Archive for the ‘outdoor recreation’ Category

That’s beautiful daddy! – beck

I’m a trail runner. After an ankle injury early in the season the doc said that I needed to find trail shoes with ankle support.  Right!  Well, with a bit of help for the folks at Pemba Serves I’ve had the opportunity to put a pair of Sabino Trail Mids by Montrail to the test.  2 month on, and I have to say,  the Sabino Trail Mids were just what the doctor ordered, and then some.   Read the rest of this entry »

And if I only could / I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get him to swap our places
Be running up that road / Be running up that hill
With no problems…
– kate bush

Let’s go off topic a today just because I feel like it! That’s what’s great about a blog after all, the ability to just sit down and blather about whatever madness comes to mind. Today I’m going to talk about my other bad habit… trail running! Read the rest of this entry »

Video – Next week I’ll be doing a review of Gear Pods, the cool new modular adventure gear kits.  This weekend I’m running the final and maybe most important (to me) test.  It’s called “The Oatmeal Test”.  Just how waterproof are Gear Pods anyway?  In my kayak filled world, I’ve found my waterproof bags and cases can sometimes spend hours in and under the water.  It happens.  It happened to me last weekend in fact!! Nothing sucks more than when you realize that your first-aid kit got soaked because the “waterproof” case leaked.  How Gear Pods hold up to sitting in standing water for a couple days will tell me a lot about how appropriate they are for sea kayaking.  Next week, we’ll talk a bit more what Gear Pods have to offer as I review their Backcountry kit.  AND by Monday morning we’ll know just how they stood up to the dreaded Oatmeal Test as well!

I was hungry and I’m hungry still
And now it’s pouring rain
I look o.k. but I’ve been feeling ill
And now it’s pouring rain
– bob geldof

Yesterday we had flash flood warnings in our area, but that didn’t stop us from getting out for a bit of a paddle!  Heavy rains and flooding are getting to be typical for early June in our part of Wisconsin.  It’s defiantly a climate change, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you why.  Whatever the reason it’s been flooding pretty regularly since the ’90s in our area.  The local lake has been so flooded that the state DNR finally incorporated a permanent drain!  Read the rest of this entry »

Say you don’t need no diamond ring and I’ll be satisfied
Tell me that you want the kind of thing that money just can’t buy
I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love
-beatles

I don’t know about you, but I need a vacation.  Thankfully tomorrow morning we’ll be heading back up to Point Beach State Forest on the coast of Lake Michigan for a few days R & R.  Sounds like the weather may be mixed, but hey, if we get some waves out of it I’ll be happy.

The Point Beach event called, “Kayak Week” is hosted by a group of paddlers from the Two Rivers, WI area.  It was this annual gathering of area kayakers that actually brought me into Wisconsin paddling “fold”.   Back then there was an amazing diversity of paddlers who showed up for a variety of local paddling events.   There was always something going on, and someone to paddle with or learn from.  Of course that was back before the days of  liability paranoia that put a choke hold on social kayaking. I hear all the time how these sort of free-wheeling gatherings have fallen victim to the hemorrhoidal area of  lawsuit fears, insurance & sanctioning debates that often burn more energy in a group than actual paddling.

Read the rest of this entry »

Among the many odd things I’ve done in my life, I used to work at the International Crane Foundation.  It was there that I learned to impersonate Mama Crane.  That allows me to occasionally get up pretty close as in the picture above.  Here’s that story.  (Just in case you didn’t see it before) One thing I can tell you.. Mama don’t whisper!

And the truck comes by on Friday, and carts it all away.
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay. Oh…..

Garbage, garbage, garbage….
We’re filling up our seas with garbage (garbage, garbage…)
What will we do when there’s no place left to put all the garbage (garbage, garbage……)
– sesame street

And speaking of disposable, I received an email from Tacoma, WA when reader from a paddleshop there read my post about Starbuck’s wasteful packaging at the Sheraton Hotel in Madison. Ken Campbell told me this pile  (see the picture) came from a delivery of 30 mostly plastic kayaks. You can read his thoughts on waste here. You may notice the Necky logos, but we don’t mean to pick on Necky specifically. There’s plenty of trash to go around. The problem is getting more companies in our “green” industry to be green behind the shop as well as on the show floor. Read the rest of this entry »