Outdoor Recreation

So... I had just begun to tell the story....

... and a finger touched a wrong button on the laptop ... and ... gone! a "sign" that too many details aren't called for.

Hummingbird hovering inches from my nose!

Lush green, even ferns (!) ... and a ground squirrel eating almonds from my finger tips... except I pulled back, uncertain that she'd not bite them. I doubt that she would, but we are (she and I) almost new to all of this.

Hummingbird ... is she in or out of the tent? I am uncertain. But it turns out to have been a shadow of hummingbird on tent wall(!).

Lush, green... stream flowing... water filtering (!) testing new equipment -- all of us virgin at parts of this.

Bears! Are they the ones snapping twigs outside in the coal dark Chupacabra night?!?

Ears, alive to every dream of terror! Blowing my cover as the wilderness wise one, the former wildland firefigher!?!

Partner of thirteen years -- divided from me by sleeping bags that don't zip together.

Partners of thirteen years, holding hands.
 
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Well, I don't know what you had written before, but this was very nicely written and beautiful to read. :)
 
Invest in zip-together sleeping bags for the next excursion. ;)
 
Yes!

I love backpacking. I live in Michigan and there's an abundance of beautiful places to hike and camp. The space age water pump is all that my arsenal is missing. My first real backpacking trip was to Isle Royal in Lake Superior, Michigan's only national park. Breathtaking. There's nothing like being miles away from civilization and surrounded by natural beauty.

The greatest lesson I've learned from backpacking is that the harder the journey is, the sweeter the destination becomes.

Great. Now I have to plan a trip. Thanks. ;)
 
Off to Yosemite!

I do research there... off for another wonderful trip.
It will involve a bit of bushwhacking.... So Excited!

I am bringing Ouroboros with me - he will be my research "assistant" :)

Have a great weekend everyone!
 
What sort of research do you do / are you doing, Red?

''''

Catfish,

Glad I could be inspirational!

'''''''''

Everyone,

I don't think I mentioned previously that I FORGOT THE SPOONS! on that backpacking trip Kevin & I took. I'm so embarrassed! Yes, there were no forks, either. We tried whittling something to eat our dinner with, but it didn't work out so well... especially with night creeping in soon. Hard to whittle a good spoon in less than half a day.

Before we left we sat down and discussed the matter of what may have been forgotten. Our packing was too hurried, however, as I had engaged in too much preparedness procrastionation. We went over broad catagories... food, shelter, toiletries, water, etc., first aid, etc. But it was too hurried. Next time I'll have a proper list prepared!

The good part of it is that I've come to appreciate spoons like you cannot believe! What an elegant thing a spoon is!

Luckily, the car wasn't too far off. (the shame!, driving for spoons & forks!--the next morning) We had ourselves a wimpy first backpacking trip together (and first in decades), and that's OKAY. Next time will be more daring and adventurous ... and VERY soon. Either next weekend of the following one.
 
Thanks for the heads-up on that, Fish. I'd love to participate in something like that closer to where I live in New Mexico / Southwest. It'd have to be something REALLY special to take me that far from home.
 
Had a regional orphan Burn (for those Burners not going to Burning Man) this past weekend. My son failed to pack the tent poles so I was looking at having no tent (somebody else picked them up for me as they headed out to the burn), then the cot died under me Friday night. Was still a great burn. The effigy was of Domo and he burned spectacularly.

Ya might want to check out your local Burner scenes. Lots of poly folk involved. Burner culture is highly inclusive, so you'll find straight folk, bi folk, gay folk, trans folk, ravers, rockers, kinky folk, vanilla folk, old folk, young folk..though we're a bit short on Christian and Muslim fundamentalists (and I just don't understand why! ;-D).
 
... I study rare plants and the impact climate change will have on them. I am working on developing better computer models to predict where species will go as a result of climate change.

fun fun!
 
Redsirenn,

It's interesting that climate zones are shifting so fast that we should probably expect major disruption of forest ecosystems -- probably often as massive die-offs of forest trees. Trees can't lift up their roots (as legs) and walk North or to higher elevations. Smaller plants, of course, can often migrate readily. But some animals are going to have a tough time migrating for various reasons, many related to human artifice such as highways.

Are you a botanist?
 
J -
Yes I am a botanist.
It is true that the climate is changing so rapidly that living things will have a hard time to adjust. The thing is, that the composition of our landscapes has been different in the past as well - the difference is the rate of change. That is, the climate is shifting and changing so fast, that it may happen too quickly for things to evolve into new niches and to develop new interactions with other organisms... not to mention the changing phenology of many living things. And, like you said how we have altered the landscape with impermeable boundaries such as roads, development, etc.

Carbon dioxide is responsible for most of the warming of the atmosphere, and we cannot remove what has already been deposited into it. We can, however, stop putting more in, and prevent truly disastrous changes from happening to future generations of humanity. This is the gist of the concept of living sustainably - not wasting, using what you need to live, not living to use. You know, the whole "reduce, reuse, recycle"... and then purchase recycled products to complete the cycle..
 
This is the gist of the concept of living sustainably - not wasting, using what you need to live, not living to use. You know, the whole "reduce, reuse, recycle"... and then purchase recycled products to complete the cycle..

I'm a serious amateur (soon to be professional) human ecologist and ecological designer, and am writing a book addressing the need for government land use regulation (and building code) changes in order to facilitate the creation or retrofitting of sustainable communities (e.g., ecovillages, etc.), so the whole sustainability question is core in my life.

My book, hopefully, will be useful to potential sustainable community builders (especially ecovillage folks) and advocates as a sort of "how to" handbook in dealing with government and bureaucracy.
 
Whatever... Maybe we should ask Barry for some insight about this.(c).

Ouch! Should I be offended? I have had some backpacking experience though. All of the Florida trail, The Big Cypress Swamp and some of the Everglades. My one time goal was to do the Appalachian from end to end, but that goal was lost in the shuffle of everyday life. The main things to consider even on a short trip is; your feet, it doesn't take long to work up blisters, especially with new boots, body temperature, it is not uncommon to become overheated in the day or hypothermic at night. Common sense is the course of action here. And last but not least, and the one I was always guilty of, don't pack more than you need. It is easy to justify non-essentials.
ferdin.jpg
 
What, no waffle irons?! :eek:
 
Camping cancelled/postponed this weekend

Bummer.

Bad weather forecast because of the latest hurricane so Steve is coming home for tonight (he's at the campsite with the trailer already - it's only 20 minutes' drive from where we live). They're talking about wind and trees falling down and inches of rain, so we'll try again tomorrow if it gets any better.
 
Kevin & I also cancelled our planned backpacking trip up into the high mountains (Lake Katherine) due to probability of rain and mostly cloudy weather. We could have survived the trip, but neither of us wanted to have our trip be about survival.

So we went to Bandelier National Park / Monument instead [http://www.nps.gov/band/index.htm], which is located at a vastly lower elevation, and thus warmer -- and we "car camped" instead. It was warm enough, night and day, and it only rained for ten or twenty minutes! Luckily, Kevin had put the canopy (over the cooking/eating area) up in the nick of time.

Had we backpacked into the high mountains -- something like twelve thousand feet --, we'd not have had the car-camping option of driving away if we didn't like the weather, or became overwhelmed with a desire for huevos rancheros at Harry's Roadhouse.

Man, it was so beautiful in Frijoles Canyon! Lush and green! And climbing that series of wooden ladders up to the kiva in the cave was quite an experience! It was my second time up those ladders, and in Bandelier, but the first was more than ten years ago, when Kevin & I were new together. Since we had no "official" anniversary previously, we decided to make the date, yesterday (August 30) our "anniversary". The marker is the date of our return and climb up those ladders -- which somehow connected our selves then with our selves now, and rounded things out into completeness.
 
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