23 March 2008
Back!
We're back, after a fun weekend of hiking the Ouachitas.
It was a leisurely weekend, and our cabin was lovely (as were the steaks that were grilled and the wine that was consumed).
Although the area had received some pretty good rain, the Ouachitas drain well, and the trails were in good shape. Unfortunately, Callie experienced a wardrobe malfunction -- her REI hiking boots literally fell apart. That would have been a killer on a backpacking trip, but wasn't the end of the world for our day hiking (although it did force a trip to a nearby Wal Mart).
I should note that my Asolo 520s are still holding up fine. Indeed, they feel pretty good after a decade+ of breaking in. :)
On the return trip, we were happy to see that some people were already gambling at roughly 11 AM on Easter Sunday. Priorities.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/23/08 21:26 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (6)
20 March 2008
Getting a long weekend underway (a few hours early)
So, I finished up a task a bit early at work today, and the long weekend has officially begun....
Well, almost.
We're off later to the Ouachitas for a three-day cabin-camping weekend of hiking and grilling and wine and such. But it would help if I actually went home and did some packing....
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/20/08 14:01 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 July 2007
Lodge Hibachi
I've had my eye on the cast-iron Hibachi-style grills made by Lodge for some time, but I finally bit the bullet and purchased one of the little guys today.
The steaks I grilled earlier to inaugurate thing really turned out nicely. I mainly wanted one of these for future Float and camping trips, but it may become my regular steak grill.
They're about half the manufacturer's list price at local Academy Sports stores.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/07 20:42 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (8)
20 May 2007
Almost float trip time
I ordered a car-camping tent from the REI Outlet store recently in preparation for this year's Memorial Day Weekend float trip.
Today, we took the thing over to a nearby park and set it up, just to make sure everything is okay.
It looks good to go. The thing seems pretty sturdy, right down to heady duty aluminum poles (not fiberglass) and double vestibules with plenty of loops for guy lines.
I'm hopeful there won't be any bad weather, but the thing seems pretty durable for a car-camping tent.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/20/07 11:44 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 March 2007
What a nice weekend for camping
It looks like we're going to enjoy an absolutely gorgeous weekend in the Houston-area.
I think a quick overnight backpacking trip may be in order. I still need to test that hammock, after all!
We'll see if I actually get up and out of town at the crack of dawn.
UPDATE (03-24-2007): Backpacking aborted for various reasons, although I did enjoy a nice drive in the country today. But what is up with the rain? When I looked at the weather forecasts last night, there was a 0% chance of rain. Nice job, weather b@st@rds!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/23/07 22:18 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (1)
10 November 2006
A different kind of shelter
A while back, I posted about trying to find a lightweight one-person backpacking tent that suited my admittedly picky requirements.
I didn't really come up with anything I liked better than the old solo tent I already had (which is in pretty bad shape, and probably not stormworthy at this point).
Poking around on the lightweight backpacking sites, though, led me in a slightly different direction -- to hammocks!
I never really gave hammocks much attention in the past, because they seemed more like a backyard luxury item than a durable backpacking shelter. But so many lightweight backpackers now swear by them that I decided it was time to give 'em a closer look.
My Hennessy Hammock arrived earlier this week, and I set it up over in a nearby park to give it a test (I think there were some envious homeless people!). It seems like a pretty sweet shelter (replete with rainfly and mosquito netting). Even better, the model I have weighs just under 3 pounds. That's roughly a five pound savings over the traditional tent shelter setup (factoring in the tent, poles, ground cloth, and sleeping pad). Dropping five pounds is significant.
I'm looking forward to giving the thing a true test in the woods later this weekend and into next week.
UPDATE (11-11-2006) I think I'm postponing my hiking until next weekend, weather permitting. The Veterans' Day festivities ran a little longer than I thought they would, and were a little more important than tromping around in the woods.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/10/06 14:25 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (3)
18 October 2006
Return of the external frame pack?
This is certainly a new twist on a very old backpack design.
And from a company in Lake Jackson to boot.
Given my difficulties in finding a lightweight internal-frame pack that fits properly, I may have to give one of these bad boys a try. They're as light as the packs I've been trying, and I've never had a pack fit better than those old external frame packs. It's just that the old ones used to be really bulky and heavy. This company seems to have solved that problem. Interesting.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/18/06 21:59 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (0)
01 October 2006
On the trail in the Ouachitas
I got back yesterday from my trip to the Ouachitas, where the drought conditions cut my trip short.
Unfortunately, the northern leg of the trip (Old Military Road/Boardstand Trails) was completely dry. Streams that usually flow year-round were all dry. That meant I had no water to purify on the trail, and only the 4.1 liters I was carrying. THAT meant that I was forced away from preparing my freeze-dried food for dinner, and instead conserving my water for the trip out.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/01/06 16:33 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (3)
27 September 2006
Off to the woods
Things will be quiet here for a few days, as I'm headed out tomorrow for some backpacking.
Technically, I won't actually head into the woods tomorrow. I'm taking off for the Ouachitas in the afternoon, but I won't actually hit the trail until Thursday morning. The weather looks like it's going to be nice -- 70s for highs, and around 50 for the low (although 43 is forecast for Thursday night), low chance of rain.
It's going to be nice to escape the crazy city for a few days!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/06 00:08 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (3)
09 September 2006
Going light
I recently posted about lightweight solo backpacking tents, and my difficulties picking from several different models. I finally decided just to order a couple, evaluate them, keep one and return one (for those who think this is impolite, I would add that this is a pretty common practice with backpacking gear suppliers). I suspect the Eureka single-wall model will beat out the Alps model, because of the combination of weight and features.
A couple of packs really caught my eye:
The Osprey Atmos 50 and the Gregory Z-Pack
I'm planning on hauling in my typical 3-day base gear (sleeping bag, pad, old tent, food, camp clothes, stove/water purifier/cookware, all in stuff sacks) to REI, loading up both packs with it, and seeing which pack handles the load best.
As Scott Chaffin points out, REI is very cool about letting gear addicts come in and test out stuff this way, and they have an incredible return policy. So if I wind up dropping even more cash on a new state-of-the-art lightweight pack, it's Chaffin's fault. :)
UPDATE (09-10-2006): The Osprey pack won my in-store gear test, AND my mom found a nice 15% off REI coupon that was pretty sweet (thanks mom!). Target date for my return to solo packing the Ouachitas: Next weekend or the weekend after. Woo!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/09/06 12:31 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 September 2006
Decision time
Temps in the Ouachitas are finally starting to ease a bit. I just looked at a ten-day forecast that had 80s/60s listed for highs/lows. That's getting into the territory of nice fall backpacking weather.
I'm still trying to decide on a new solo tent.
There's this one made by Cabelas, and there's this one made by Alps.
The Cabelas tent has a nice side door, which I find preferable. However, it doesn't seem to have much mesh, which makes it more susceptible to condensation and less suitable for stargazing.
The Alps tent has a front door, which I don't especially like. However, it has lots of mesh and seems ideal as condensation/stargazing go.
Both have a full-coverage rainfly, are free-standing, and are comparable in weight, so it really just comes down to those other features. I'm leaning towards the Cabela's at the moment.... Decisions, decisons.
UPDATE: Hmm, there's also this little number from Eureka. The single-wall construction is a little scary, though...
UPDATE 2: What the hell, let's throw out one more possibility.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/04/06 16:52 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (4)
13 August 2006
Ouachita Trail guide
A scout leader has put together a pretty neat trail guide (pdf) for the Oklahoma portion of the Ouachita National Trail.
I've hiked every mile on that side. It's challenging, and will probably be worse this fall because of the drought conditions (more water must be carried - bleh).
I'm probably going to do about a three-day, 24-mile loop hike around Deadman's Gap in September/October (depending when the temps break).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/06 14:42 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (0)
30 May 2006
Float Trip 2006
Float Trip 2006 is a wrap, and goes down as a win I guess.
I'm still tired (and sunburned in strange spots), not to mention behind on my news reading, so blog posting probably won't resume here for a little while yet.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/30/06 21:34 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (2)
21 May 2006
There's A Tent In My Living Room
There's a tent in my living room.
Quite a large tent, actually.
With my annual float trip fast approaching, I decided to go for comfort this year. Instead of using one of my lightweight (but bomb proof) backpacking tents, I decided to go for a larger "car camping" style tent that is large enough to hold... an air mattress.
Yep, I'm giving in this year. This is a leisure camping trip, it's not like I'm throwing all this stuff on my back and hiking ten miles, so an air mattress is going to be subbing for the old backpacking pad this year. I think my body's going to appreciate it, because I'm turning into an old fart.
But back to the tent in my living room...
I wanted to assemble the thing, because I suspected that it might need a little prep work, even though the specs claimed that the floor and rainfly seams were factory taped. That was true, but sure enough, there are some exposed sidewall seams that were NOT taped. They just got a nice dose of seam sealer. If you're just an occasional car camper, you probably don't even know what I'm talking about. Unless they're taped, every seam in the tent has a corresponding hole in every spot that the thread goes through. Water likes to go through those little holes. So you "plug" 'em with a little bottle of seam sealer, available at most camping stores, unless you relish the thought of sleeping in puddles during a rain storm (I don't).
This tent isn't bomb proof like my backpacking tents, but it seems pretty solid now that the seams are sealed. The Kelty is actually a pretty good compromise between low-end car camping tents and the more bombproof backpacking tents (going bombproof probably would have added about $100 to the total, which seems silly for a leisure tent that won't get used that often).
Now if the seam sealer will just dry, I can pack the silly thing and put it away.
By the way, if you are planning on the little float trip and don't have contact info for me/Callie, please email me.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/21/06 19:02 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (7)
22 April 2006
Happy Earth Day!
Here's some fun Earth Day reading for ya'll:
Index of Environmental Indicators 2006 (Steven F. Hayward)
On Earth Day, hope for the environment (Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor)
As the US celebrates Earth Day this Saturday, there is good news to report on the environment for a change.
• Air pollution has decreased 50 percent overall, with sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides dropping steadily.
• Lakes in the Northeast are recovering from their earlier dousing with acid rain.• Endangered species, including bald eagles, wolves, and grizzly bears, have rebounded.
• Cars no longer burn leaded gasoline.
• Ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been generally phased out.
It's in sharp contrast to the first Earth Day in 1970 when there were signs of serious trouble.
Scientists cool outlook on global warming (Jennifer Harper, Washington Times)
Global warming may not be as dramatic as some scientists have predicted.
Using temperature readings from the past 100 years, 1,000 computer simulations and the evidence left in ancient tree rings, Duke University scientists announced yesterday that "the magnitude of future global warming will likely fall well short of current highest predictions."
Supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, the Duke researchers noted that some observational studies predicted that the Earth's temperature could rise as much as 16 degrees in this century because of an increase in carbon dioxide or other so-called greenhouse gases.
The Duke estimates show the chances that the planet's temperature will rise even by 11 degrees is only 5 percent, which falls in line with previous, less-alarming predictions that meteorologists made almost three decades ago.
Climate of Uncertainty: Why global warming is back in the headlines (Steven F. Hayward, Weekly Standard)
If there is any subject more certain than the federal budget process to bring on eye-glaze, it is global warming and the drearily repetitive argument about the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The issue combines the worst of wonky numerology (parts per million of various gases, complex computer models, opaque cost-benefit analyses), an alphabet soup of unctuous international bureaucracies (IPCC, UNFCCC, SRES, TAR, USGCRP, etc., etc.), and the incessant braying of interest groups. No wonder Al Gore loves it so much. Yet the issue, seemingly stuck in a rut for almost two decades, is starting to shake loose and head in new directions.
How do you go about sorting out sense from nonsense? Very few people who follow closely the subject of climate change argue that there's nothing to it. There is unanimity that the planet has warmed by about 1 degree over the last century. Just about everyone agrees that the growth of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels cannot continue forever. That's where the agreement ends. The range of possible temperature increase over the next century is fairly wide in the official forecasts, from 1.4 degrees Celsius on the low side, which might not be difficult to cope with, to 5.8 degrees Celsius on the high side, which would mean major environmental problems for the planet. How probable is any point along the distribution? For reasons having to do with the cascading statistical uncertainties of the thousands of variables in computer climate models, we can't assign a probability to any narrower range of temperature forecasts, though very clever people are trying.
So for most of the last decade we have been playing a back and forth game with signs and wonders that are offered as confirmation that catastrophic global warming is well under way. But these tend to be as controversial as the computer climate models. As good as our measurement techniques are, there is still large disagreement about basic facts. Are the polar ice caps melting or growing thicker? Both, depending on what data set you consult. Is the last decade the hottest in 2,000 years? You need a flak jacket to survive the crossfire on this one. Can variance in solar radiation account for some or most of the warming we've experienced to date? Better put on a second flak jacket. Do clouds warm or cool the planet? Both, and understanding the balance between their conflicting effects remains a huge problem for climate models. Are ocean temperatures rising and Gulf Stream currents changing? Probably, but we need better data to be sure. Will hurricanes get worse? Get a helmet to go with your flak jacket, and put FEMA on speed-dial. Aren't scientists overwhelmingly in agreement that the science is "settled"? Well, yes, except for the hundreds of scientists who've signed various statements and resolutions saying we lack adequate mastery of the subject.
At this point even most people with a scientific background throw up their hands and say, "Call me back in 50 years if I need to turn up my air conditioning." It does no good, as global warming skeptics and many official climate science reports often do, to call for reducing "uncertainty" in climate science. The uncertainties of climate change have less to do with the enormous complexity of the linkages of the various earth sciences comprising the issue, and more to do with the stakes involved. With near-term global greenhouse gas suppression costs called for at Kyoto calculated in the multiple trillions of dollars ($37 trillion according to one widely accepted estimate), political considerations magnify the importance of nailing down uncertainties beyond the ability of science to do so. In fact, with a subject as sprawling as climate change, the disciplinary diversity of science is going to magnify rather than narrow uncertainties.
Progressive Forum hosts Al Gore Weds., June 7 (Perry Dorrell, HoustonDemocrats.com)
Al Gore, the 45th Vice President of the United States, will present a visually stunning multimedia presentation called “An Inconvenient Truth”, which focuses on the urgent need to solve global warming. His presentation is a personal distillation of his 30 years of involvement with the issue, an inspiring bipartisan message which confronts the impact of warming on our global civilization and offers solutions that strengthen our economy. Mr. Gore’s address in Houston, the world’s energy center, coincides with the launch of his new book, also called An Inconvenient Truth, which will be on sale at the event and which Mr. Gore will sign after his speech.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/06 12:05 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (1)
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