Breakneck Ridge

Breakneck Ridge is in Beacon, NY and considered by many as one of the most challenging and scenic hikes in the area. They're right. With amazing views of the Hudson River, Breakneck Ridge is rocky and full of scrambles. The good stuff. It's a great day hike and it's easy to get to from New York City without the use of an automobile. Take the Metro North Hudson line (make sure you're in the last train car) and get off at the Breakneck Ridge stop, a little bench in the woods. It's an 80 minute ride and the train only stops there on the weekends. The trail head is right near the 9D Highway Tunnel.The hike also overlooks Bannerman Castle, a deserted castle built on an island in the Hudson in 1901. At the time of the castle's construction, the island was owned by a Scottish munitions dealer named Francis Bannerman. Bannerman used as a residence and a storage facility for his ammunition.

Lake Tear Of The Clouds

adirondack_mountains_ny-_lake_tear_of_the_clouds_by_stoddard_seneca_rayLake Tear Of The Clouds lies in the notch between New York's highest peak, Mount Marcy (5,343 ft) and Mount Skylight in the Adirondack's High Peaks Region. It is New York's highest lake and the highest source of the Hudson River.On September 14th, 1901, then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was at the lake on his way back from his summit of Mount Marcy when he received a message informing him that President McKinley, who had been shot two weeks earlier, had taken a turn for the worse. Shocker.Roosevelt hiked down ten miles on the southwest side of the mountain and took a midnight stagecoach ride to the Adirondack Railway station in North Creek, NY where he learned that McKinley had died and he was now the President Of The United States.The 40 mile route is now designated the Roosevelt - Marcy Trail.

The Maine Woods Initiative

The Appalachian Mountain Club's Maine Woods Initiative is the organization's largest investment in conservation and recreation in it's 133 year old history. The program is working to preserve Maine's 100 Mile Wilderness, an area of the Appalachian Trail that runs from Monson, Maine to the AT's northern most point, Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park. In addition to the AMC's purchase of the 37,000 acres of forestland known as the Katahdin Iron Works (KIW) tract, they own and operate Little Lyford Lodge and Cabins, a traditional Maine sporting camp established in 1874, and Medawisla Wilderness Lodge and Cabins on Second Roach Pond.Check out the AMC's video outlining the project and then donate here.

get out of the goddamned contraption and walk

"You can’t see anything from a car; you’ve got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet, crawl, on hands and knees over the sandstone; through the thornbush and cactus." - Edward AbbeyBackpacker:

This Saturday, between 500 and 1,000 ATVs, Jeeps, and other off-road vehicles plan to illegally drive up the riverbed of the Paria Canyon in a BLM wilderness study area near Kanab, Utah. They're doing it to protest BLM plans to actually enforce keeping ORVs out of this wilderness area near Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.But you can stop it with a simple mouse click and a bit of typing: The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance set up an automated form which will send a fax to the acting director of the BLM urging him to enforce the law and stop the protesters from trashing the desert landscape.For years, the Utah BLM looked the other way when ORV users used the Paria Canyon to access the ghost town of Paria, but the expectation is that it could change under the new administration. This is your chance to take a second to show your support for protecting Utah wilderness.

STOP THEM! (Then find me a 4Runner)MP3: R.E.M. - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite

Wild Mushrooms

adair-7856Being able to identify edible mushrooms in the forest is like hunting without a gun. It's fishing with your hands. I think. I've never actually done it. But who wouldn't want a twenty pound hen of the woods to take home and pop in a pan of butter?If you're like me and are a beginner in this field, a good place to start is over at Field and Stream, who have outlined a beginner's guide to finding and cooking morels.

Gray Wolves Are Off The List

The debate is over, folks. Wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes region officially came off the endangered species list. This means wolf hunting will be legal in some states. More than 1,300 wolves roam the mountains of Montana and Idaho and an estimated 4,000 live in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.Read more at the Washington Post

Sioux Calendar

screenshot_021January - The Moon Of Frost In The Tipisscreenshot_06February - The Moon Of The Dark Red Calvesscreenshot_10March - The Moon Of The Snowblindscreenshot_121April -The Moon Of The Red Grass Appearingscreenshot_43May - The Moon When Ponies Shedscreenshot_21June - The Moon Of Making Fatscreenshot_24July - The Moon Of Red Cherriesscreenshot_25August - The Moon When Cherries Turn Blackscreenshot_28September - The Moon When Calves Grow Hairscreenshot_32October - The Moon Of The Changing Seasonscreenshot_33November - The Moon Of Falling Leavesscreenshot_41December - The Moon Of Popping Trees************************************************************

Bee On Cocaine

Scientists in Australia have been putting liquified freebase cocaine on the backs of bees in order to study the biochemistry of addiction. Interesting.Noah Baumbach recently wrote a piece for The New Yorker about one of those bees:

Oh, my God, get over here . . . hurry . . . come on come on come on. Taste this nectar, taste it, taste it. . . . Slurp. . . . Is that not, is that not the best fucking thing you’ve ever had?

MP3: Jackson Browne - Cocaine

Chase Lake, North Dakota

hiAnyone ever been to Chase Lake Wilderness or Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota to see the pelican colony?

If you were to tally up all of the white pelicans that nest on two islands in this isolated alkali lake, you'd find more than 20,000, one of the largest colonies in North America. That figure is all the more impressive (and heartening) when you consider that only 50 birds inhabited the region when the area was officially slated for protection in 1908. Birders may observe these creatures from a rise near the lake, but the islands themselves are strictly off-limits. In addition to pelicans, you may encounter ducks, geese, swans, sharp-tailed grouse, ring-necked pheasants, gulls, cormorants, white-tailed deer, and many smaller mammals. Facilities are not available on site, and camping is not permitted. Of the 4,385 acres of Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, 230 (separated from the rest of the refuge by a powerline) were not designated as Wilderness. The lake itself takes up more than half of the area; the remaining acreage is grassland and wetland with very few trees.

We Shall Remain: Geronimo

geronimoDon't forget to tune into PBS tonight for Episode 4 of We Shall Remain:

In February of 1909, the indomitable Chiricahua Apache medicine man Geronimo lay on his deathbed. He summoned his nephew to his side, whispering, “I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive.” It was an admission of regret from a man whose insistent pursuit of military resistance in the face of overwhelming odds confounded not only his Mexican and American enemies, but many of his fellow Apaches as well.