Today we passed 3000 hiking miles since January, 2012

Thanks to Mr. Garmin, we have been able to keep a record, down to the hundredths of a mile (a little obsessive, I know), of our hiking since we left on Road Trip 1 in mid-January of 2012, about three months shy of six years ago.

On today's hike we achieved 3000 miles. 

The following chart shows how far we could have gotten if we had hiked that many miles from our home in one direction.  We would have been able to hike to every spot in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii (assuming we can walk on water, although that gig has already been taken by someone else):

 Like I said, even to Hawaii.  And we've both wanted to go to Hawaii.  (but that's sort of doing it the hard way).

We have also accumulated, during that time, since January 2012, 11782 cycling miles.  Here is where we could have cycled to (assuming, once again, we can cycle over water) in the past six years if we had cycled in the same direction from our home:

That is everywhere in the world except a small area in the Indian Ocean.  And wouldn't you know it, but that's one place both of us have wanted to visit. 

Add our hiking and cycling miles together and we could have reached everywhere in the world.

We are trying to wrap our brains around that fact.  We are failing.

Here is another fact relevant only to us:  Adding our hiking and cycling, if we had continued in the same direction toward the moon, we would have been  6/100ths of our way there.  If we can keep going at our pace we will arrive there in only 92 years.  We have decided to try.

Ok, enough.

Here we are celebrating 3000 hiking miles:  We wanted to get to a cool place at that point, so planned our hike accordingly.  We are in the Bears Ears National Monument, a stunningly beautiful place.

As tradition, we brought a small bottle of wine.  Here is Vicky pouring us glasses to celebrate:

Also, as tradition, we forgot to bring plastic wine glasses, so are using the tops of Pam sprays.  They worked fine except, as we discovered, they have a small hole in them.  So, here we are trying to take a sip of wine while it is dripping all over us and all over Bears Ears National Monument.

We sure know how to celebrate, don't we?

Here is our blog entry celebrating 2000 hiking miles  (in the SheepHole Mountains of Southern California):

And 1000 hiking miles (in Big Bend National Park, Texas):


Here we are on our first hike, January 20, 2012.  At that time we had no idea this 5-mile hike was the first 5 miles of 3000:

I wrote this in our blog when we reached 2000 hiking miles.  I can't express it any better:

• "We are truly blessed to be able to enjoy the outdoors in as close to its uncontaminated form as is possible, in these far too brief years of people's lives when they are retired but their bodies are in adequate shape for this kind of endeavor.  We both know that given our ages that can change literally and figuratively in a heartbeat, so we celebrate each day, each camp spot, and each hike"

Our hiking and cycling miles were not actually a goal, but instead are the result of our goal, which is to move our  bodies on a consistent basis.   Our average hike in the past six years is 5.3 miles, nothing real great.  Our average cycling ride is only a bit over 20 miles.  

Instead of accumulating miles, our two major goals are (1) to work our bodies at least an hour on 2/3 of our days, and (2) to average 1 1/2 hours per day of working our bodies over the course of the year.  "Working our bodies" includes such activities as hiking, cycling, dancing, playing ping pong, mowing our lawn, cutting and hauling firewood, etc.  We have met these goals some years, and just missed other years (usually our "misses" are because of age-related physical issues). 

We have seen so much of our wonderful country in the past six years through our hiking.

Virtually every mile has been through areas which (and this is important) we all own.

We share ownership.  What am amazing idea---everywhere we have hiked is a place where we have partial ownership with YOU, with every other American!  We share the land we hike on with people of all races, genders, gender identities, political affiliations, religions beliefs, family structures, etc.  This public land is something we all have in common, and should celebrate. 

We hope you will come and join us and see for yourself the land that we all own.  What other country on the planet has so much beautiful land that belongs to all of us?