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.

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!

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.

Hi everyone! Looking over the weather data there is a forecast for snow and rain on the mountain on Sunday, but NEXT Sunday is looking like 70 degrees and sunny! So here is what I'm gonna do, I'm going to give YOU the option, should we hike this Sunday, the 19th, or next Sunday, the 26th?

Some of you may have noticed my absence last week. On Friday April 3rd at about 2:00 am I got up out of bed too fast and passed out from the lack of blood flow to my brain. I have always had a history of falling when I get up too fast, but it's never made me pass out. This condition is known as orthostatic hypotension. It was especially bad before I started lifting. I hadn't had this problem for years now and didn't think it was an issue until that Friday. On the way to the ground I hit the left side of my head and the base of my neck, almost tearing my ear in half in the process. The result? A concussion and four stitches. As well as a major red flag that my thyroid medication is underdosed. This is the first concussion I've ever had. I'm hoping it's the last as well. But it has taught me some valuable lessons that I needed this year. So here is what I've learned: 1. Your brain needs idle time We spend a tremendous amount of time over consuming information. I realize now that I constantly bombard my brain with inputs. From podcasts to books there are very few of those precious moments where my brain can sit still. For some of you this might sound like a kind of hell. For me it took a bit more adjustment than I would have liked. I spent hours staring at my boring, white ceiling. I couldn't read, I couldn't listen to anything, I couldn't get up. It was just me and my brain. It was quality time with the only person in I should know best: me. It's amazing what staring at a ceiling or taking a walk without a podcast can do when your brain is already healthy. When you're concussed, it's mandatory. I realized that this idle time is what allows your brain to reconnect with the world around it. So many of us buy into woo woo nonsense like "grounding", or "chakras" when the answer is staring us in the face. The whole time it was just sitting with the silence that brings you back to the world around you. There is no need to live forever when there is an eternity in every moment if you'd stop to find it. That, by the way, is me getting a little woo woo.