We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.
Last week we decided to stick to a lower elevation for our hike, this time driving only just a short distance past Sienna Road and parking at the next junction where the road down to Hydro East branches off of Bell Road. We had hoped to avoid hiking in the snow again, but in open areas there was still some snow here and there. It was nice to be in sunshine when we were enjoying our lunch break on top of the mountain.
Last Monday morning I was listening to CBC radio and heard an interview with an expert on human heath and exercise options etc. He makes a very good case for rough terrain hiking being good for our brains!
Daniel Levitin quote from this episode of The Current :—
"We've also been sold a bill of goods. I think about the value of exercise. Exercise is important and aerobic exercise in particular is heart healthy. But all that aerobics exercise isn't nearly as important for brain health as simple movement, particularly movement that involves navigation, navigation in open countryside. If you can. I went on a hike last summer in Quebec. We were hiking in this public park on a dirt trail and there were all kinds of tangled roots and things in the middle of the trail. You had to be careful to step over them and not trip. A light went off in my head that connected the research literature on what we called embodied cognition and what was really going on on this walk, which was that I was exercising my hippocampus, the part of the brain that is devoted to navigating and spatial memory."
JD.
Once again we found ourselves hiking in the snow, this time on the windy summit of Mount Manzanita.
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