I got to my folks on Saturday after attending June's 90th birthday party with the Legere's in Schenectady; June is Ray's MIL, very nice lady and suprisingly fit and active. For dinner, I just made a quick bean wrap, setup the truck for sleeping later, and went inside to chit chat with my folks for a couple hours before bedtime. While at my folks, I'll be sleeping in my truck camper out in the backyard. It's nice to be using it again.
Sunday morning, I went for a long bike ride. 3 hours, 34 miles. Went over to Southwick's beach first, and then over to Adams via backroads. I was trying to trigger childhood memories. Everything seems smaller and closer as an adult. Kind of normal I'm sure.
Sunday afternoon, I started painting the back of the garage/barn and the side you can't see from the road or my parents house. The Sun hits those sides hard throughout the day, and the paint on the original plywood was super faded and completely gone in spots. The really nice airless cart sprayer I bought when remodeling my house (back in 2010), still works. It's the roughly $500 kind meant for spraying from 5 gallon buckets. I went through the entire primer 5 gallon bucket first day. The plywood was thirsty. With the last inch or two the sprayer leaves in the bucket, I brushed it into the gaps between the panels by hand. While spraying, I occasionally went over the sprayed primer with a roller and extension pole to work the primer paint into the wood. Luckily the temps were upper 60's/low 70's, perfect painting weather. Warm enough to dry without drying too quick.
Monday it rained, so Dad and I went up to Watertown to buy some paint. My parents hadn't agreed on color yet, so we just went with Behr brand white barn latex paint. I told them when they figure out the color they want I can come back and repaint. Not sure that'll happen. You can't see the back/side I painted and white will keep the garage/barn cooler.
Tuesday, I took Dad kayaking in the morning. He was fine sitting down onto the kayak, but we found out that he can't get up from his sit on top kayak on his own anymore. I think if he tried getting off the kayak in mid-thigh/waist high water, it would work. He was trying to get out in water that only went up to his knees, and his left leg isn't strong enough to stand himself up on his own anymore. The right leg has been dead weight for a long time.
While paddling I noticed he doesn't twist his back into the stroke at all anymore. You're not supposed to just use your biceps, you twist your back/shoulders as you paddle to engage more muscles into the paddle stroke. Twist the back as one arm pulls from below and the upper arm pushes while adding a little leg drive/push too. But Dad at 78 has lower back issues that keep him very stiff, which also makes him way more tippy on the kayak. And last but not least, he recently found a lump on his left hand that was making it painful to hold the paddle with that hand. He's getting the lump sorted out by the doctors. Probably just a clogged pore/cyst kind of thing; worst case a melanoma that has to be carved out. [update from future, tests confirmed it's not cancerous; it's just a lump that has to be removed]
For Dad's back issues, he's tried a few laparoscopic procedures to smooth down the bone spurs in his lumbar region, but it hasn't helped much. Then again, maybe without the procedures he'd be way worse now. Dad blames genetics for his back problems, which is sort of true I guess. Hunneyman men carry a lot of weight above the waist. We've got broad shoulders and we put weight on around our bellies first, and that adds a lot of stress to the lower back. IMHO, it's like the guy version of women with huge boobs developing back problems. So, I don't think our spines are weaker, we're just putting too much load on it all the time. And last but not least, Dad nearly died falling 20 ft from a barn rafter onto a concrete pad when I was a toddler, which likely fractured some things I'm sure. A 6 inch layer of cow manure saved him on that fall. But, add all that as more reasons to get my weight down and avoid ladders as much as possible.
Anyway, we both expected some issues for Dad on the kayak outing, and overall, it was a good 2 hour outing. I'll have to get him out at least once more, I don't want his last paddle to be in foggy weather like we had that day. That would be like an ancient macabre poem tragedy. Worst case, I finish my dory/sailboat and take him out on that in the future.
Wednesday, I decided to take a couple days off from barn painting to go camp in Moose River plains with the truck. Dad had an appt for his hand to go to, and it would also give my folks a couple days to rest while I was gone. I prefer camping during the work week too, things are quieter.
I drove from Belleville through Lowville and Old Forge, coming into Moose River Plains on the Inlet NY side. The Indian Lake entrance to Moose River Plains is closed for road repairs until July 3rd, new culverts mostly.
I was hoping to get to the Wakely Mt trailhead from the backside, but it was blocked off too, so I doubled back to Black Bear Mt on rt28. Should have believed the maps that showed it was closed, but the text said you could still get to the Dam area. Oh well. I think I misunderstood, they were just talking about by foot or by bicycle. My bad.
In the future, I think I'll hike Black Bear Mt more often. Going up the North side of the loop is fun. The last quarter mile from the top had some slightly challenging steep rock climbs. Even had a short 20-30ft section of steep rock with a knotted rope draped over it so you can haul yourself up and over. Fun!
Let me just say, being a tick under 220lbs makes mt hiking way more fun (vs 270+). Definitely felt like I wasn't wearing a heavy backpack while mt climbing. Per my GaiaGPS app, Black Bear mt hike was rated easy. Wakely is rated moderate. Makes sense. The entire last mile of the Wakely hike is super steep, and Black Bear was only steep for like a quarter mile at most. As I've told people with Wakely. It's 3miles up, 3miles back. And when you're going up the mt, the last mile takes twice as the first two miles combined. Like 40 minutes for the first 2 miles, and more like an hour and a half for the last mile. Maybe now that I'm <220, that last mile will be closer to an hour. Hope so. Stay tuned.
Still I want to test my mettle when Wakely is available again (hopefully after July 3rd). It's been at least a couple years since I hiked it.
After Black Bear mt, I camped at site 123a on the spur road to the Rock Dam trailhead, and with my weboost I got plenty of cell signal, including data! First time I've found a site that gets any cell signal in the dispersed Moose River Plains camping area. I managed to reroute the Weboost's transmitter puck and 10ft cable to reach the back of the truck's tailgate, so I sat at the tailgate like a desk. For the weboost to work, you hold the puck against the back of your phone. I actually had better cell signal in the woods than at my parent's house. IMHO, the cell phone companies are screwing people in Belleville, it was like 1bar or less everywhere when I was out biking. Anyway, it was good to catch up on news and stuff while camping. My parents do have wifi, but it tends to get overwhelmed when we're all on our phones and computers.
While camping at 123a, I did some tailgate cooking for the first time since making the new kitchen drawer bags earlier this year. They worked awesome! and things are way more organized. Far far far easier to cook and keep things tidy.
So after having oatmeal Thursday morning, I hiked about 2.5 miles up the road from campsite 123a to the Rock Dam Trailhead, and then to the Rock Dam on Moose River another 1.8 miles. It's just a natural stone formation that sort of looks like a dam. From the trailhead, it's an easy hike, so adding the road section made it more challenging. 8.25 miles round trip. My garmin watch told me I burned 1,000 calories, and it took me 3 hours. Felt good to do something other than bike, which I left at my parent's place.
After getting back to the truck, I strung up my hiking clothes to dry, did some pushups while I waited for my shower water to heat up, and then took a shower with the Geyser sponge shower system. A good test run to make sure everything is working for more camping this Summer. Now that I've lost most of the weight, I want to go camp more this Summer. Not to mention, I've found I do better at not overeating when camping now.
Trying to figure out what hike I can do tomorrow. I may just have to bag it and drive back to my folks tomorrow morning and go for a bike ride in the afternoon instead. The weather forecast isn't promising. Trails are fairly saturated and muddy already. It's been raining a lot up here. If the rain is less than forecast, maybe I can knock out Blue Mt quick and then double back home, but the family is getting together for dinner tomorrow. I don't want to upset Mom; she'd get super cranky if I was late or missed it.
During the Thursday afternoon rain, I watched some movies on my tablet at the tailgate of my truck, sitting in my new hammock style camp chair. Super comfy!
https://a.co/d/08JZY8IF
While sitting at the rear of the truck, I could feel the wind blowing from the driver side, so I pulled out my mesh shade tarp and attached it to the rear awning. It's 10ft long and 6.5ft wide. It blocks 70% of UV light, but it lets the wind through. It also helps block gentle sideways rain as long as it's not a torrential rain storm or super windy. Because it's mesh, the wind won't rip it loose like with regular tarps. My rear thule awning is only 4ft wide, so clamping the mesh tarp to the side, helps a lot with Sun or light rain. I also keep a large golf umbrella in the back of the truck and it came in
handy when I made trips through the drizzle to get food from the truck cab, or to get
something from the bags I keep up there.
The rain started around 2p.m. and it wasn't that bad until 6-7ish. Then too much rain & wind was getting through the mesh. I gave up at that point and moved up into the GFC via the tailgate. My phone is technically waterproof but the my tablet isn't.
I didn't bother with any camp fires either night. I kind of like turning in early when camping so when the birds wake me up at 5a.m. I've had enough rest. Campfires keep you up later. The GFC camper is just a tent, so the birdies are loud. When solo camping, the most I do sometimes is bring my super tiny pellet stove. It's like 1 gallon/4 liter size and burns wood pellets. The fires only last an hour in that, but it can be nice to keep the bugs away when eating. Helps on cold mornings too, but I didn't bring it on this trip because the forecast only showed temps getting down to the 50's F/ 10's C, plenty warm
Friday morning...driving back to my Folks, I got rained out from doing more hiking, and for some reason my dc/dc charger wasn't working. It usually adds 360watts to the batteries when driving (my battery bank is 2400 watt hours total). I haven't used the dc/dc charger much this year. Since, adding the extra 200 watt solar panel (300 watts total now), I don't need the dc/dc charger that much. Anyway, it was throwing error messages in the Victron app about low input voltage. At the turnoff for moose river road, I pulled off to a little parking area, and pulled stuff out of the back so I could troubleshoot. I didn't have a volt meter on me, might have to consider adding one to my repair kit.
I tried swapping the main dc/dc charger fuse in the Victron Lynx box, nothing. Then I tried bypassing the 40 amp breaker switch i use to turn the dc charger off/on, nothing. So I gave up. I figured it'd be sunny later and the solar could recharge the batteries. Which they did, I actually added 1.2kwh Friday via the solar panels. And added another 800 watt hours, Saturday. Which was weird, I didn't drain the batteries down that much.
[future jump] after getting home, I did more troubleshooting, and i figured out it was just the screw for the positive line on the input cable. Tightened a few turns, back in business. First time I've checked since installing, my bad. I should start checking at the beginning and end of camp season. That's a rookie mistake on my part. I'm also going to up the off/on switch breaker to a 60 amp. Breakers/fuse are for the wire size, not what you consume. Victron recommends 60amp fuses/breakers for the 30amp/12 volt dc/dc charge controller, and I used short 1-2 ft 6awg wiring.
Back at my folks on Friday around noon. I ate a quick lunch and went for a 1.5 hr bike ride. The sun had finally started coming out, and I wanted the barn dry before I painted. Mid afternoon, I painted the first coat of white barn paint before dinner. After cleaning up, my parents and I went down the street to my sister's place for dinner. Yummy chicken drumsticks off the grill (just the right amount of char, kudos to Mark!), cornbread, corn and black bean salad with a diced avocado. Mom made a ginger applesauce cake for dessert. I kept myself to a half cake portion and just 1 piece of cornbread. Based on how I used to eat, I know it probably made my parents worry a little to see me eat normal person portions, but honestly I still pig out on food; I've just learned to fill up on lower calorie stuff. What I call "rabbit food" I still gorge on large home made burritos . Raw veggies, mushrooms, beans/tofu, carb balance mission burrito wraps. Very filling, and stuff that takes a long time to digest, so I feel full for hours. It works.
I loved everything I had at my sister's place, and I could have easily eaten 3,000 calories in one sitting, but it takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose a pound, so I just don't find it worth overindulging anymore. BUT!!! I don't refuse to eat any foods, it's just I kind of sort food into two main categories now. Tasting Food and Fill up Food. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream? I'll just have a couple large spoonfuls. Chips? Half a 1 serving bag. I savor the taste and texture when I have them, but I have zero interest in filling up on those foods anymore. My new approach feels sustainable to me. I don't go crazy craving food, and my body feels better than it has in decades. Eating a mostly low inflammation diet is like a fountain of youth. I def recommend.
Saturday morning, I did one more bike ride from my folk's place. I will say the scenery is gorgeous but there's not much tree cover along the roads. Beautiful rolling hills of farmland. Main downside being the occasional eye watering, pungent reek of cow manure (or worse). Other school districts call it Smell-ville now, and they're not wrong. Too many farms now have too many dairy cattle on not enough land. The profit margins are too small for the smaller farms to survive much longer.
After finishing the ride, my dad's left hand was still bothering him, so we didn't go out to kayak again. I did a last coat of paint with the sprayer and rolling it out even. After cleaning up the sprayer, it was still early enough in the day, ~ 1p.m., so I took a shower and I decided to hit the road to head back to Mass. Saturday evening traffic is often super light compared to Sunday traffic, and it was definitely an easy drive home. Lately, I've been following the google routing suggestions, and it had me take back roads from Pulaski to Rome again, which cut down the 5.5 hours of highway driving to just 4. Doesn't save time, but saves fuel due to the slower speed and slightly fewer miles. Less boring, easier to stay awake.
Got home around 7p.m., unloaded everything from the truck. Did a load of nasty laundry before going to bed (the sweat soaked, insect repellent contaminated camping clothes). I also stuffed my dickie's coveralls into 5 gallon bucket to soak overnight before washing. They're less scary looking now with all the white paint splashes; hopefully I won't look like the scary guy from the Halloween movies when I wear it now.
Next day, I weighed in and I'd lost 2.2 pounds since my previous weigh-in a week before. 217.5 Yay! At home, it's nearly impossible for me to lose 2lbs a week now, but I've noticed that when I'm camping, I can only eat what I brought in the truck, and it's a great way to drop a couple pounds. I don't bring sourdough from home (spoils too fast), and I generally snack less.
My ultimate goal has always been to get down to lower 210's. Feels totally doable this Summer, just a couple more camping weeks, and I'll be there. I like how I eat now, and getting 3500 calories back per week, shouldn't make it too hard to sustain. I just have to stick with the daily weigh-ins to stay on track. My internal sense of hunger isn't accurate. I start putting on weight unless I check in daily, or I go into fat burning mode and maybe go harder than I should.
In retrospect, I was in that weird tolerable hungry state during this past week a lot. I don't know how to describe it. Like yeah you're hungry, but you don't mind it that much? After a couple days I did switch to making oatmeal in the morning instead of just my normal protein shake smoothie to up the calories some. I was biking, hiking, and more active with the painting (instead of just watching TV after working out like I do at home a lot).
My goal with losing weight has never been to get Instagram hot or Baywatch fit or whatever you want to call it. I've still got a belly, just much smaller than before. I'd call it original "dad bod", when the term first came out. And to be honest if I got super fit, I think now that I know I have a protruding sternum (xiphoid process) after too many years of being obese; it would look creepy if I got super lean. Lower 210's is a good place to stop. I'll still have 10-20 lbs of fat to get me through any climate change famines or future hospital stays as I age, but lower 210's is a light enough weight where I can do the hiking, biking kayaking without knee/joint/back pain. It's sustainable and manageable. I enjoy how I eat now.
That's it for now.
Here are some photos from the week.
