Blogging Side Benefits

Last week I wrote a post titled Inspiration linking to Tom Mangan’s blog about 4WheelBob being the first person in a wheel chair to climb White Mountain. You can imagine how much I felt like an insider when I saw the story on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News  last Friday. It was exciting!

Personally I always found that blogging really helped my career as well as expanding my personal network. It helped me clarify my goals and my strategy and tactics and it made me visible to other people.  While I was at Sun I know I did a better, more visible job because I blogged. I believe blogging helped me get the job at Intuit. When I left Intuit I got a job offer as a result of blogging. 

It seems to me that Tom Mangan’s story about 4WheelBob climbing White Mountain is another example about blogging helping a career. Tom seems to be blogging about what he likes to do and it seems to me that blogging must help his career. I emailed him to ask him about this and he replied "to answer your question re blogging and the career: it helps, but not as much as you  might think." He pointed out that blogging might help but he still need a day job unrelated to hiking. Blogging takes a lot of time so one might question whether the return is worth the time it takes.

Bottom line is I guess most of us blog because we enjoy it. Any career benefits are side benefits, not the reason to blog. Now that I am retired from corporate life I like to think that blogging still helps my career. I am the CEO of Marion Inc. My goal is to live, to love, to learn and to be interesting. Blogging is part of my strategy to enhance the learn and be interesting part. Maybe that is at the heart of why I enjoy blogging.

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group Hike in the Tahoe-Donner Ski Area

Duke and I went hiking again with the Sierra Canyon Hiking group again on Monday. Sierra Canyon is the 55 and over community that we live in so all the hikers are 55 or older. Monday we hiked around the Tahoe-Donner Ski area and Euer Valley Cross-country ski Area. We were just north of Interstate 80 overlooking Donner pass. We hiked about 5 miles and had great panoramic views of the Pacific Crest.

Here are a few pictures. You can click on them to see them full size

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Here is the Flickr link for all of my pictures of this hike.

Directions: to Tahoe-Donner

I80 west to Truckee
Exit 184 (Donner State Park/Donner Pass Rd)
Turn Right
0.4 miles turn left at light on Northwoods Blvd
1.3 miles to blinking light
Turn left on to Northwoods Rd
0.7 miles turn left on Skislope Rd
4.2 miles to Glacier Way
Glacier Way Trailhead #24 on left
Park in trailhead parking lot.

Lots to do

One of the advantages of living in a place that people go on vacation is that there are lots and lots of things to do. Maybe this is true anywhere you go. There were certainly lots of things to do when Duke and I were in Manchester, Iowa on vacation a month ago. In just a week we did Hooverfest, two ice cream socials, the Sweet Corn festival, First Friday at Five (live music, beer and food) and spent a day at the Amana Colonies.

Anyway, there is also lots to do in the Reno area. Yesterday we went to the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off in down town Sparks. The food was so good that I wished for a bigger stomach.

On Wednesday I met my good friend Linda for lunch in Truckee which is 45 minutes east of here. We hadn’t seen each other in almost three months. It was SO good to see her. In the Truckee chamber of Commerce building I picked up brochures about everything from horse back riding to hiking to wine tasting to the Sunset Idea house to rafting and bicycling. Linda and I had a great time browsing the shops but we did agree that moving and having too much stuff does put a damper on one’s desire to buy things!

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group – Lake Tahoe Hike

One of my retirement goals is to hike. Hiking is something I have always enjoyed hiking and I want to hike often in a wide variety of places. Sierra Canyon, the Del Webb over 55 community that we live in has a very active hiking group that hikes every Monday and Thursday. The hikes are usually 5-7 miles. Monday are easier and shorter than the hikes on Thursdays.

Last Monday Duke and I did our first hike with the group. We hiked along the shore of Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay from D.L. Bliss State Park to Vikingsholm. Here is a picture of the group getting ready to leave the parking lot. The drivers took the cars down to the end of the route and then all came back in one car.

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Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The walk along the lake was gorgeous.

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The Vikinsholm is a stone home built iTahoehike8272007_032n authentic Norwegian style back in the late 1920’s.

From Vikinsholm we hiked  to Eagle Falls and then about a mile back up to the parking area road. On the way home we stopped for beer and snacks at Sunnyside Restaurant. We sat on the deck overlooking the lake. It was great group of people and a lot of fun. The total hike was about 5.5 miles and quite easy.

Here is the Flickr link of all the pictures from the hike.