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We used to camp here when I was little

A torrent of water from an overflowing lake sliced open the earth in 2002, exposing rock formations, fossils and even dinosaur footprints in just three days. Since then, the canyon has been accessible only to researchers to protect it from vandals, but on Saturday it opens to its first public tour.

“It exposed these rocks so quickly and it dug so deeply, there wasn’t a blade of grass or a layer of algae,” said Bill Ward, a retired geology professor from the University of New Orleans who started cataloging the gorge almost immediately after the flood.

The mile-and-a-half-long gorge, up to 80 feet deep, was dug out from what had been a nondescript valley covered in mesquite and oak trees. It sits behind a spillway built as a safety valve for Canyon Lake, a popular recreation spot in the Texas Hill Country between San Antonio and Austin.

[Yahoo News]

October 6, 2007
PACKING LIST:Backpacking around Europe
I studied in Paris in college (oh the things we did… ah youth.) and then my cousin and I traveled around for a month or two after I got out of classes.

Bag:
Granite Gear Vapor Pack
or
Eagle Creek Voyage 65L Travel Pack or a Eagle Creek Switchback and daypack or purse like the EC Drifter*

*remember you have to carry this comfortably even when you have your full pack on, so a daypack that doesn’t attach can be a tedious chore and I tend to hand things that I have to work to carry to the nearest busker as a tip.

Clothes:
- Black pants
- Khaki Cargo pants
- Really good walking shoes (I use Keen’s or my Merrell boots-I’ll leave it to you to decide yours, just remember that you need good foot/ankle support as you are carrying all your stuff (perhaps 20 pounds) on you for long distances on hard surfaces.)
- black tshirts
- sleep shirt or light sweatshirt (you can always buy clothes when you are there… I actually prefer this… especially on beaches, the roadside vendors always have the coolest clothes.)
- a skirt
- shorts
- Socks (smartwool)
- Undies (ex
  officio magic undies)
- 2 scarves (I use the pashminas-useful as a blanket or a scarf)
- Jammies/hotel wear (I tend to go with yoga pants as mine are quick drying and can double as another pair of pants.)
Stuff:
- swimsuit – for the beach and less-than-private shower facilities
- crocs/ flipflops / shower shoes – I like Crocs because I can walk in them for long distances, but they can be a bit bulky (though for the ladies, the Mary Janes are much more manageable). However, they are waterproof and if you are staying in hostels (or skeevy hotels 😉 ) you want to wear these in the shower. Really.
- Camera+charger and spare cards
- A book (and just trade someone for a different one when you are done. Works on the AT, works in the rest of the world.)
- journal
- A thumbdrive(and portableapps configured***) for internet cafes -card adapter for your camera** card + place on the web to upload them (flickr or XDrive, etc)
- Silk Sleep sack (good for both hostels or when the harsh chemicals that they wash sheets in hotels in burn your skin as they do mine. This is also good for adding another +10 degree rating to your sleeping bag without adding a ton of weight or having to buy a new one.)
- toiletries
**or, instead of chargers, bring along your USB cables (bonus if multiple things you have charge off of mini USB) and bring a Solio [My review | Amazon] and its wall charger. You can tie to the top of your backpack and let it charge in the Cezanne-esque light of the valleys in Central France or plug it into the wall where you are staying.)

***just install portable apps to a directory on your WIN machine and start using it. After about 2 weeks of regular use you will have all your bookmarks and setup about like you like it (actually, I recommend you do this anyway as a backup). Then just copy it to your thumbdrive and go play! Another sneaky trick is to double up on the adapter and put a memory card in it to hold your portable apps instead of buying a thumbdrive (and portable apps sits quite happily on a 512M card, so you can use old cards that aren’t big enough to hold your larger pixel depth images from your camera.)

….or you can just put a bunch of clean underwear in a backpack and go! (As a matter of fact, my cousin put two skirts, two shirts and clean undies in a carry-on bag and did just this.)
September 21, 2007
Alien – The Wynn

September 18, 2007
Holy CRAP…. this is a YUMMY bag.

Perry Overnight
Style: MBG1018
$198.00

This men’s overnight bag is made from genuine glazed leather. Features an open back pocket, double handles, and a top zip closure. Interior includes two side zipper pockets and a removable shoulder strap. Accented with stitch detailing and antiqued hardware. Measures 10.5″H x 20″L x 11″W.

[Fossil.com]

August 24, 2007
Backpacking Prep

My backpacking weight worklist…
(it’s a work in progress…)

Stuff

Put all your backpacking stuff together in a tubby or something that you can easily grab the whole thing if you want to just run off on a moment’s notice (well, with a little prep) and not wonder what you did with (insert name of fiddly tiny equipment here).
The other part of this equation is that after getting back from a hike you promptly clean your gear and put it away to be ready for the next time as well…

Depending on how big your tubby is, you can store all your camping stuff (tent, cooking gear (stove, cookwear, shelf stable items-though I tend to avoid storing much more than salt and tea bags in there because I want the stuff I take to be moderately fresh and there’s little chance of ants/bugs invading the storage)) as well as the larger bottles you use to refill the tiny sized containers in your pack.
Things like Dr. Bronner’s castile soap (I get at Trader Joe’s in the monster size for the same price as one of the smaller at REI-although the almond version is heavenly), bandaids, Purell, matches for the waterproof container, bandaids and stuff that you can generally refill the smaller packets of I leave in here as well to keep it all together.
If you use Nikwax or other restoratives you can keep that in here, too.
(I am finding that all the refill stuff as well as the camping stuff starts turning it into a 2 tubby affair though probably best to do 2 and then just grab 1 on the way out the door.)

Sleeping bag, sleeping pad and backpack need to be out and hung up after you wipe them down/wash them.

Food

If you have a dehydrator you can make lots of cool snack foods and ingredients for soups or dinners instead of buying those pre-made dinners. (Just make sure to write the instructions on the ziploc bag of how much water and what order to load everything into the cookpot when you are on the trail.)
Dehydrated mushrooms work fantastically in soups and other foods and dishes (and provide some potassium for your body after hiking all day) though you can get these in the grocery store as well.
I like the instant mashed potato mixes with cheese-you can make a potato cheese soup with mushrooms and chicken boullion or actually make the mashed potatos… I’m generally too impatient. I also like to look for sales on the stuff that is ‘just add water’ (soup mixes, potato mixes, boullion, drink mixes, etc) since they can be a bit pricey.
New foods should be test driven. I just sit out on the porch with the camp stove and test drive. Anything that needs to be gotten from inside the house either needs to be taken into consideration or written off the list as a possibility.
Other items that take a bit longer to rehydrate or require simmering can sometimes be soaked in water ahead of time. Take an empty Nalgene bottle and fill it with a bit of water, then about halfway through the day or at the break before you get to camp (or even right before you set up camp), put in the item (beans, noodles, etc.) and let them soak until you are ready for cooking. Its best to test this before hand to see how long each item needs to soak…if you let it soak too long, it can turn into glop which is gross.

Preparations

Another thing you need to do is get a map of the trail you are hiking (well, if you know the area, this might be optional-but I’d still have it in the pack).
Trails.com has downloadable maps for a yearly fee or there are kiosks to print out special maps if you can find the right one for your area.
Printing out your own maps on an inkjet and waterproof paper is a super geeky thing to do (so you know I love it.) I also tend to create a single page (front and back) of tent instructions, first aid stuff, clever knots, etc.
I’ll post it eventually when I PDF it.

There are loads of other things that you can do to prep for a packing trip, but really, get everything together as you go along and you can just run off for the weekend (my advice is to escape cell range (or fake that you aren’t in cell range) when another department tries to get you do do their work on a weekend…)

So, what are your hiking preps?

August 16, 2007
PACKING LIST:Paris 1 week

So, Paris is a bit of a dressier city…even for me, the REI poster child.
I’m not going to go bananas and wear heels (the world would end thankyouverymuch) or dresses, but I do tend to spiff just a bit when I am there.

Bag:
eBags Purple Weekender

Clothes:
Black pants
Black skirt
Khaki jeans
Black shirt (that can double for a nice dinner out or daywear)
White shirt
Several black t’s and white t’s (for under sweaters, other shirts etc.)
Sweater
Patterned shirt (x2)
jammies/socks/undies
scarf (patterned, black-when you walk around in the cold with the same coat on, I tend to want to vary the accoutrements)
Keen Briggs tennies
Black shoes (something un-tennis shoe like)

Things:

Camera (+charger, spare cards)
Computer (VAIOlet + cables, bluetooth keyboard, mousie, Travel G Router)
Shopping bag (something that folds up in your day pack for trips to the supermarché)
notebook/pen/travel watercolors (wanna know how to get the French to talk to you even if you are a feeelthy American? Start sketching or painting in a cafe. They love it and are adorable about it, too. I really do adore the French, but you have to accept that they are a completely alien culture from the U.S. They clearly have other priorities, flaws yes, but we have our own as well.)
eBook (+waterproof cover)
Pocket wallet (for metro tickets, immediate cash needs, 1 credit card-should fit in a pants pocket that isn’t your back pocket)