[{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Authors","type":"authors"},{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"I love technology, but the more technology creeps into our lives the more I enjoy being out in nature.\n","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/connor/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Connor","type":"authors"},{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Connor Explores","summary":"","title":"Connor Explores","type":"page"},{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/journal/","section":"Journals","summary":"","title":"Journals","type":"journal"},{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/miscellaneous/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Miscellaneous","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":"Hello and welcome. For those who don\u0026rsquo;t know, my name is Connor and I\u0026rsquo;ve recently started to enjoy being outside more, hiking and backpacking has become one of my favorite activities. I\u0026rsquo;m a single father of a teenager (Aiden) and work in I.T. for my day job.\nHow it began # In January 2025 I made the decision that I needed to start doing something about my health. I was ~250lbs and didn\u0026rsquo;t have much muscle, I had pencils for arms and five chins and just was generally unhealthy. My idea of a good meal was Uber Eating or DoorDashing something from a fast food restaurant almost every night. This was taking its toll on me, and honestly I think it was taking a toll on Aiden too.\nHow I progressed # By October 2025 I had lost ~50lbs and gained quite a bit of muscle. It was a struggle getting to the gym every day, but I did it. I spent most of 2025 perfecting my form in a lot of areas and really just playing the mental game I planned to go to the gym every day giving myself some leeway to miss a day or two a week (mainly due to other obligations). I did take break from my \u0026ldquo;cut\u0026rdquo; in 2025 in October but I kept my gym activities up, and have always tried to hit 10,000 steps.\nWhere I stand now # I\u0026rsquo;m still hovering around 200lbs but I\u0026rsquo;ve been focusing on seeing how my body reacts to different activities, and it seems like walking is working best for my weight loss. I hit the gym for 45 mins to an hour and then pick a park in my area and go walk. My goal this year is a minimum of 5 miles a day, this is a hard goal to hit if I do other things first, so I\u0026rsquo;m still working that out. How ever over the seven days I have hit five miles or more every day except one.\nWhats next for this site # I plan to back fill some of my previous explorations over the next week or two and then work on getting new trips planned and document along the way. I don\u0026rsquo;t think I will be updating every week or anything but I think it will a good outlet for me to share my explorations.\n","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/journal/2026/06/the-start/","section":"Journals","summary":"My name is Connor and I’ve recently started to enjoy being outside more, hiking and backpacking has become one of my favorite activities.","title":"The Start","type":"journal"},{"content":"","date":"June 3, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/update/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Update","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 4, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/hiking/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Hiking","type":"categories"},{"content":"This was my first hike of the year. It was a fun one for sure though I wish I would of planned it a little differently.\nPlanning # When I was planning this hike I relied on the maps to be accurate so I planned based off of that. There weren\u0026rsquo;t a lot of places to go to a different path and I\u0026rsquo;m not really someone who wants to backtrack if I can help it. So what I have planned out is a 9.01 mile hike. How did it go? # I think it went pretty well. This was on a Sunday so towards the end I did have to rush a bit. Overall I was pretty happy as this is the first long hike I\u0026rsquo;ve done (previously I\u0026rsquo;ve done 5 miles max). I did see some wildlife while I was out on this one which was nice. I saw some deer, and ended up close enough to one he kept snorting at me and oddly enough a couple chickens decided they wanted to follow me for about an eighth of a mile, that was a little odd. Media # Stats # Miles: 9.81 Time (Hours): 4.97 Average Speed: 2.01MPH Resources # GPX: Clinton Lake ","date":"January 4, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/journal/2026/01/clinton-lake-10-mile/","section":"Journals","summary":"First hike of the year. It was fun but I feel like I had some learning to do.","title":"Roughly 10 Mile Hike - Clinton State Park, KS","type":"journal"},{"content":"","date":"January 4, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/state-park/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"State Park","type":"tags"},{"content":"Coming Soon\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"Connor Explores","summary":"","title":"About Me","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/activites/","section":"Activites","summary":"","title":"Activites","type":"activites"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/state/","section":"State","summary":"","title":"State","type":"state"}]