After a few weeks “off”, I was back at it today doing “Up Downs” on Signal Hill with a 30 pound pack. I was wearing my birthday present to myself, an Autographer. The autographer is a wearable camera that snaps pictures at set intervals. I’m testing it out for use during expeditions and other applications. It has no display so you have to wait to hook it up to a computer or connect it to a smartphone to see what it captured along the way. I’ve been enjoying the randomness of the images it shot today as well as some of the unique angles/aspects of a familiar place causing me to think/perceive the place/experience in new ways as well.

I wasn’t exactly off from training-Marian and I were out on two separate sea kayak trips, one in Bonavista Bay out of Burnside and one in Trinity Bay near Random Island. Kayaking tends to be great training for the core muscles and upper body strength. I now able to do quite a number of pull ups once again, thanks to those thousands of paddle strokes each day. My legs, though, had a few weeks to rest and recover. So, after a few days of settling in, I found some discipline and headed to the hill. “Up downs” are a great combo of both trail and stair climbing, easy and tougher trail hiking.

I love the autographer shots because they capture the toughness of the stairs…the one almost seems like a stairway to heaven. It’s good to be back at it because the training becomes self-perpetuating/ self motivating as I do it. Getting over the inertia of having let it slide during travel is tough but I was reminded today that a few steps in the favoured direction helps a bunch. The life lesson for me today is that each day is a new beginning, a new opportunity to be back at it or at it (whichever the case may be), and that it’s always good to climb the stairs in front of me (as opposed to the ones behind or way ahead).