Trailspace Blog September 2007
Life and Death in Your Own Backyard
This morning I urged readers to get kids outside today, and every day, even if it’s just as far as the backyard. Well when our 3-year-old returned from a short hike with Dad tonight, he was just in time to hear and then see a barred owl catch a small bird right behind our house (as in a foot from my office window, where I first heard the life and death struggle unfolding in the dark).
With the help of a flashlight we located the owl in our apple tree and then went inside to watch from a window as the owl swooped back down to retrieve its dinner.
So get out the door and bring the kids. You never know what you might see in your own backyard.
Take a Child Outside Week: September 24-30
It’s Take a Child Outside Week. Now we shouldn’t need a special week dedicated to getting kids outside to play in nature, but apparently we do. So get your kids, students, young friends and neighbors outside today…and tomorrow and every day. They don't have to go far, just out the door to a friendly green spot.
Need some ideas? Check out the National Wildlife Federation’s Green Hour site.
Need a reason? Get a copy of Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods. If you can’t get to the library or bookstore right away, read Louv’s excellent article “Leave No Child Inside” in the March/April 2007 issue of Orion magazine online.
Banff Mountain Photo Winners Announced
The stunning photo above, "Lake Abraham — Winter Sunrise,” won Best Photo — Mountain Landscape for Darwin Wiggett in the 2007 Banff Mountain Photography Competition. See all 17 winning images at the Banff Centre web site, including the grand prize winner, selected from more than 2,100 submitted by photographers in 27 countries.
A Journey of 2,000+ Miles...
Ken Grant completes the AT after 17 years. Photo: Ken Grant, from Greenville Online.
Thru-hikers and other endurance athletes typically get media attention for going ever faster and farther. While their exploits certainly can be inspiring, they aren’t always relevant to the weekend hikers and backpackers who have to squeeze in backcountry adventures between family and work commitments. For them I offer up Ken Grant of Liberty, S.C., a 58-year-old high school teacher who recently completed the Appalachian Trail after 17 years of section hiking.
An average AT thru-hiker can cover the trail in five or six months and a record-breaking speed hiker can do it in less than 48 days, with support. But Grant proves that you don’t need huge blocks of time or an uber-level of fitness to accomplish big things, just determination. He typically used his spring vacation and a week or so each summer to hike 130 to 140 miles a year on his way from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.
So what do you want to accomplish now, or 17 years from now? Make a life list of your own outdoor goals (trails to hike, mountains to climb, parks to explore) and then start knocking stuff off it. Because 17 years from now you can either have attempted (and hopefully achieved) your goals, or you can just be 17 years older. What’s on your list?
Read more about Grant's hike in the Greenville Online.
Off the Beaten Path?
Venturing into the backcountry is a great way of getting away from it all. But just how far away is "away?"
This map from the U.S. Geological Survey's Road Indicator Project shows the average distance to a road from any point in the country. Dark green shows the wildest areas — 20 kilometers or more from the nearest road — while yellow shows dense urban areas where you can scarcely turn around without stumbling into traffic.
I think this map is a pretty good argument for protecting our few remaining roadless areas from encroaching development and off-road motorized recreation. They're not many and they're all we have left.
In the western U.S. many of these roadless areas are managed by the National Forest Service. To learn more, check out the Wilderness Society's roadless initiative. In the East, our few roadless lands are a patchwork of federal, state, local, and private ownership. Contact your local land trust or state land management agency to find out what's being done to protect roadless areas near you.
Source: http://rockyitr.cr.usgs.gov/rmgsc/pdf/factSheets/fs2005-3011.pdf
Imagine You and Your Pack in an Osprey Ad
Enjoying the view on Tumbledown Mountain, Maine, with my Osprey Talon 22 and son.
Love your Osprey pack? Want to see it (and yourself) in an Osprey ad? Now through March 2008, Osprey is inviting pack enthusiasts to submit high-res images of themselves with their packs in their favorite environment.
Winning submissions will be used in Osprey’s 2008 ad campaign and receive a $100 cash prize, and an Osprey organic cotton T-shirt and cap.
Successful entries should include the Osprey pack user, the setting or environment they enjoy using their pack in, and a visual or written description of key pack contents, including a “crucial gear” item. If your submission meets contest criteria you'll receive an Osprey ball cap.
Visit Osprey's site for complete information and submission guidelines for the Pack Your Passion. Go. contest.
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