Grrrr.. Too old to hike already?

I sprained my ankle again, this time it went over to the outside.  All I was doing was walking in my yard.   I actually thought I was ready to go hiking again, I was just waiting for my flu/cold/sinus infection to go away.  I'm not at all pleased.  Physical therapy did not work, in fact I think it was a waste of time.  My hiking days may be over, I don't know.

Bike Ride

How NOT to get to the meeting

 I had a fun little misadventure today.  I decided to combine documentary photography with exercise and rode my bike to a local commission meeting.  I wanted to avoid 101, but I missed my turn and ended up riding down more off 101 that I would have ridden down if I had just taken a direct route.  Oh well, at least I got some exercise, but my lungs hurt now.  I breathed in a lot of dust and diesel fumes.  What should have been just under 4 miles one way ended being over 9 miles one way.  I still don't have a good sense of what  mile on a bicycle feels like.  If I had a better sense of that I would have known how far off course I was.  Now I have decided that I for sure need to get a handle bar mount for my GPS.  My GPS did  not do me much good in my little backpack but I did get an interesting track log so I know just how far off route I went.

I got to the meeting about ten minutes late and I only got to take one picture because I used the facilities and by the time I was done the meeting was over.  I won't post that picture here, it's too ugly for this blog.

I think my ankle is ready for hiking again, it feels as strong as it ever does, so I will test it out by taking a hike soon.  My knee is very happy, maybe what ever I did to it this summer while driving is healed now.


13.5 miles with
300 feet elevation gain

It felt about like the way hiking 6 miles would feel

Down with ankle trouble again, Mushrooms and Radiation

I'm resting my ankle after spraining it on my last hike, also I've had a nasty cold that is making me dizzy.    I hope to be out hiking in the radioactive rain within a week or two.   For now I'm wondering about the Fall mushroom crop.  I know that some mushrooms concentrate radiation, so did some searching and this is what I found:

"Species that contain only small amounts of cesium include chantarelle, penny bun, orange-cap boletus, sheep polyporus, ringed boletus, honey mushroom, morel, false morel and matsutake. The maximum level is often exceeded in brittlegills, funnel chanterelles, trumpet chanterelles and black chanterelles in areas that received the most fallout. Milk caps, hedgehog mushrooms, velvet boletes, gypsy mushrooms and arched woodwax, on the other hand, commonly contain more than 600 becquerels of cesium per kilogram (Bq/kg) even in areas of minor fallout."  http://www.stuk.fi/stuk/tiedotteet/2008/en_GB/news_503/_print/