The Filson booth at OR sure was handsome, especially when juxtaposed with the dreadlocked teenagers walking across tightropes a hundred feet away. (I’m not knocking dreadlocks or walking across a nylon chord. Both are extremely difficult achievements.) The Seattle-based Filson has collaborated with San Francisco-based Levi’s and made some co-branded workwear together. Check it out here.

Even more exciting is that they’ve tapped VBS (who also brought you Heimo) to make a series of videos to help promote the collaboration. Lucky for us. The first installment is a two-parter called “Oregon Fire Lines” that chronicles the daily work of the wildland firefighters who work for Grayback Forestry in Southern Oregon. Go watch it and be thankful/depressed that you work at a computer.

Watch: The Oregon Fire Lines – We Are All Workers | VBS.TV

Posted: August 26th, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 1

I’d write my own little summary about today being the 30th anniversary of Mount St. Helens, but Boston.com couldn’t have done it better. They have a lot more amazing pictures, so be sure to click here.

On May 18th, 1980, thirty years ago today, at 8:32 a.m., the ground shook beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history – the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. The erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet into the atmosphere for over 10 hours, depositing ash across Eastern Washington and 10 other states.

MP3: Link Wray – God Out West (thx)

Posted: May 18th, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 2

“WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT OLD CAMPING PHOTOS AND USELESS INFORMATION?”

Sorry for the lack of posts. These park guides don’t write themselves, I suppose.

Youtube: Jerry Garcia Band – Simple Twist Of Fate

Posted: April 20th, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 2

Sardines are great for camping. High(ish) protein, canned, CHEAP, extremely aromatic (great for attracting bears!), compact and low in mercury. I don’t eat a beef salami, so these are even better for little ol’ me. Not a lot of people enjoy these fishy little fish, so when you find someone else that indulges in sardines and toast, you feel an automatic kinship. You’re part of a club.

Maine used to be home to a hell of a lot of sardine canneries, but as of April 18th, that will be all but a memory. The last American sardine cannery, located in Prospect Harbor, ME, will be closing down. The cannery is owned by Bumble Bee, but is still known as the Stinson plant, after the founding family. Read more about it at the NYT.

Posted: April 13th, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 5

Roy Cleveland Sullivan was a U.S. park ranger in Shenandoah National Park, that, between 1942 and 1977, was hit by lightning on seven different occasions. He is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person being struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being. Tetra Pak has a new commercial that’s an homage of sorts to Roy that’s well worth watching. Head on over to 10Engines and have at it.

Unfortunately, Sullivan was finally killed in 1983 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach.

Posted: March 25th, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 2

California is trying to ban smoking in state parks and on beaches. I don’t smoke, but even I find that to be ridiculous. If someone wants to smoke, let them smoke. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but there’s too much restriction nowadays. I have friends that smoke on camping trips, and they always always always pack their cigarette butts out. I’m sure they’d do the same on a California beach. As San Bernardino Count legistlator Anthony Adams told the SF Chronicle, “”Prohibiting smoking is not the answer. [It] assumes everyone who smokes does something intrinsically criminal.” Read more here.

Posted: March 24th, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 5

by Mark Cahill

Living in Chicago, it was hard to notice that last weekend marked the changing of seasons. On Saturday March 20th, at 1:32pm ET, the sun crossed directly over the earth’s equator: the Vernal Equinox. Soon the trees will be in bloom and we will all be trekking through our favorite weekend stomping grounds without any heavy parkas and long underwear.

Stewart Udall was a true champion of the environment. He served as the Secretary of Interior under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and was responsible for some the most important modern environmental victories of our time. Udall passed Saturday morning in his New Mexico home at the ripe old age of 90, just as spring was being born.

Some of Udall’s biggest accomplishments include the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts, The Wilderness Act of 1964, The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and The National Trail System Act of 1968. He also played a large role in the acquisition of Canyonlands NP, Redwoods NP, North Cascades NP and Guadalupe Mountains NP.

Udall made every Spring a little more enjoyable for all of us, and for that, we thank him. More info here.

Posted: March 23rd, 2010 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 2

Scientists have discovered that by recording the sounds that bark beetles make, tweaking them, and then blasting the sounds back at the beetles, they can disrupt mating, tunneling, and reproduction, thus creating a virtual wall around the effected areas of the west.

The scientists have developed a device that would be drilled into the outer layer of the lodgepole pines and other trees that beetles favor, pumping the sound waves under bark. Costing about $100 a tree, it’s cheaper, less environmentally disruptive, and far more effective than other methods.

Read more over at The Adventure Life.

Posted: February 9th, 2010 under Science, The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 2

Mornin’.

MP3: Beach Boys – Big Sur (thx RS)

Posted: February 8th, 2010 under Long Hairs, The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: 2

$$$$:

No sport packs as much into eight seconds as bull riding. In Baltimore, the winner, Kasey Hayes, rode for 24 seconds and earned $28,370. That is a pay rate of more than $4.25 million an hour — as if anyone could ride the 1,500-pound likes of Chief of Staff, Walk the Line or El Presidente for an hour, or would want to. Snyder rode a total of 11.3 seconds, earned nothing, and was left to hope — and wait — for better results at Madison Square Garden this weekend. But waiting is what bull riders do most. After his first ride in Baltimore, Snyder had almost exactly 24 hours to think about his second one. First, he had to get rid of the headache.

Snyder is a 26-year-old from Raymore, Mo., with a black hat, a dignified air and a nose reconstructed a few years ago by a surgeon who used Snyder’s driver’s license as a guide. That procedure followed a head-to-head run-in with a bull — a brutally common collision known among riders as being jerked down or, more graphically, dashboarded.

He was the tour’s 2001 rookie of the year, earning $348,560.54 the season he turned 19. He is now known in bull-riding circles for an ironman streak of 236 consecutive P.B.R. events. Part of each event is killing time between rounds.

Posted: January 6th, 2009 under The World Is On Fire!.
Comments: none