Bastish.net shared a link to a well-done blog called Laughing Knees, whose author is an American teaching English at a Japanese university. His posts are prose one day, verse the next, always with cool photography of the Japanese countryside. Good…
Hikes of the world
The guides of Kilimanjaro
by tmangan • December 12, 2006 • 1 Comment
Outdoorzy.com co-founder Wade describes his Kilimanjaro ascent, with an aside about how much to tip guides, porters, etc.: I’ve read some horror stories about tipping guides and porters. Also read that some of them turn around and sell all the…
Photography
Flickr pic o’ the day
by tmangan • December 12, 2006 • 1 Comment
Misty Okutama, originally uploaded by bastish. “Misty Okutama” from the Photostream of Bastish. Bastish’s blog has become on of my faves of late — perhaps he’ll come along and give us all the good dirt on Okutama.
In the news
Buy coffee, fund trails
by tmangan • December 12, 2006 • 2 Comments
American Hiking Society has made a deal with Higher Ground coffee to help pay for trail work in the Southeast United States. This medium-bodied coffee carries a taste of wild berries and a subtle dark chocolate finish. Better yet, the…
Photography
Flickr pic o’ the day
by tmangan • December 11, 2006 • 0 Comments
, originally uploaded by BlueDjinn. An untitled shot from the photostream of BlueDjinn, in Switzerland. Locale is Lac Lioson, at Les Mosses, Switzerland. (More info here.)
Gear
For the DIY crowd
by tmangan • December 11, 2006 • 0 Comments
I’m sure I’ve linked to this site before, but what the heck: Jason Klass has an excellent bunch of pages devoted to making new gear and tweaking the stuff you’ve already got. One handy idea: An alcohol stove for hot…
Tom's travels
New Year’s Day hike reminder
by tmangan • December 10, 2006 • 1 Comment
A few more details on the New Year’s Day hike: Start time is 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 1, 2007. Rain does not cancel (at least not for me). It’s at Monte Bello Open Space Preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains.…
Mission Peak
Mission Peak again? Yeah
by tmangan • December 9, 2006 • 1 Comment
I’d do all my hikes at Mission Peak if the weather’d cooperate like it did on Saturday. Cloudy skies, light rain, prodigious mud and gale-force winds might not sound like cooperative conditions, but when you’ve done this hike several dozen…
Hiking
Intro to canyoneering
by tmangan • December 8, 2006 • 0 Comments
Backcountryblog has an extensive introduction to canyoneering: what it means, where to go, how to get trained and most importantly — how talk about it online. I’m a bit too claustrophobic for the squeeze-between-the-rocks antics required of canyoneering but I…