Outdoor Thread

[rlipps]

You guys be safe out in the woods, I lost one of my best friends this past week, apparently due to another hunter's negligence/stupidity.

http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines ... 49371.html

[Iowan]

You guys be safe out in the woods, I lost one of my best friends this past week, apparently due to another hunter's negligence/stupidity.

http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines ... 49371.html

Fuck dude. I'm really sorry to hear that. Same thing happened to a good friend of mine (his cousin was accidentally shot hunting) and its just a bad deal. You're in my thoughts, Rodney.

[pearlysnaps]

Shit, Rodney, that is awful. I'm sorry, man.

[Iowan]

Went canoeing on the Upper Iowa River yesterday. Phone died about halfway through, and prior to the top scenery of the stretch we ran, but it turned out to be a good thing, as I then put my phone in the water-tight ammo box I always take canoeing, and we ended up dumping as we tried to exit the swollen, low level flood-stage river. The current was so strong that we couldn't drag the canoe upstream and out of the river, so we had to tie it to the back of my truck and drag it out. Watching all your beer float away in 40 degree water fucking blows.







I also lost my coozie from the Sattre Store (located in the most remote spot in Iowa per the Des Moines Register).

I never could stay sober, on the Upper Io-way.

[bovine knievel]

Ocean Beach - San Francisco, CA 4/30/2014

[Smitty]

Caught a mess of frogs last night. Got about 3 dozen legs we'll be frying up tomorrow.

[Iowan]

Memorial Weekend on the Upper Iowa

[John A Arkansawyer]

Well, we're back from the beautiful Buffalo, America's first, and I believe only, officially-designated National River. It's always great being with the daughter, even though this trip was a bit of a clusterfuck. Not all the breaks were bad, though. Just most of them.

Normally, we get there Friday night, but my oldest niece's graduation was that night and we couldn't miss that, so instead, we got there Saturday evening with just about enough time for me to put together the salad I made for the potluck. I was inside a friend's cabin slicing and dicing and letting my daughter do whatever she could to help--she asked to help. She's a great kid!--when I asked her to see if something I couldn't find was in the trunk. She came back in to tell me she'd locked in the keys!

Now, normally this wouldn't be a problem. I have one key on a clicker by itself and another key on my main key ring. However, I'd left the car in Memphis for the weekend when I went to the DBT shows in New Orleans and had disabled the trunk release lever inside the car so that if anyone broke in, they couldn't get into the trunk. A good precaution which I should have remembered to undo later on but didn't. All I had left was the valet key, which doesn't open the trunk. I made a mental note to put the valet key on the clicker next time, which of course I haven't yet done, but I have unlocked the lever.

All our clothes were in the trunk! But wait! It gets better. And by better, I mean worse.

I'd arranged (I thought) to split a cabin with a friend and his nephew, so I didn't bring the tent or my sleeping bag, but when I got there, the nephew had decided he didn't want to share the cabin after all. There are never any open cabins on Memorial Day weekend, but since my daughter had her sleeping bag, I found her space in another friend's tent.

After that friend and I spent a loooooong time trying to get into the trunk through the back seat--which we couldn't, because it's a convertible--I decided I'd drive the two hours back to Little Rock, get the third set of keys, get a little sleep, and drive back, but I only made it half an hour up the road when I realized that even if I did get there and back, I'd be too tired to be safe on the river the next day. So I got a cheap motel room (ten dollars less than my suite in New Orleans--go figure) and slept there and then drove back. We had our river service, where we both remember those who've died and celebrate being there together, and then went to the river to float. Unfortunately, since I had to stop and buy us swim trunks and her a shirt, we missed the group bus and had to wait for another ride.

She hadn't been feeling perfectly well, so I pushed a little harder than I would have normally, and we made the trip pretty quickly. It's the first time she and I had been in a canoe on our own--and the first time I'd been in a canoe without a more experienced adult (okay, that one time with Mike, but he's very athletic and a natural on the river)--so I was a little nervous. I would have liked to have someone I knew near us if not with us, but she did a fine job helping me paddle and paid attention when she needed to.

Except for putting on more sunscreen. We are both more than a little burnt in a few small places. Okay, maybe more than small in my case. My new shorts rode up on my legs and I didn't realize it until it was too late, so my knee areas are a bright candy-apple red, as is the skin right above my water shoe line.

This was the point where our luck finally got a little better. We have a second potluck up at the cabins (the first one is in a pavilion by the camping area) and it turned out one of our members and her boyfriend had decided to leave a day early. She gave us their cabin and I left a very nice tip for the lady who cleans it.

So that was my weekend. Busy, fun, messed up, and now over. Except for the sunburn. And now work and then a board meeting, for which I've been practicing my getting-mad-and-stomping-out speech. There are multiple places on the agenda where it's somewhere between justified and mandatory. I'm hoping to get all that out of my system before.

[Barely_Oakely]

I went and canoe'd the Cannon River from Faribault to Northfield on Satudray. The Cannon's a smallish river with a few scattered rapids, but nothing too exciting. I took a friend of mine who isn't exactly an expert in a canoe, but I figured that so long as he didn't tip us I could do most of the work. The weather was amazing and after stopping on a few rock bars to drink a beer we realized that we needed to come back and bring more people. So as we went down river we were trying to figure out how we could procure more canoes and bring some friends. The best ideas we'd come up with were craigslist and theft...

We came up to a particularly rough chunk of river and as we got spit around a corner we got thrown around a bit and smacked up on a log jam. Matt kept his cool and we kept the boat upright, and as I freed us from that hazard he points down into the log jam and says "Oh, hey, I found us a canoe!" Sure as shit, we were actually on top of a sunken canoe that hadn't fared as well as we had. We pulled our boat around behind the jam and after a very chilly and wet adventure we pulled a 17ft grumman out from under the logs. We fought the current and dragged the boat to calmer waters and tried to figure out what we should do with the trophy. I didn't want to try to haul an empty boat down stream and risk getting it snagged or sunk and then hanging us up, so we marked the map and tried it off to shore so we could come back later.

Half a mile down river we came around a corner and found a pair of ladies sitting on shore looking a little soggy and distraught. After realizing that they didn't have a boat tied up next to them I asked if they were missing a boat. Turns out they'd dumped just before we came around the bend. I told them that we'd righted their boat and it wasn't a bad hike to get it, but they insisted that they had help coming and we kept on down stream distraught at needing to surrender our prize so quickly.

A few miles later I was pulled up on shore taking pictures of a cliff that had "E.C. 1870" inscribed in it when an inflatable raft with a trio of law enforcement officers came by. They asked if we needed help. "Not us, the ones you're looking for are up stream a ways." I said and their maxed out outboard fought to bring them up stream.

The rest of the paddle was pretty uneventful other than coming around a bend and surprising a rather bashful lady who was going for a swim in her skivvies. I'd say summer's off to a good start.

I'll post some pictures when I get around to it, but until then, here's proof of part of the story. (though the ungrateful folks forgot to mention the hansom strangers who freed the craft...)
http://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/article_4e69bea9-09de-524f-a8a1-5fb7b29c92f1.html

Two women looking for a quiet Saturday afternoon canoeing the Cannon River got a little more than they expected.
The Rice County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call around 1:50 p.m. of two women stranded on the river bank without their canoe. The Sheriff’s office responded to the river at the intersection of Hwy. 3 and County Road 29 with two boats.

According to a press release issued by the Sheriff’s department, they were canoeing, heading north on the Cannon River a few miles north of Faribault when their canoe hit a group of trees and tipped over.
The two women were able to get to shore but could not get to their canoe and were stranded. Rice County deputies and Rice County Water Patrol deputies assisted with rescuing the women from shore and getting them back in their canoe.
No one was injured in the incident.

['Scratch]

If you told me 6 months ago that I'd run three miles non-stop, I would have asked you to share what you were smoking. That was before my 9 year old daughter started Girls On The Run and I found out that a parent was expected to run a 5K at the end of the program. With a new pair of Shrek-worthy kicks and some help from the Couch to 5K program, I'm happy to say I ran the race yesterday and didn't die in the process.

I also did my best to represent the greatest rock band in the world by wearing my red Cooley shirt.



I don't know if I'll ever run another (the cartilage in my left knee isn't making happy sounds this morning), but it's a great program, the 5K was a lot of fun and it was an awesome way to bond with my kiddo.

[bovine knievel]

Took a trip down the Sacramento River yesterday - Balls Ferry bridge to Jellys Ferry bridge.

*yours truly

*eddied out

*mouth of Battle Creek

*Jellys Ferry bridge

[Iowan]

One of my favorite parts of summer is seeing this thread stay on the front page.

Good work Scratch, and Barely, you ever get pics up from that trip?



Looks like a tight fit.

[Barely_Oakely]

Good work Scratch, and Barely, you ever get pics up from that trip?

Workin on it... My sister gave me the camera that I took on the trip, but it apparently needs a Sony specific chord that I have yet to be tenacious enough to track down. Anything free's worth saving up for, but I hadn't even given any thought to how to pull the pics from the camera. Fool that I am. No worries, I'll remedy that and I'll have a shit ton more canoeing pictures once I'm back from the Canadian borderlands in a few weeks.

[Beebs]

If you told me 6 months ago that I'd run three miles non-stop, I would have asked you to share what you were smoking. That was before my 9 year old daughter started Girls On The Run and I found out that a parent was expected to run a 5K at the end of the program. With a new pair of Shrek-worthy kicks and some help from the Couch to 5K program, I'm happy to say I ran the race yesterday and didn't die in the process.

I also did my best to represent the greatest rock band in the world by wearing my red Cooley shirt.



I don't know if I'll ever run another (the cartilage in my left knee isn't making happy sounds this morning), but it's a great program, the 5K was a lot of fun and it was an awesome way to bond with my kiddo.

Nice job Scratch.

BTW, we've got a whole "Running" thread in case you keep on keepin' on.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4051&p=243135#p243135

You might be interested to know that drunk running is a popular topic of discussion/experimentation.

['Scratch]

Thanks Beebs, I'll check that thread out. I'm not really built for running, but I like the simplicity of it and I need the cardio workout. I also started back at the dojo after a 2 year break and I'm managing stress a whole lot better. I just need to avoid any injuries that will put me back to square one.

[Barely_Oakely]

Has anybody ever paddled the Allagash in Maine? I've always wanted to see the northeast and I love paddling, so this seems like an obvious choice. Thoughts?

[Smitty]

Fourth copperhead I've killed so far this year.
I also just realized I dress like a fucking hipster.

[Clams]

Fourth copperhead I've killed so far this year.
I also just realized I dress like a fucking hipster.

I'd say that beheading and posing with a copperhead separates you from the fucking hipsters.

[Iowan]

Fourth copperhead I've killed so far this year.
I also just realized I dress like a fucking hipster.

I'd say that beheading and posing with a copperhead separates you from the fucking hipsters.

This. All of this.

[John A Arkansawyer]

Fourth copperhead I've killed so far this year.
I also just realized I dress like a fucking hipster.

I'd say that beheading and posing with a copperhead separates you from the fucking hipsters.

This. All of this.

How do you know he didn't use an artisanal guillotine to behead that copperhead, whereupon he used its meat to make Agkistrodon Purée over Dandelion Salad, and the skin to make a strap for his eight-string ukelele with the rattle hanging off one of the tuning pegs?

P.S. No, I didn't know the copperhead's formal name was Agkistrodon contortrix. I thought that was that Greek stripper who never would go out with me.

[RolanK]

How do you know it was a guillotine and not one of these hipster axes?

[John A Arkansawyer]

How do you know it was a guillotine and not one of these hipster axes?

That's not a hipster ax. This is a hipster ax:



And this is the plural, which formed by dropping the word "a"; thus, these are hipster ax:

[RolanK]

You obviously haven't heard of Hipster Survivalism

[tinnitus photography]

just did a ~2 hr hike through Ravenswood w/ the family. leg felt good!

[Iowan]

Fourth copperhead I've killed so far this year.
I also just realized I dress like a fucking hipster.

I'd say that beheading and posing with a copperhead separates you from the fucking hipsters.

This. All of this.

How do you know he didn't use an artisanal guillotine to behead that copperhead, whereupon he used its meat to make Agkistrodon Purée over Dandelion Salad, and the skin to make a strap for his eight-string ukelele with the rattle hanging off one of the tuning pegs?

P.S. No, I didn't know the copperhead's formal name was Agkistrodon contortrix. I thought that was that Greek stripper who never would go out with me.[/quote]

Tell me more about the strippers...

[Cole Younger]

Fourth copperhead I've killed so far this year.
I also just realized I dress like a fucking hipster.

They're crawling here too Smitty. I've killed three timber rattlers already.

[Smitty]

I've killed 4 copperheads and one small rattler (had a button). Killed two of the copperheads the same night while on a froggin' trip (kinda like frog gigging, just without the gigs). I need to post a pic of the mess of frog legs I've already gotten this year that are sitting in the freezer.

[Smitty]

Cooley's first bass.

[John A Arkansawyer]

Cooley's first bass.

That's a nice fish. Three pounds?

[Smitty]

Cooley's first bass.

That's a nice fish. Three pounds?

I tell everyone four, but three is probably more accurate . Unfortunately I didn't weigh him.