Rare Bison Bloodline

Blood tests indicate that the buffalo roaming Wind Cave National Park and Yellowstone National Park are the only two public herds in the U.S. that lack evidence of cattle genes. “It’s the closest thing to what used to wander the prairies for thousands of years,” said Tom Farrell, chief of interpretation for Wind Cave National Park. “This is the closest in going back in time and seeing what the Great American Desert was like.”(via Oh Ranger)

Coghlan's

If you've ever been in a camping store, you've most definitely seen products from Coghlan's. The "outdoor accessory people" started 50 years ago in 1959 while Norm Coghlan was running Coghlan's Gas Appliances in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Campers would come in for repairs on their camp stoves and lanterns, so Norm started selling tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses.Customers wanted a way to make toast on their pump-up gas camping stove, and since Norm's store carried such an item, he found out the U.S. based company that manufactured the toaster was discontinuing it. He bought the entire inventory, rented a storage facility and began Coghlan's distribution of camping accessories. The Camp Stove Toaster has been made in Winnipeg, Manitoba since the mid-1960s. Coghlan’s has assembled and packaged over 7 million 504D Toasters.Coghlan's now sells over 450 accessories including bear bells, whistles, squeeze tubes, hammocks, fire starters, hot dog skewers, signal mirrors and compasses. All Coghlan's gear comes in those green and yellow packages above that make them look like they were made in the 50s - the reason they're so damn cool (and unreliable).Do y'all ever buy Coghlan's stuff when you're at the camping store?

Citizens For Conservation

I was back in the burbs of Chicago this weekend, taking a driving tour of the enormous houses, farms, and prairie preserves that I grew up around. As a kid, it's a bit of challenge to be real interested in your natural surroundings when all you have is flat land and tall grasses, but seeing bits and pieces of the prairie again for the first time in five years sure made me regret not spending more time getting burrs stuck in my sweatpants. The fact that there are still places in Barrington like the Flint Creek Savanna or Bigsby Prairie is largely because of theCitizens For Conservation:

Since about 1987, Citizens for Conservation volunteers have worked with developers and others to locate sites where impending construction activity will bring about the destruction of native, spring woodland wildflowers. Once located, CFC seeks the owner's permission to rescue the plants. If permission is received, volunteers carefully dig out and move these previous, evermore scarce spring gems to the protected sanctuary of preserves such as Grigsby Prairie or Flint Creek Savanna.Today, thousands of spring widlflowers thrive as a result of the efforts of CFC volunteers. Not only do these wildflowers brighten the spring woods, their seed is then available for still other restorations.

The photos of the CFC are from Barrington Area Library's Flickr Page. Many more after the jump..cfc6cfc20cfc16cfc15cfc14cfc13cfc12cfc11cfc10cfc7cfc4cfc2cfc1

Kurt Vile

I went to Mercury Lounge last night to watch Kurt Vile warble his way through songs from his latest collection of THC Talking Blues, Childish Prodigy. War On Drugs were playing behind him with the perfect Memory Man wooziness that makes them all the perfect tape to play in your car if only you had one.Listen to the Childish Prodigy here, watch a live version of "He's Alright" here, and then buy music here.

New Belgium and Devendra Banhart

If you've ever spent some time out west, specifically in Colorado, chances are pretty high that you've had a bottle of New Belgium's Fat Tire before. I'm not sure if it's the Phish parking lot vibe obsession with Fat Tire or the actual taste I don't like, but I've never been a fan. New Belgium does some good things to help protect the environment in Colorado though, so if you are a fan, keep buying them. Your money is going to a good place and an a eco-conscious company.But that ain't the point of this post. I saw Devendra Banhart play last Friday night and it reminded me of two New Belgium/Fat Tire commercials that feature "Noah" and "At The Hop". They both look more like music videos than commercials - a guy fixes up a vintage bike that resembles the one that adorns the Fat Tire label and takes it for a nighttime ride through the mountains of Colorado. Nothing to do with beer.The videos are probably over three or four years old, but beautiful and well worth watching if you haven't already done so. Doesn't make the beer taste any better unfortunately.MP3: Devendra Banhart - Baby Watch them after the jump...

Aether Apparel

While highly functional, outdoor apparel is not always the most stylish stuff in the world. If you're living in a town in Colorado where everyone wears to work what they'll be going hiking or kayaking in later that day, then a Patagonia fleece and a pair of Chacos works just fine. For better or worse, that's not where most of us live, so finding a functional, good looking coat isn't always easy.Started by two filmmakers in Los Angeles, Aether is trying to bridge that gap so we don't have to look like "teenagers on the ski slopes" anymore. When I was a teenager on the great hills of Wilmot in Wisconsin, people were wearing Starter jackets and jeans to ski, so I suppose that's a good look to avoid. Aether's line of clothing is a little on the expensive side, but if it's as functional as they say it is, then there's going to be a lot of people who'll want this stuff. As you can see in the Barrier Eclipse jacket pictured above, they make a handsome coat.What else do y'all wear that's stylish and functional for camping? Fjallraven's clothes always catch my eyes.

Repost: Peter Parnall

Peter Parnall has illustrated a lot of children's book over the years, most notably for the stories of Byrd Baylor. His style is real easy to spot - bright colors, lots of empty space, and usually some type of cactus, bird, or desert cliff. His work might be a little "Southwest Trading Post" at times, but his illustrations have always stuck with us since reading Everybody Needs A Rock when we were younger. Turns out Parnall illustrated the original cover of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire as well, so that makes him okay with in these parts. The books he and Baylor did in the 70s and 80s might not be much of a read anymore, but the pictures are still great.More Parnall book covers

Foxfire

I got a birthday package in the mail last week that had an old copy of Foxfire 4 and a box of Douglas Fir tea inside. Damn fine gift. Foxfire Magazine (The term "foxfire" is a name commonly applied to several species of bioluminescent fungi that grow on rotting wood in damp forests) was started in 1966 by a teacher named Eliot Wiggington and his students. Wiggington asked his students what would make them interested in English and they decided to write a magazine containing stories and interviews gathered from elders in their rural southern Appalachian community. It's still in production, still written entirely by high schoolers and the articles can focus on a specific person’s life or stories, the lore of a specific town or community, details or how-to information on traditional crafts and skills, or any number of other things. The Foxfire books (there are 12 in total) are collections of the magazine's articles. The volume that was sent to me, Foxfire 4, has articles on fiddle making, springhouses, horse trading, sassafras tea, berry buckets, knife making, wood carving, logging, cheese making, and gardening.Thanks Heidi.

Ardi

Scientists discover a very important fossil:

The fossil puts to rest the notion, popular since Darwin's time, that a chimpanzee-like missing link—resembling something between humans and today's apes—would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree. Indeed, the new evidence suggests that the study of chimpanzee anatomy and behavior—long used to infer the nature of the earliest human ancestors—is largely irrelevant to understanding our beginnings.

Cypress Kayaks

After emailing back and forth the last few days trying to coordinate a trip to Bahia Honda with friends from college, I've started to get excited about spending some time in a kayak again. I found Cypress Kayaks on All Plaid Out's Tumblr today and now I just can't wait. Watch the video of Aaron Wells making his custom boats here and then cruise around his site. Hell of a craft:

Aaron Wells started Cypress Kayaks in 2007 to provide kayak aficionados a technically and aesthetically superior boat. Born and raised in Suwannee County, Aaron was fortunate to grow up with the beautiful Suwannee River right in his own backyard. Spending countless hours in and around the river with his friends and family, Aaron quickly grew to appreciate this natural work of art and the fascinating boats that navigated up and down its stream.After graduating Florida State University with a degree in Environmental Science, Aaron moved back to Suwannee County to pursue a career in wetland management. In his spare time, he began working on a wooden strip kayak, and soon realized his love for building these types of boats. The joy and challenge of constructing unique, one-of-a-kind vessels gave him the incentive to quit his job, and pursue his passion full-time. Aaron began to study the expertise of building wooden strip kayaks, and soon thereafter opened Cypress Kayaks’ doors to the public.Aaron’s workshop is located in Suwannee County near the Suwannee River State Park, where he builds custom-made vessels for retail and produces instructional videos on constructing kayak boats.

The Devil's Path

Stephen Reingold (The Gear Junkie) hiked the Catskills' Devil's Path and wrote about it for the NYT:

The Devil’s Path, an east-to-west voyage along the spine of the Catskills, is often cited as the toughest hiking trail in the East. In 25 miles it ascends six major peaks, plunging into deep valleys between climbs.“From end to end the Devil’s Path is one of the more challenging trails around,” said Josh Howard, a director at the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, which publishes detailed maps of area trails, including the Devil’s Path.Backpackers hoping to complete the route face a total climb and descent of more than 14,000 feet. Steep ascents include cliff bands and traverse terrain that is vertical enough at times to be confused with a mountain climb.

Urban Camping

by Mark Cahill

A few years ago while in grad school I was working on a design project for an "alternative hotel." The problem: It's super cheap to travel, but too expensive to stay the night. At the same time I was planning a trip out to the west coast for a few days of site seeing and backpacking. Looking for that perfect hostel, I began to think about what exactly to bring. I definitely wasn't going to miss the opportunity to spend some time in San Francisco, but was also not going to miss Yosemite. I pictured myself walking through the streets of the city with my pack on and my tin cup clanking as I hopped the street car tracks; climbing those infamous hills; roaming about the wilderness of Haight Ashbury.And it dawned on me: I was carrying shelter in the form of my tent anyway so why shouldn't I be able to just pitch it somewhere in the city? Why couldn't this be part of how we travel and how we stay in urban areas. So I used this idea on my hotel design. I had already decided to design the roof as a green roof, so it was easy to designate the area as a "campsite." And so there it was: Urban Camping.As it turns out, this has been done before, and is being done now to some extent. In San Diego in 1914, a Hotel placed a "Tent City" on top of their roof to make use of that wasted space. That was nearly a century ago, and it seems that again the idea is gaining some more steam. An Architecture firm called import export have created a mobile multi-level tower (pictured above) that allows for tents to be pitched in urban settings. Another young designer named J. Enrique Enriquez entered this idea into a design competition and it fetched him an honorable mention.Would you camp in a city?

White Sands National Monument

White Sands, New Mexico, November 28, 1975 by Snap ManWhite Sands National Monument:

Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and created the world's largest gypsum dune field.White Sands National Monument preserves a major portion of this unique dune field, along with the plants and animals that have successfully adapted to this constantly changing environment.

MP3: Bob Dylan - Pressing On

Sassafras

Sassafras, found mostly in the eastern United States, is characterized by its' three distinct leaves on the same tree - unlobed or oval (top left); bilobed or mitten-shaped (top right); and trilobed (bottom). If you've living in New York City like I do, you can find it in Prospect Park. Root beer was originally made from sassafras until the FDA banned it in the late 1960s as a potential carcinogen, but no human studies have ever been made and many believe the ban to be unwarranted. (Read more about that here.)The roots of a sassafras sapling can be uprooted and used to make a damn good tea - it tastes just like root beer - so next time you're out east and want something other than pine needle tea, look around for some sassafras. It won't hurt you.