I’m working on compiling a new pack list for an upcoming summer backpacking adventure. I wanted to get it out there to hopefully bounce ideas of some other people. Everything is weighed and listed. The tally puts it at 11.5 pounds total with 1L of water and 2.5 days of food (2lbs/day). Outside the pack, I’ll have my socks, shorts, and shirt, but will also be using Black Diamond Ultra distance trekking poles, and am 100% unsure of what shoes I will use. Any tips on comfortable, durable, lightweight trail running shoes would be much appreciated.
It is a common mistake to believe someone arrived at a life predicament because of their own choice. But when we reflect on our own lives, we see them more empathetically, forgiving the small mistakes and acknowledging that they weren’t conscious choices. They were merely results of incidents, different circumstances that led to our failure; this is a universe guided by molecular collisions, by determinism, and we are not at fault for our situation. Continue reading My egotistical pedestal: On determinism→
When I saw this video title I knew exactly what it was going to be about. And I knew who he would be targeting. I realized that I, the guy who sat in a kayak paddling with no sights on the horizon besides blue sky intersecting with blue ocean, the guy who spent nearly 400 hours of driving and sleeping time in my car this summer, the guy who walked from Maine to Virginia for over four months, was now capable of being bored. Continue reading The entertainment-fueled boredom→
Nothing in my life has ever sparked such overwhelming fear as sitting alone on a beach in the early, early morning, long before sunrise with intentions of paddling a kayak across an enormous body of water to a foreign island. There was lightning on the horizon, too distant and sparse to be a sure no go, but not clear enough to make me feel confident to paddle out. The wind was blowing from the north and would launch me down to Cay Sal on an open ocean kayaking voyage in under 12 hours. I would arrive there before dusk and set up camp on the uninhabited island in the Gulf of Mexico. I could see the tall palms swaying high overhead behind me and knew the wind coming from the other side of the island was strong. Within the first mile of paddling the wind would catch me and launch me faster and faster from the island until eventually I would not be able to paddle back. It was a commitment that gave me chills.
