To hours on the trail, great company, better stories, no rain, tall fires and a few good nights of sleeping under the stars. Happy 4th of July, everyone. Have the best long weekend and we’ll see you on Tuesday.
Archive | June, 2011
Helambu-Langtang
On my recent trip to northern New Hampshire last week, after a climb and a few IPAs and a black bean pizza at The Moat, Mark and I stopped in at the basement consignment shop at IME. North Conway’s not so bad, huh?
Unfortunately I didn’t find anything that fit (if i were a little bit larger, I would have been broke after 20 minutes) but I did grab this old map from the used book section up front. IME leads guided trips to this region and has brought many back over the years. It is a real beauty, and although I wish my scanner was big enough to scan the entire thing, these images of the front of back give you a pretty good idea.
Helambu is a region of highland villages in Nepal, close to Kathmandu and Langtang, a region that borders Tibet just north of Kathmandu, is protected as Langtang National Park, the first Himalayan National Park. And Gosaikund? Well, that’s an alpine freshwater lake in the park, located at 14,370 ft above sea level. Pretty useless information if you’re at your computer, but the map sure is nice…
From The Lean To
Lake Clark National Park
I have a couple friends who last year up and moved to Kenai, Alaska (just southwest of Anchorage, north of Kodiak Island). Since their move, I’ve been living vicariously through their amazing photos and am hoping to make it there by summer’s end. Kenai is just across a Gulf of Alaska inlet and less than 50 miles from Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. The best way to access Lake Clark is by small plane, on wheels, floats, or skis. There is no highway access to the park, from anywhere.
When Dick Proenneke passed away in 2003 (after living alone in the wilderness for over 30 years), he entrusted his handbuilt cabin and cache to the NPS, in the Twin Lakes region of Lake Clark. The cabin now stands and serves as a museum of Prokenneke and his legacy, maintained by the park service year round. I’m most of the way through More Readings from One Man’s Wilderness: The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1974-1980 and it’s making me more itchy footed by the day to get up there.
Anyone ever been?
The Tidal Wave Mixtape
If y’all aren’t daily readers of Aquarium Drunkard, then that means you probably missed the Mondo Boys’ Tidal Wave Mixtape last summer. We listened to the mix while driving to the AT two weekends ago (hugging tree part of hike pictured above), and despite the awful (awesome) sound system of my 1999 Subaru, the tunes were just about perfect. Download it here. Comes with the S.E. Rogie jam below.
Cathedral Ledge
I spent a few hours yesterday climbing Funhouse to Upper Refuse on Cathedral Ledge in North Conway, NH, pictured above. Was a great climb with an even better view, and after 5 pitches, 600 vertical feet and a nice applause from the group of people at the top, I was interviewed for a documentary being made about Dean Potter. Obviously not what was I expecting to do after my first climb in a few months. We hiked back down to the car, stopped for a couple of beers at The Moat, drove to a roadside waterfall off the Kancamagus and then hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls with Mr. Jason McKenzie of The Tannery’s Wilderness Workshop. A great day in New Hampshire, to say the least.
Happy summer, y’all.
Back to the Wild
Outside Online ran a short article last week prefacing a book of Christopher McCandless’ previously unseen (publicly) photos, postcards, letters and journal entries titled Back to the Wild. The book, slated to be released in July, will also be released as a DVD with scans of photos found exposed with McCandless in the bus and interviews with those he met along the way. Say what you will about McCandless and his mystique, but these photos are amazing and haunting.
Keep an eye out on Amazon and the Back to the Wild site for release and availability.
Check out a trailer for the DVD after the jump!
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COLD SPRING APOTHECARY
Cold Spring, NY is located about an hour or so up the Hudson River from New York City. Friends from Brooklyn moved up there a couple of years ago, and after extended time in their CS apartment’s second (!) kitchen mixing up natural body products, the Cold Spring Apothecary was born. The store, located right on Main Street, is steps away from the Cold Spring Metro North stop, opened a couple of months ago, and for their first summer in retail, the CSA has made a line of camping products that I was fortunate enough to use while out on the Appalachian Trail last weekend. Choose from Bug Spray, Campers Soap, Hiker’s Tea, Citronella Candles and Juniper and Cypress Foot Powder. It’s good stuff. I promise.
Campers Soap Ingredients: Aloe barbadensis (Organic Aloe Vera) Juice, Cocos nucifera (Organic Coconut) Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Olea europaea (Organic Olive) Oil, Vegetable Glycerin (Kosher), Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Citronella, Eucalyptus, Cedarwood, Lemongrass, Lavender, Litsea, Tea Tree, Patchouli, Catnip
Stop by the store en route to Breakneck Ridge this summer or, if you’re not in the Hudson Highlands, shop online here.
Upstate and Levi’s
My girlfriend, Kalen, and her/our neighbor/friend, Astrid, own a company called UPSTATE that makes all things shibori. It’s just about the most beautiful stuff you ever saw and I have the world’s best job of being able to look at it all day, whether it’s a raw silk scarf hanging from the tub, waiting to be dried so it can be sent to one of the 1,000 stores that carry Upstate, or the Upstate curtains (we have the only Upstate curtains around) that keep the sun from waking me up in the morning. One of these days, maybe we’ll make an Upstate/Cold Splinters tent or something. Or maybe we won’t.
A couple of months ago, Jay Carroll came over to our apartment in Brooklyn, NY and we drank whiskey and Pacificos while listening to Mirage on repeat with our friends. In between all that mayhem, he managed to film Kalen and Astrid doing what they do best, dyeing those beautiful textiles in our tub. I have watched this video a million times and I hope you do too.
Have yourself the best weekend, alright?
