Jesse at Treknologies.com is back at it after taking a half-year off (this is what sane people do when they have, like, lives outside their blogs) and has an excellent guide for getting in shape. One of his tips:

3) Lift to Lose: When people think of dropping some pounds and slimming up they immediately think cardio is king, all too many ignore the Kryptonite of fat: muscle mass. Unlike fat, muscle is a very metabolically active tissue; burning 8 calories per pound of lean body mass versus fats 2 calories per pound. Get in the gym and stress your body 3-5 days a week with a solid lifting plan. Staying consistent is key; after four weeks in the gym you should start to notice a shift in your body composition and strength. The bonus: all the extra calories you’ll burn just by walking in your new leaner form.

Read the whole thing.

Jesse also posted a comment asking why I haven’t written about any charming hiking mishaps of late, and the truth is that I’ve had a run of good/bad luck lately — the good being nothing notable has happened to speak of, the bad being that the notable generates the best anecdotes (assuming you live to tell). Last Sunday I met a guy said he’d seen a mountain lion; does that count?

Of course it is the beginning of the spring backpacking season, which means that more days on the trail increase the odds of cool stuff occurring.

If any of y’all have any harrowing tales to recount, well, you should be writing about it on your own blogs but if you wanna share a story here, post away.