Tag: updates

Supplies and Supplying

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The cycles of light and dark are different from inside a house. Day and night lose some of their meaning as I push back against both – walls, roofs, curtains all conspiring to darkness in daytime, while switches everywhere await a near-effortless command to bring light in an instant at night. The power’s enough to cause a superiority complex; disconnection, above, beyond, instead of connection, one with, part of. Just one more reason, I think, to get back outside and stay a while.

Still, I’d forgotten how intensive preparing for a hike can be. Continue reading →

Interlude: Credit Where Credit is Due

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So I’ve got a post-post for you tomorrow, but some things in the meantime:

  • Roy Moore, he who “allegedly” hit on actual children as a grown man, he who is totes cool with slavery as long as America is “great”, he who maybe doesn’t understand the swearing in process enough to explain it to his campaign staff, was narrowly defeated by Doug Jones a lot of determined men and women of color who got out the vote in spite of active voter suppression at the polls. Black men and women made up nearly 30% of the voting population, and overwhelmingly cast votes for Jones (92-ish% and 97-ish%, respectively). Black women in particular showed up, and were 17% of voters on Tuesday. If you want to thank them with more than just words, this article suggests ways you can do so. 
  • The Federal Communications Commission just overturned the net neutrality rules in place to keep a fair and open internet. While there is a slim, slim chance that this could be overturned by Congressional Review – and you should definitely do something to encourage that – there is a preliminary list of all the Congresspeople who 100% sold us out at the very end, and for how much. As a person on the internet who likes writing for y’all, and who can’t afford to pay more than she already is for the privilege of doing so, feel free to contact any of your representatives you find on the list and let them know how you feel about their chances in 2018 and 2020.

More travel-related writing tomorrow; I hope you spend some time talking about these issues today. 

Start Your Engines

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Spesh and I are about to emerge from our training cocoons as Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer butterflies, so I thought I’d just give a bit of an update before the longer updates begin:

  • I’ll be doing updates at least once a week from here on out; rather than labeling these by days/weeks, as is my wont, I’m gonna label them with real-time mileage from our Subaru. So don’t get confused if you see I’ve “hiked” 1000+ miles in a week. I’m not that awesome.
  • Part of the job is to travel cool places and do cool things, so I’ll have plenty of adventures to tell you about, starting tomorrow. I’m going to try to make Thursday publishing day; anything I publish any other day will be bonussssss awww yisss.
  • More information on the job and what it entails, including links and such, can now be found on The Route page; any questions that doesn’t answer you can ask here in the comments, or hit me up through the Contact page.
  • Also Snorkel wrote a book that I (and many others) contributed to; it’s called Backpacker Long Trails, and it’s already been favorably reviewed on Reddit. It’s ENORMOUS and has all sorts of rad information in it for both beginners and folks who’re looking to refine their technique or go ultralight or or or. I think it’s a boss resource that basically mimics my introduction to backpacking – as very straightforward tips from a variety of people with a variety of styles who all want to see you succeed.
  • Also also apparently they named a dinosaur after Zuul. Real life has conspired to bring together my trail name and my trail shenanigans. (That it’s apparently the ‘Destroyer of Shins’ is just a bonus.)

Tomorrow it’s fun fun fun with a post about training and physical sickness and metaphysical sickness – see you then!