I have been busy lately and not very inspired which is why I haven’t written much. Here are a few things:

• At the Raleigh REI garage sale I got a hammock with a mosquitoe net that packs up super small and will be really nice in the summer for backpacking on sunny weekends since I’ll be able to leave my tent and sleeping pad and still wont have to worry about bugs. I also got Ian a LED head lamp (absolute backpacking necessity) and got dad a new backpack. All great deals.
• The fantasy draft for my fantasy baseball league is tonight and I am too excited. Its the first year of a three year keeper league so that adds a new element, and things should be really interesting. I hate the pressure of not knowing what kind of team you are going to end up with but I love the excitement of the draft. Once its over then it’ll be a relief to at least know who I have to work with this year.
• We are planning a backpacking trip for next weekend that should be a lot of fun. James Ian and I are going with mom out to shining rock. We are all geared up and ready to go and just need some nice weather. Shining rock is so beautiful year round and should be even more so in the spring.
• I am very excited for baseball season to start next week. The Red Sox are looking good, with their one major question mark answered, moving Papelbon into bullpen as the closer. The rest of the guys in the pen should be great, and Taverez should be ok holding down the fifth spot in the rotation until Lester is ready to start. One guy that has been great this spring is Devern Hansack. Some are saying he could take over the role of closer by the end of the season and allow papelbon to move back into the rotation. Lester could then fill in for any injuries to starters down the road. You can never have too much pitching.
• NC State baseball is doing well this year too. They have won their last two ACC series, both two games to one, over VT and WF, after losing their opening ACC series one games to two. I would like it better if they were sweeping series, but the ACC is very good and winning series is doing very well. The greatest thing about the win over WF is the emergence of Jimmy Gillheeney as a dominant starter. He is only a freshman, but against Wake forest he pitched 5 and 2/3 three hit innings with nine Ks. Pretty awesome, and its nice to know he’ll be sticking around for the next two years. NC States series this weekend is at Boston College.

They had the garage sale in Durham this morning and boy did we make out. I personally didn’t get much. Just a pair of nice shoes that can replace my current pair that is getting really worn out. But this time I brought others with me, and they all walked out with piles of booty. We got three backpacks, two from the garage sale for $30 and $50 and one full price. They got shoes, clothes, and Melissa got a nice down sleeping bag that was only like $8 because it has a tear in it that mom will easily be able to fix. Its pretty awesome that we were able to get what we did because we are planning some trips with them for later this spring and they will now be geared up and ready to go.

The backpack we got full price was an Osprey Ariel that James, Melissa, and I got for mom. She really likes my Osprey Aether, and the Ariel is the womans version of that. She tried it on with weight and it was love at first sight. If she was excited to go backpacking before she is really stoked now.

I also enjoyed a double header that the pack played against VT in baseball at the Doak this afternoon. Their game yesterday was rained out, so they played two today, and I went to one whole game and stayed for an inning of the second. We won the first 12-8 and the second 5-2 and as usual it was great baseball. Here are some pics I took:

Yeah I know its been a while since I have written anything here, but things have been busy and I haven’t been so inspired. I was also gone backpacking for a long weekend, and you can see the pics from that here. Kevin and I planned to hike Blackstock Knob out by Mount Mitchell, but we learned a few lessons and ended up doing Linville instead.

The first lesson was always call ahead, even if you dont need a permit or anything. We got to the Mitchell area and everything was closed due to fire danger (high wind and dry weather.) Our second lesson was to be flexible. After scratching our heads for a few minutes we decided to go to Linville Gorge, which is only 30 minutes from Mitchell. Part of the second lesson was bring all your maps just in case. We didn’t have a map for Linville, and that limited what we could do there. However the layout of the park is pretty simple, with the LG trail running the length of the river and all of the other trails dropping down into the gorge to the LG trail.

We decided to hike down into the northern part of the gorge and then hike along the river till we were beneath table rock, about in the middle of the gorge. I have hiked from the middle south, but never in the northern part, and there were a lot of really neat spots. One was a place where the river does an S all the way back on itself and drops several hundred feet rather abruptly. Another is the Babel Tower area where I am really looking forward to bringing a group to camp sometime this summer.

So we slept by the cars Thursday night. Friday morning we hiked down to the bridge at the spence ridge trail, and we spent the afternoon lazing by the river, sleeping, setting up camp, doing lunch and dinner, smoking our pipes, etc. It was very relaxing and totally enjoyable. Saturday morning we took the Conley Cove trail up to the road and hiked the road back to the cars. We were on our way home by noon Saturday.

So a couple other things that we learned. The saw that I brought was extremely useful for cutting brush into firewood, which enables us to keep warm when the temperatures got down to the 30s. Also we decided to make sure we have marshmallows next time and double check which end of the can Kevin tries to open with his pocketknife.

Also don’t count on being able to cover that much trail at Linville Gorge, because the going, even along the LG trail, is very slow. We also have decided that of the Cabin Trail, Pinch In trail, and Conley Cove trail, the Conley Cove trail is by far the easiest way out on the west side of the gorge.

Overall the trip was a great success given all the adapting that needed to happen and a great first experience with backpacking in early March. Looking forward to more trips like it this summer.

I am planning a few trips for the near and distant future and thought I’d throw them out there in case anyone local is interested in joining. Closest at hand is a boarding trip out to beech mountain tomorrow that I am “totally stoked” about. Its an all guy trip since their have free lift tickets for guys on Thursdays, and we have 7 so far. Should be great conditions as they have had tons of cold weather and snow lately, and it shouldn’t be too crowded since its a week day.

I also have Presidents day (February 19th) off work, and I am planning on going snowboarding then too, though I haven’t decided where yet. Maybe up to WV for some “big time stuff.” If anyone is interested in joining me just let me know.

The third is a backpacking trip out to the Mount Mitchell area in early March to climb Blackstock Knob (one of the SB6000 mountains.) That should be chilly but as long as its sunny it should be nice. I am excited enough about backpacking to not mind the cold and am looking forward to knocking out another over 6000 peak.

The other backpacking trip doesn’t have a date yet, but will be when things warm up a little and will most likely involve some people who are excited to go backpacking but have never been before. Hopefully my brother and sister will both be able to come out and we’ll do something like Linville Gorge or Shining Rock.

Alright well there they are, roughly and without much detail. Just let me know if you are interested in joining any of them.

Yesterday I got one of those emails from REI saying that you can take an additional 20% off one REI-Outlet item (the coupon code is outlet27 by the way.) Every time I have gotten one of those I have checked the outlet to see if their UL60 backpack is there, and up till now it hasn’t been. The UL series of backpacks by REI was designed (as its name suggests) to be ultra light. The UL 60 is a backpack with almost 4000 ci capacity that only weighs a little more then 3 pounds and is super simple. When they first came out and I was looking for a backpack I tried one on and really liked it. It has some unique innovation which make it super comfortable, and it is big enough for a weekend trip. The only problems back then was that it was expensive and I was a little worried about its durability.

Well as you might have figured out already that pack is now for sale on REI outlet and with the additional 20% off if it only costs $63. That is an amazing price and I cannot resist. In the past we have tried planning trips with some people who are new to backpacking and don’t have their own stuff yet. I will now have an extra pack that anyone I want to bring can use (one of its features is that it is very adjustable for size.) My concern about the durability of the pack is nixed since it is my ultralight backup now, that I will only use in non rugged conditions. Yes I now have two backpacks, but now you can see all of my rationalizations spelled out. Thats my story and I’m sticking to it!

I took this picture back in September on a backpacking trip to Linville Gorge and posted it here, but I never looked at it in high resolution until this week when I made it my wallpaper. Upon closer inspection you can see a tiny spider on the flower that is so small its legs are clear. In real life the flower is about half an inch across, so the spiders leg span can’t be more then an 8th of an inch. I certainly didn’t notice the spider when I was taking a picture, but what a perfect shot!

Simply amazing, the courage and strength of mind of both people.  “Hey honey, there is a pen in my right pocket… can you take it out and stab this mountain lion that is eating me in the eye?  Thanks so much.”

Over at GetOutdoors they linked to Big City Mountaineers, and it looks like a really neat project.  Basically they get 5 inner city teen agers who haven’t had a chance to do anything like backpacking before, and they take them on a trip to the backcountry for 8 days.  There are 5 adults who go with the 5 kids on the trip, and this is where you get to volunteer.  Basically they have 3 volunteers on every trip whose job is to connect with the kids and help out with the trip.

Right now the trips are mostly in CA and CO, but they have done them in the east before, and hopefully they will do more here in the future.  The mountains of NC would be great for trips like this.  Volunteers bring all their own gear and pay $100 to help cover other costs, and gear is provided for all of the kids participating.  Reading their website it looks like a well organized operation, and definitely something worthy of glance.

Dennis Miller on WMDs and Osama Bin Laden

Also Tim Kurkjian on Fenway Park

Hiking, as defined by Demetri Martin and noted by Cutter, is “walking where it’s okay to pee.”

Also from The Piton: what ever happened to that guy from Blues Clues? Here is his webpage. Pretty sweet!

Maybe this will come in handy. Via The Goat, via Gizmodo, via Lifehacker. Basically its a solar recharger for your nano for when you are backpacking.

I really don’t know if I would bring my iPod backpacking. It is definately lightweight, but it just doesn’t seem right to let something come between you and the outdoors. However when I am hiking, especially alone, I always get songs in my head, and it would be nice to be able to hike with a sound track. We’ll have to wait and see when the time comes. I am guessing that I bring it next time and see how much it actually gets used.