Hope Everyone is SAFELY Getting Exercise - COVID-19 Potpourri

Coronavirus tips, plus trivia, from a physician who loves being outside:

1) Now is not the time for intense exercise regimens. Keep up a gentle routine. But anything that really stresses you (long runs, lots of sprinting) can wait - it immunocompromises you, increases inflammation, and very likely will make your course more dangerous when you get coronovirus. (It's a matter of when, not if.) Look at it this way - pressure's off! Everything is canceled! Just relax!

2) STAY HOME.

3) It turns out that hanging around in your hood is not so bad. We're all trying to find silver linings and that's one of them for me! Here is a list of California superlatives. Pennsylvania is the most underrated state on the East Coast so wherever you are, make your own list. (Sort of like a combination of bucket list-making and gratitude exercise.) Check out uncoveringpa.com. Check out u/moxy79's southeastern PA hiking/exploring videos, and Scott's Odyssey for Central PA, on Reddit.

4) STAY HOME.

5) Get outside in a way that stays AWAY FROM OTHER PEOPLE, not these selfish idiots who endangered themselves and everyone else in Northern California.

6) I thought this was a really interesting story. Native heritage on the East Coast is not as culturally central, which is a big lose-lose for everyone. We can fix this. "These Native American Women Came to Philadelphia To See Their Ancestral Land."

7) Let's all be adults and not belly-ache too much about our missed trips. So far I have two trips, including one that was a planned mountain climb with other people, canceled. Know what's more important than that? My family and my health. Another silver lining: priorities become very clear when something REAL like this pandemic is happening.

8) I think our ideas of what animals can survive at what altitude are probably off. Here's the new world record for world's highest dwelling mammal, a mouse found at the summit of one of the highest mountains in Chile, Lluillaillaco, over 22,000 feet. Yes humans have summited Everest without oxygen but no one lives there - the highest permanent settlement with any self-sustaining economic activity (not research stations that would die quickly without outside support) is La Rinconada in Peru at 16,830'. In California at least in the Sierras from Yosemite to Tahoe or so, the received wisdom is that there are no rattlesnakes above 7,000'. This report (linked here) of a rattlesnake at the summit of San Jacinto (yes a bit further south) at 10,000' would take issue with that.

9) Some social distancing photos (Sonoma Coast and Sugarloaf State Park - snowcapped ridge in the distance in the last photo probably Snow Mountain in Mendocino NF.) All taken before parks closure, which I am obeying, and not joking about that. WEAR A MASK! WASH YOUR HANDS! STAY HOME! STAY ALIVE!