Good Ol' Cold Splinters Stickers

When I made a sheet of eight "Good Ol' Cold Splinters" stickers a few weeks ago, I certainly didn't think that anyone would want one. But when I mentioned that I had put one on the back of my car, I got a lot of emails asking for one. After debating whether or not I should actually offer them up (making a sticker that says the name of your blog is a little, well, ya know....) I've decided to make a few 3" round stickers if you really want one. Which I'm sure you do...Send $3.00 on PayPal to coldsplinters@gmail.com and I'll get one out to you. Enjoy it. Send me a picture if you actually stick it somewhere.MP3: The Black Crowes - Sometimes Salvation

Righty and Lefty

After spending most of my yesteryear in the Chicago suburbs, I was always under the impression that Euchre was a midwest thing. But after living in New England New York for the last five years (good lord), I've found more and more people from all over the country who know how to play. (They were taught by a midwesterner?) If you find someone who knows what Righty and Lefty are, it's an instant bond, an instant club. Whenever my college roommate's family came to visit, we would go to dinner, stock up at Liquormart and then rush home to start a Euchre tournament that would usually last most of the night. What a way to spend a Friday.It also happens to be the #1 card game for sitting around a campfire in a Crazy Creek, so if you don't know how to play, ask a friend to teach you. And if you don't have any friends that know how to play, bummer.

The Conquest Of Everest

On May 29, 1953, at the age of 33, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the 29,029 foot summit of Mount Everest. Hulu has the full stream of The Conquest Of Everest, a documentary about the expedition, so if you'd like, you can click here and watch the film in its entirety.

right back in the same mountains they had left behind.

From "A Novelist Looks at the Land" by Sharyn McCrumb:

In Traces on the Appalachians: A History of Serpentine in America, geologist Kevin Dann writes that the first Appalachian journey was the one made by the mountains themselves.The proof of this can be found in a vein of a green mineral called serpentine which forms its own subterranean “Appalachian Trail” along America’s eastern mountains, stretching from north Georgia to the hills of Nova Scotia, where it seems to stop. This same vein of serpentine can be found in the mountains of western Ireland, where it again stretches north into Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and the Orkneys, finally ending in the Arctic Circle. More than two hundred and fifty million years ago the mountains of Appalachia and the mountains of Great Britain fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Continental drift pulled them apart at the same time it formed the Atlantic Ocean.The mountains’ family connection to Britain reinforced what I had felt about the migration patterns of the early settlers.  People forced to leave a land they loved come to America. Hating the flat, crowded eastern seaboard, they head westward on the Wilderness Road until they reach the wall of mountains. They follow the valleys south-southwest down through Pennsylvania, and finally find a place where the ridges rise, where you can see vistas of mountains across the valley. The Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, the Cornishmen - all those who had lives along the other end of the serpentine chain - to them this place must have looked right. Must have felt right. Like home.  And they were right back in the same mountains they had left behind.Perhaps it isn’t a unique experience in nature, this yearning for a place to which one is somehow connected. After years in the vast ocean, salmon return to spawn in the same small stream from whence they and their forebears came; monarch butterflies make the journey from the eastern seaboard to the same field in Mexico that had been the birthplace of the previous generation. The journey there and back again is unchanging, but each generation travels only one way. Is it really so strange that humans might feel some of this magnetism toward the land itself?I thought this bit of mountain geology was a wonderful metaphor for the journeys reflected in The Songcatcher, and that, in a sociological way, it closed the circle. I imagined my ancestor, Malcolm McCourry, harkening back to memories of the hills of Scotland he knew as a child. Perhaps when he saw the green mountains of North Carolina, he felt that he had come home. When I visit Scotland, I marvel at the resemblance between their land and ours— surely the pioneers felt the same awe in reverse.If you go looking for the serpentine chain in Britain, the best place to find it is on the Lizard, a peninsula in Cornwall between Falmouth and Penzance that is the southernmost tip of England. There, at Kynance Cove, you can see the cliffs of magnesium-rich serpentine, and the chain of rocks in the bay that marks the path to Ireland’s link on the great geologic chain. Serpentine began as peridotite, first as molten rock beneath the surface of the earth, and then as a deposit on the ancient seabed of the Rheic Ocean, some 375 million years ago. When two prehistoric super continents collided, the Lizard was slammed into the landmass that would become Britain. Another continental do-si-do produced Laurentia, which traveled north of the equator, passing the Tropic of Cancer 100 million years ago. Since the last Ice Age, the Lizard has rested at 50 degrees north latitude, part of an island walled away from continental Europe by the rising sea. The boundary between the landmass of the Lizard and the rest of Cornwall lies at Polurrian Cove, a clear demarcation. In the tiny village of Lizard, craftsmen today carve bowls and pendants out of tremolite serpentine, just as the Cherokee indians in eastern America once carved bowls of their own from this mineral-- just as the Vikings farther north on the European chain carved spindle whorls from the soft rock. Will the circle be unbroken? Indeed.I have scores of cousins who have never left that mountain fastness: no amount of money, and no dazzle of city lights could ever tempt them to abandon the land. I feel some of that power of place as I write, looking out across the ridges of mountains stretching along the Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail, and knowing that deep in the earth the serpentine chain is snaking its way past my farm, pointing the way to Canada, to Ireland, to the Orkney Islands. My office sits perched on the edge of the ridge so that from my window I can see green meadows far below, and folds of multi-colored hills stretching away to the clouds in the distance. It could be any century at all in that vista, which is just the view one needs to write novels set in other times. I tell myself I don’t want to live anywhere else, but every year or two, I make my way back to Britain, and I spend a few weeks wandering around the west of Ireland, or the coves of Cornwall, or the cliffs of Scotland - an ocean away from home, but still connected by the serpentine chain.

Every day is Earth Day

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. *Above: My Earth Day pin from 1990.

Dr. Bronner's

Yeah, it's good for shampooing your hair, washing your body, brushing your teeth and shaving your face while you're out on the trail (who shaves on the trail?), but if you've got nothing to do but waste time around the fire before you get tired, there's not much better reading material than Dr. Bronner's labels. Click the image to read it now, but I'd wait until you're out under the stars. Or you can leave the soap at home and read a far more interesting book. Guess that works too...

Cold Splinters + Aquarium Drunkard

After months of emailing, I finally met Justin Gage in Austin, Texas, while sneaking him and his wife, Melissa, into a show at the FADER Fort. I was/am a huge fan of Aquarium Drunkard because, let's be honest, it's the best music website that the Internet has. The Internets was made so sites like Aquarium Drunkard could exist. At the time, I was still working in music, and while I can't remember the exact moment that Justin and I decided that we liked each other, I'm sure it started around one of the many times I would apologize for emailing him about whatever crap band I was being paid to email him about. That was almost four years ago.Since then, Justin and I have stayed friends, seeing each other when we're down in Austin and getting together whenever he visits the East Coast. A few years ago, Justin stayed with my girlfriend and I for a night in the Chinatown closet we called home, where he so willingly woke us up by finding my Europe '72 vinyl and blasting "Ramble On Rose." If that's not the best damn alarm clock in the world, then I don't know what is.Several weeks ago, Mr. Gage and I were talking about his wife's cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains, a place her father built with his own two hands. After the conversation, he emailed and asked if I would contribute to his mixtape series on that wonderful SIRIUS show that he does. I calmly said "YES," put together a few songs that I've posted on Cold Splinters and a few songs that I haven't, went on over to the SIRIUS offices in midtown Manhattan and sat in a booth making fun of myself and this website while recording the transitions for the show. "This is Jeff from Cold Splinters, a camping website you've never read and probably never will, and you just heard Paul McCartney's 'Big Barn Bed.'"It'll be on this Friday, but the tracks can be downloaded on AD this very instant.Thanks Justin. You're the goddamn best.MP3: The Monkees - As We Go Along

Devils Hole Pupfish

The Devils Hole Pupfish's only natural habitat is in the 93 degree waters of Devils Hole, located within the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nye County, Nevada, a detached unit of Death Valley National Park. Although the cavern is over 400 feet deep, the pupfish, a 22-thousand-year-old species, is believed to spawn exclusively on a shallow rock shelf just under the waters surface. By the fall of 2006, an estimated 38 fish remained in the wild. Since 2007, the population estimates have started to swing upward. The fall 2008 count was estimated at 127 fish; the first time triple digits have been estimated since 2004, and the first three year upward trend since 1996.Watch: PBS' Life In Death Valley

100 Mile Wilderness

The Hundred-Mile Wilderness is the section of the Appalachian Trail that runs between Monsoon, ME and Abol Bridge, just south of Baxter State Park. It is generally considered the wildest section of the trail, and as you can see from the sign above, has no roads for 100 miles, so stock up on oatmeal and sardines.The AMC is working to protect this land through their Maine Woods Initiative that you can read more about here.MP3: Ted Lucas - It Is So Nice To Get Stoned

Sardines

Sardines are great for camping. High(ish) protein, canned, CHEAP, extremely aromatic (great for attracting bears!), compact and low in mercury. I don't eat a beef salami, so these are even better for little ol' me. Not a lot of people enjoy these fishy little fish, so when you find someone else that indulges in sardines and toast, you feel an automatic kinship. You're part of a club.Maine used to be home to a hell of a lot of sardine canneries, but as of April 18th, that will be all but a memory. The last American sardine cannery, located in Prospect Harbor, ME, will be closing down. The cannery is owned by Bumble Bee, but is still known as the Stinson plant, after the founding family. Read more about it at the NYT.

The Whip

I love me an old Wagoneer. I'd have killed for a first generation, two door Montero. A 60 series Land Cruiser is just about the most beautiful car ever made. As I looked for these cars and started test driving a few, I realized I wanted something smaller. Better on gas. More reliable. Just as handsome. And I made a damn fine choice.Above is my "new" 2000 Impreza Outback, complete with "SPORT" on its side and a GOOD OL' COLD SPLINTERS sticker on its butt, sitting in front of the Appalachian Trail. Mother nature's quite a lady, but you're the one I need. (To get to Mother Nature.)MP3: Bruce Springsteen - The E Street Shuffle

Granola

If you spend any time in the cereal aisle of the supermarket, I'm sure you've noticed that the granola section has expanded exponentially in the past couple of years. And as the options have soared, so have the prices. Those Bear Naked bags are a joke. Living up to a stereotype is always a good idea, so if you've got a few minutes to make your own, you should. It's easy and cheap, and as you all know, packs real well in the top of whatever you got strapped to your back.The beauty of making your own granola (holy shit, what a sentence starter!) is that you can put whatever the hell you want into it, just like Good Old Raisins and Peanuts. I'm a little boring, so I keep the recipe pretty simple and void of too much sweet. I don't know real measurements, which means it comes out a little different each time, but below is some sort of framework (as you can see above, shredded unsweetened coconut is pretty standard in granola, and if I have it around, I'll use it. If not, it doesn't really matter.) that you can use if you don't do this already. I'm sure a lot of you have way better recipes and tricks, so let a brother know what you got.A few cups of rolled oats (Not the instant kind)Agave NectarPepitasFlax SeedsSliced Almonds (in the baking aisle)CinnamonVanilla ExtractRaisins/CraisinsYou should only use enough oats to make a thin layer on a baking sheet, so put that amount in a bowl and pour on enough agave nectar to get the oats wet. Maple Syrup and/or honey works too. Throw in as many pepitas and flax seeds as your heart desires. Almonds too. Shake some cinnamon in there (can never have too much) and a teaspoon or two of vanilla. Mix it up, throw it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 350 until it gets a little crispy. Take it out, let it cool, throw in some raisins, and put it in that pretty little Ball jar you never get to use.

Ghost Deer

The albino deer, or "ghost deer," of northern Wisconsin are documented on a Wisconsin Public Television episode that you can watch in full here. The deer are protected from hunting by Wisconsin law and are somewhat of a mythical creature around those parts. Rightfully so.Thank you Mr. Alvarez of Backpacker's Daily Dirt.