Men in the Woods

This weekend's itinerary includes the lovely hill town of Lake Arrowhead, Silurian Dry Lake, Pahrump, and a return trip to San Diego. Nifty, eh?

Our first stop is Lake Arrowhead at our neighbor's cabin. A nice place indeed, but mornings come FAR too early. I woke up feeling unfocused and bleary. This picture proves I actually was..

After a REALLY good home-cooked breakfast made by mom....

...Mark and I set forth into the woods seeking adventure. Where we discovered that I grew to at least 30 times my normal size...

...and then Mark grew to 30 times HIS normal size. Look at him wading through redwoods like grass!

There must be something in the mountain air.

After a brief shot at climbing trees, we decided throwing trees would be a better idea.

We're Scottish, it's in our genes to throw logs and rocks and stuff. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

After a brief attempt at motorcycle stunt driving...

...and the discovery of a hazardous gas pipeline, it was time to go. My wife was waiting for me in Pahrump, NV! I was on a mission to get there as fast as possible! Here's a cool time lapse video showing the route from my front window!

I decided to record my heart rate while I drove. There's a lot you can learn from it!

My drive from Arrowhead to Pahrump. (Speed data removed to protect the, um...innocent.) So, here's the key... My resting heart rate (while watching TV) is like 50 bpm. My heart rate when I'm running hard is about 170 bpm. Driving in general seems to require a little more action than watching TV, but not much more, since my average heart rate was about 65 over the whole trip. There were some particular experiences that caused the ol' ticker to get going a little. They are as follows:

A.) Spirited Driving on an insanely twisty mountain road
B.) Passing a CHP officer in a 55 mph zone while going 80 mph
C.) Stop for gas and window-washing
D.) CHP officer followed me from the left lane all the way to the right lane. (Scary!)
E & F) Out in the desert, I made two quick speed bursts to Mach 0.16 (You do the math. I'm pleading the 5th.)
G.) Short stop to search Silurian Dry Lake for meteorites. (heart monitor out of range)
H.) Overtaking a couple cars on Hwy 127.
I.) Cresting the pass into Pahrump at full speed!

Conclusions:
Spirited Mtn Driving = twice as much work as watching TV on the couch
Passing a CHP officer at 25 over the speed limit = slow jog for two minutes
Driving at Mach 0.16 = 80% increase from resting heart rate

So next time your doctor asks you to exercise for twenty minutes, just blow by a few CHP officers!

I'm sorry to say that several animals were most definitely injured in the making of this blog.

That's all for this week! :-)