Polish Power Put to the Atlantic (x3)

Ninety-nine days after leaving Senegal, Doba arrived in Brazil. He was greeted by one journalist and the Polish ambassador. Nobody cares if you cross the Atlantic in a kayak.

 

I care.

I have followed the exploits of this  unique comrade for the past several years and feel a kinship to him for being older, Polish, and proud of his ability to put up with adversity and self inflicted pain.   As a farewell gift from my co-workers I was given a traditional rocking chair when I officially retired from full time work at the age of 52, after 30 years of work as a teacher and psychologist.  If I had known of the plans to get the chair, I would have requested a backpacking camping chair instead.

Unless there really is life-after-life, we have only a certain number of days on this incomprehensibly alluring and abiding planet.  Just 30 minutes ago I just received an e-mail that John, a friend of mine who had recently announced his retirement, is now in hospice care for a rare form of incurable and rapidly progressing brain disease that only occurs in 1 out a million people.  I hope John will still be alive tomorrow when I pay him a visit.

Michael Meade writes, ” There’s an African proverb: ‘When death finds you, may it find you alive.’ Alive means living your own damn life, not the life that your parents wanted, or the life some cultural group or political party wanted, but the life that your own soul wants to live.

Do read this long article.  Maybe it will inspire you to live your own damn life.

Why He Kayaked Across the Atlantic at 70 (for the Third Time) – The New York Times

Bicycling/ March 2018

I enjoy cycling for many reasons.  I love the feeling of riding a bike through the forest, over natural terrain.  Health benefits are just icing on the cake. I equate riding with freedom. My red 26″ Schwinn bomber was the vehicle that I rode out of my driveway as a kid and explored the neighborhood.  It is still fun for me to ride for an hour or more.

Spring is official.  With almost 2 feet of snow on the ground,  it is not be easy to get on my road bike to dodge the potholes, slush, and dust that comes with riding this time of year.

My crappy yard- yesterday

The two feet of snow that fell in the last two weeks has not firmed up enough for me to be to be back in the woods riding snowmobile paths but that should all change this Sunday, when temps drop into the single numbers gain.

I’m very excited about the 2018 riding season.  Last week, I finished the  four week “Fix Your Own Bike”  FiveTowns.com adult education course taught at Maine Sport by Mike Hartley .  We’ve covered tires, flats, replacing cable, hubs, and adjusting rear dereillers.  My friends Frank and Pat are also in the class. I do fix many things on my bikes, but now I am learning from a professional how to round out the rough edges of my wrenching skills.

There is also a new 1 x12 drive train on my Ice Cream Truck (5″ fat tire bike) that I am becoming familiar with.  I plan to bolt the rear rack on my Surly Pugsley and do a short bike-packing trip in Acadia National Park, sleeping in my new Seek Ouside tipi, warmed by a brand new titanium wood stove.

February 2018- Blackwoods CG, Acadia NP

In the meantime, I need to get out on two wheels when ever I can.

Last year’s 3/17 trip into Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

I’m 57 miles behind schedule to make 1,000 miles on the bikes again in 2018.

regular cycling cut the risk of death from all causes by more than 40%, and cut the risk of cancer and heart disease by 45%.

via Cycling keeps your immune system young, study finds | The Guardian

 

 

 

Jamrog Talks Trail in Liberty- Wed. 3/21

It’s Officially Spring!  Time to plan returning to the outdoors and swim, bike, and hike.  Come to Liberty, ME and let’s talk trail .

So…let me tell you about this hike I took for half of 2013….  Stories, gear, images from the vastness of the Rockies!

Outside inside

I’m at home today, snowed in with at least 12″ of fresh white on the ground and more coming.

I plan to head out this afternoon and snowshoe for at least an hour or so.

I read the new issue of Outside magazine (April 2018), cover to cover. This is one of the best issues ever. I found all the articles fun to read and took inspiration from this paragraph, written by Nick Heil in his feature piece, The Ultimate Fitness Machine.

“it struck me that a lot of what passed for health and fitness now was just an attempt to synthesize what humans have done for eons: move around outside, sometimes intensely; eat food from the earth; sleep a lot; hold onto each other.”

Georges River Land Trust’s new SnowDog clears the way for groomed trails !

–>> Georges River Land Trust’s new SnowDog clears the way for groomed trails | PenBay Pilot

Great news announced today for our local community recreation area.  Before now, it was down to snowshoeing in a large group of walkers doing this in order to ride bikes in the snow.  Or we’d line up to ride our fat tire bikes and pound the snow down with breaking trail and multiple passes of those wide 5″ tires.

This is the brightest thing that may come my way this snowed-in day!

Snowdog!

Snowdog!