Jump to content

Anybody here outdoorsy?


Recommended Posts

Ojibwa, this is a fascinating topic. I started a new thread so it would be more visible to the forum and we could all get into it. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27545 I'm looking forward to your insights, especially since my very first exposure to world religions was an extensive course of study into the 400+ First Peoples within the 48 contiguous states.

 

Baby Herc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 118
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I live for the outdoors! Running was my initial passion, can't beat an hour of running in the pitch black and then being out there amongst all of the wildlife as the sun is coming up

 

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2576/195/89/556433719/n556433719_1544519_1932335.jpg

 

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2656/195/89/556433719/n556433719_1581451_1147840.jpg

 

St. James 70km offroad ultramarathon, 2009

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Yeah, well ours are mostly screaming and running ones that topple buildings.

 

Come here for a holiday, sounds like you will love it !!

 

Wow. Well, I hope that you are safe and well and are able to be of assistance to those you care about. Which fault line let loose? Did they tell you on the news? Any footage you can direct me to? What Richter Scale was it? I see a 7.3 on the map today:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Australia.php

http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/getQuakeDetails.do?quakeId=3166683

 

Baby Herc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

love your blog photos...and I am/was an outdoorsy girl. Life the past few has brought me in more, but out whenever possible. Have hiked Whitney, love Yosemite and up until 3 yrs ago when I had to quit running, ...I ran in a canyon ( I call it MY Canyon...have tons of pics)...or on the beach 6 days a week for I can't tell you how many year...20 maybe.. The gym is a new thing for me, but like a fish..I have adapted to my water. your blog photos rock!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

My dream is to canoe down the Amazon river. It can be done in about 200 days, and all things included(bugs, rain, possible and likely illness) it would be heaven. The only down side to living in Canada is that during the winter, unless you are equipped to the tits it is very hard to go on any serious outdoor adventure. Don't get me wrong if I could afford everything I would but for some reason being healthy tends to make all my money disappear. Besides canoeing many of the eastern national parks in Canada I have hiked a lot of Yellowstone and some volcanoes in Ecuador. In the summer I work at a summer camp in the Laurentian Mountains which is my favorite part of the year due to the 30 second water, forest and mountain access.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow. Well, I hope that you are safe and well and are able to be of assistance to those you care about. Which fault line let loose? Did they tell you on the news? Any footage you can direct me to? What Richter Scale was it? I see a 7.3 on the map today:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Australia.php

http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/getQuakeDetails.do?quakeId=3166683

 

Baby Herc

Our first one was September 2010, which was a 7.1 and surprisingly killed nobody.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake

 

Then the big one was a 6.3 in February of this year which killed 185 people and brought down the CTV building that I used to work in every week - that spooked me for a long time. I lost about 20 of my good friends from there.

 

348_30782463719_556433719_905779_5111_n.jpg

 

http://keithwoodford.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/ctv-building-before-and-after.jpg

 

Was simply the case of the quake happening a day before I was due to record in there, but I still feel guilty every day that I'm here and so many people are not.

 

We are getting through it, my family is one of the lucky ones. We didn't lose our house (it has about $70k of damage), but we have had over 10,000 aftershocks since the initial quake. Sometimes you wonder when it's all going to finish !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am planning on backpacking around NZ this spring - your fall. I am so excited about it! Anywhere that should be on my do not miss list??

South Island is definately greener than the North ~ the West Coast is stunning.

 

Queenstown and Fjordland is a must see, I'd also include places like Franz Josef Glacier and the Coramandel (top east of North Island). I'm on the East Coast of the South Island in Christchurch, so if you're passing through please feel to give me a yell and I'll feed you up before you move through

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's spring in Portland, Oregon. The rhododendrons are turning into giant balls of color, the hummingbirds are sex-crazy, and the air is so moist and sweet you could pour it over pancakes. I'm doing such intense gardening that I'm sore without even working out. I'm dreaming of new hiking boots, fresh strawberries from my backyard, and the trail to Elk Cove on Mount Hood. Saving that for October.

 

Happy Spring!

 

Baby Herc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New Zealand is beautiful. I'm a born and raised kiwi and just moved to California last year. Like Mini Forklift said, the earthquake was horrendous and I had a lot of family there that were affected by it. I'm from Auckland, so I can probably speak to the North Island more... Milford Sound/Fjordland is amazing so definitely get down there as well as Queenstown. The far north isn't to be overlooked either especially up around Doubtless Bay/Karikari Peninsula. There are heaps of amazing beaches, and I appreciate them so much more now that I don't see them! California beaches have been very different so far. Vegan food is much cheaper and easier to find here though, so I'm enjoying CA heaps. The absence of rain doesn't hurt either!

 

Let us know when you're planning out your NZ trip and I'm sure we can help you out! We talk funny too, so I'm sure we can help translate as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I love my share of the outdoors! My last adventure was in Maui where I hiked through sacred land with the most amazing trees with Tarzan like vines. I regret not climbing them.. boo. Walked into pitch black caves of the nothingness and time just stopped. So amazing.

 

C

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice work! Outdoorsy....you sound more like adventurous and daring, thrill seeking even. Yaknow the thing I liked about reading this was "fear factor"! None! Go up a mountain by yourself, see dangerous animals, climb gnarly routes...that's what I like to hear! Far to many poeple these days are run by the "safety police". That's crazy if you ask me.

The way I see it is, you are doing the best activities for sharpeing your senses, honing your servival skills(basic or otherwise), connecting with nature on a different level then just going for a hike, not to mention connecting with yourself on a deeper level, having time to think or not think. It's kind of like soul searching...anyways enough out of me....I envy you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice work! Outdoorsy....you sound more like adventurous and daring, thrill seeking even. Yaknow the thing I liked about reading this was "fear factor"! None! Go up a mountain by yourself, see dangerous animals, climb gnarly routes...that's what I like to hear! Far to many poeple these days are run by the "safety police". That's crazy if you ask me.

The way I see it is, you are doing the best activities for sharpeing your senses, honing your servival skills(basic or otherwise), connecting with nature on a different level then just going for a hike, not to mention connecting with yourself on a deeper level, having time to think or not think. It's kind of like soul searching...anyways enough out of me....I envy you!

 

No need to envy me, peacefulwarrior, sounds like you're hiking right alongside. You might be interested in the works of Richard Louv, who coined the term "Nature-Deficit Disorder." His theory (I call it hard fact) is that we as a society are spending more and more time indoors in stressful physical, emotional, and mental environments and not enough time outdoors in a relaxed state of mind. His book, "Last Child in the Woods," was a bestseller that started an international movement to reconnect kids and nature. I'm currently reading his latest, "The Nature Principle."

 

Just being around nature induces a meditative state in the brain that allows it to function at a higher level. There's an article in the current issue of Backpacker Magazine about a researcher who's taking people out into the wild on backpacking trips and testing their brain power with word games and puzzles as they go along. Conclusion: a 50% increase in smarts after only a few days away from a city. No surprise to us, right? We get all sorts of mental inspiration and solutions to problems as we hike along and let our mind wander and flow. The researcher wants to get his findings published but I say enjoy them NOW! Why wait for some stuffy scientists to proclaim that something is true if you're already livin' the results?

 

Case in point, I'm heading out as we speak to harvest hedera (invasive ivy vines) in our local Forest Park. I've learned to weave them into baskets by hand and it feels so good to simultaneously rid a native forest of weeds, get free supplies, and create functional art all in one fell swoop. But it's muddy as hell out there today. Gonna be one of those times where I shower AFTER the fun, not before. Yeah, I'm definitely an adrenaline junkie and this ain't quite it but at least I'll be out in the slugs, the muck, and the fresh spring leaves. Maybe I'll run into my friend, Sal Mander.

 

Fear factor? Safety police? I used to be a Forum Moderator and Event Organizer for one of the largest hiking/outdoor clubs here in Portland, Oregon. I left. I got real tired real fast of their ludicrous, ambiguous "safety" rules. For instance, they deleted posts by anyone who showed a waterfall climbing adventure (too dangerous for children, they might get ideas), a cross-country bushwhack (too dangerous for everybody else, they might get ideas), and lectured anybody who mentioned in their hiking report that they hiked alone, without a cell phone or GPS, and told no one where they were going. That would be me. That's MY idea. Been doing it all my life and my life is quite intact, thank you very much. As a matter of fact, the only time I ever got into any trouble was when I had other people along with me. Man, pick your hiking companions wisely, that's all I have to say. One of my favorites was a young pup named Alex, who is now living in New Zealand with his girlfriend. He and I laughed about our craziness on a few hiking podcasts, recorded prior to my falling out with and subsequent gleeful avoidance of the evil hiking club: http://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.wordpress.com/category/hiking-podcasts/page/2/

 

Baby Herc, card carrying adrenaline junkie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice writing Baby Hercules, I enjoyed reading through that. I definately agree that your brain is sharper from being outdoors!

 

I'm heading away this weekend, going to spend a few days at our holiday home. It's right on the lakefront, not much out there so very quiet and relaxing. Just a few quiet beers at night, a good long run followed by a massage and a swim or two in the lake with very little technology to distract me. Perfect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm heading away this weekend, going to spend a few days at our holiday home. It's right on the lakefront, not much out there so very quiet and relaxing. Just a few quiet beers at night, a good long run followed by a massage and a swim or two in the lake with very little technology to distract me. Perfect.

 

No, perfect is when you email me the address and a plane ticket.

 

Baby Herc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share




×
×
  • Create New...