My Extended Thanksgiving

Yesterday I spent much of the day on a successful deer hunt. What I mean by successful is that my buddy and I left the field with a deer. I shot at a deer, but did not hit it. But my friend Carl shot truer (and more often), killing a young buck. Compared to my typical days hunting deer, I saw a lot of them. I have had many days where I haven't seen a single deer; yesterday I saw about fifteen. Working together with Carl to kick up the deer hiding in the grass, and pushing a group toward him so that he could harvest one, gave me a great sense of satisfaction. Returning home safely to be with my loving wife and daughters was even better. After spending all day Thursday with family (including my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and nieces from Texas), this was like a 48-hour Thanksgiving. It was a good day.

A Step in the Right Direction

Perhaps identifying my laziness in print was motivation enough. I just finished a brief upper-body workout. I didn't want to overdo it right from the start. Just something to get the blood pumping again, to remind me how good it can feel to flood the muscles with blood. I feel a little more like my former self, the man who can walk a mile over wooded hills with 100 lbs. on his back and shoulders. I'm not ready for another canoe trip yet, or even a rabbit hunt in snow, but it's a start. I'll do more soon on a night when I haven't had Burger King for supper. Earlier this year, before my August trip, my goal was to get a body like Daniel Craig (Casino Royale). I've given up on shooting for Arnold in his prime; I just want a functional canoe tripping body without a beer gut and love handles.

Post-trip Blues

I've fallen into my typical fall laziness. The routine of daily workouts and runs has gone bye-bye. My plan was to build off of this summer's strength and endurance gains for next summer. But a brief break after my August trip has turned into an off-season entering its third month. It's probably because I have no set plans for canoe trips in 2010. Nothing solid to look forward to, so no real reason to torture my body with exercise. The same thing happened in 2007-8, after my August 2007 Algonquin trip. I had little hope of getting back to AP in 2008, so no motivation to train. I need to get back into some kind of shape, or I'll be in trouble when that first rabbit hunt in 6" of snow comes.

First Post

Okay, I'm only about 5 years behind the times now. I've started my own blog. Hopefully I'll be better at posting regularly than my friends Aristos and Biobandit. But probably not. While I may post a rant once in a while, my main goal is to post accounts of canoe trip adventures. I would like to post trip logs of every canoe trip (at least all of the ones I can recall enough of to write about) that I have taken. I figure this task will keep me busy for quite some time. If I get all of the trip logs written and published, I'll know that it's time to undertake a new trip.