ago, my lower back had gotten so bad that I couldn’t walk for more than a few minutes at a time without having to stop to sit or squat. Then came surgery, recovery, return of ability, and progression from there on. Yesterday I hiked up Dog Mountain. It was the most strenuous hike I’ve ever done. And as I sit here all sore the next day, I’m incredibly grateful to be able to do that.

Due to it’s incredible popularity, and limited parking, the Forest Service has been issuing permits for weekend days. Jenni bought ours a while ago, and we have been making small preparations ever since. Purchasing some gear (backpack, water reservoir, hiking poles), and going on light to moderate hikes starting in early Spring. Although we didn’t go on any hike for over a month before this, and that was a mistake.

We arrived at the trailhead just before 9:30am, met up with our friends, and started the hike a few minutes later. About half a mile up is a “difficulty fork” 😂

For the first 2.5 to 3 miles the trail is like many others in the Gorge, comprising of switchbacks through the woods.

Halfway to the top the trail emerged from the forest briefly for a sweeping vista of the river and the gorge.

For the last half mile going up, we were out of the trees and surrounded by wildflowers. It was here that the wind also picked up significantly. This final stretch afforded gorgeous view all the way, with our trail surrounded by steep slopes full of wildflowers.

The views at the summit were incredible. Some fast moving clouds engulfed us soon after we arrived. That was quite a show before it cleared up in a few minutes. It was time to put on another layer. We sat there and enjoyed the views as we had lunch comprising of tasty sandwiches that Jenni had made, and some chips.

As we started back down, my IT band was hurting on the outer side of each of my knees. I was annoyed at myself for not having taken the time to go on hikes and do regular stretches since the Coyote Wall hike from over a month ago. Every downward step was painful. Soon Jenni reminded me of the cross-leg stretches and those helped. Those and the hiking poles were incredibly helpful in making the descent.

Heading back down we reentered the forest, and it sheltered us from the sun and wind for the rest of the way.

All in all this was a great hike with friends, and brought tremendous satisfaction on a personal level. It is entirely possible that someday my back may go bad again, but I’m grateful that I can do this today, and motivated to keep it this way. I’m also grateful for Jenni who has been supportive and encouraging all along the way ❤️

Activity stats:

Distance: 7 miles (11.27 km)
Elevation Gain: 2800 ft (853m)
Ascent/Descent: 800 ft/mile (75.76 m/km)
Time (including breaks): 5h 30m

I’m feeling a love-hate relationship with activity streaks. While it is nice to have a streak and motivating to keep it going, I feel some anxiety coming along with it.

So, in an effort to avoid the unhealthy side effects, I am going to willfully break streaks.

This one has gone for some time. And today I’m ending it.

A positive effect of a streak is that it helps to develop a habit, and I’d like to think that it has been the case this time. Let’s see if that lasts.

P.S. For those unfamiliar, these charts show the activity tracking that is done by my Apple Watch.

The mail and keys organizer located just inside our home entrance had to go. It couldn’t handle our lifestyle, by which I mean, hold a bunch of mail of varying sizes for a bunch of days. Oh, and some keys and the super long IKEA shoehorn (the best!).

I began to dream up a new replacement as a woodworking project. I made a Pinterest board to get some design inspiration. Then one day I just sat down and sketched it out using GoodNotes on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil.

I’d imagined that the plywood would be ½” thick, but after some discussion with Jenni, we decided to go for the chonk look that was distinctive of the tabletop shelf/box I made a couple of months ago. This lowered the costs as well since I already had enough scraps of the baltic birch plywood. All I needed was the dark walnut stain, a birch dowel, and hanging hardware. The mail holders are held together by glue, and attached to the back by screws drilled in from behind. The pegs are held in by glue. There were a couple other changes as evident from the sketch and the photo of the final piece.

The groove detail in the pegs was Jenni’s idea. I tried a couple of ways to cut it out and landed upon just keeping the table saw blade low and using my crosscut sled to spin the dowel in place over the blade. That worked wonderfully!

I finished the build a few weeks ago but the hardware I bought to hang it didn’t work well. Then other things took up some time so I finally procured some new hardware and hung it up this week. We’re both very happy with how it turned out.

And in parting, here’s a photo of the old organizer trying hard to keep up.

Last weekend we went hiking at Coyote Wall. Jenni and I had never been to this hike before but our friends were familiar with it.

There are multiple trails that meet each other at various points. Some are gentle slopes, while others are steeper. One can pick and choose paths based on how much of a workout one wants and switch that around as needed.

There are beautiful vistas all along the way to the top of the wall. I could see myself bringing family and friends here that are not used to hiking much, to just go for a bit, enjoy the views, and head back.

There are cute little waterfalls and streams as well along the way.

Spring flowers, sunny weather, and spotty clouds, made everything look a lot more beautiful.

At the top, we hung out for a bit to have snacks and enjoy the views some more.

On the way down we took the steeper route for a bit. Some folks were mountain biking along the cliff and down the steep trails, which was incredible to watch but not something I see myself doing 😅

I can see myself coming back to this hike again in the spring, and probably in other seasons as well.

Activity stats:

Distance: 7.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1662 ft
Time (including breaks): 4h 45m