1.5 Million Steps

Ted Kaczynski

At the beginning of the month, I figured that my goal for the month was to get to Helmville, Montana, although it is actually a few miles off of my path, but I walked a little farther than that and am now near Lincoln, Montana, ten miles down the road. When I looked for a picture of Lincoln, Montana for this post, I found out the most famous thing about the place is that the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski lived in a cabin nearby.
 

I used to say that when I retired, I wanted to grow my hair out and try the Unabomber look. Now that I see what he looked like...that's not a good idea.

Lincoln, Montana, like Ovando before it, is not really a town but rather a census-designated place, though with more than a thousand residents. This area is all mountain ranges, and not many people live here. The next actual town I will walk through is still 40 miles away.

Today is day 150 of my trek to Miami, and that means I should have walked 1.5 million steps by now, or 750 miles, and, in fact, I have. I made up 44,000 steps in February, and Thursday I finally caught up to 10,000 per day average since I started. Now I'm a couple of thousand steps ahead.

I want to build up a cushion of about 30.000 steps because there will almost certainly be days when I cannot walk far due to illness, injury, weather, or other activities like vacation. Beyond that, I would not mind if I arrived in Miami a few days early. After all, my goal is to walk across the United States, not necessarily to walk for 700 days, so I may continue to walk a little extra most days. I will let the weather decide: when Arlo and I are comfortable, we'll walk a little more; when it's too cold or windy and rainy, we'll stay closer to 10,000 steps.

If I make it tomorrow, February will be the first month that I walk at least 10,000 steps every day.

Between Towns

Bob Marshall Wilderness

I made good progress this week, in large part because I walked to our neighborhood clubhouse and back on Thursday and got in almost 18,800 steps, the most I have managed in one day since January of last year (and probably a lot longer.)

I am still on a stretch between towns, a few days away from Ovando, Montana, but I made it to Salmon Lake State Park, and my current route goes along Highway 83 for a few miles, so it's not really so remote.

Look up Ovando on Google and it will tell you that the Bob Marshall Wilderness is nearby. I have never been there, but Lucas went there with Boy Scouts about a decade ago. I remember that the scout master said Bob Marshall was a special place, and the photo I found does look pretty cool. Also, I remember that, in order to help protect the area, there were rules in the Wilderness about having too many people travelling together, so the group had to split up. Lucas said that rangers enforced that rule.

The scouts hiked at least one hundred miles in a week or so. They had a tracker with them and an app we could log into and follow their progress, and I noticed as I checked in on them that they were moving really quickly when they were walking. When I mentioned that to Lucas afterward, he said, "Well Joel took the tracker and took off first, and the rest of us caught up to him by the end of the day." Joel was one of the parents, and Joel was in really good shape, not the sort of person you would want to challenge to an athletic contest. So, at least Joel was moving really quickly. But the boys walked 20 miles a couple of different days, and I could tell from the app that were walking on difficult terrain, so they did well.

I am 8,000 steps behind my target pace, and I plan to make that up this week. That would put me at 1.5 million steps after 150 days. The last time I was on pace was October 1, day one of my walking project. By October 2, I was starting to fall behind. It will feel good to get back on track.

Montana Is a Big Place

 

I am only familiar with a few larger towns in Montana that can serve as landmarks along my way: Missoula, Butte, Helena, Bozeman, and Billings. Of those, Missoula is the farthest West, and after 16 days of walking in Montana, I am still just a shade west (and a bigger shade north) of Missoula. 85 miles in, and I am just about to pass north of my first city landmark. I walked all the way through Idaho faster than this.

I am near Saint Ignatius, Montana, a bustling metropolis of over 700 people, and onto a stretch I referred to in my last post, where the next town is over 60 miles away. Even then, the next "town" is something less than a town; the Internet says Ovando, Montana is a "census-designated place," home to 71 people as of the year 2000.

I have hit at least 10,000 steps every day in February, and 47 out of the last 50 days, going back to the day after Christmas (Christmas Day was not so good.) During that time, I have walked 53,000 extra steps beyond 10,000 per day average, and my deficit from my slow start is down to 26,000 steps, so I am feeling good about getting that down to zero sometime in March.

I get my 10,000 steps most days by walking with Arlo each morning, then walking with Arlo again in the afternoon, then walking with Arlo while talking with Mike in the evening. Part of the reason I started slowly in October and November was that Arlo did not like to walk at first, and it took me a long time to get him to want to go with me. That meant if I wanted to walk, I had to leave him with Jackie, so he made it harder for me. However, in time he learned to be a normal dog who actually likes going for walks, so that makes it easier for me, because I have a reason now to go, and someone (a dog someone) who encourages me to get going.

Somewhere Near Paradise, Montana

Flathead River

I am going to be walking to the north of some of the bigger towns in Montana, and I never heard of most of the places I am walking through, so I will probably track my progress by the towns south of me for a while. I have been walking along the Flathead River for the last week and will continue to do that for about five more days. In about three days, I should pass north of Missoula. I am fifty miles into Montana, 650 more to go.

When I turn away from the river, I will walk along the south side of the National Bison Range toward the town of St. Ignatius. From there, it appears to be more than sixty miles to the next town. A person could disappear out here and never be found.

I thought maybe I had passed the Continental Divide already, but the Flathead River runs west to Lake Pend Oreille, which feeds into the Columbia River, so not yet. However, by the time I get to Helena (165 miles away), I will be on the other side. That might have something to do with the sixty miles between towns.

In seven days in February, I have walked over 77,000 steps, at least 10,000 every day. I have actually walked over 11,000 each day, but yesterday I took a walk and FORGOT MY PHONE, so those steps don't count. I won't do that again.

I could adjust my steps, but my phone is the official keeper of steps, and I know from many harsh years of work that having to keep track of manual adjustments is a pain and a source of error, so it's my fault I forgot my phone and I need to not do that.

Weather in Western Washington is not exactly ideal this time of year, but it got up over fifty degrees today, and the days are getting longer, so the walking is becoming more comfortable.

January

People are crazy

This should be a quick post about the month of January. Since I am writing as I walk in order to track my progress and to help keep me motivated, might as well recognize a good month of walking. And bear in mind that January was cold in general and started out with snow on the ground, so conditions were not ideal, although I did dress warmly and wore gloves, didn't walk around outside without a shirt like some people.

In January I:

Entered Idaho, walked across it, left it behind.

Took 338,000 steps, which is 27,000 more than my best previous month and 28,000 more than my 10,000-per-day goal.

Walked less than 10,000 steps per day 3 times, versus 12 times in December.

Got over 12,000 steps 11 times.

Reduced my step deficit since inception to less than 42,000, which now looks like it can very easily be erased in the coming months.

As Mike pointed out recently, four years ago, before we started walking every night, I wasn't doing anything physical on a regular basis. It's easier now that I am retired, but this is a big change from those completely sedentary days.

Progress - I am near Thompson Falls, Montana, way in the west of Montana, not far from Idaho.