John Wesley Powell

John Wesley Powell:

It was 1869. Ten men in four boats were about to embark on a journey that would cover almost 1,000 miles through uncharted canyons and change the west forever. Three months later only five of the original company plus their one-armed Civil War hero leader would emerge from the depths of the Grand Canyon at the mouth of the Virgin River.Thirty five-year-old Major John Wesley Powell was that expedition's leader. From early childhood Powell manifested deep interest in all natural phenomena. Original and self-reliant to a remarkable degree, he early undertook collecting and exploring trips quite unusual for a youth of his age, and studied botany, zoology, and geology wholly without the aid of a teacher.

Read: The Exploration Of The Colorado River and Its Canyons

The Boundary Waters

Mark Cahill is a friend of mine from suburban Chicago high school. The last time I saw him was many years ago in Lawrence, Kansas, where his then-girlfriend danced on the bar at an underage watering hole and got us kicked out. He recently got back from a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters and kindly wrote the following for Cold Splinters. Enjoy. Just before Duluth, MN it was time that we switched drivers so that I could finally catch a couple Zzz's. We left Chicago about seven hours earlier and it was a short drive along the Northern Edge of Lake Superior to the Ranger's Station near Grand Marais, MN, where our permits lay waiting. I hopped in the front seat and shuffled around until I masterfully lodged my head in between the window and my seat belt. I had just fallen asleep listening to JJ Cale's "Travelin' Light" and was suddenly woken by a hard slam on the brakes. I popped up and about twenty feet in front of the car was a big fat, "Welcome to the Boundary Waters, Boys!" Somewhere in between that rush of thinking you're flying into Lake Superior and being groggy from sleep, I realized that we stopped for my very first sighting of a Grey Wolf. I don't know why, but I nodded at the beautiful little guy as he slowly retreated into the woods. Perhaps it was because I knew we were there.After grabbing our permits from the Ranger's Station, we turned North in Grand Marais and headed up the Gunflint Trail in Superior National Forest. Roughly forty-five minutes later and about a mile from the Canadian Border, we reached our departure point, Round Lake. There is a small Canoe Outfitter (Tuscorora) at the edge of the Lake, and as it turns out a friendly face - The owner's sister lives in my hometown! After some friendly banter about water levels and fishing hotspots/depths we loaded up our canoe and pushed off. A quick half mile paddle across the Lake and we reached our first portage. It was a doozy at 142 Rods, and about half-way through we saw the sign! Entry Point #51. Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We took the Frost River Loop through the BWCAW, a fairly tough route that features a narrow winding river mid-way through. Lots of portages to hike and lots of beaver dams to hop; Gorgeous Lakes and good boulder diving; Leaches and pesky mosquitoes; Common Loon and Bald Eagle; Bull Moose and Black Bear...It was perfect!A few days later I perched myself on a boulder and unsheathed my travel sketchbook from it's waterproofing. Flipping through the worn pages, it occurred to me just what the glaciers had carved into our continent during the last Ice Age. Maybe by accident, or maybe because my bowling name is 'Iceman,' I've tended to live near distinctive landscapes created by those large glacial movements from so long ago: From Hills in Kansas, Moraines in Wisconsin, to those Great Lakes. I pulled out my favorite Techliner Drafting pen and scratched in a new page, then headed back to the camp fire with some old friends hoping to hear my new friend - the Grey Wolf - howl, "Good Night!"MP3: JJ Cale - Travelin' Light

The Rise And Fall Of The Great Lakes

Must watch:

In this short documentary from conservationist Bill Mason, he illustrates that although the Great Lakes have had their ups and downs, nothing has been harder to take than what humans have done to them lately. In the film, a lone canoeist lives through the changes of geological history, through Ice Age and flood, only to find himself in the end trapped in a sea of scum.

Loudon Wainwright III Continued

A few years back, I spent an entire summer listening to Loudon Wainwright's A Live One on repeat. One of the first posts I ever made on this little ol' website, which was amazingly over a year ago, was about that album. Since then, I've posted several odes to Mr. Wainwright's "Raffi for adults" style and after lying in bed with Unrequited and a belly full of s'mores last night, I thought I'd share some more this morning. Loudon's a waspy, self-depricating Bob Dylan trying stand-up.Thanks for reading this rag, y'all. I appreciate it.MP3: Loudon Wainwright III - Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder MP3: Loudon Wainwright III - Kick In The Head

Deer Ticks

Ticks are always a concern on the trail so make sure you use bug spray with DEET, tuck your pants into your socks to keep them off your silky smooth legs, and check your body thoroughly when you get home. The black-legged tick (or deer tick, picture above) can carry Lymes Disease, so they're the ones you really want to make sure aren't creeping around under your skin. There was an article on the NYTimes Room For Debate Blog earlier this week written by five different professors explaining what we should know about ticks and their environment and the steps we can take to control them. Some interesting viewpoints by the authors are highlighted below:1) There are more and more ticks each year. This is directly correlated to the fact that there are more and more deers each year. In Rhode Island, each deer produces about 450,000 larval deer ticks every year.2) Virginia opossums play a prominent role in reducing human health to tick born diseases by grooming the ticks off killing them before they even have a chance to feed.3) This tick species bites dozens of species of mammals, birds and reptiles — not just deer. And several recent studies in New York and New Jersey have found no connection between populations of deer and ticks. In fact, abundance of black-legged ticks is more closely tied to that of white-footed mice. Ticks feeding on mice survive well and are highly likely to become infected with the Lyme disease bacterium.

Edward Abbey's Firetower

Last time I'll post on Abbey for a while, I promise. I'm sure it's annoying. The North Rim Firetower in Grand Canyon National Park, a firetower that Edward Abbey manned for four years in the late 60s and early 70s, has been named to the National Historic Lookout Register. What does this mean? Nothing, of course. And as The Goat points out, the solitude that the great men and women who man these towers experience is cleary not filled with thoughts of making this list. But an honor is an honor folks and, without the time that Mr. Abbey spent in that tower, we wouldn't have Black Sun, one of Abbey's most critically unsuccessful books he ever wrote. The story of a firetower lookout who falls in a love with a young girl and gets blamed when she disappears in the park where he works, the New Yorker called the book "an embarrassingly bad novel." I unfortunately have not had the pleasure of reading this book. Have you?More info hereMP3: Buffy Sainte-Marie - He's The Keeper Of The Fire

Pirates Of The Flats

Pirates Of The Flats:

What would happen if you took a group of world-famous fishing enthusiasts, brought them down to the Bahamas, set them loose on the flats for a week’s worth of bonefishing, and then captured it all on film? Well, you’d get Pirates of the Flats, which (despite the goofy name) looks to be about the coolest fishing show to come around since, well, ever.Talk about your all-star cast: The six-episode series features Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton (yes, the actor), fly-fishing legend Lefty Kreh, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, writer Thomas McGuane, and photographer Val Atkinson (and in case you’re wondering, they can all unfurl a sixty-foot cast into the wind before you can say “Bonefish at two o’clock”). The episodes will air on ESPN2 beginning this January. But there’s more than just star power and big fish here. Produced in partnership with the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, the series will highlight conservation efforts surrounding this most hallowed of game fish and the coastal environments they call home, so you learn not just how to catch bonefish but how to protect them as well. Now that’s a fishing show worth its salt.

Very busy at work today. More tomorrow.

Yellow-Yellow

1,000 pound grizzlies in Yellowstone can't even get them open, but a small black bear in the Adirondacks named Yellow-Yellow seems to have cracked the BearVault code. Named after the yellow tags in both of her ears, Yellow-Yellow has found away to open the both the BearVault 450, which uses one tab to open the canister, and the BearVault 500, which uses two. And apparently Yellow-Yellow is now teaching other bears too; Campers have reported seeing other bears get into their BearVaults.Despite her knack for getting into people's camps and food, Yellow-Yellow, who weighs 350 pounds, is as shy as can be. Ben Tabor, a state wildlife technician who has tracked Yellow-Yellow claims "It would be ridiculous for us to remove Yellow-Yellow at this point. She’s not bold. She doesn’t charge. She steals food but runs away when confronted.”There's a pretty amazing story about Yellow-Yellow over at the NYTimes that I highly recommend you read.HOLY HELL MP3: Joe Cocker - Cry Me A River

Corduroy Mountain

Found out about Corduroy Mountain the other day when I got an email telling me that Cold Splinters had been put on their blogroll. Thanks for that. Peter, the site's writer, has a real ear for homegrown country rock and the stories that accompany each song are just as fine. Here's what CM has to say about "Smokies" by Barefoot Jerry:

Barefoot Jerry was an all-star band of Nashville session pros. Friday nights, when the studios closed, these friends would load Ford pickup beds with bags of groceries, instrument cases, and bottles of sour mash. Forty-eight hours of freedom awaited. Tucked in an Appalachian holler was a shotgun shack, its paint peeling from the elements. The men would wheel a piano onto the creaking wood porch, pull out guitars, pass the drink. And so they would play their music, not that of rote producers. Inspired by the living beauty and primal energy of the surroundings, the men wrote "Smokies." At least that's what I hope happened.

Go on over and look around. He doesn't have much up yet, but let's hope he keeps going. Go Peter. Go.MP3: Barefoot Jerry - Smokies

Honeybees

Got home from a great weekend in the Catskills full of music, barns, blueberries, ponds, bonfires and jalapeno cornbread to find a great documentary on PBS about the mysterious disappearance of the honeybee. The program is about two years old, so read this to get the latest on what those smart guys and gals in white coats are discovering. It seems as though it's a combination of factors, including farming practices, that are making the bees more vulnerable to disease. Recently a discovery has been made that bees sterilize their hives and in doing so, give the colony a form of "social immunity," which lessens the need for each individual bee to have a strong immune system.Godspeed, honeybees. Without you, those blueberries would never have existed.MP3: Gary P. Nunn - Tennessee Road (thx)

Now You Look So Forlorn

Lots of mention of the Grand Canyon here this last week. MSNBC Reports:

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department announced Monday it is temporarily barring the filing of new mining claims, including for uranium, on nearly 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon.The land is being set aside for two years so the department can study whether it should be permanently withdrawn from mining activity, according to a notice published in the Federal Register online. The notice covers 633,547 acres under the control of the Bureau of Land Management and 360,002 acres in Kaibab National Forest.The announcement comes ahead of Tuesday's congressional hearing on a bill to set aside more than 1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the canyon. The bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and environmental groups had been looking to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for temporary protections at the Grand Canyon while the legislation is pending.

MP3: Alex Chilton - Hey! Little Child

Big Agnes Savery SL

I was originally intrigued by Big Agnes when I read about their integrated bag and pad system, which struck me as a pretty logical way to beat the "I slept for about 10 minutes last night" discussion that seems to plague some camping experiences. That kind of talk is a big bummer when you're trying to enjoy your coffee before you take your tent down and hike another couple of miles to camp #2. Big Agnes pads slip into the bottom of their sleeping bags, making it impossible to roll off during the night. The Colorado based company was generous enough to send me a bag to test and I've been sleeping like a baby since I first took it out. I was sent the Savery SL, a 3-Season Synthetic Mummy that's not as nearly constrictive as my last mummy bag. The PrimaLoft makes it extremely comfortable, and at 2lbs 13 oz, you're not sacrificing too much weight for a good night's sleep. It's a little hot in these summer months, but on the cool nights of the spring and fall, you'll be warm and dreaming of the things that you all dream about.And one of the smaller details of the bag that you'll love? You can stuff clothes in the hood's pocket for an instant pillow.