We'll meet at Mt. Arab between 8:00 and 8:30 Sunday April 26th. Anyone carpooling can meet at the Forge between 6:30 am and 6:50 am. Please leave a comment below if you'll need a ride. Otherwise feel free to meet us at the mountain between 8:00 and 8:30 We will start hiking at 8:30 All are welcome to hike at their own pace, We expect most of us will have made the full hike back down the mountain by about 1:00 pm. The address is in the calendar event. Please bring water and snacks for yourself. We'll also take a group photo/tons of photos because humans seem to like that sort of thing. All current and former adventurers are welcome to join us, bring your friends and family too if you like!

Adventurers, Feast forge is back! What's Feast Forge? It's our weekly call where we answer your questions about diet and nutrition! We record every call and post it into the Feast Forge thread. We will always come prepared with a topic to discuss in case no one has any questions. If this is your first time hearing about this, CONGRATULATIONS, somewhere along the way I promised you that I would build this as a part of your membership, and I am keeping this promise!! If you do not have access to Feast Forge, it is because you are not currently eligible with your membership status to this group. You can upgrade anytime :) Calls are every Thursday and Saturday at 3:00 pm! Rules: Join with mic muted Type "?" into the chat to raise a question Unmute yourself while we answer so we can have a direct conversation with you about it. Coming soon: COURSES, COURSES GALORE

I went on a solo journey to the falls early this morning and you could hear the falls from the road! The sounds of water and snow falling on the wet ground were soothing, but eerie as I did not see or hear any animals in the woods. There was a freshly fallen tree across the main walking path that I had to step over. I found a large paw print at the top of the falls. I'm not sure if it was a large dog, coyote, wolf, or bear but it looked fresh in the mud. The breeze and spray from the falls was incredible today. The trail down to the beach had another small tree down that I had to walk around and the beach was partially flooded with a channel cut down it from the water running down the hill and water coming in from the falls. At the base of the falls there was a carcass on the beach and at the time, I was looking for a way across the channel without walking through four inches or more of water or falling in from slipping on rocks, trees or falling through the eroded beach running along both sides of the small channel, but something strange happened. I turned to walk toward the small channel and was standing near the large dead animal (possibly a deer) and I felt something brush against the front of me, saw my front pocket push in, and it had pushed me backward a little, but there was NOTHING there. I'm not sure if it was the dead animal's spirit stopping me from danger, but I do know I saw a large paw print at the top of the falls and the water did look like it was slowly rising. I went a different way without crossing the channel quickly took a few pictures and a video and headed back to the trailhead with snow still falling all around me. I went to church afterwards and the service talked about the wild and the woods and I just thought maybe, just maybe, what I experienced at Lampson Falls wasn't by accident. I just thought I would share my experience with all of you.

So many of us start our fitness journey worried about our backs. I had aches in my back throughout my teens, and always thought it was from school chairs. And then one day I was hyperextending on a glute-ham extension. Basically, I was popping up like a dolphin because my body could do it. Then I felt a brruurrrrrp! in my back. I stopped, got off the machine, and then couldn't put socks on without collapsing for a year and a half. "Heavy lifting seems dangerous", we think, "because I tend to hurt my back when I pick up heavy things!" On the surface that makes so much sense, right? It's simple logic, "when I picked up that lawnmower I hurt my back." So picking up heavy things is what hurts your back, thus heavy lifting is dangerous. Right? Wrong. There's the truth: Heavy lifting can be dangerous, if you aren't conditioned to it in a structured environment. That means you have to train your body to be able to handle heavy lifting. How do you do that? By lifting slightly less heavy things with a coach! But let's dive a little deeper into what's going on here, because I want to break some beliefs, not just preach to you. The logic behind "I get hurt when I pick up heavy things means that lifting heavy things is dangerous" is flawed. It is an inaccurate view of what is happening. So let's go on a little tangent. Say you have an old crane and you want to pick up something heavy with it. No problem, the crane was made to pick up heavy things. So you turn the crane, lower the hook, grab the object, pick it up, and then the crane tips with you in it. Afterwards you conclude, this heavy object ruined my crane! So cranes must not be built to pick up heavy objects! That is what you're doing when you're saying heavy lifting is dangerous, by the way. You're ignoring that several things need to be in place before you can operate properly or safely. What's missing in the crane's case? A foundation or a support. Nothing fastened the crane to the ground, so when it picked up the object it tipped over. The same could be said for trying to lift the object with a hemp wench instead of a steel one. Or with a crane arm welded by a carpenter, or with an inebriated driver.

The votes have spoken! It seems like we've had enough of the snow. Forecast for next Sunday, the 26th is clear skies and 70 degrees. We'll meet at Mt. Arab between 8:00 and 8:30. Anyone carpooling can meet at the Forge between 6:30 am and 6:50 am All current and former adventurers are welcome to join us, we love you all dearly. Some of you have voiced interest in hiking at Lampson Falls on the 19th just to have a short hike. Feel free to coordinate that in the comments below! I might join y'all too if the stars align!