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Today I hiked the Wells Gulch trail in Lory State Park, Colorado. It was a good little hike, with plenty of variety. Hiking on an overcast day in March, spring hasn’t quite emerged yet, so a lot of the great spring color and wildlife wasn’t present. There was, however, still some icy spots which made things more interesting.

Every year BYU in Provo, Utah hosts a run around campus to raise money for cancer research. It is named the Rex Lee Run, after one of BYU’s former presidents, Rex Lee, who died from cancer. It is one of the most popular races in Provo. Last year there were over 2000 runners.

This year’s race is slated for this Saturday. The weather is suppose to be pretty decent and I’m predicting a great run.

I operate the Rex Lee Run website, where you may sign up online.

The frequent readers of this site know that I like to look through the search engine statistics for the site and comment on things I think people are looking for. Tonight’s question comes from a Verizon DSL user in California who went to Google to ask: Are otter pops safe?

Otter pops are not made out of spinach, so they are at least a little safer than packaged produce at the moment. The otter pops I buy at Costco come in a box which says, “Pasteurized for purity and wholesomeness.” I assume that means that at least the juice is safe. However, sometimes the plastic rappers break open, which might not be the safest thing for your fine upholstery. Additionally, otter pops do contain sugar, which could make them unsafe to those with sugar sensitivities. Finally, as with all things, eating too many otter pops in too short of time might not be the safest thing.

Thursday I went out to hike the Y. Of course, this isn’t my first time hiking the Y. I think perhaps it is the 4th or 5th time this summer. Last time, I hiked it in 29 minutes, which was really difficult and at the time I didn’t think there was any way that I could make it in less that 30 minutes, but I did. This time, I was a little more confident after hiking Kings Mountain in Oregon last week, so I set a goal for 15 minutes.

I set my stopwatch, and decided to only take my one liter water bottle. I started at about noon, and the temperature was about 80 degrees. I hiked solid, only stopping for a few seconds at a time to swallow some water. With the stopwatch as a constant reminder to my 25 minute goal, I kept up a solid pace, and if anything, increased my pace over the duration of the hike. I reached the Y at the zeroth second of the 25 minute of my hike, with about half a liter consumed out of my bottle. I was pretty tired when I reached the top. My heart was going pretty fast and I definitely needed the 10 minute rest once I got up there. The hike back down lasted just about as long as the hike up, mostly because I was taking a fairly safe pace for hiking downhill.

Today I hiked Kings Mountain, which is about halfway between Tillamook and Hillsboro, Oregon. The hike was pretty difficult. The total elevation gain was 2500 feet, and I hiked 5 miles (2.5 each way). It took me 2 hours to get up, and about an hour and a half to get back down. In some parts, getting along the trail was really steep and it was kind of a scramble getting up. Today was hot, which meant that the liter and a half of water I took wasn’t quite enough.

Overall, it was a great hike, but nothing for beginners. My shoe wear wasn’t good enough; I wish I had a good pair of boots. I’ll post pictures when I get them developed.