Your Mileage May Vary

Adventure Travel

Category: Whatnot (Page 1 of 8)

On this day, 133 years ago, the U.S. Congress established Sequoia National Park

2023.09.25 /

On September 25, 1890, 133 years ago today, the U.S. Congress established Sequoia National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Sequoia National Park is the second-oldest national park in the U.S.

Sequoia National Park was established to protect giant sequoia trees, the largest living trees by volume on Earth.

The protected area has grown to include the nearby King’s Canyon National Park, Giant Sequoia National Monument, and Sequoia National Forest, protecting a total of 404,064 acres (631 sq. miles) and at least 8,000 sequoia specimens.

On October 26, 1976, UNESCO designated Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks as an International Biosphere Reserve as the best example of “South Sierran oak woodlands, chaparral, mixed conifer forests, sub-alpine and alpine environments.”

2023.08.24 /

I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dropped it carelessly, Ah! I didn’t know, I held opportunity.

» Hazel Lee (Aug 24, 1912 – Nov 25, 1944)

Simon-Pierre Goneau and Samuel Lalande-Markon have completed their 3,000 km expedition along the entire length of Quebec

2023.05.06 /
Samuel Lalande-Markon et Simon-Pierre Goneau au cap Anaulirvik

Samuel Lalande-Markon et Simon-Pierre Goneau au cap Anaulirvik

Translated from La Press »

On April 28, Samuel Lalande-Markon and Simon-Pierre Goneau reached Cape Anaulirvik (Wolstenholme) after a demanding three-month journey over 3,000 kilometers in difficult weather conditions.

“For me, it was something very emotionally charged,” comments Simon-Pierre Goneau. It’s a project that I had in mind for five years, so it was the realization of a dream. »

For his part, Samuel Lalande-Markon let himself be captivated by the landscape.

“It was really the most beautiful of our entire crossing.

Samuel Lalande-Markon has extensive experience in epic journeys: in 2018, he linked Montreal to Kuujjuaq by bike and canoe, a 31-day epic with David Désilets. In 2021, he had teamed up with the same partner to cross the province in an east-west axis, from Blanc-Sablon to the Cree community of Waskaganish, on the shores of James Bay.

For Simon-Pierre Goneau, this is his first major expedition, which he concocted after discovering that the southernmost point of Quebec was on private land near marker 720, at the border Canadian-American. With the permission of the owner, he undertook his crossing in 2020 by bicycle. Unfortunately, bad weather conditions and the pandemic forced him to abandon the project in Chisasibi, on James Bay.

He decided to resume this year, starting from Chisasibi. Samuel Lalande-Markon joined him there, leaving a fortnight earlier from the famous terminal 720 solo.

Read the rest of the article and see more photos of their adventure at La Press (in French)

Elsewhere » Le Soleil (FR) / Espace (FR) / Explorersweb (EN) /

An 80-year-old woman, 1,000 kilometres, 7 weeks, a trusty steed, and her faithful dog

2021.09.12 /

Sam Anderson, ExplorersWeb »

For the 40th time, Jane Dotchin has set out on a seven-week pilgrimage along rural byways from her home in Hexham, England to Inverness, Scotland.

How many 80-year-olds do you know who travel 1,000km overland each year? Age is just a number for Jane Dotchin from Hexham, England, who has done such a trek annually since 1972. This year, her 13-year-old pack pony, her disabled Jack Russell terrier, and a few personal items were all she needed for the trip.

Dotchin puts on her eyepatch and an orange safety vest, packs her kit and Jack Russell terrier Dinky onto her horse, and sends it. From her home in Northumberland, near the Scottish border, she’ll ride all the way north to Inverness. It’s a tradition that started decades ago for Dotchin, with a deferred animal care request and an inkling of freedom.

More »

Is now the right time to ban campfires?

2021.08.17 /
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Source » Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff, High Country News »

Published 5 years ago, on July 13, 2016

In 1972, Grand Canyon National Park outlawed campfires in the backcountry. Backpackers like me considered this an outrage. After all, the only people who carried those fancy little stoves back then were people incapable of building a fire. I bring this up because we are living through another explosive fire season in the West.

Of course, popular campsites back then looked a lot like parking lots. No downed wood, no dead (or live) grasses, no bushes, no bark on the trees as far up as you could reach. When a dozen people a night are building campfires, anything burnable vanishes pretty quickly.

Note: Fires denude the camping area.

I had a stove. I remember setting up my tiny SVEA, putting the pot on to boil, and turning to organize my sleeping place, because when cooking on a wood fire, it takes forever for the pot to boil.

But my pot boileth over, more quickly than I expected.

Note: Stoves are more efficient than wood fires.

A fire is convivial, although I usually don’t sit next to it: I spend a lot of time skulking around to avoid smoke. Said smoke also fills the whole camping area. I can see and smell a campfire from a mile away.

Note: Fires stink.

Read More » 

New forensic analysis indicates bones found on a remote island in the South Pacific were likely those of legendary adventurer Amelia Earhart

2018.03.07 /

Science Daily:

Richard Jantz, professor emeritus of anthropology and director emeritus of UT’s Forensic Anthropology Center, re-examined seven bone measurements conducted in 1940 by physician D. W. Hoodless. Hoodless had concluded that the bones belonged to a man.

Jantz, using several modern quantitative techniques — including Fordisc, a computer program for estimating sex, ancestry, and stature from skeletal measurements — found that Hoodless had incorrectly determined the sex of the remains. The program, co-created by Jantz, is used by nearly every board-certified forensic anthropologist in the US and around the world.

The data revealed that the bones have more similarity to Earhart than to 99 percent of individuals in a large reference sample.

The new study is published in the journal Forensic Anthropology.

Source: University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Outdoor recreation has larger economic impact than mining or agriculture

2018.03.07 /

Get your selfie stick out.

Kamila Kudelska, Wyoming Public Media:

The new study by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that outdoor recreation accounted for two percent of the entire U.S. economy in 2016.

And

Tara Highfill, a research economist at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, said two percent is actually very significant in the overall economy.

“That may sound small, but it’s actually quite large when you look at other industries,” she said. “For example, outdoor recreation is larger than the entire mining industry in the U.S. It’s larger than the entire agriculture industry in the U.S.”

Highfill said the most surprising finding is the size of the outdoor recreation economy and the speed at which it is growing. In 2016, the outdoor recreation economy grew 3.8 percent, compared to a growth of 2.8 percent in the overall economy. A final report will be released in September.

Study: Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account: Prototype Statistics for 2012-2016

More:
Outdoors Economy Is Bigger Than Oil – GearJunkie
Outdoor recreation was 2 percent of GDP in 2016 – TheHill

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Please tread lightly, pack out your trash, and treat every person and location with respect.

Please do not bury waste or wipes – even those that are biodegradable. Always pack out bags, sanitary wipes, and feminine hygiene products to minimize impact on the environment and the spread of disease.

If you find any errors, have any tips, or see anything that might need improving, please let me know.

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