Bureaurcracy - A Creeping Menace

One of the pleasures I get from backpacking, or just being in the out-of-doors in general, is the feeling of freedom. To me being away from technology, the interconnectedness of the new world, and the press of society at large allows a burden to be lifted from my shoulders. Out in the wild areas you are beholden to no one. Your schedule is set by the sun and your stomach alone.

In this day and age, the ability to cast aside the yolk of society, even if temporarily, is a huge relief. It just seems that in day-to-day life the bureaucracy all around us is getting worse. I'm not making a comment on Democratic or Republican control of the government either. Bureaucracy is an ever growing phenomenon in our society that involves not only government, but corporations big and small. From going to see your doctor, to getting plates for your car, to trying to get adequate phone service, to making sure you are in compliance with regulations in our parks systems.

Just a quick update

It has been a very busy week for me. Sorry I have not had time to make more updates. I would like to let you know that I will have a friend guest blog once in a while, so if you see an update that is not mine, don't panic!!

Just to preview upcoming posts, I will finish my story about Raccoon Creek SP. I'm also planning on describing my hikes along the Northville-Placid Trail and my arduous trek along the River-to-River Trail in Southern Illinois. Both of these trips happened several years ago, so I have more research to do in order to describe them as accurately as possible. My memory, apparently, needs massaged.

I'm also planning a couple of posts about some canoe trips I have taken and a recent paddling trip I did. Look for some posts about gear. I am going to break down my gear and chronicle what I have and how I use it.

That is all I have for now. Have a good Friday everyone and an excellent weekend!

Breaking the Fourth Wall

The Internet is truly an amazing creation on many many different levels. The biggest one being that it works at all. It is a hodgepodge of switches and routers, a world wide tangle of trunk lines with redundancies and multiple failure points. A network containing a network containing a network with each network having different ownership and different architects. Honestly, the fact that a data packet can be sent from a PC in South Asia and find its way to a server in the US just amazes me. As my friend J so succinctly puts it:

"I can't believe this sh*t actually works!"

Ok, back to my title. Breaking the fourth wall is defined by Wikipedia as:

The presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of modern realistic theatre, which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comedic effect when this boundary is "broken", for example by an actor onstage speaking to the audience directly.

Link

So in keeping with my title, I present to you, a screen-shot of my blog tracking stats.

It seems that the majority of you out there are Firefox users like myself. There are a couple Unix users and one iPhone browser so far.

I want to thank you, my reader for being here and reading my blog. I started Occasional Hyker just a few weeks ago and, as you can see, I have already had hits from as far away as Germany and South Africa.

Thank you again!
Have a great evening everyone!

Occasional Hyker

Backpacking Gear - An Introduction

Like all popular hobbies, backpacking has a whole industry grown up around it. Gone are the days of handmade wooden frame packs and old army surplus rucksacks (though the latter are seeing a revival). Today the avid backpacker has much more variety to choose from. Internal or external frame (if you can find one)? Boots or trail shoes? Trail sandals?!? Titanium or aluminum? Backpacking Espresso maker?!?!

There are so many options out there with respect to gear and so much marketing involved muddling the waters that it is near impossible, in my opinion, to find the "right" gear to have. I have read articles, endless forum threads, countless blogs and the one overriding conclusion that I have come to with regard to finding the "right" gear to have is: There is no "right" gear to have, there is only the "right" gear for you.

Had a long weekend - Here's some links.

I had a long weekend, which I will write about soon. In the meantime, here's some links to other sites I enjoy.

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The Nutnfancy Project:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nutnfancy

This guy has great gear reviews. Very prolific. He's more of a para-military style backpacker so if you do not want to know about firearms, please don't visit. I like his stuff though.

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Northeast Ohio Backpacking Club:
http://www.neohbackpackingclub.com/gpsLib.aspx

This is the NEO BP club's repository of GPX tracks. Great resource for trails in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia. There are also some other trails stuck in there.

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Mohican Memorial State Forest
http://www.backpackohio.com/mohican.html

Did you know that Mohican State Park had a backpacking trail? Neither did I until I found this site. I've been to the lodge several times, but I have yet to try out this area for backpacking. Trust me, it is on the "To-Do" list.

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Backpack the Cuyahoga Valley National Park
http://www.nps.gov/cuva/cuyahoga-valley-ed-venture-group.htm
http://www.cvnpa.org/ExtraordinarySpaces/OtherServices.aspx <-- See bottom of page!

The Park service just recently added backpacking to the list of activities that you can participate in within the boundaries of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I love hiking in the CVNR so I am looking into backpacking there as well. Check out this link!

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Midatlantichikes.com
http://www.midatlantichikes.com/

This is a great resource for trail reviews and GPX files for trails in the Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia area.

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That's it for now. I will be posting again soon.

Raccoon Creek State Park, PA Backpacking - Part Two

In part one, I had left off with our tired party just arriving at the Pioneer Camp area. Pioneer is located off of the Appaloosa Trail, which is what the Forest Trail is called once it crosses the bridge on Nichol Road. The spur trail for Pioneer leads you into an open area surrounded by different group campsites.

We dropped our packs and took a look around. Pit latrine, check. Water pump, check. Shelters... shelters... shelters... shelters... Since we didn't have a Simone handy, there was no one to explain to us where the shelters were. No obvious signs pointed to where they may be located. We looked, walked the perimeter of the camp area, we even wandered down a nearby path. Nothing.

Raccoon Creek State Park, PA Backpacking - Part One

In late fall 2009 I had a chance to go backpacking with my sister-in-law, her soon to be husband and my friend W, the former marine. I had been searching around the Internet for some backpacking areas that were closer to me than the Allegheny National Forest and I discovered Raccoon Creek State Park near Hookstown, Pennsylvania.

Raccoon Creek is located about 24 miles west of downtown Pittsburgh, just south of the Ohio River and very near the border of West Virginia. It is a 7500+ acre park that contains Raccoon Lake. The park features both standard drive-in camping facilities and a 19 mile backpacking trail. The backpacking trail has two designated camping areas along it, Sioux and Pioneer, and both feature pit latrines, potable water and three sided "lean-to" sleeping shelters.

550 Cord (aka Paracord) Bracelets

If you have been nosing around outdoor lifestyle websites recently you may have seen someone wearing a braided bracelet or wristband. So, what the heck is that all about? The recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have seen many of our military personnel deployed overseas in both hostile and challenging territory. Some of our soldiers have taken to wearing bracelets made of 550 cord, also commonly known as paracord. As any survivalist out there will tell you a good knife and a length of cord can go a long way in keeping you alive if you find yourself in a survival situation.

The Zaleski Backpacking Trail - Beautiful Misery

Thanks to Facebook (a website that I loath, but still get too much benefit from to ditch completely) I was able to reconnect with a college acquaintance whom is an enthusiastic outdoorsman. Through some Facebook messages and some IM conversations I was able to get myself invited to go along on a backpacking trip he was planning. This was to take place in April of 2009.

I was extremely excited. This would be my first backpacking trip in several years. I immediately started digging through all of my equipment. I got my pack out and sleeping bag. I discovered what equipment I had and what I had lost in our last two moves. I also purchased some new gear; an MSR Blacklite Gourmet Cookset and the MSR Alpine Kitchen Set.

Heart's Content - Allegheny Nat'l Forest - My "go to" spot

If you live anywhere near northwestern Pennsylvania then I'm sure you are familiar with the Allegheny National Forest. This 513,000 acre forest is a true gem of the Allegheny Plateau. It contains the Allegheny Reservoir and hundreds of miles of streams. It is known for cherry trees, hemlock and a couple stands of "virgin" forest.

One of these virgin areas is in the Heart's Content Recreation Area. The HCRA contains a one mile interpretive trail that winds through the old growth forest. (I believe the "interpretive" part means that there are a few signs along the trail.) The HCRA borders along the Hickory Creek Wilderness, an 8,660 acre wilderness designated area.

To hunt or to hike, is this the question?

So, one of the reasons, not by far the only reason, but one of the reasons that I am not outdoors more is that I am taking college classes. Due to this fact, my available time for pleasure reading (and every other thing I like to do) is severely limited. Last night I procrastinated on my Logic Exam (which is due tonight.) and I sat down with the October 2010 issue of Backpacker. In it there was a very well written article by Bruce Barcott titled "killer hike" (sic). In it, Mr. Barcott describes his first experience at crossing over from a hiker to a hunter. It is a very good read so if you get Backpacker, or can find the article reprinted somewhere else, I highly recommend reading it.

Now, I grew up and still live in a rural area of Northeast Ohio. My Dad and Grandfather at one time both hunted. I learned how to shoot at a pretty young age and am in no way a stranger to firearms. I have killed rabbit, raccoon, opossum, skunk, squirrel and mourning dove. I had a hunting license at one point in time, but I have never really considered myself a hunter. My Dad quit hunting long before I was old enough to join him and I never had any close, long term friends that were serious hunters. (Actually the reasons for the decline in hunting that Mr. Barcott lists in his article are very familiar to me.) So hunting is not something I am unfamiliar with, nor is it something that I have an issue with. I don’t hunt, mostly because I don’t have time or money to invest in it.

Wanderlust

Have you ever noticed how antsy you get when bored? There's this itch. A physical sensation in your cranium. That's supposed to be impossible, I know, no pain nerves in there. But the itch is there anyway. Left alone to fester it produces lethargy, angst, long dyed black bangs, the tendency to listen to crappy music and imagine that hipster vampires really do exist and that only they would ever truly "get you".

I know this itch well, it seems to be a part of my makeup, my being. The things I want to do with my life and what I am doing with it seem very opposite. I'm not sure how I managed that; by being what I thought I should be I suppose. I'm thinking that this is how gay people who are not out must feel. Acting a certain way, doing certain things, simply because you are expected to.

What I really want to do? Well, it damn sure does not involve sitting in a cubicle slaving away at a computer. That sucks and it should be illegal. It is more lethal than batter dipped, deep fried butter on a stick, with a side of mayo. What I want to do is through hike some trails. The AT for sure, someday, but the AT is cliché. EVERYBODY that likes to hike says that "Someday I want to hike the AT" and of course, most never even try, or if they do, give up after a few days. Well, I do, of course, want to hike the AT but I know that I cannot sacrifice eight months of my life right now to accomplish it.

Besides, do you know how difficult it is? And the physical hiking is just one part of it. The Appalachian Trail is a difficult hike. It meanders through, and over, a 2000 mile mountain chain. Sure they are not mountains like the Rockies, the Alps or the Himalayas, but even 3000-4000 foot high "hills" wears on a body, especially in the beginning. It is spirit breaking. What sense of accomplishment can you get from climbing a hill when all you see at the top is another hill that needs to be climbed?

And again, the AT is LOOOOONG. You don't get a sense of accomplishment from hiking 100 miles when you only clip off about 4-1/2% of the damn thing. Endless hills. 515,000 feet in elevation gain. That's HUGE!!

So it's a bitch to hike. What else is the problem? Food. Most of the AT is pretty remote. So how do you supply yourself with food? Logistics. You need to plan food drops along the way. You mail yourself (well, you have someone do it for you) food packages. Wait, what? That's right. You send packages to post offices along the AT with "Attn: Your Name Here" on them. This means that you must have your entire itinerary, eight months worth, figured out beforehand. If you hike too fast? You wait for your food. Too slow? You run out of food on the trail.

Sounds like a hoot right?

Anyway, no. I'm not looking to hike the AT, not at this point in time. The Northville-Placid Trail? Or the Laurel Highlands Trail? Or the Loyalsock Trail? Now those trails are very doable. Of course I'd have to talk the family into allowing me to spend one or two weeks of precious vacation time on, well, not them.

So, will through hiking make this itch in my brain go away? Probably not, not permanently. It sure sounds like a good way to try and alleviate it.