Archive for July, 2007
When I was younger my parents did me the great favor of taking me on multiple 6 week monster vacations. One of these vacations was out west on a train. From Indianapolis through the southern part of the country all the way to San Diego. Then up the coast of California and back to Indy via Denver. I look back on this trip to this day as one of the greatest vacations I have ever taken.
This summer I went to Europe for the second time in two years (yeah yeah the trip reports are coming). We rode trains many times while over there and it was great! Trains in this country are completely under appreciated.
Our friend at the urban brain has a blog post about why he wants to see a train between Denver and Vail. I think it sounds like a great idea. If you live in CO or go out there often, check it out, vote and let him know what you think.
July 31st, 2007
Well Wade has gone and left Lynn and I for the next couple weeks. He will be missed while he gets his outdoorzy on in far away places. I guess that leaves me in charge of the blog.
What to blog about…what to blog about…
Well I think I may have to cop out on this first entry. Here are some interesting links!
Predict the weather without checking the forecast
Buy Organic Without Breaking the Bank
Couch to 5k - I am planning on running a 5k in October and this is the plan I am trying out.
July 30th, 2007
My second favorite site, Lifehacker.com, has some tips submitted by their readers for computing outside. Can anyone guess my first favorite site?
July 27th, 2007
I recently visited Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. This is an excellent place to get your mountain bike on… And if you like trout, there were hoards of trout fisherman. They would hike in a few miles on trails that followed the mountain streams and then cast their line. It looked like an excellent place to fish and our neighbors in the campground brought back several large trout to eat the first night we were there. The park is named after Mt. Pisgah which is the dominant peak in the area.
Mt. Pisgah - (5,721 ft - 1,744 m)
Mount Pisgah is a mountain in the Appalachian Mountain Range and part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, United States. The mountain’s height is 5,721 feet (1,744 metres) and it sits approximately 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Asheville at the crossing of the boundaries of Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Transylvania counties. The mountain is easily accessible via the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Description from Wikipedia. Photo by Wikipedia user Badgettrg
July 26th, 2007
Kazakhstan’s Alexander Vinokourov, the pre-race favorite in the Tour De France, winner of Saturday’s time trial, and winner of Monday’s 15th stage tested positive for blood doping. He denies any blood manipulation of course and suggested that maybe the blood anomolies occured because he was involved in a wreck and was injured. Right right, I guess some performance enhancing drugs had accidentally been spilled on the concrete just before you wrecked and then when you fell they were absorbed by the wound on your knee. That happened to me just last week, it’s very common…
Kazakhstan was proud of “Vino” as they call him. As a nation they are trying to gain international appeal and use their oil and cultural richness to attract international tourists and investors. Vino isn’t doing them any favors. Nor is he doing the sport any favors. Frankly, I was pretty excited about professional cycling during the “Armstrong years”. But after Landis and this, I’m through with it unless they completely destroy every shred of the current system and start over with very strict rules. Doping is a fact of life in sports, it’s nearly impossible to avoid. But when it becomes mainstream it’s gotten ridiculous.
Photo from Vino’s official site
July 25th, 2007
REI stepped up for us this time and provided two pair of trekking poles for us to test. First up is their REI Peak UL Carbon Poles. These poles are made by Komperdell a reliable name in trekking poles and distributed by REI another reliable name in gear.
REI Peak UL Carbon Trekking Poles
- Cost - $139/pair at REI
- Weight - 12.5 oz
- Maximum Length - 55″
- Compacted Length - 27″
- Grips - EVA Foam
- Shaft Construction - Carbon
These poles are all about weight savings. From feather-weight EVA foam grips, through the carbon fiber shafts, they are super light! But despite the weight savings you still get a good pole for the money. I am used to shock absorbing poles, and backpacking with a rigid pole was a different experience in itself. They obviously weren’t forgiving when cranking down to pick up power, but on uphills they provided quite a bit of stability. The grips were good and wicked sweat well, however they were not so conducive of putting your thumbs on top to change hand positions. The baskets seemed to work well. They did screwed in instead of snapping on like Leki brand poles. The Peak UL was very strong when weight was applied to it. My 185 pound frame leaned full tilt on it a few times and no signs of weakness were detected.
Bottom line on these poles - They aren’t the cheapest on the market, and they do not have the shock absorbing feature. But, for the money, they are some of the lightest poles you can find out there. They are perfect for an ultralight-head, a long distance trekker looking for weight savings, or a globetrotter who needs something compact and light to pack in a duffel to fly to their trekking destination.
July 24th, 2007
This post has little relevance to the outdoor sports world, and little relevance to this website. But it’s something interesting… to me anyway.
I was purchasing a car this weekend and finally narrowed my decision down to the Pontiac Vibe… made by Toyota… yeah, don’t ask me. I picked it for its fuel efficiency, utility, features, etc. Now the hard part, picking the color. With choices like “Midnight Black”, “Caribbean Blue”, and “Pine Green”… what to choose??? Well “Outdoorzy Orange” of course!
This is a stock photo, not an actual picture. I only wish my house was that colorful…
July 23rd, 2007
Well I never could get a fire lit with fire steel. And my record still stands at “0″. I tried using the Light My Fire Firesteel in two settings. First in a fire ring with dry leaves, pine needles, and dry grass. I struck it several times with no flame. Plenty of big dazzling sparks, but no flame.
The next setting I tried this in my blacktop driveway. I set up a few small rocks so that when I blew on the kindling it wouldn’t just blow away. Then I shredded small pieces of paper about the size of your pinky fingernail. I then tried lighting them, with no luck. I did get an orange ember color a few times and some smoke, but it wasn’t enough to produce a flame when I blew on it. I tried it dozens of times with no luck.
This product costs about $11 and is very small and weighs nothing. If you don’t have much luck with these type of things then I’m not sure this one will be your magic bullet. But, that doesn’t mean it won’t be useful for you. The Firesteel works well for lighting backpacking stoves, just strike when the fuel is turned on and viola! It is also a great backup should your matches get wet, or should your lighter run out of fuel or stop working. Another good use for this would be to keep some cottonballs rubbed down with vaseline in a zip lock. Striking the Firesteel on one of these would surely cause a ball of fire. I’ve used the cottonball trick a few times as a firestarter. I would highly recommend learning to use this tool for survival situations and I plan on practicing more so I get the hang of it.
Our member Nomad75 has had some luck with steel in the past, and I really love the concept of not needing to depend on matches or lighters. But for me personally, I think I’ll have to stick to them as my primary fire source. I just don’t have the touch.
July 20th, 2007
The Tim Horton’s National Mountain Bike Championship kicked off yesterday in British Columbia Canada. The event is taking place at the Mt Washington Alpine Resort. The resort boasts some amazing downhill action and even has a chairlift to take riders back to the top to bomb down another trail. Cross country and downhill racers alike will be competing for bragging rights. Several Canadian Olympic hopefuls will be there showing off their stuff. Check out pics of some of there trails on this photo gallery.
Here’s the Schedule:
July 18th - Provincial DH and Canada Cup DH
July 19th - National Championships DH
July 20th - National Championships DH Elite
July 21st - National Championships XC Elite
July 22nd - National Championships XC and Timbits Challenge
For more information check out the Canadacup website.
July 19th, 2007
Well as you may have seen…. we’ve been nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award. If you could, would you just click this link and vote for us??? 
It is really quick, you just have to put your name, an email, and password in from what I remember. We THANK YOU. And let us know if there is anything you’d like to see more of on the Outdoorzy Blog.
July 18th, 2007
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