Henry Rifle Forums

I've been walking the Tolt Pipeline, Bridle Trails State Park or some of the many other city trails almost every day for the last week. I walked with the Wednesday Walkers on Wednesday. It is an online signup group that walks on Wednesday. I've done about a dozen walks with them but to my surprise I saw an old YMCA hiking friend. We walked and talked and when we got to the group turn around point we kept going and ended up walking seven miles. It was great because she is like me and can hike all day. Most in the group are not as active and four miles is about their limit.

It was good to catch up with her and discover she has been doing a lot of cross country skiing. The YMCA does winter sports but it doesn't start till January. I'm going to sign up for the snow shoeing as it is one of my favorite winter sports.

So in total I have walked about 35 miles in the last seven days. Down from my summer average of twice that but still it is getting me out of the house.

Sounds like a great adventure. I am always impressed with your stamina. I like to hike in the state game lands and state forests in the area, as long as there is no deep snow as I do not have snowshoes. But it is a means of getting out of the house in the winter. Sometimes I take the dog along if it is not too cold, she is small.

Deadwood Dutch wrote:Sounds like a great adventure. I am always impressed with your stamina. I like to hike in the state game lands and state forests in the area, as long as there is no deep snow as I do not have snowshoes. But it is a means of getting out of the house in the winter. Sometimes I take the dog along if it is not too cold, she is small.

My problem is finding people my age that can keep up with me. I can still gain a thousand feet an hour with 40 pounds on my back and I can do it hour after hour. I've always been like this.

How about some pics SH ??
Sounds very pleasant and peaceful

Good for you, Gene. I know how much you love your hiking.

Glad you included skiing in this category. Over the summer, I built almost 2 miles of interconnecting loops of challenging mountain bike trails on our property. Months of hard labor, but well worth it. This time year, I use my trails for my XC skiing. Put a minimum of an hour every day on either the skis or the mountain bikes on my trails and add more miles on surrounding trails several times a week.

Skiing out on the lake


Not sure how much activity it would generate, but I recommend adding biking to your category. I do conventional long distance biking in the summer, averaging 30 miles per trip, but most of my time on the bike is actually on the mountain bikes/fat bikes, back in the woods.

Of all the outdoor sports I do, mountain biking on our difficult trails, up here, is by far the most aerobic and physically challenging. It even makes cross country skiing seem easy. It's also the most technically demanding and skill intensive. It's also the riskiest. To even complete most of my trails, you need to ride aggressively and hard or you don't get up the hills or make it over obstacles like logs or rocks.

A lot of us are now bike packing and camping back in the woods on our fat bikes.


Did I mention that I also canoe?

over 4 summers in the late 60's a few friends and I walked the entire length of the Appalachian Train in NC; as well as, short sections in Georgia and Tennessee .... as best I recall the section in NC is about 100 miles in length .... today it falls in the "I'm glad I did it" category

Joanie are you saying you are winter camping now? Proud of you. I'm going walking this morning.

No, not camping, now, buy I do get out every day to ski or bike, no matter how cold it gets. Can't stand being trapped in the house, all day.

Thats cool you get out NCG. Im not that tough to ride in the colder weather outside but I do have a livestrong 5.0 trainer in the basement. I ride it like 80 miles a week in the basement which is down from 140 that I get outside in the nicer weather. I looked at one of the salsa bikes and thought about getting the cuttthroat but Im going to keep what I have. I have a trek mamba mountain bike and a trek domane 5.2 all carbon road bike. I will turn 10K this next year on the road bike. Never thought I would do that at 64. Al

Al, I also have a Domane, but it's the base version with Shimano 105. Have also broke 10K miles in one year, but only once. That is an awesome accomplishment at any age. Congrats.

I also ride, indoors, on those days when the weather makes it not safe to get out or when I'm short on time. Really HATE riding on the trainer, but it beats not getting my daily biking fix.

More and more, it's becoming mountain biking for me, though this is a superb area for road biking, since 90% of our country roads are paved. Love the mountain/fat biking because it gets me back in the woods and, of course, it can be very challenging. Many, many miles of remote trails, up here, and some are expert rated, so I have to be careful on those. Even more miles of remote fire and logging roads that are seldom used and those I do a lot. Less risky in terms of riding, but still remote and I do see bears and wolves and such. Like so many, up here, now use my fat bikes as my go to trail bikes all year round, because our soils are all sand and rocks. Pretty amazing how those fat tires just keep rolling over everything.

As for the Cutthroat, I have the Warbird, which is the aluminum version and I use it a lot on hard-packed gravel roads. Great bike that doubles, nicely for pavement work. Pretty useless, though, on some of our lesser maintained country roads which are all deep sand. I go 29er + or fat on those.

9 mile section of logging road on county property. Probably the first tire tracks on it in years.


Typical single track trail, rocks and sand and tree roots, mostly up and down, lots of turns. In other words, fun!


Sand forest road. Fat bike stuff.


Hard pack gravel road, ideal for the Salsa Warbird or a Cutthroat

Although it doesn't fit the categories. I'll stick to horseback for the back country....

NCG, SH, BigAl, and from the past, JEBar,

All of you are doing really great. The stories are wonderful to read, the equipment you use (especially bike models) are interesting and have colorful names, and your trail pictures/outdoor scenery bring us along for the ride (or hike). Bottom line is how much health benefits you all are achieving!

Even though some of us Henry Folk (like me) either do not chase the exercise, or are unable to any longer, it is most enjoyable going along with you. Enjoy your sharing a lot.

P.S. I'm a slowed-down walker nowadays, but really enjoying walking a lot. My wife and I regularly walked (exercised) together for a lot of years. We laugh now, although it was kind of a challenge back then, but we reminisce about one regular walk routine we did during a tremendous KS blizzard. It was howling so strong, we could barely breathe against the wind. 'Twas a fun time together! The other focused outing was a 5-mile there/back hike on a promontory reaching out into the Pacific Ocean in Tillamook, OR. So much fun doing that uphill climb, mostly over exposed tree roots, and being rewarded with the fantastic ocean view at the edge of U.S. soil!! Again, really like all your sharing.....raises up enjoyable memories of our walking days.

PT7, I remember the almost didn't make it back ones too. When I was younger I was a mountaineer and loved climbing glaciers and ice. I was okay on rock but my strong suit was glacier traveling. I've made it to the top of Mount Rainier 13 times and think I have one more climb left in me. I'm 67 and want to climb it the summer I turn 69. These walks/hikes I do now is just to keep me in shape. I walked five miles today.

RanchRoper wrote:Although it doesn't fit the categories. I'll stick to horseback for the back country....

Maybe we should get the horse to post.

PT7 When I turned 60 I weighed in at almost 300lbs and couldnt do as much as I can now. I lost about 100lbs and took up on the bike because as a child I loved riding the bike. Im back up a little on weight now but I can do so much more and I dont have the aches and pains I did at 60. I have had this road bike for 3 years and this next yr early in the year I will break 10K on that bike. I only ride that bike outside from about mid April to November. I ride 3 days a week ususally 45 milers on Tue and Thurs and up to 60 on a Sunday. The rest of my riding is done on trainers so I can keep not only my shape but be able to ride outside when the weather is nice. My bike riding comes first and my shooting and other things follow. I put my health first and the other falls inline. Its not hard for me because I love the ride. I have a trail that runs along the river here that I enjoy riding. There is bike trails to that trail so it makes it nice. This summer I will take some pictures and send them along. There not as nice as NCGs pics but theres some nice areas along the trail. NCG those single track trails are ok but my balance tells me the logging roads would be right up my alley. Very nice country and nice to visit with a fellow cyclist. Al

Sir Henry wrote:

RanchRoper wrote:Although it doesn't fit the categories. I'll stick to horseback for the back country....

Maybe we should get the horse to post.

I post at a long trot if that helps...

BigAl52 wrote:PT7 When I turned 60 I weighed in at almost 300lbs and couldnt do as much as I can now. I lost about 100lbs and took up on the bike because as a child I loved riding the bike. Im back up a little on weight now but I can do so much more and I dont have the aches and pains I did at 60. I have had this road bike for 3 years and this next yr early in the year I will break 10K on that bike. I only ride that bike outside from about mid April to November. I ride 3 days a week ususally 45 milers on Tue and Thurs and up to 60 on a Sunday. The rest of my riding is done on trainers so I can keep not only my shape but be able to ride outside when the weather is nice. My bike riding comes first and my shooting and other things follow. I put my health first and the other falls inline. Its not hard for me because I love the ride. I have a trail that runs along the river here that I enjoy riding. There is bike trails to that trail so it makes it nice. This summer I will take some pictures and send them along. There not as nice as NCGs pics but theres some nice areas along the trail. NCG those single track trails are ok but my balance tells me the logging roads would be right up my alley. Very nice country and nice to visit with a fellow cyclist. Al

Good for you. I'm 5' 8" and was pushing 200 pounds but now I'm down to 160 to 165 pounds.

So glad to hear about all the positive attitudes about getting out and being active, here. For me, the bike riding, the skiing, the canoeing are ways of life, right along with my shooting and other pursuits. They are things I do because I don't want to live without them. Calling them hobbies is way short of the mark. They're part of who I am. I'm a doer, not a spectator. As for the exercise, when I've tried exercising for the sake of exercising, it just never lasts. Put me on a bike or skis, though, and I never want to stop.

I'm like that when I'm climbing.

Just took a walk in the drifting snow with my snowblower. Self propelled my *ss. Rubber tires on drifted frozen powder don't grip at all so pushing that big fella through the snow around the buildings was a workout! That's as close to a hike I'll get other than the trek to and from the corrals.