Earthwalk Day 958 (6 September 2024), 9641 km

Having gone south from Salem, Oregon for a couple weeks, past Eugene, I’m now going more southeastward, stopping today not too far from Diamond Peak. If you don’t like tall evergreen trees, Highway 58 is not for you. If you get bored looking at the tall evergreens on your left, you can, for variety, look at the tall evergreens on your right. Some way ahead is Diamond Peak Lookout Point where you get close enough to have Odell Lake on your right instead of the evergreens; in the Street View pictures the distance is foggy, but perhaps on a clear day you can see Diamond Peak which is, I’m guessing, covered in tall evergreens up to the altitude where it transitions to being covered in nothing whatsoever, except maybe snow.

Last month: Wet. Four days I didn’t go out walking or riding due to rain. Two more days my activities were curtailed by rain. Still, my average daily number of steps and distance were virtually the same as — just slightly less than — those of August last year, and the distance was ahead of August 2022’s. This despite only 5 bike rides compared to last year’s 8. They were longer rides. 2022’s daily steps were higher.

I was hoping for better stats this month, and it’s still possible, but on Labor Day I did something reckless and stupid like standing up or bending over or something, and screwed up my back. I’ve done this before and it’s going to take a while to recover. Still, my ability to walk isn’t much impaired, and in fact so far in September I’m averaging a rather ridiculous 14,000+ steps a day (it hasn’t been rainy). But I don’t expect to be doing any bike rides for a while.

A map showing my progress is here, a spreadsheet with progress detail is here, and a Google Earth KMZ file is in this Google Drive folder. Present coordinates: 43.619°N, 122.077°W.