Helambu-Langtang

On my recent trip to northern New Hampshire last week, after a climb and a few IPAs and a black bean pizza at The Moat, Mark and I stopped in at the basement consignment shop at IME. North Conway's not so bad, huh?Unfortunately I didn't find anything that fit (if i were a little bit larger, I would have been broke after 20 minutes) but I did grab this old map from the used book section up front. IME leads guided trips to this region and has brought many back over the years. It is a real beauty, and although I wish my scanner was big enough to scan the entire thing, these images of the front of back give you a pretty good idea.Helambu is a region of highland villages in Nepal, close to Kathmandu and Langtang, a region that borders Tibet just north of Kathmandu, is protected as Langtang National Park, the first Himalayan National Park.  And Gosaikund? Well, that's an alpine freshwater lake in the park, located at 14,370 ft above sea level. Pretty useless information if you're at your computer, but the map sure is nice...

Cathedral Ledge

I spent a few hours yesterday climbing Funhouse to Upper Refuse on Cathedral Ledge in North Conway, NH, pictured above. Was a great climb with an even better view, and after 5 pitches, 600 vertical feet and a nice applause from the group of people at the top, I was interviewed for a documentary being made about Dean Potter. Obviously not what was I expecting to do after my first climb in a few months. We hiked back down to the car, stopped for a couple of beers at The Moat, drove to a roadside waterfall off the Kancamagus and then hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls with Mr. Jason McKenzie of The Tannery's Wilderness Workshop. A great day in New Hampshire, to say the least.Happy summer, y'all.MP3: David Vandervelde - Hit The Road

Off the Grid

In 2006 Survivorman Les Stroud documented his family's move from their urban home in Ontario, CA (very much on-the-grid) to renovating a century-old farmhouse and outbuildings in the Canadian backcountry, miles and miles away from any wired utilities or even year round road access. The documentary ran on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) and is archived to watch online here.After you watch this, watch Snowshoes & Solitude, Stroud's 1994 year-long jaunt into the Canadian wilderness, living for a year in a handmade shelter with his wife and by their wits.

Southbounders

I spent a little time on the Appalachian Trail this last weekend, hiking a section around Dutchess County, NY. At one of the shelters was a Southbounder (a thru-hiker going from Katahdin to Springer instead of the more popular route, Springer to Katahdin) who, quite literally, didn't stop talking from the second I arrived until the second he left the following morning at 9 am. And dude was up at 5 am, shouting to his trail buddies about the point system at REI that allowed him to get all of his awesome equipment. It was painful. But that is neither here nor there..Cracker Jack, the chatter box's trail name, reminded me Southbounders, a 2005 film about Olivia, a gal wandering down the 2,000+ miles of the AT, finding herself along the way. It's, well, not the greatest form of entertainment you'll ever come across (see the trailer after the jump) but it's streaming on Netflix and you don't exactly see a fictionalized version of something like this everyday. Do whatever you'd like with this information, but if you're at home and need a little motivation to get outdoors this summer, attempt to watch it. Although I'm not sure what's harder, hiking the entire length of the trail or watching Olivia romantically explain her self-given trail name for the first time, Next Step, right before she kisses Rollin, her love interest that she's fallen in love with after reading his journal entries at each lean-to.Rough.

Round the Gitch

Northern Michiganders Lindsay Bean and Jess Laxo left this past Sunday to paddle the perimeter of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. They pushed off from Marquette, MI in their 17-foot canoe with homemade cover and spray-skirts. The 1400-mile trip is on somewhat of a schedule due to the obvious necessary food drops, hoping to wrap up the paddle around the middle of September. For those who have never been, Lake Superior is beautiful, hostile and cold. There are long stretches of uninhabited shoreline, with rugged cliffs interrupted by seemingly forgotten coves.Check out their Facebook page to follow the trip, and to catch some gear flicks and parting photos. Check some press on their sendoff from the local paper, The Mining Journal.

Fully Loaded

Check out this site (no longer active, but archived) for hundreds of images of fully loaded touring bicycles from around the world. I love the look of these, packed to the gills with stuff bungeed down with old tubes all over the bike, piled half way up the riders back. Literally a home on two wheels. From crisp off-the-shelf Rivendell's and Surly LHT's to re-appropriated garage sale scores, sure to please. Love it.

Madison Spring Hut

Originally built in 1888 and opened in 1889 as the Appalachian Mountain Club’s first hut, Madison Spring Hut will reopen on June 2, 2011 after being completely rebuilt to add new green technologies and create more comfortable dining and bunk spaces. Madison was modeled after the European alpine huts and is now part of AMC’s hut-to-hut hiking network, which is the oldest in these United States. Perched at an elevation of 4,825 feet, Madison's above-treeline views of the Presidential Range and the valley below was originally built as a stone cabin for 12 guests with no caretaker or meal service. Read more about the technical aspect of the redesign here. And if you're not a member of the AMC and you live in New England, become a member now. The AMC does some wonderful things in these parts.

Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder

The good people at American Park Network have spent the last few years compiling mountains of information about all of the United States parks. That's a lot of land, a lot of trails, a lot of telephone numbers and names of distant peaks. With that data, they've created the Oh, Ranger! Park Finder, an iPhone app (one day I'll buy me one of those fancy phones) that includes the following for every national park, state park and federal public land in our country:• Activities Descriptions• Maps & Directions• Important Phone Numbers• Seasonality/Weather• Lodging & Concession Information• Non-Profit Partners • Links to Events and Related Websites• Related Articles• Nearby AttractionsDownload it FOR FREE right here.

GEOFF AND READYMADE

In the spring/summer of 2009, Geoff Holstad and his girlfriend, Sarah, rode their bikes from Michigan to Oregon on the TransAmerica Trail. As many of you know, Geoff is both a contributor to CS and the guy behind So Sweaty, and he's posted pictures and tales of of the trip several times around these parts. In addition to those photos, ReadyMade Magazine sat down with Geoff and Sarah and asked them a couple of questions about the trip that I was lucky enough to hear about while Geoff was in town visiting a couple of weeks ago.Enjoy it here.

Tell us your favorite place you stayed?Sarah: We camped in tons of beautiful spots along the way; our favorite was near the Montana-Idaho boarder in Lolo National Forest. I definitely underestimated Idaho.Geoffrey: On our second night of the trip we read on the route maps we got for the trip that you could camp at the firehouse, so that’s what we did. It was crazy. It was pouring rain, so we set up our tent in the firehouse between two fire engines. The firemen cooked a big spaghetti dinner for us—that was pretty memorable.

CAMPING AND CAMP CRAFTS

Yesterday I traded somebody an old drawing that I had lying in my studio for this book, The Golden Book of Camping and Camp Crafts (1959). I saw a couple images from this book on Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves and have been scouring used book stores ever since to no avail. The illustrations in this book are unbelievable. Also in the series are The Golden Book of Indian Crafts and Lore and The Golden Book of Nature Crafts. Keep an eye out if you please. More photos after the jump.

Mark Twain National Forest

A former coworker of mine sent me this gem of a brochure in an email a couple of weeks ago. This is the 2010 (yes, 2010) brochure for Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest. I mean, come on, no matter how small of a budget any public land has, to hold onto this thing until 2010 is, well, fantastic. I think...The MTNF covers approximately 1.5 million acres, 78,000 acres of which are Wilderness and National Scenic River area. It spans 29 counties and represents 11% of all forested land in Missouri. I've never been there. Have you?Download the full brochure here. The awesome pictures don't stop at the cover.

The Complete Europe 72

No secret around these parts that Cold Splinters has a thing for the Good Ol' Grateful Dead. Especially for Europe 72. So a couple of weeks ago, when a friend sent us this link explaining that the Grateful Dead and Rhino Records will be releasing a huge and lavish box set of more than 60 CDs containing every show of the Europe '72 tour, mixed and mastered from the original 16-track tapes, we were more than excited. And yes, maybe this is old news to some of you, but after all the sunshine this week, it's hard not to daydream of driving with the windows down listening to "Ramble On Rose" on the way back from a three day stint in the woods.The 7,200 pre-order of the box set sold out in four days, but it seems as though the band will make the music available to anyone who wants to hear it. Thanks Bob.For those of you who weren't lucky enough to get the box set, I'll let you know how it is...MP3: Grateful Dead - Ramble on Rose

Nicky and Cookie

Nicky and Cookie, husband (Cookie) and wife (Nicky), designers from London, bloggers, are walking through New Zealand as we speak on the Te Araroa, a walking and tramping (yes, tramping) trail that stretches from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff in the south. The trail just opened up this year and is 3,000 km (1,864 miles) through the forest, across farmland, over volcanoes and mountain passes, along river valleys, on green pathways and through seven cities. (For reference, the Continental Divide Trail is 3,100 miles, the Appalachian Trail is 2,178 miles and the Pacific Crest is 2,654 miles.)Nicky and Cookie have been blogging about their trip, posting photos and commentary, looking like they're having the times of their just-married lives. Go to their website and follow them across that beautiful little country that I so badly want to visit. And when you're done, check out Cookie's video from his Continental Divide trek.I'm so sore that I could cry...MP3: Neill Finn - She Will Have Her Way

Wilderness Medicine Institute Campus

Generous donations from Swiss biomedical entrepreneur Hansjörg Wyss and a Wyoming ranching family have given the Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) the holiday gift of its dreams: a wilderness medicine campus in the State of Wyoming. Take a look at a picture of the future location of the campus in Red Canyon, MT here and then read more about NOLS' plans here. Pretty darn cool.Eddie Hinton - Build Your Own Fire