Why I am renewing my Outside magazine subscription

I just renewed my subscription to Outside magazine.   The days are long past when I have had close to a dozen magazines in my mailbox every month.  I am now down to just three:  Outside, Backpacker,  and Dirt Rag, an east coast mountain bike magazine.

Why Outside?

It’s always find at least one major article that I find interesting in each issue.  However, I just re-read the January 2013 issue.  

It was in an old pile of stuff. I was surprised to find four featured long articles that appealed to me.

Here’s what I’m talking about:  An article about how short-intense workout efforts might be more useful than long slow hours in the saddle ( referenced below).  And then there’s an article about James Balog’s 2014 Emmy Award Winning documentary- Chasing Ice ( check this one out on Netflix). A detailed and balanced report about the “who doesn’t have it?” App Strava follows, and there’s even a killer story about how sports psychology can make a difference in mental fitness.

With so much online right now, we really don’t need to have any print coming in the mailbox.  I still like to engage in reading a magazine now and then, and I’m still impressed with the quality of the offerings in Outside.  The twice annual Buyer’s Guides that come with a couple of the issues don’t generally offer me  anything . I  don’t keep them around, and pass them on.

May be I can pass the print copy of January 2013 on as well, as I just realized that all of the individual links that I’ve posted above can be found in one place on the Outside web site.  All the past issues are online.  I think that’s now the norm, but it’s still pretty incredible!

 Brian MacKenzie’s Controversial New Approach to Marathon Training |

It’s Official- Triple Crown Award !

Small size, big deal

I opened the beat-up padded envelope that just came in my mailbox and was blown away to finally see this physical object in my hands.  I’m in a club of  230 individuals world wide !

The American Long Distance Hiking Association-West sent me a congratulatory letter with three statistics:

“On a single day in May 2012, more people summited Mt. Everest than have hiked the Triple Crown.

More people have circumnavigated the earth than have hiked the Triple Crown.

More people have been in space than have hiked the Triple Crown.”

Triple Crown patch

I didn’t do it alone.

My deepest appreciation goes out to Dick Wizard,  Train, General Lee, Paddy-O, my wife Auntie Mame, my mother Isabel, my brother Roy, my son Lincoln and his fiancée Stephanie , Don Kivelus ( Four Dog Stove)  and my Trailjournal transcribers Jan Munroe (v8), and John Clark (Tenzing).  Special thanks to all the other hikers who helped me ( it’s an impossibly long list to do justice to) , my faithful Traijournal readers, and all the individuals , past and present, who worked or are working  to make our National Scenic Trails a reality that anyone can step onto and return to our ancestral purpose in the grand forests, deserts, mountains, and plains that grace the United States of America.

 

Uncle Tom Keynotes at Minnesota’s Winter Camping Symposium

 Just announced from the Winter Camping Symposium’s Facebook Page

“We are excited to announce a new addition to our Winter Camping Symposium: KEY NOTE SPEAKER – Tom Jamrog.

Saturday’s Key Note Address will cover: Winter Walking the West: Preparing and Adapting to Snow Travel in the High Sierras and Rocky Mountains.

Tom Jamrog has been backpacking, riding mountain bikes, and living in the outdoors for close to 50 years. Tom maintains his popular blog: Living Large While Walking The Big Trail, and Tom’s Trailjournals have amassed close to one million web visits.

From 2007 to 2013, Tom backpacked over 8,000 miles in the United States. On October 24, 2014 The American Long Distance Hiking Association-West awarded Tom the Triple Crown of Hiking, for having completed continuous through hikes of the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails, joining a relatively small club of 200+ individuals.

Tom has completed winter trips in Canada and conducts yearly trips in Maine, where he has lived with his wife, Marcia, for the past 40 years.”

I am really looking forward to my visit to the Duluth area next week, where I hope to connect with some old and make some new friends.  I’ll  be working at the Four Dog Stove booth at the event, so please stop by and say hello.

Full schedule, speaker and workshop details here ! 

Walking the Trails Near Katahdin Lake – Baxter State Park

Crafty Use of Birch

Our second full day at Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps was so interesting.

Last night I awoke to the sound of waves slapping against the sand beach below us.  I walked out on the porch to check it out and was pleased to see a starry sky. Right in front of me was the Big Dipper, boldly presenting right above the horizon behind Katahdin Lake.

Our front porch

This porch faces directly north, boldly defiant in it’s willingness to comfort any potential traveler.

I awoke to a still, cold morning with the thermometer outside registering 34 degrees. I took a number of photographs just after light appeared.

Katahdin to the Turners – Panorama

Here are two brave canoeists who were wearing winter coats and gloves.

North Across Katahdin Lake

The unmistakable sound of a powerful airplane engine echoed against the nearby painted hills. Just about everyone in camp was on the beach to greet Jim, ace bush pilot at Katahdin Air, who was taxiing right up to the beach. Jim flew three of us into the Hundred Mile Wilderness in August.   to pick up Chris Huntington, a landscape painter who was wrapping up a two week residence here today.

The Artist Exits

Three of Huntington’s paintings of Katahdin hang in the dining room here, along with two of Caren Michel’s pieces. He told me that he had been  here for two weeks, but usually lives here for  a month.  Marcia and I shared two meals with Caren, who is a Maine-based painter, and was bundled up and standing outside all weekend, creating new treasures.  I particularly enjoyed two of Michael Vermette’s small, thickly layered renditions of the mountain that were on display above our wooden table.

Classic Baxter signage

Marcia and I walked a 5 mile loop today to the Martin Ponds where a new lean-to faces yet another unique view of Katahdin.

Katahdin from Martin Pond

It is the closest view of Katahdin that we’ve seen. Canoes for rent pepper the shores of the Lake and ponds here.  ($1 an hour in Baxter, $10 a day at KLWC).

We walked over a beaver dam to start our loop.

High Water Would Have Been Tough

The path was rocky, rooty, and covered with moss in parts.

Marcia keeps dry boots

I was hoping to get in some canoeing this time, as walk all the way out to the end of the Twin Ponds Trail, which would have added 10 more miles to the day’s efforts.  Next time, for sure.

Marcia and had our last dinner in the Lodge tonight. We didn’t know the menu, but found out when the cook himself quietly tapped on our cabin door at ten minutes of six to ask how we wanted our sirloin steaks prepared. Caren and the two of us were the last “sports” served dinner this season, as the camp was closing tomorrow, on Columbus Day. They tend vegetable gardens here. The roasted potatoes, boiled carrots, and friend onions that accompanied our perfect steaks were especially tasty.

Auntie Mame

We lingered for an hour or so in the tiny, ancient library in the Lodge before we walked back to our car, the woods vibrant  in pulsing light.

Fall Treasure

Hiking to Katahdin Lake- Baxter’s “Newest” Acquisition

With hushed celebratory internal fanfare, Marcia and I passed through the Togue Pond Gatehouse at Baxter State Park on Columbus Day weekend. We’ve been here many fall weekends before, but this time was unique. This will be our first time at Katahdin Lake.
We brought no printed reservations for our two-night stay at Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps.   I was asked to share my name, and the answer to “How many nights?”,  and was immediately handed a pass to place on my windshield.  We drove up six miles on the dusty Roaring Brook Road , where we parked at the old Avalanche Field group camping site, and prepared to walk 3.3 miles on the Katahdin Lake Trail to get there.
The walk in was magnificent.

Marcia on the puncheon beside the corduroy road

It looked like peak foliage, with abundant fiery red leaves still thick on the deciduous trees. The beeches are bursting coppery, and yellow luminous.

Beeches show off

The air is cool, but not cold.  The footpath is relatively flat, with puncheon walkways meandering through the wetter sections. Streams are occasionally sounding in the distance, as is the rustling of the leaves.
The first night, we rented a furnished cabin for $63 ( Friends of Baxter State Park discount).

Purgatory Lodge

Our second night we splurged and bought into the meal plan, instead of cooking in the cabin. Our place had dry firewood, fresh water, a big cooler with a frozen gallon of water in it (refrigerator), three propane lights, and a gas cook stove.  A wood heat stove, and a rubber tote bin with clean dishes and silverware rounded out the amenities.

The kitchen and wood stove

There were four beds inside: two doubles downstairs, and two single beds set up in the loft.

The bedroom and loft

The Camps are private, and are still holding on to a 20 year lease for these 30 acres on the southern shore of Katahdin Lake, the most recent ( 2006) acquisition to the Park in many years.
A brief history of these classic old Maine hunting/fishing cabins are featured in John Neff’s “Katahdin”. The Camps were established in the late 1880s, when they served men who lived in Eastern seaboard cities who wanted to hunt moose, caribou, and bear. The establishment was dealt an economic blow when moose hunting was banned by the 1918 Legislature. For a number of years, the camps were abandoned, but revived again in the mid 1920s. In 1925 a group of businessmen from New York set up a lease on the camp and ran it as a private fishing cub with rights to 12,000 acres surrounding the camp. Then the Depression hit and that venture ended. Around 1921, the Cobbs acquired the lease and after extensive remodeling and improvements, ran it for the next 32 years. The Camp leases were transferred to other individuals in 1965 and then again in 1970.
I was surprised to see the age on this cluster of buildings. They are ancient!   A staff member guided us down a path to Purgatory Lodge, our cabin for the weekend, with the shore of Katahdin Lake not 50 feet off the front porch.  We learned that this was one of the two oldest log cabins, dating back to around 1900. It is still solid, but thoroughly patched, with old pieces of newspaper plugging some of the holes and cracks around the window frames, new tarpaper shingles nailed to places around the sills, and ample use of insulating foam evident both inside and out.
These camps have no electricity, running water, or cell phone coverage.

A nearby cabin

Maybe the smallest one?

Staying at these camps in a huge step backward to a time when one left the hustle and bustle of life to get away from it all, with guests arriving by buckboard from the Roaring Brook Road, by pontooned  floatplane, or by walking.
Except for the buckboard and a couple of solar panels on the Lodge’s roof, nothing much has changed.

Snow Walkers’ Rendezvous 2014

Tent City at Snow Walkers’ (2013)

I am presenting a talk in Vermont at this event, upcoming in November..

My talk/ photo display will be : Winter Walking the West: Preparing and Adapting for Snow Travel in the Sierras and the Rockies

It’ a great weekend of all things winter foot- travel related.  It sells out at 100 registrants every year so far, so get in touch with Lynn if you are interested in going.

Snow Walkers’ Rendezvous 2014
November 7-9
Hulbert Outdoor Center
Fairlee, Vermont
Friday, November 7 – 5:30pm – 9:30pm
Saturday, November 8– 8:45 am- 9:00pm
Sunday, November 9 – morning – workshops & informal hike/ bike

Join us for our 20th informal gathering of friends (and friends of friends) who love to travel traditionally in the winter wilderness. We’ll have slides, and films and lots of information to exchange. Bring your favorite items from the North to display: maps, books, photo albums, sleds, tools, etc. All are welcome to display tents and share traditional camp set-ups.

Partial list of folks sharing their experiences:
Katherine Donahue NH Steaming North: 1st Cruise of US Revenue Cutter Bear,Alaska & Siberia,1886
Ruth Heindel VT Stories from the Poles: Science and Adventure in Greenland and Antarctica
Paul Sveum NH 21 Day Snowshoe Trip on the Boundary Waters
Mirelle Bouliano QU Skiing Northern Quebec
Craig MacDonald ON Richmond Gulf Traverse 1979
Bruce Lindwall NH Back Country Skiing the Sierra Crest Trail
Tom Jamrog ME Winter Walk the West: Preparing & Adapting on the Pacific Crest & Continental Divide
Scott Ellis VT Finding Simplicity in Winter Camping

WORKSHOPS:
Alex Medlicott NH First Aid for the Winter Trail – Cold Injuries; prevention,recognition;treatment
Ann Ingerson VT Sewing Your Own Winter Gear
Tim Smith NH Axe Handling
Ross Morgan VT Knots for the Trail
Paul Sveum NH Food Planning for the Trail
David & Anna Bosum QU (Tentative) Cree Culture
Film – “On the Wings of Mighty Horses” – Sakha Republic
Geoffrey Burke NH Build your Own Toboggan
Loranne Carey Block NH Felted & Knitted Sock Fiber Arts for Camping
Tour of the Tents & Stoves Traditional Equipment Display
Used Equipment – Sale/Swap Bring your fiddle, guitar or musical instrument for evening fun…
AND MUCH MORE…………………………..

Meals & Lodging: Simple lodging is available at the Hulbert Outdoor Center. Cozy 3-4 bedroom heated cabins provide comfortable accommodations. (As well as your tent!) Meals served buffet style in dining hall. The Center is located on Lake Morey, and is easily accessible from I-91.
Program registration -$60; student/limited income-$45. Registrations accepted until program is full.
Meals & lodging package for the weekend (Fri. Dinner through Sun. Breakfast, 3-4 occupancy/room)
Commuter & tent rates available (see registration form) Thanks for mailing or faxing your registration after Oct 1. Sorry we cannot accept phone registrations.

Registration Questions: Lynn_Daly@alohafoundation.org

Hiking on Acadia is Primo in October

Our route

It was able to make a couple of scheduling adjustments and free myself up to join Guthook on an all-day summit fest on the lesser populated trails that run across the western side of Acadia National Park.  It’s not often that I get an offer to hike my heart out on a warm October day in Maine.

The weather was a bit iffy, with a 50% possibility of afternoon rain.  As it turned out, we were spared the wet, and instead blessed with a steady, cool, drying wind that came at us right off the Atlantic Ocean, which was often within sight.  No drenching our shirts today, either with water from the sky or from our own sweat.

Despite an early 7:30 AM start from Belfast, ME , ittook 5 hours to walk the 12 miles of trails, at an average speed of 2.3 mph. Guthook and I did not take many breaks today, and any that we did were relatively brief.  However, a few road construction delays and the dwindling daylight put me back home  after dark.

I was running two apps on the walk: Fitbit for the iPhone 5s ( no band needed) and Strava-tracking my hike, and playing with distances.  Guthook was packing a GPS, an also running Fitbit to double check steps and mileage. Its fun to know as much as I can about my hikes.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve walked the Acadia trails.  The last time camped here was on a 2009 February winter trip in Blackwoods Campground where I set up my heated wall tent  for a few nights as we explored the snow-packed trails and roads.

I would characterize Acadia’s trails as “ Camden Hills on steroids”.

Atop Acadia Mountain

While the tallest mountains in Acadia are about the same height as my nearby Camden Hills State Park (roughly 1,000 feet in elevation), there are many more of them, and the trails are often wilder, with more fallen dead tress, and a footpath that is often much gnarlier.  Here’s a shot of Guthook and Casey dog on a rocky section up to Bernard Mountain.  Yes, that’s a blue blaze marking the trail in the lower part of the picture.

The flat light today and the still vibrant foliage made for Zen gardens, all day long.

Really….

It is the absolute best time of the year to hike in Acadia right now. At least one parking lot was almost empty. We only saw a dozen hikers all day, averaging just one person per mile on a warm weekday. The Park’s website states,  “Acadia National Park generally receives more than two million recreational visits each year, making it one of the most-visited national park in the United States. The busiest months are July, August, and September.”

We each drove up, spotting my car at the end of our hike off the Western Mountain Road, and with Guthook’s car at the start in the parking lot on the East side of Echo Lake on Route 102.

Here’s what we did today:  Acadia Mountain (681′)—> St. Sauveur Mt.( 679′)  via Canada Cliff Trail/plus Beech Cliff Loop—> Beech Mtn.(839′) —>Mansell Mtn. (949′) —> over the Great Notch and Bernard Mtn. (1071′) and then back down the West Ledge Trail to the other  car.

Elevation, baby.

It was up and down all day long.

Here are some additional pictures:

The beach at Long Pond

Looking south down Somes Sound

Panorama from Beech Mountain

Check out Aislinn’s blog entry about hiking Mansell Mountain for some historical background on Mansell and her own account of a great walk in an astounding National treasure.  Thank you U.S Parks  !

A Full Weekend of winter skills, wool, woodstoves, and wierdos in Minnesota

I’ll be a first timer at this event coming up October 23-26.   I’m working in the Four Dog Stove Booth, assisting the old master- Don Kevilus in meeting the needs of the citizens.  Don has been my major sponsor for both my Pacific Crest and Continental Divide Trail thru-hikes.  His Bushcooker-Lt is the best multi-fuel backpacking stove on the planet.  We’ll be demonstrating that stove as well as other types of useful gear all weekend.

Winter Camping Symposium.<<<- website here
There’s also a great Facebook page as well.

 

 

Walking out of The Hundred Mile Wilderness

We backpacked 16 miles today in order to reach my car, that was spotted at Abol Bridge at the end of the Hundred Mile Wilderness.  I pitched it to the guys that our goal was to walk 12 miles again, a distance that we had been accomplishing the past few days. That 12 miles would have put us at the last lean-to, at Hurd Brook. When we reached that empty shelter, on a day that was clear and sunny, with ample daylight left,  four more miles ( flat terrain) to the Appalachian Trail Cafe for dinner in Millinocket were easily completed.

Here are some photos from our last day:

Jocomotove and I successfully shuffled over the slippery log bridge above Rainbow Stream. G-Man walked right through the water.

G-Man gets to try his waders

The floor of Rainbow Stream shelter has the original baseball- bat style saplings.  Only in Maine.  Not so comfortable for sleeping on a thin foam mat.  My Neo Air had no problem with it.

No plywood in this place.

The only uphill of the day was just 400′ of elevation over the always astounding Rainbow Ledges.  Joe and I took a break here. We had an 18 year old female thru-hiker named Sprout take our picture. I was in awe that a young woman just out of high school could arrive at Katahdin looking as fresh as a spring daisy after 5 months on the AT.

Two old friends near Katahdin

After we descended the Ledges, the trail meandered through a Lord of the Rings landscape.

Our last memories

When we reached Millinocket, we bee-lined it to the AT Cafe, where I phoned up Ole Man to find out how the thru-hiker evacuation played out.

It was no surprise to me that it did not end well.  Ole Man said that when he got the guy in his Suburban, the hiker’s ankle didn’t seem to be that much of an issue. The trouble started when the hiker absolutely refused to leave the Suburban to go into the clinic and have his injuries assessed.  Next!  Other than the $20 bill I gave the guy, he had no money, nor any credit cards of his own.  How was he going to pay for his expenses in town. The young man had told me that he planned to call his father and have his father help him pay for stuff.  Ole Man said that didn’t pan out either.  The guy’s father only had an American Express card, which Ole Man was not set up to process, either at the AT Lodge, which is the hiker hostel in town, or at the AT cafe, which Ole Man also owns.  Normally, folks have a backup to an American Express card, which tends to be declined at backwoods Maine businesses.  So, at the end of that day, Ole Man brought the  fellow over to stay at his Hostel.  Maybe a solution could be achieved to help this guy get back home?  That next morning, Ole Man had to leave early to shuttle some folks to the AT.  When Ole Man came back to assist the hiker, he discovered that the guy had just left, without a note. Vamoose !  End of story.

Ole Man said that he has usually just one thru-hiker case every year that leaves a bad taste in his mouth.  I was the guy that made that happen in 2014!  Ole Man let me know that there were no hard feelings between him and I. I volunteered to cover the charges that the fellow rang up, but Ole Man would have noting to do with me paying.

In retrospect, I would have done the exact same thing if I encountered another injured hiker in need out in The Hundred. People can get lost and die out there.

So Ole Man would get in his Suburban yet again, probably sometime soon, to evacuate the next injured hiker.  I hope that hiker, has a means to pay for the time, gas, and lodging that Ole Man would offer, as he does day after day, many times a day, in assisting hikers as they experience all the jewels along the path that the Appalachian Trail has to offer.

Tested: The Best Apps for the Outdoors

from Outside magazine

Hot off the digital presses on Sept. 29 is Outside Magazine’s  filtered review of 23 of the thousands of outdoor/hiking related Apps that are coming at us for consideration.  Thanks, Outside !

My neighbor and hiking pal Ryan Linn’s Guthook’s Hiking Guides, made the cut.   [ Disclosure: I have purchased my own Guthook’s AT Hiker App.]

>> Tested: The Best Apps for the Outdoors <<<

Did they miss any that you readers have liked?