Steve Perlman works in Hawaii to preserve over 120 plant species with fewer than 50 individuals left. His is the first claim I’ve come across to actually witnessing extinction:
I have gone back and actually witnessed extinction at least a dozen times, when I go back and the last one is dead. The first time we kind of took our hats off and had a moment of silence.
(Via Extinction Blog)
It took outdoor enthusiasts in Boulder County 10 years to get a land ownership and trail map of their trail-wealthy county produced in cooperation with government agencies. I wonder how many other communities want something like this but are unable to bring together the required resources?
NEMO and Pouch have made it through the rough Cumbres to Wolf Creek section without ditching the trail:
Day 3 was completely socked in, we could not see more than 100 feet in front of us sometimes, walking through snow up to my shoulders that was sometimes consolidated and sometimes soft, thus postholing, following just our wits and good old fashioned map and compass combined with the one waypoint we had on Mr. Leys map on Pouchs GPS. At one point we were almost in a white out and could have walked off a cliff and not known it. I was a wreck. I felt like an animal going into the forest to die, just wandering around in the mist.
Bethany paid the price for incredible scenery:
the scenery was amazing. i found myself trying to remember anyplace i had hiked that was as beautiful, and had a hard time coming up with anything… endless snow-capped mountains… had a hard time keeping pace because i was just looking around gawking so much. at one point, the trail was a little crumbly and i lost my footing and landed on my face. ended up with a bloody nose and some scrapes across the bridge of my nose… but i guess that’s a fair price for looking around instead of watching my feet.
Bethany also gives a summary of the breakup of “Team F Yeah”:
- shaggy is continuing north through the snow
- haiku is flipping up to cenral wyoming to hike south to here, then will return to finish his hike northbound
- tarn is skipping up a couple hundred miles and continuing north
- star is off to see a boy for a week or two
- d=rt is hiking south from denver on the colorado trail, opting to add an extra couple hundred miles to his summer’s itinerary
- i’m taking some time off to go back to north dakota for my grandmother’s funeral. i’ll be back here next week to hopefully continue north.
Some southbounders are gettin started, including WILDCAT:
The group learned recently that they would have to wait till Saturday to begin their hike. (The rangers will only let a few hikers in each day, so the campgrounds aren’t crowded.) However, according to Wildcat’s phone call tonight, the only way the rangers would let them in was if they’d hike north to south! So…in order to avoid a whole day of sitting around tomorrow, they’ll start: hike north-to-south through Glacier National Park, take the shuttle south to where they left off, and then begin their southbound hike!
The mountains of southern Colorado are spitting out northbounders in packs, just like they did to us in June of 2004. From Haiku:
In the five minutes that we sat and ate some snacks, the sky turned grey and clouds rushed across the sky from the direction of the mountains ahead of us. We suddenly couldn’t see some of the peaks because of the clouds (remember, we’re at 12,000′, so clouds are pretty much level with us). We decided it would not be safe to be clinging to the side of a snowy mountain in the fog, and perhaps rain and hail, when we needed to be able to see in order to navigate. We needed a way down off the mountain now, but the slope just to our east was a sheer cliff. We backtracked to a saddle we’d passed a half mile ago, and made our way down, mostly by glissading down snowfields. On the way down Bethany and I also taught some ice axe self-arrest techniques, and we practiced self-arresting while sliding head first, and while glissading. Better to practice now than while sliding down a steep snow face!
The snow wasn’t the end, next comes stomach trouble:
I didn’t sleep at all last night. A series of trips into the woods all throughout the night meant that in the morning I was severely dehydrated, and had no food in my body. Both Shaggy and Bethany also had whatever bug it was, and we were very miserable in the morning.
They made it to Pagosa Springs, where they’re recovering.
I would love to see Michael Rakowitz in one of these. Simple brilliance. Look under Projects->P (Lot) on his site.
(Via GoBlog)
This survey was sponsored by a mining company probing for good places to expand. Frogs, fish, beetles, and a unique ant were discovered, and a catfish presumed extinct was sighted for the first time in 50 years.
“Strategies [for future conservation] should focus on protecting freshwater streams and preventing fragmentation of the natural habitat from unchecked or poorly planned development,” they said.
This site has some interesting outdoor stuff, including digital panoramas from some selected peaks with other visible peaks labeled by name and distance.
(Via Free Geography Tools)
For Jason of x360, a tiny grass hut is paradise on a hot Sudan afternoon (watch the video). Reminds me how happy I once was to find a dilapidated old bus in the Mojave desert.
