Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting 2019 Fitness-Workout thread

strength train this am

squats 5/5/5+, bench 5/5/5+, 3x10 pull-ups, 3x30 dips, core

not a giant surprise, but between the stomach bug, losing 10 lbs and not lifting a lot in the last two weeks- not the most stellar display fo strength for me

25 trips up Old Main Hill today and got my butt kicked. It's 124 steps up and I held a pace of 2:30 per lap for the first 20 rounds and then my old legs got tired.

Apparently hiking around Goblin Valley and a few slot canyons didn't maintain my cardio but making the 8 1/2 mile loop up Bell and down Little Wild Horse with my 6 mos pregnant daughter and 4 yo grandson was a good time. He's a tough little bugger but I'm glad the hike was his dad's idea instead of mine.

Grandson above camp


Goblin Valley


Bell Canyon


Little Wild Horse #1


Little Wild Horse #2

^ cool looking country

4 miles and ~ 1000' of gain, w/ my wife and Tiny E

Monday, Wednesday and Friday did PNWild with 10 lbs in the pack, Tuesday was a hilly run and Thursday was a 2 mile HITT run.... damn did the hurt. In the spirit of JeffO on this thread, last night I finally finished up cutting up and stacking the 30 foot Spruce that was taken out by the bomb Cyclone and in turn put a hurting on the Rubicon. Took about 2.5 hours of struggle.

Cardio/gym for me today, did the bike and the self-propelled treadmill that's shaped like a banana, I like that thing. If you get right up on the front half it has a pretty good incline, gives the calves a good workout and a good burn if you stay on your toes.

Tiny Elvis and I got a good 11-ish miles in today; four good climbs (and descents) spaced out pretty evenly

7-mile hike, added a bit to our normal loop. 1300' ele gain.

Have two orders of the assemblies stacked up so the next 6+ weeks will be very JG intensive. Headed out there for a half day now. Bleah. Rather B Hikin'.

Scrapped the southern half of the Lost Coast trip; the logistics are truly daunting, worse even than the northern half which was a real pain... Replaced it with 8 days @ Hell's Canyon here in a week or so. Cyn has a 30-mile (backpacking) loop on the Idaho side we are gonna do, then, we'll pack in towards Lord Flats on the Oregon side, probably drop down Temperance Creek. Psyched, because I've been saving my elk points, and I'll have enough for a Snake River unit bull tag next year, which is a good tag, so this will serve as a scouting trip of sorts, albeit off-season relative to hunting so the animal patterns will be completely different.

I did the same route today; this time I left Tiny E behind and shaved an hour off of my time.

What really surprises me is I'm running a lot less these days (and hiking more), but looking back on 20+ times on this route running, I was right in the middle time wise. Not complaining, but strange

5-mile hike in the coast range, approx 2000' gain. Did a side jaunt up a guerrilla motorcycle trail that was about 1/2 mile STRAIGHT up a very very very steep hill, then straight back down the same trail. It was about as steep as a dirt hillside can get. Pounded the calves and quads, and I hear HC can be a "bit" hilly so........

Bought a new pack for the HC trip, Osprey Exos 5.8L. Loaded it with about 25 lbs for today's hike; it carried great, very pleased so far.

Tiny E and I got our hill workout in- ~ 2000' gain in 2 miles, 4 miles total

plan is to take it relatively easy this week, the Open starts Saturday morning

4 miles in the rain (not quite snow, but close!) for Tiny Elvis and I

Rain has me inside so it's been elliptical the last 2 days. A steady pace for 55 minutes yesterday and 60 minutes of tough intervals today. Had the heart running 151-169 bpm for 38 straight minutes.

Workin' it like a nasty wench in the hand-arm jungle gym. This is a pic of some of the jungle gym apparatus just for fun. The parts I'm working on are on the service cart to the left. Out of the frame, just for Kenneth.

Leaving for Hell's Canyon in a few days for a 9-day adventure. The HC Rec Area is truly vast and we will only be getting a taste, but the current plan is a 50+ mile loop (backpacking) that takes us from the rim to the bottom then back up again. Really, really psyched to experience one of the more remote and untrammeled wildernesses in the lower 48. With any luck I'll set GPS points for campsites for hunting there next year.

And yes, for the cognoscenti amongst us, those are some crazy soft jaws on the Bison there. I've made 6 sets of soft jaws for this suite of parts. Actually more than that; the way I make soft jaw blanks, they are double-ended.... good times.

count down is now three days until the Open; I'm as ready as I have ever been (I think :)) 4 miles this evening w/ Tiny E

Been traveling last week and this week, just got into the gym for the first time in about five days.

Did lower body, kicked my butt. Er, I mean "glutes."

4 miles on the trails w/ Tiny E this afternoon; getting gear packed for Saturday morning (heading out tomorrow)- pack is heavier than I wanted it, but with snowshoes, water rescue rope, more robust shelter due to conditions- it is what it is

Good luck, have.......fun.



mike r

Good Luck mtwarden!

First open water swim of the year today...%$&*##@(){}@#!!! that was cold!!

I think I'm sterile.