Earthwalk Day 1441 (2 January 2026), 14,503 km

On north into Payson.

2025 is over, and I’m fine with that. December was… acceptable. Average daily steps were in a dead heat with the previous two Decembers and substantially above December 2022. I got only one bike ride in, though, so average distance was low, only slightly above 2022 — even though I had two rides that month. For the year I had fewer steps and less distance per day than 2022, 2023, or 2024. I did 31 bike rides compared to 41, 41, and 37, though the average ride length was significantly higher, 36 km versus 28, 29, and 32.

A lot of that failure to keep up with previous performance was weather. Last winter was much more severe than the prior two, and this one so far is worse. Even by Syracuse standards we’re getting off to a bad start: We’ve had more than 80 inches of snow, which is about two thirds what we get typically in an entire snow season, and there’s probably another three and a half months of snow ahead of us. We haven’t had this much snow by January 1 in twenty-five years. Two feet fell this week on Tuesday, the second highest single day snowfall on record for Syracuse.

Even when it’s not actually snowing and not as cold as some days, there’s a lot of snow on the ground and recreational trails are at best challenging. Most of my walking lately has been either on roads or inside the enclosed shopping mall, neither of which is usually my preference.

Contributing also to the deficit was my being busy setting up the American Travelling Morrice last year. This year it’s someone else’s job.

I’ll try to do better in 2026. But this month and part of next I’m undergoing some medical treatment that might put another damper on things. More so if it isn’t successful, but let’s not worry about that.

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: 34.214°N, 111.332°W.