Cold Splinters

Not surprisingly, Alaska is home to 4 of the 5 least visited National Parks this year, with Kobuk Valley National Park taking the #1 spot. The park only had 1,250 visitors in 2009. Other parks that made the list are Great Basin National Park in Nevada, Congaree National Park in South Carolina, Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (pictured above) in Colorado. The L.A. Times has the whole list and more info.

(via The Goat)

Pictures taken at my folks’ house right outside of Portsmouth, NH, 2008

MP3: Pete Drake – Forever (via Naturalismo)

Blood tests indicate that the buffalo roaming Wind Cave National Park and Yellowstone National Park are the only two public herds in the U.S. that lack evidence of cattle genes. “It’s the closest thing to what used to wander the prairies for thousands of years,” said Tom Farrell, chief of interpretation for Wind Cave National Park. “This is the closest in going back in time and seeing what the Great American Desert was like.”

(via Oh Ranger)

Another wonderful trip to the Otis Pike Fire High Dune Wilderness. The bugs are dying down, so now’s a great time to go. Pictures are by Daniel.

If you’ve ever been in a camping store, you’ve most definitely seen products from Coghlan’s. The “outdoor accessory people” started 50 years ago in 1959 while Norm Coghlan was running Coghlan’s Gas Appliances in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Campers would come in for repairs on their camp stoves and lanterns, so Norm started selling tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses.

Customers wanted a way to make toast on their pump-up gas camping stove, and since Norm’s store carried such an item, he found out the U.S. based company that manufactured the toaster was discontinuing it. He bought the entire inventory, rented a storage facility and began Coghlan’s distribution of camping accessories. The Camp Stove Toaster has been made in Winnipeg, Manitoba since the mid-1960s. Coghlan’s has assembled and packaged over 7 million 504D Toasters.

Coghlan’s now sells over 450 accessories including bear bells, whistles, squeeze tubes, hammocks, fire starters, hot dog skewers, signal mirrors and compasses. All Coghlan’s gear comes in those green and yellow packages above that make them look like they were made in the 50s – the reason they’re so damn cool (and unreliable).

Do y’all ever buy Coghlan’s stuff when you’re at the camping store?

I was back in the burbs of Chicago this weekend, taking a driving tour of the enormous houses, farms, and prairie preserves that I grew up around. As a kid, it’s a bit of challenge to be real interested in your natural surroundings when all you have is flat land and tall grasses, but seeing bits and pieces of the prairie again for the first time in five years sure made me regret not spending more time getting burrs stuck in my sweatpants. The fact that there are still places in Barrington like the Flint Creek Savanna or Bigsby Prairie is largely because of the

Citizens For Conservation:

Since about 1987, Citizens for Conservation volunteers have worked with developers and others to locate sites where impending construction activity will bring about the destruction of native, spring woodland wildflowers. Once located, CFC seeks the owner’s permission to rescue the plants. If permission is received, volunteers carefully dig out and move these previous, evermore scarce spring gems to the protected sanctuary of preserves such as Grigsby Prairie or Flint Creek Savanna.

Today, thousands of spring widlflowers thrive as a result of the efforts of CFC volunteers. Not only do these wildflowers brighten the spring woods, their seed is then available for still other restorations.

The photos of the CFC are from Barrington Area Library’s Flickr Page. Many more after the jump..

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I’m off to a wedding in Chicago early tomorrow morning.

How are y’all spending the long weekend? Going on any good camping trips?

MP3: Bob Dylan – Wedding Song

I went to Mercury Lounge last night to watch Kurt Vile warble his way through songs from his latest collection of THC Talking Blues, Childish Prodigy. War On Drugs were playing behind him with the perfect Memory Man wooziness that makes them all the perfect tape to play in your car if only you had one.

Listen to the Childish Prodigy here, watch a live version of “He’s Alright” here, and then buy music here.

Speaking of Foxfires, scientists have discovered a new species of bioluminescent mushrooms in Brazil. The mushrooms are part of the genus Mycena, a group that includes about 500 species worldwide. Of these only 33 are known to be able to glow in the dark. Wild.

(Via Nat Geo)

MP3: Phosphorescent – I Gotta Get Drunk

If you’ve ever spent some time out west, specifically in Colorado, chances are pretty high that you’ve had a bottle of New Belgium’s Fat Tire before. I’m not sure if it’s the Phish parking lot vibe obsession with Fat Tire or the actual taste I don’t like, but I’ve never been a fan. New Belgium does some good things to help protect the environment in Colorado though, so if you are a fan, keep buying them. Your money is going to a good place and an a eco-conscious company.

But that ain’t the point of this post. I saw Devendra Banhart play last Friday night and it reminded me of two New Belgium/Fat Tire commercials that feature “Noah” and “At The Hop”. They both look more like music videos than commercials – a guy fixes up a vintage bike that resembles the one that adorns the Fat Tire label and takes it for a nighttime ride through the mountains of Colorado. Nothing to do with beer.

The videos are probably over three or four years old, but beautiful and well worth watching if you haven’t already done so. Doesn’t make the beer taste any better unfortunately.

MP3: Devendra Banhart – Baby

Watch them after the jump…

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