Moonpie

When I was a young one at camp in Bemidji (if you read this rag, I talk about camp way too much, so apologies), I spent a lot of activity-time riding bikes around camp property and the open Minnesota highways. The bike instructor was a guy named Moonpie (all the counselors had nicknames) who had long dark hair and, around the campfire, sang "Ramble On Rose" like a little mouse. I was one of the few guys in my cabin who thought Moonpie oozed cool, so I spent a lot of time up at the bike shed with him, playing guitar while he blew up tires and did bike repair. I'm sure he thought I was wildly annoying, but I didn't think about that at the time, so I continued on with my shiny black Washburn, hoping that if I sang "Run Around" enough times, my voice would drop.Since then, I can't help but equate Moonpies with the outdoors and, well, being cool, bikes and Jerry Garcia. I never did ask him where he got his name, but I can only imagine him showing up at the steps of the mess hall with a great big Moonpie in his mouth, asking for a job. And knowing the lame stories and lack of effort behind some other counselor's names, that probably isn't too far off.Anyway, I was cleaning out my backpack the other night to get ready for the upcoming months and found a chocolate Moonpie stuffed in the bottom of my bag. I end up buying them a lot on my way to the trail, but can't remember ever actually liking them very much, so it was no surprise to find it. It was months old, from the last trip I took to God knows where, but still looked edible, so what's a boy to do but eat a chocolate Moonpie.Great name. Not so great dessert.

TumpLine

A tumpline is a strap attached at both ends to a backpack used to carry an object by placing the strap over the top of the head. The strap utilizes the spine rather than the shoulders as standard backpack straps do. In North America, you're most likely to see a tumpline being used on a Duluth Pack and/or to portage a canoe. (Canoe link opens as a PDF)I've actually never used one of these while backpacking. Have you?

AMC Volunteer Trail Building

If you live in New England and have done any hiking along the Appalachian Trail, there's a good chance that the Appalachian Mountain Club and their volunteers are to thank.  According to the AMC, "In a typical year, people like you volunteer approximately 18,000 hours building approximately 1,200 feet of bog bridging, completing about 1,000 feet of screewall, installing more than 300 feet of drainage, and building about 100 cairns. Local volunteers help maintain 1,500 miles of trails each year." Sign up now for 2010 Trail Crew Opportunities at Acadia National Park (Maine), the Berkshires (Massachusetts), the White Mountains (New Hampshire and Maine), Connecticut, the Delaware Water Gap (New Jersey & Pennsylvania), Baxter State Park (Maine), Cardigan Mountain (New Hampshire), and more. And if you volunteer, you'll get one of these fancy shirts.See the full 2010 Volunteer Vacations schedule or the full 2010 Work Party schedule.

Euell Gibbons + Grape Nuts

Grape Nuts have long been a backpacking breakfast staple, and aside from homemade granola, there's no better cereal to carry on the trail. According to the internets, it seems as though a lot of people passionately hate the little nutty nuggets, so argue with me if you want. There are few better tastes. (And I'm talking cold cereal here, so oatmeal, grits etc. don't count.)  Check out this wonderfully cheesy ad from an 80s BACKPACKER and then watch Euell Gibbons, authority on wild and edible plants and pictured above, tell you that it tastes like "wild hickory nuts." I couldn't find his more famous "Ever eaten a pine tree?" spot for the cereal, so if anyone has it, send it along.

Max and Brian/The Rising Storm

(via)There aren't many music sites better than The Rising Storm. And not that those guys are ever in a slump, but good lord have they been killing it as of late. Everything's a gem. Go visit and stay as long as you can. Make yourself a mix and play it loud while your dog (Max or Brian? I say Max is the dog) is sticking his head out the window.MP3: Hoyt Axton - Have A Nice Day MP3: Manfred Mann - Part Time Man

Roy Sullivan + Tetra Pak

Roy Cleveland Sullivan was a U.S. park ranger in Shenandoah National Park, that, between 1942 and 1977, was hit by lightning on seven different occasions. He is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person being struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being. Tetra Pak has a new commercial that's an homage of sorts to Roy that's well worth watching. Head on over to 10Engines and have at it.Unfortunately, Sullivan was finally killed in 1983 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach.

Cold Splinters + FADER

Boot companies, designers, rich entrepreneurs, please heed the call. Make a boot with me:

So I ask you, North Face, Vasque, Hi-Tec, Columbia, Merrell (all of you used to make a pair just like the Clarions) why don’t you make a boot like this anymore? Is it because they wouldn’t be as functional for hiking by today’s standards? Then let’s remedy that! I’m sure we can find a way.“We” you ask? Let me explain..

Read the rest over at FADER.

California + Cigarettes

California is trying to ban smoking in state parks and on beaches. I don't smoke, but even I find that to be ridiculous. If someone wants to smoke, let them smoke. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but there's too much restriction nowadays. I have friends that smoke on camping trips, and they always always always pack their cigarette butts out. I'm sure they'd do the same on a California beach. As San Bernardino Count legistlator Anthony Adams told the SF Chronicle, ""Prohibiting smoking is not the answer. [It] assumes everyone who smokes does something intrinsically criminal." Read more here.

R.I.P. Stewart Udall

by Mark Cahill Living in Chicago, it was hard to notice that last weekend marked the changing of seasons. On Saturday March 20th, at 1:32pm ET, the sun crossed directly over the earth's equator: the Vernal Equinox. Soon the trees will be in bloom and we will all be trekking through our favorite weekend stomping grounds without any heavy parkas and long underwear.Stewart Udall was a true champion of the environment. He served as the Secretary of Interior under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and was responsible for some the most important modern environmental victories of our time. Udall passed Saturday morning in his New Mexico home at the ripe old age of 90, just as spring was being born.Some of Udall's biggest accomplishments include the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts, The Wilderness Act of 1964, The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and The National Trail System Act of 1968. He also played a large role in the acquisition of Canyonlands NP, Redwoods NP, North Cascades NP and Guadalupe Mountains NP.Udall made every Spring a little more enjoyable for all of us, and for that, we thank him. More info here.

Freedom and Wilderness

I suppose doing a post about Edward Abbey is becoming a weekly thing now, but this one is the toppermost of the poppermost. Moab, Utah's Back of Beyond Books sells a 4 CD collection of Abbey reading his own work that you can (and should) buy here. Each disc contains around 45 minutes of talking, which usually amounts to a chapter or two from one of his books. If you're an Abbey fan, which it seems as though some of you are, you need this. Immediately. And if you're not, listen below to an excerpt of "Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom" from The Journey Home. Who wouldn't want to hear the guy who wrote this repeat it into a microphone?

We need wilderness because we are wild animals. Every man needs a place where he can go to go crazy in peace. Every Boy Scout troop deserves a forest to get lost, miserable, and starving in. Even the maddest murderer of the sweetest wife should get a chance for a run to the sanctuary of the hills. If only for the sport of it. For the terror, freedom, and delirium. Because we need brutality and raw adventure, because men and women first learned to love in, under, and all around trees, because we need for every pair of feet and legs about ten leagues of naked nature, crags to leap from, mountains to measure by, deserts to finally die in when the heart fails.

MP3: Ed Abbey - Excerpt from "Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom"

Harry Yount

In 1880, Harry Yount was chosen by the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, Philetus Norris, to act as "gamekeeper." He spent one winter alone in a cabin in the Lamar Valley controlling poaching and vandalism in the park. Horace Albright, a founding father and the second Director of the National Park Service, wrote of Yount, "After that first winter alone, with only the geysers, the elk and the other animals for company, Harry Yount pointed out in a report that it was impossible for one man to patrol the park. He urged the formation of a ranger force. So Harry Yount is credited with being the father of the ranger service, as well as the first national park ranger."Tons more interesting information at NPS.

Hats

I found this hat in the "free pile" at work several years ago, and although I've brought it on several spring/summer trips, I've yet to actually wear it. Pure novelty. It's a Kangol that I highly doubt is made anymore. The bill of the hat goes on forever and it's just about the ugliest thing I ever saw. That's my friend Jay (notice the overalls) wearing the beauty at Joshua Tree two Christmases ago.What I do end up wearing is a 99 cent NEW HAMPSHIRE hat that I bought, along with a sling shot, at a general store in the White Mountains. Along with several rips, that thing is now stained many times over with sweat, dirt, food, and lord knows what else. It might be time to retire it. What a shame.What do y'all wear when you go out? Send me a picture. Would love to post it.