Category Archives: General Talk

The Music of Backpacking and other Musings

Backpack Trip Report, General Talk

August 27, 2014

No, this isn’t about iPods on the trail. I never take music on a backpacking trip.

I am in an airplane traveling at hundreds of miles per hour at an altitude above 30,000 feet. Once I get home I will have a quick turnaround to head out for a Labor Day camping trip with Joyce, so I won’t post this until that trip is done.

As is my preference, I have a window seat where I can see the earth below. Too far up to see any details, and often hidden by clouds. But clouds are good. Like a snowflake each cloud formation is unique and pleasurable to watch. Time passes, and I think of many things between my observations beyond my little window.

I am returning from a trip to Durham, North Carolina. As I am oft to do, I was able to throw together a quick trip. Like I did in the Cedars of Lebanon trip, my hike was a figure 8. Perhaps this is a new motif in my hiking — figure 8’s.

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60 Minutes, Work, and the Quality of Life

General Talk,

WORK, BACKPACK, OR CAMP?

balanceIt is not usual to hear people complain that they don’t have enough free time to go backpacking or camping as often as they would like. I read about it all the time, usually under the guise of work/life balance.

Along with this complaint some seem to hate their jobs, give the impression they resent their spouse or significant other when commitments conflict with outdoor pursuits. Others feel trapped by family. Many feel a need to keep socially active or network with acquaintances on a regular basis. All of this at the cost of less recreation time in the outdoors. They say these responsibilities prevent them from doing what they enjoy.

Something is out of whack. They know it and everyone around them knows it. But nothing happens. Nothing changes. Deep down these are unhappy people going through the motions of living, dreaming about getting out into the wilderness.

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The Death of Renaissance Man

General Talk, ,

Sometime in the last generation Renaissance Man passed away. Also known as Polymath,Da Vinci 800 X 1020 for blog he lived for almost 2,400 years. The cause of death was apathy and specialization.

He was the child of Reason and Knowledge. His greatest achievement was ethical egoism.

His illegitimate children Specialized Man, Minimum Man, and Social Networker survive him.

Aristotle, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and a long list of polymath relatives predeceased him.

His passing was not noticed and there will be no funeral. Everyone is too busy texting, tweeting, and face-booking.

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Backpacking/Camping Decision Tree

Backpacking, Camping, General Talk,

JT 2014-03-27

It appears that my wife has a “Bucket List” and a To Do List.

I have neither.

Her To Do List includes fixing a leak in the roof, which is required before the interior remodel can be completed. The remodel started in 2000; the roof leak appeared a few years later.

So this week I put the roof issue on my own To Do List, which was completely empty – actually I had to create a list. However it was too windy outside this week.

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Best Blog on the Web: Out Of Eden Walk

General Talk

Hope this works. The hard drive in my laptop crashed and the restoration processs, if it works, looks to be at least a 10 hour ordeal.

Anyway, I don’t spend much time reading blogs, but I have been watching this one for nearly a year.

20140319-170043.jpg

I’ll let the author explain it…

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is retracing on foot our ancestors’ migration out of Africa and across the globe. His 21,000-mile odyssey began in Ethiopia and will end seven years later at the tip of South America.

National Geographic is funding Paul’s storytelling from the trail—dispatches of varied length posted here every few days or at longer intervals. There’s a brief delay between his filing of stories and their posting. Paul is reading your comments and responding to some, so please check back.

OUT OF EDEN WALK

Roads Closed – Go To Plan C

General Talk

Last week I was in Texarkana. The one in both states of Arkansas and Texas.

2014-02-28 TexarkanaWhen I left the hotel it was brisk 23 degrees F, but it didn’t seem that cold. I guess with all my trips to the east coast this year I must be getting acclimated to the cold. I had to meet with my client and then fly out to LAX at noon.

Once the meeting was over, I began to think about the weekend. I had a couple options, knowing the weather wasn’t going to be great. One was backpacking in the San Jacintos, which was going to require snowshoes, given that the incoming storm was predicting 2 to 4 feet of snow. The second option was we could go camping, but forecasted heavy rains can make desert travel difficult with road closures and flash floods.

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