Friday, February 15, 2008

Let's talk about future plans

How are you all feeling about this group walking challenge? Is it working? Is it helpful?

Is there anything we can do as a group to make it more satisfying? For instance, should we do the little progress graphs on here we'd once talked about? Is there some other way to keep visual track--a map with little pins for example? I can't think of a way to do so that doesn't make one person responsible for moving the *pins* daily, but perhaps someone else is smarter than me!

I've popped a couple of you-tubes in--was that a good idea? Bonnie popped in a couple of photos. Should we do it oftener? Should we spend more time looking for props like that? Should a different person be responsible for finding and posting something up every week, for example? Any other ideas for helping out the visualness of the walk?

Would you prefer to have us all upload a photo from time to time to show where we're walking in actual fact?

When do we start the next walk? As you know, Jean's already finished her celebratory dinner in Port Renfrew at the south end of the West Coast Trail.

I'm wondering if we should start the next official walk on March first. Is there any point in pretending that we're walking together? If we're going to keep the pretense up :P , where are we hiking next?

I've heard the Appalachian Trail mentioned (over 2000 miles, so 2-3 years.) We've talked about carving a route across the USA and north into BC to *visit* everyone's hometown. EJ figured that to be over 5000 miles. Somebody mentioned the Cumberland Trail. I'd really like to see some input on choosing this, especially as regards the length. Do we want to do more *short* hikes like the West Coast Trail, or embark in ambitiousness?

Does anyone want OUT? Does anyone have a friend who wants IN?

Let's talk!

8 comments:

Wendy said...

Personally, I can't even think about 5,000 miles right now! I'm beyond exhaustion and not even really capable of coherent thought, but I'm definitely up for sticking with this in some form. I need the accountability right now. I'll think over the details and get back to y'all.

Margaret M. Fisk said...

I enjoy hearing everyone's little snippets and the pictures/movies have been wonderful. If everyone else is done, at this point I'm moving into my summer season when I tend to walk more, but especially for the winter this encouragement is grand, and it might actually get me to do real hiking too. I thought we were doing the Appalachian Trail, but I'm flexible. If we want to dispense with the illusion of doing a trail and just encourage each other that's fine too. However, it is fun tying things into an actual walk so if everyone's willing, I'd suggest continuing to play the game.

I think I answered everything. Oh and I'm getting my new pedometer (the pocket one) this weekend so Helga will join us (she's borrowing my old one) starting next Thursday. Don't know about Eva.

Oh, and I suppose March 1st is fine :).

joyce said...

well, I am tagging along behind (like that is anything new!) I would prefer to do a few more short trails before the Appalachian Trail, but I find it really an encouragement to be "going somewhere" specific, as it makes it worth working for. I was trying to figure out how to put my little "stick lady" on the map to show myself where I am on the trail, but haven't figure that out yet. I also like the You tube videos, etc. Anything that makes it more real keeps me more motivated, and I need all the motivation I can get.

Jean said...

I like our format. I enjoy the videos, pictures, and anecdotes. I would like to continue.

I'm sometimes uncomfortable with the idea we're all walking the same trail. There's nothing wrong with walking the same trail, but, since we're traveling at different rates, even though we're together, we're not together.

What about if we each choose a trail we want to be walking and provide updates based upon that trail? If more than one of us wanted to walk a trail, there would certainly be nothing wrong with that. That would allow us each to choose a distance we're comfortable with and would be most fulfilled by completing.

I think this is fun and am happy to try to play whatever we agree upon. I've been keeping a progress bar over at my blog, but we could link it here, too.

Wendy said...

Love that idea, Jean! If we all pick our own trail, we'll be able to post more pictures.

Bonnie said...

I definitely like the shared trail, and the pictures and the video and things. I'm lagging behind because the weather has been so crappy here and I'm lazy about the exercise bike. But the shared walk has pulled me out of the house several times when I would rather have just gone to bed.

My husband suggested that we should have virtual "campfires" every so often, where we took turns providing a story or other entertainment. I thought that would be a lot of fun.

I'm looking at a couple of tools that might let us have shared progress markers -- that would make it seem more like we were walking together even though we aren't all doing the same mileage. Googlemaps might do the trick. Stay tuned.

Bonnie said...

I had a brainstorm last night. We could each do our own walking, but track the group's collective mileage against the Appalachian Trail. If we combined everybody's efforts, we could probably finish it in the traditional AT timeframe.

Erin M. Hartshorn said...

I vote for continuing shared trails. Among other things, I only know of two trails myself--and the Pacific Crest Trail isn't going to be any easier than the Appalachian Trail!

Maybe one of these days, I'll even be up for posting links or something.

I do like the virtual campfire idea.