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Today marks the last day of graduate school for our bestest friend, partner in crime and Boston Baked Bean dining companion, Tom Bonamici of Archival Clothing. We're all happy you're sticking around the East Coast. To many adventures in the months and years to come...
We've briefly posted about Campground Cooking before, but we sat down with the book over the weekend and forgot just how wonderful this thing really is. Thanks for posting the whole thing, Old Chum. Buy the last few over at Abe Books.MP3: Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
Cool Material tapped Cold Splinters for its "Wear This" feature and we happily obliged. Check it out here.
Cold Splinters got back late last week from an amazing paddling excursion down to Everglades National Park with our friend, partner-in-crime and frequent collaborator, Mikael Kennedy. (That article will be out this fall.) It was a real time down there in Florida, but we couldn't have done it without these SealLine Black Canyon Bags. Sure, dry bags would have sufficed, but if you've got to get on a plane to get to the water, these are going to be your huckleberries.Enjoy all your canoe/kayaking adventures this spring and summer, folks. And don't forget the coolers, ice and wine.
If you live out east and you're reading this, that means you've probably been up camping in the White Mountains. And whether or not you've stayed in one of the huts up there, you've most likely came upon one while hiking in the backcountry. 2013 marks the 125th anniversary of the AMC structures, so get out your glasses and do a little reading:
The Appalachian Mountain Club’s White Mountain Hut system, the oldest hut-to-hut hiking network in the U.S., celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2013. Located in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, these eight “off-the-grid” mountain destinations are fashioned after huts in the Alps and each spaced a day’s hike apart along a 56-mile-long stretch of the Appalachian Trail.AMC's Hut network dates back to 1888, when the first mountain hut for hikers in the U.S. was built. Today, hut crews serve up home-cooked meals and offer naturalist programs to guests, ranging from 36 to 90 hikers depending on the hut. Lower elevation huts are accessible to beginner hikers and families, while above-treeline alpine huts offer stunning vistas and challenging experiences for seasoned hikers.
Cold Splinters and Mikael Kennedy are off to Everglades National Park for a few days to write a story for one of our favorite magazines. We couldn't be more excited, but we've got a lot of prep and work to do before we leave, so this rag is going dark for a hot second. Take it out easy out there and enjoy the beautiful weather. AND this one from one of Florida's finest...MP3: Tom Petty - Hometown Blues
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In 1985, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Dream Garden Press founder, Ken Sanders (who we interviewed on CS a few years back), suggested that R. Crumb illustrate a special edition of the Edward Abbey classic. You can only buy the Crumb version here (along with t-shirts), so if you don't have a copy, get up on it.**Keep your eyes peeled for the Abbey/Crumb calendar on eBay. It's a real humdinger.
Thank you to the good folks at VICE for inviting us up to the Explorer's Club (more on that place to come) last week for a private screening of the latest and greatest in their Far Out series. The VICE team found themselves in Siberia this time around, visiting a woman who has lived her entire life 160 miles from the nearest town. Read more of the fascinating story here (it's worth your time, believe you me) and start watching Agafia's Taiga Life.
Friend of Cold Splinters, Anton Krupicka, has a new film coming out this summer. He explains In The High Country over at his blog, Riding The Wind:
Lots of people can wield a camera, a few more can work some magic in the editing room. Not very many possess those skills while also being able to keep up on pre-dawn 14er missions and 5th Class scrambles with a 1000'+ of exposure, clinging ropeless to the rock with one hand and pointing the camera with the other. And then keep it up for a month, also dealing with my at-times obsessive and uncompromising personality. Without getting paid.
"No pornography. No profanity."
Such a sad way to start the week. According to Pitchfork:
Molina died on Saturday, March 16 from organ failure due to alcohol consumption, according to Chunklet. His last release was 2012's Autumn Bird Songs.Molina's problems with alcohol were brought to public awareness in late 2011, when the Molina family posted a plea for contributions to Jason's medical fund on the Magnolia Electric Co. website. They wrote that over the last two years, he had been in and out of rehab. He did not have medical insurance, and had been in convalescence working on a farm in West Virginia.
I can't tell you much we loved Jason's music around these parts. He has always been and will always be one of our favorites. There are few albums that mean as much to Cold Splinters as Magnolia Electric Co.MP3: Songs: Ohia - Whip-Poor-Will (Demo)
Sure, they might not be in line with your "values" (The headline on the Mesa Verde National Park advertisement reads: "America's first apartment houses - today they belong to you!"), but these old Sinclair/National Park ads sure are good looking. And while searching for more on eBay, it's impossible not to think of the last passage in the intro to Desert Solitaire.
Do not jump in your automobile next June and rush out to the Canyon country hoping to see some of that which I have attempted to evoke in these pages. In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something, maybe. Probably not.
A bunch more after the jump. Click 'em to read 'em. 
Thank you to the Village Voice's food blog, Fork In the Road, for posting these great Explorers Club menus from their famous dinners of yesteryear. More info:
The Explorers Club was founded in 1904 by a couple of full-time explorers and a ragtag crew of archaeologists, journalists, and professors -- they finally began admitting women members in 1981, starting with the geologist Kathryn Sullivan and deep-sea diver Sylvia Earle.Today, the club is still driven by "the instinct to explore," especially at the dinner table. Once a year, international members gather in New York to honor "various accomplishments in exploration" and to eat extremelyadventurously, from a banquet that famously celebrates the marginalized delights of maggots, scorpions, and roaches, and offal of all sorts, from duck tongue to pig's face. (Back in 2001, three allergy-prone diners suffered from burning, itchy mouths after eating improperly prepared tarantula tempura -- the spider had been served with its urticating bristles, or poisonous leg hair, still intact.)This year's feast -- the club's 109th -- takes place on Saturday evening at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Here's a look back at some of the club's menu designs over the years, starting in 1896 when it was still called the Arctic Club, through 1974.
If you're out in the northeastern part of these United of States, get out there and enjoy the snow. Just make sure you can find those White Blazes.MP3: MR Fingers - Can You Feel It
It was a few months back that Mikael Kennedy, Chris Black and I went down to Southwest Texas with a trunk full of Made in the USA New Balance kicks. Mikael took some photos (yes, I'm the model) around Marfa and Big Bend that are now starting to be posted on the New Balance Classics Tumblr. Lots more to see and lots more to come.
Cold Splinters gives 