Adventure-ish

  As any good Adventurer does, I enjoy reading about others’ travels in the world. I often find myself daydreaming about how I would fare in these travels. Most of the time I realize I could probably do what this person was doing if I actually trained hard enough, or had a lot of money. If Bill Bryson can hike a good portion of The Appalachian Trail, I sure as hell can do just as much as he did, right? Then there are the times where I’m fairly certain I’d be dead within a short period of time. At the very least, I’d suffer some terrible injury.  I recently finished Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage . This story is beyond the limits of Adventure-ish. Why would anyone want to explore Antarctica?! Especially in the early 20th century. They didn’t even have air-conditioning! Growing up near the Mississippi River, I’ve thought many times how fun it would be to travel down the river on a barge. A nice trip in the summer before it gets too hot but after all the potential issu...

  Photo Credit: Norda Testing a new brand of shoe, due to issues with recent pairs of my previous standby Brooks Cascadias. The test started well, with the shoes requiring minimal breaking in. They are a good combination of sturdy and comfortable, just requiring some adjustments with the laces to find a correct fit. Comfortable enough that I decided to stretch my limits and head out for a second lap. Unrelated to the shoes, I started hitting the wall, feeling the lactic acid building in my calves, and struggling to continue. First slowed to a shuffle, then dragging my spent legs in a crawl, wondering if I had finally reached my endpoint, pushed the limits as far as I could go. I passed out briefly, awaking to the gentle notes of the Grateful Dead's Touch of Grey. I was revived enough to pull myself up to the nearest table where a sample of smoked gouda and a glass of kombucha brought me back around. A 2nd lap around the farmer's market was a mistake, but I felt so inspired by m...

  November  in the Midwest. Falling leaves and temps, the dread of that first big snowfall. It’s also the time of year where I become a big baby and stop going on road rides. A long road ride starts losing its appeal in fall. I find my mind drifting towards a trail ride. There’s something about biking over crunchy leaves on a hardening ground. The colder wind hitting your face as you fly down a switchback. I watched a great  YouTube  yesterday on the history of the Stumpjumper. One of the Specialized employees interviewed said he always does his best thinking while biking. That really stuck with me as I’ve thought that the last few years I’ve gotten back into biking. It doesn’t matter if it’s a long road ride or a shorter, more intense trail ride. Every ride is my form of meditation. This morning I really wanted to hit up a trail so I went to  Theo Wirth . A little rain on the drive there made me nervous I wouldn’t be able to actually go. Luckily, it didn’t last...

  Image credit: Weyland Outdoors The Weyland Survival Hatchet is intended to be an easily transportable tool for outdoor adventure. The hatchet is a beautiful device, and the blade is carefully constructed to be effective for many uses.  The case and strap work well to safely store the device, securing the blade. However, the size falls in between what would be most suitable for most uses. It is large and unwieldy, not really practical for attaching to a backpack or stowing in a backpack without a collapsible or retractable handle. But it is also too small to be practical for regular yard use, finding an in between ground that is somewhat more transportable than a full axe and somewhat stronger and more effective than a truly transportable backpacking axe. The biggest issue is with durability. After being used less than 10 times total, the screws came out of the handle. As they popped out and promptly disappeared, the axe was then unusable. In addition to providing a...