Mountain Bike Hall Of Fame

The sun is-a-shining out east, which means getting your bike out of the closet and cutting up an old pair of pants to make shorts for the spring and/or summer. A co-worker came in this morning talking about the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame after seeing it on an episode of Globetrekker last night. The museum, located in Crested Butte (good lord, what a town) has a fabulous website full of history, pictures (there are a few more after the jump that are way better than the one above), old Mountain Bike magazines and bike race posters.Have at it.

Fort Union Trading Post

Fort Union Trading Post was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri. Built in 1828 by the American Fur Company, the post was set up not as a government or military post, but as a business, established for the specific purpose of doing business with the northern plains tribes. This trade business continued until 1867 making it the longest lasting American fur trading post.At this post, the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibway, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and furs for trade goods including items such as beads, clay pipes, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, cloth, and alcohol. Lots of alcohol. Historic visitors to the fort included John James Audubon, George Catlin, Pierre DeSmet, Sitting Bull, Karl Bodmer, and Jim Bridger.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

National Park Quarters

Starting next month, the United States Mint will issue the first of 56 quarter-dollar coins featuring designs depicting national parks and other national sites. The first coin to be released is Hot Springs National Park, which was set aside by Congress in 1832. Four other coins will be placed into circulation this year—Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon National Park and Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon. (via Joel S.'s OhRanger! blog)

TIME-LIFE: THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS

I have looked through a lot of old books about camping, the outdoors, etc., and I have yet to find any that are as good looking as the Time-Life: American Wilderness series. Pictures and writing are both wonderful. (Ed Abbey edited the "Cactus Country" edition.) The best part about these book is that they're not too hard to find at your local thrift/used book shop, but if you're not near one of those, go on over to your favorite online auctioneer and pick a few out.Y'all have some of these? Got a favorite?

Frontiersmen Camping Fraternity

The Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship (originally called "Frontiersmen Camping Fraternity") was founded during the summer of 1966 by The Royal Rangers, a worldwide ministry of the Assemblies of God. From the "History" section of their website:

The early American frontiersman was an excellent example of man's ability to adapt to the outdoors and the wilderness. His achievements were also an example of courage and determination. The national office, therefore, made the decision to base this fraternity on the lore and traditions of these early frontiersmen.The first FCF chapter was organized in the Southern California District on July 8, 1966. High in the San Bernardino Mountains in a clearing surrounded by gigantic trees, a large group of Royal Rangers sat around a blazing campfire. As they waited, a feeling of mystery and expectancy filled the air.Suddenly, the blast of a hunter's horn shattered the night's stillness and echoed through the trees. National Commander Johnnie Barnes stepped into the firelight, dressed in a buckskin outfit and a coonskin cap. As lie began to explain the new FCF program, a hum of excitement rose above the sound of the crackling campfire. Assisted by two district leaders, Ron Halvorson and Bob Reid, these men proceeded with the first FCF callout. After pledging to endure a time of testing, the candidates were led away carrying a large rope to a mountaintop nearby for an all night initiation.Later as the new members (five men and five boys) were officially inducted into the fraternity at the final friendship fire, they sensed that this ceremony was a milestone in Royal Rangers history.That same year, three more chapters were organized in the Northern California, the Southern Missouri, and the Iowa Districts. This exciting and unique fraternity has so captured the imaginations of men and boys until the program has now grown to include organized chapters in the majority of our country.

More old guidebook covers after the jump...

There are No Other Everglades In The World

In the early 1940s, while working as a journalist at the Miami Herald, Marjory Stoneman Douglas was asked to contribute to the Rivers Of America Series by writing about the Miami River. She was unimpressed by the river, so asked if she could instead write about the Everglades. She researched the Everglades for five years at a time where little scientific knowledge existed about the area, and in 1947, the year that the Everglades was designated a national park, The Everglades: River Of Grass was published. The book's first line is one of the most famous written about the good ol' Glades:

There are no other Everglades in the world.They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them: their vast glittering openness, wider than the enormous visible round of the horizon, the racing free saltness and sweetness of their massive winds, under the dazzling blue heights of space. They are unique also in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose. The miracle of light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass.

Stoneman helped to educate the public and protect the park until she died in 1998. She 108 years old. What a pretty little bird.MP3: Lonnie Mack - Florida

Heimo


In case you have yet to watch VBS' Heimo documentary in full, make sure you do yourself a huge favor and stop here over the weekend. And when you're finished watching, read an interesting interview with James Campbell, Heimo's cousin and author of The Final Frontiersman, the book about Heimo, at Viceland.And if you still can't get enough of Heimo world, then watch a video of John Martin from Vice eat some very fresh caviar while making the documentary. That's after the jump..Well done, VBS. Well done.

Cold Splinters Survey: Getting Back To Your Car

It's always a bittersweet moment getting back to your car after a few days in the woods/desert/prairie. You've accomplished something - even if it meant walking a few hundred yards, starting a fire, then drinking yourself to sleep - but you've also got to get back into a big piece of metal that will most definitely be either too hot or too cold for comfort. You take off your muddy clothes, put on less muddy ones, and drive a group of aching bones back to wherever it is you call home. But no matter how badly you wish you had one more day of eating apples and cinnamon oatmeal from an enamel bowl while watching the sun come up, you finally have a chance to play (BLAST) the song you've had in your head since the second you stepped on the trail.Last week I carelessly asked how y'all prepare your coffee in the morning, and was surprised, shocked even, that so many people commented. I thought it'd be fun to do something like that again, because as I'm sure you must know by now, you are all much more interesting than I am and your answers show it. So hopefully you'll take part in this one too and not make me feel like a fool when the comment section reads "0."What album do you put on when you get back to the car from a good hike?MP3: Free Beer - Cruisin

Colin Fletcher

In the late 1950s, after joining the Royal Marines, serving during World War II, and building roads in Kenya, Welsh-born Colin Fletcher moved to San Francisco. He began hiking in the hills, and two years later, when faced with the decision of whether or not to marry the woman he had been living with, decided to walk the length of California and do some thinking. Fletcher came back, married the girl, and wrote an account of his journey called The Thousand-Mile Summer.The marriage, unfortunately, lasted less than a year, and in 1963, to mend his broken heart, Fletcher decided to walk the length of the Grand Canyon. In 1968, Fletcher published a book about the adventure, The Man Who Walked Through Time, and The Complete Walker, a backpacking guide that has now sold over 500,000 copies. Because of both books, many consider Fletcher to be the father of modern backpacking. Sadly, Fletcher died in 2007 from complications of head injuries he sustained when he was hit by an SUV near his California home in 2001.If you haven't already, pick up a copy of The Man Who Walked Through Time. It's a quick and inspiring book that will certainly help fuel the I-CAN-NOT-WAIT-FOR-SPRING-fire.

Edward Abbey Self-Portrait

Over the last thirty or so years, Burt Britton has worked at The Village Vanguard, The Strand, and The Sheridan Square Book Store. He was then a co-owner of the Upper East Side's Books and Company, which closed in the early 90s. While he worked, he would ask people to draw self-portraits, including Miles Davis, a teenage Kareem Abdul Jabar, Tennesse Williams, and of course, Edward Abbey, whose self-portrait is above. Over 200 were selected for auction this past September, and Abbey's, in the company of people like Normal Mailer, Frank Gehry and Saul Bellow, still fetched $1900.MP3: Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Swimming Song