I’ve always been a outdoor lover. Going hunting, boating and camping was a great part of our family recreation. Not until the past several years though have I had a keen interest in wilderness camping and backpacking. I got my first taste of this a few years ago in Utah. My brother and I decided to test our outback survival capability, so we planned an ATV trip on the Paiute trail. We traveled 800 miles in 10 days. This seems like a lot, but there were days when we were in low country and could travel on long straight dirt roads at 40 MPH for hours. We filter/pumped water from streams and had mountain house for breakfast, lunch and dinner and washed in streams. We stopped in small towns about 4 times for gas and other than that we saw very few humans for 10 days. It was fantastic!
The terrain ranged from desert to alpine. A few of our camps were above 11,000 Feet. The dark starry nights, the sounds and sights of nature, and no sounds of civilization for this length of time was great for the soul. Coming back to civilization was an adjustment. This started my interest in “getting away from it all” on a regular basis and, more recently, contributed to my interest in a Web site for PA nature lovers.
We are definitely planning our next trip like this. Next time I think I can get away with packing lighter. Being the first time we overdid it a bit on the food packs and maybe I’ll downsize my sleeping gear and tent. But, we played it save. First aid kits, tire repair kits, dry bags and equipment to charge camera batteries from the ATV electrical system were just some of the essential equipment. And, before leaving we prepared the ATVs for high elevation running. We changed the clutch weights and carburetor jets to accommodate running above 7,000 feet. The highest elevation we reached on the ATVs was nearly 12,000 feet.
If anyone is interested in more information about this trip, post a comment and I’ll reply.
August 01 2008 | Explore and Photography | No Comments »
This week I purchased and installed Birdjam and the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs. The Stokes Field Guide for the eastern region of the US is a great set of sound samples for over 300 birds. Birdjam is a program that organizes the sound samples for you on your IPOD, including artwork for each track.
There are a couple of options from the Birdjam folks. If you already own an IPOD or intend to purchase one from you favorite vendor, you need to buy the Stokes Field Guide and Birdjam separately. Or, you can purchase an IPOD preloaded from Birdjam with the Stokes song library and play lists ready to go. In either case you will need to have ITUNES 7.6 or greater loaded on your PC or MAC before you start.
Since I already had a IPOD, I purchased the Stokes Field Guide separately and the Cd’s were delivered within 2 days. You can also purchase the Stokes Field Guides from the PA Nature Guide Bird Store. You can purchase and download the Birdjam software or have a CD shipped.
For the average PC user if you follow the installation instructions closely you should be able to get through the install in a couple of hours. If you are a novice computer user I recommend purchasing an IPOD already loaded with Birdjam or getting a friend who is computer literate to help you with it.
What takes the longest is importing all of the tracks from the Cd’s into Itunes. Once this is complete you can run the Birdjam software to import the pictures and create the play lists. This is worth the time and money. The end result is play list groupings of various bird types which make it easy to find the bird songs even if you have lots of other types of media on your IPOD.
After completing the install steps on your PC simply sync Itunes with your IPOD and you have a wonderful tool to help identify birds by sound. I highly recommend both products. The sound quality and the pictures are great. I find myself playing them in Itunes in the background while I work. I feel like I’m working outdoors!
And, while your at the PA Nature Guide Bird Store check out the Canon image stabilization binoculars. I’ve had them for over a year and they are fantastic for bird watching. They take the shake out of your viewing so you get a really crisp clear stable look at your feathered friends.
Happy Birding!
July 25 2008 | Birding and PA Nature Guide | No Comments »
As a nation we seem so fascinated with politics. Many of us so easily accept the ideas and positions put forth by the giant public opinion generating engine (TV media) that I think we sometimes lose touch with reality.
Well then, if that’s how we are, I have an idea. Let’s not worry so much about who gets elected. Instead let’s enact laws that control what the President does once he is in office. Use polls! Now don’t laugh so hard that you burst your bladder.
What if we pass a “poll control” law? If the President’s popularity drops below a certain level, he is automatically impeached and removed from office. The level of the presidents popularity will certainly be high if he is doing what the majority of us want him to do! Oh……you don’t trust the polls to accurately reflect what the majority of us think! If this is so, then why do we pay any attention to what the polls say leading up to an election?
Maybe we could apply the same laws to congress. Imagine that! Politicians would lose their jobs if they are not doing what we, the majority, want them to do. We, the majority, wouldn’t have to wait for the next election or conduct a lengthy impeachment process to fire them.
Sounds like the same treatment the rest of us hardworking citizens get, doesn’t it?
July 17 2008 | Human Nature and Politics | 1 Comment »
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