Pedal Poppers N' Sprocket: To the top of Dimple Hill

Trying to make the same 21 mile bike journey that Pedal Poppers took a few days ago is still too much for me at this point, but I wanted to see Dimple Hill. So today, we set out at noon, drove up to the Lewisburg Saddle, and began our hike there. There are lots of trails and old logging roads around here, but reaching the overlook opening on top of Dimple Hill was our goal.

It's a 2.5 mile hike from the sign here, starting at 900 feet and heading up to about 1500, which was a good three hour hike up and back for us (5 miles round trip). Pedal Poppers was surprised how much quicker this was on a bike, even when taking the entire route from home and back again. Here are some pictures from our hike. As you can see, the good weather continues to hold out, and still it is only February. There are several opportunities along old route 600 to skirt off into the forest on other well-marked paths, but we stayed on the main trail all the way to the top.

About a half mile up is a bench after the first long hill, so we rested a bit there. You can see the steep grade at the beginning from the Lewisburg Saddle side, but this evens out pretty quickly and the grade is steady, and never as steep following this. It's a hike that can be fairly easily done at your own pace.

Here we are at the top. What a wonderful hike!

And, once again, we saw a little creature to make us smile...

A little turtle bug at my feet...

And the trail back

We got back to the trailhead at Lewisburg Saddle after 3 hours then headed home.

Here is a Google Map of the hike and terrain elevations. Clearly we're not as quick as Google thinks we should be, but we're out there, we're doing it, and the comments and thumbs up we get from people in much better shape are always reassuring. Corvallis is a fit friendly place even for those of us just starting to get there.

One of the things I really wanted to tell you about is the type of boots we've been wearing for these hikes. When we decided to get in shape, we picked up two pair of Danner Vicious 8" Brown NMT (non-metal toe) boots at our local Wilco in Corvallis. While Danner is no stranger to classic strong hikers, these boots, according to the Danner website, are work boots. But with the Vibram soles, and nice tall ankle support, they have been more amazing as hiking boots than anything we've had in recent years, and that includes much more expensive Mammut and Reichle boots we've bought in the past. We absolutely love these boots. The list on the Danner Vicious 8" NMT is $200, but Wilco had them for a bit less. They are rigid enough for excellent support, are Goretex lined, and are like the heavier (and more expensive) boots you might expect for longer hikes, but there is almost no breaking in time on these. Out of the box, they are incredibly comfortable, and we were off on trails right away with no blisters and no sore feet! I expect them to last a long time.

To preserve them and keep them waterproof, we use a product you can also pick up at Wilco - Obenauf's Heavy Duty Leather Protective or LP. This is a bee's wax product that was developed by a firefighter to keep his expensive firefighting boots protected from water damage. It works great, fills in the seams and bends in the boot, and the water rolls right off.

For better hiking comfort, we also had to address something Pedal Poppers refers to as "chub rub." To me, this is basically like biking saddle sores, but from walking. Let me just say, this is painful and makes it less possible for anyone to keep exercising each day. If you are looking to start hiking or biking, but don't have the money to shell out for chamois biking shorts or spendy walking pants right away, or are hesitant to spend money on clothes you will be too small for in just a couple of months, one of the absolute best inexpensive purchases we've made are boxer-brief style underwear that have a polyester (90-95%) and spandex (5-10%) base. If you're sold on cotton, we've also discovered some incredible Jockeys that use 95% cotton and 5% spandex, which are unbelievably breathable and work just as well as the new polyester ones I've pictured below (not sure how Jockey does that to cotton, but it's the only type of primarily cotton undies I'll buy now).

Often, these briefs are billed as "cool" somewhere in their description. They are much more breathable and wicking than 100% cotton. I am not sure whether or not there is something similar for the ladies, but I certainly hope so, as these are inner-thigh savers. Here are two new pairs we picked up today (the Adidas are called "Stay Cool" and the others have the word "Cool" right on the waistband). Hoping this is not too much info, these types of briefs have really helped me a ton while walking and riding any distances day after day.