More photos and information about the J.W. Hulme x National Parks Foundation collaboration over at the Cold Splinters column on Outside, “From The Lean-To.”

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?

Over the last two and three-quarter years, it seems as though I’ve posted a couple of old camping photos. This one, the handsome Nat Geo picture above, is post #1,000. The never ending online camping trip. Meeting all of the inspiring and creative people that come around these parts has been one hell of an experience. Y’all are a special bunch.

Melodramatic? Sure. It’s a blog. I know that. But I hope I’ll be able to write another 1,000 of these things. And if not? Maybe that’s not such a bad thing either.

See you out there, on the trail, down a river, on a ice wall in the White Mountains, or at a cantina in Bed-Stuy. Wherever it is, it’ll be good.

I try to get back to Boulder (CU is my alma mater) as many times as I can each year, and I usually manage a trip in the winter and one in the summer. This year, I’m spending Thanksgiving there, so if any of you are going to be around those parts this week, hoot and holler.

I’ll see you again, real real soon. Enjoy the days off from work.

MP3: Melanie – Love To Lose Again

While paying for a taco this weekend after a nice hike across Fire Island, I found a Lewis and Clark nickel at the bottom of my pocket. I can honestly say I had no idea that these existed, and while it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, it is a handsome coin. O, the joy.

Hope yours was mighty fine.

MP3: Loudon Wainwright III – Pretty Little Martha

It  has been a long, long, long week. Tons more starting again next week. Have a great one and I’ll see you soon.

For seventy years (1906-1976) the Platt Historic District in Chickasaw National Recreation Area was designated Platt National Park. Only 800 acres in size, the park was the smallest in the United States to be designated a National Park.

From The National Parks Traveler:

The dawn of the 20th century found Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians in Murray County, Oklahoma, fearing that private developers would create a spa resort like the one at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and bar their access to around 30 strong-smelling mineral springs with reputed healing powers. To prevent this from happening, they sold 640 acres of their land near the town of Sulphur to the federal government, which earmarked it for public use. On July 1, 1902, Congress designated this one square-mile tract (soon expanded to 858 acres) Sulphur Springs Reservation. Few national parks could have had more humble beginnings. None was launched for more blatantly political reasons than helping Indians retain access to healing waters.

In one of the more conspicuous examples of “park barrel politics” to emerge in the early 20th century, Congress redesignated Sulphur Springs Reservation as Platt National Park on June 29, 1906. This nondescript tract with its cluster of mineral springs was now, at least conceptually, in the same league as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, and Crater Lake National Parks.

The new designation honored Orville Hitchcock Platt, a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Though seemingly bizarre, this label made sense when viewed through the filter of national politics. Platt, who served with distinction in the U.S. Senate for just over a quarter-century (1879-1905), was not only very actively involved in Indian Affairs and the Dawes Commission, but also sponsored the legislation that established the Sulphur Springs Reservation in 1902. By the time Platt died on April 21, 1905, the idea of formally recognizing his contributions to the country, and in behalf of Indians and the new park, was well established. Congress redesignated Sulphur Springs Reservation as Platt National Park just 14 months after the Senator’s death.

Watch: Oklahoma Oasis, a 1974 film made by the NPS that is narrated by Chief Dan George (see below), about the “colorful history connected with the establishment and development of Platt National Park.”

Black Mesa State Park, OK, 1975

MP3: Kate and Anna McGarrigle: My Town

MP3: Joni Mitchell – You Turn Me On I’m A Radio

MP3: Jackson Browne – Ready Or Not

MP3: Cass Elliot – (If You’re Gonna) Break Another Heart

MP3: Joan Baez – Farewell, Angelina