I ache. I still feel tired.
The wilderness canoe and camping trip was exhausting, as an ambitious plan seems to have angered the wind gods to push back a bit, and make the 'plan" far too much. As Odysseus was blown off course for years, having angered Poseidon (ruler of the sea and waters) and Aeolus (ruler of the winds), so were the Epicurean campers delayed and buffeted, first by Eurus (East wind god), then by Boreas, (North wind god) and at the end by Zephyrus (West wind god). Only Notus (South wind god) was not angry.
Poseidon was particularly angry, as he caused the fish to refuse to bite and even freed fish that were caught by Les Grands Pêcheurs (the great fishermen). Our only fish dinner was from the generosity (and overabundant catch) of another fisherman.
The furthest portage - aka Le Grand Portage - was about two miles long. Sure, over flat ground carrying a 60 lb. pack would be relatively easy. But imagine doing that after a three hour paddle in your canoe, then having the first 200 yards straight up a rocky path, followed by a thousand yards of rocky twisting trail up and down. Then you have to return and do it again. Add it up: almost six miles, four with a 60 lb. pack and almost three over very rugged paths.
You think: but the far wilderness you reached must have been wonderful. Uh ... nope - it was just another lake and the best two camp sites were taken. The fish were reluctant to bite. The only good thing about the area was that we could see an osprey nest on the island where we camped with a fledgling on top of a high, dead tree. The osprey would swoop over the lake, catch a fish & return to feed its young. That was cool.
Too much work, too little fun. A very poor work/fun ratio.
On the bright side are two items.
First, I survived. The other Epicurean campers did not have to hold a Viking funeral for me, pushing a burning canoe (charged to my credit card) into the lake in a blaze of glory.
Second, I learned a marvelous recipe from Grand Jean. He was surely the first class Epicurean camper, making several fine omelettes [with real eggs!!!] for breakfast or lunch and sipping Irish whisky in the evening. The recipe he showed me was so special that I'll save it for tomorrow. He made it for Big Al and himself as they were experimenting with various camping techniques jointly in preparation for a trip to northern Minnesota.
Actions
None. The model has a weak sell signal for real estate stocks, caused likely by the stability of the TIAA real estate fund. I will wait.
Word of the Day
"Nadir" - noun [$10]
Nadir means the lowest point.
Sentence: The psychological nadir of Le Grand Portage was not the physical hardship of the 200 yard climb with a 60 lb pack, but was the crowd of people at the portage at the very end: half a dozen canoes and over a dozen people in a small landing point made it seem like Grand Central Station in the wilderness. Ugh !
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Epicurean Camping
A true epicure lives mostly a frugal and ascetic life, but has refined taste in a few dimensions of life, such food and drink. In camping/canoeing, that means combining the primitive with some fine accompaniments for pleasure. This photo provides an example of how to do this in practice. You can see my typical breakfast: hardtack, peanut butter, jelly and black coffee. The "finer" components are the peanut butter & jelly and the freshly perked (not instant!) coffee. The hardtack is .. very ascetic. [It's in the white box, made at a bakery that made it in the Civil War.]
You can also see the wine from the prior evening's festivities around the campfire: as Woody (the attending oenophile) said, a plain, undistinguished red wine ... but it was wine in the wilderness! With our steak & baked potato dinner (with sour cream & chives), that was an epicurean camping exemplified.
Actions
Waiting.
Word of the Day"Gourmand" - noun [$10]
Gourmand means one who delights in eating heartily and well. Usage: A gourmand is one who loves good food and drink and sometimes partakes of them to excess; a gourmet or an epicure , on the other hand, has discriminating and cultivated taste in food and wine.
Sentence: The problem with being a gourmand is the expanding waistline; being a simple epicure is better.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
An Epicurean Chipmunk
On the recent Epicurean canoe & camping trip, I and my fellow Epicurean campers had much fine food & drink: grilled steaks, baked potatoes, sour cream, fine wines, cognac, Irish whisky, and s'mores. But as true Epicureans, we also ate much as pioneers might have: dried foods, pemmican, flatbreads and hardtack. In the Epicurean fashion, we added some improved ingredients to "spice up" the otherwise bland food. In the case of hardtack, that was peanut butter & strawberry jelly.
In the course of eating my breakfast of black coffee, pemmican and hardtack with peanut butter & jelly, as adventurous chipmunk spotted a piece of "loaded" hardtack that I dropped. Obviously he was a gourmand and grabbed it, carrying a piece bigger than himself to a safe spot to enjoy.
The photo above shows Chip ... or is that Dale? enjoying the Epicurean treat: hardtack with peanut butter & jelly. We had many visits from enterprising chipmunks to our various campsites. They were welcome and as hardtack is rather crumbly, they obtained some fine food from me.
Actions
Waiting to sell some gold stocks when the signal gets stronger. I'm keeping my physical gold & silver for now.
Word of the Day
"Execrate" - verb, transitive [$10]
Execrate means 1. to declare to be hateful or abhorrent; denounce; 2. to feel loathing for; abhor; 3. to invoke a curse upon.
Sentence: The Tea Party movements unifying principal is to execrate big government. I hope somehow that can be more finely focused onto the Ruling Class power structures.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Man vs. Nature
Man lost on Friday in a small confrontation. That was when I and my fellow canoeist - The Mariner - attempted to exit Algonquin National Park in Canada via Round Lake. We and all the Epicurean campers had had a fine trip - a bit wet, perhaps, and on that last morning had negotiated 36 winding turns in the Amable du Fond River. The wind was calm, the trees at nearly peak color. The final portage was behind us. Then we entered Round Lake and ... whoooosh. Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, was exerting his power ... right into our faces and from the place we had to go to exit the park.
The Mariner shouted, "Steer into the wind, mate". That's the only way to make progress and maintain our steering. [The Mariner was in the bow and Bunkerman was in the stern of our 17' canoe - heavily laden.] We made slow progress, but the wind was increasing. Round Lake is not completely round - it's got a funnel shape on the east side towards the river and we were in the funnel. We were blown off course a couple times - The Mariner said the wind had a cross-current. We persevered. Stroke, stroke and on and on for about an hour, but very slow progress.
Steering was getting harder. The waves were getting larger.
The larger waves begin to toss water into the canoe amidships. Bunkerman shouted to The Mariner, "We're taking on water !" Still we paddled on and on. Then more water - worse - and steering broke down. Bunkerman shouted, "We're not going to make it". We had negotiated only a fraction of the distance . Sinking would really suck ! We chose to head to shore and rode there in a wave-tossed ride like a rocket with the wind. Smashing into the small trees, we held on, but were taking on more water as we were now parallel to the waves.
We struggled to edge around a log, made it to a small beach and lashed the canoe to some trees. Big Al came by to help - he had a kayak and thus much less wind resistance. We told Big Al that we'd walk for help. That we did and then after a couple hours, a CD$40 "taxi" ride for 5 miles, and the help of Big Al and Mrs. Al, we had the canoe and our gear back at the rental site at the park's entrance/exit.
We had survived !
The lesson ? Make your exit day flexible. The prior day was a fine day for canoeing - had we left the day before, we would have avoided this near disaster. Perhaps plan a longer trip, but keep a flexible exit day.
One more thing: in my "humble" opinion, the GORP prize goes to Mrs. Al. Her GORP had little butterscotch chips that imparted a fine delicate flavor. Congrats, Mrs. Al for your championship GORP. [GORP = Good, Old Raisins & Peanuts, a canoeist-hiker's nutritious snack food which can contain whatever else the maker wishes for better flavor.]
Actions
I checked the model and the weak sell signal for gold+silver is still there. TIPs are at a new high and I plan to sell more of those. I think I'll slowly take that allocation to zero. Those yield almost nothing and price risk is now very high. I also plan to cut back teh US stock allocation as the S&P approaches 1200.
Word of the Day
"Eidetic" - adjective [$10]
Eidetic means (of a mental image) having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible
Sentence: The winds, waves, whitecaps and water sloshing into our canoe has been imprinted as an eidetic image onto Bunkerman's memory cells.
The Mariner shouted, "Steer into the wind, mate". That's the only way to make progress and maintain our steering. [The Mariner was in the bow and Bunkerman was in the stern of our 17' canoe - heavily laden.] We made slow progress, but the wind was increasing. Round Lake is not completely round - it's got a funnel shape on the east side towards the river and we were in the funnel. We were blown off course a couple times - The Mariner said the wind had a cross-current. We persevered. Stroke, stroke and on and on for about an hour, but very slow progress.
Steering was getting harder. The waves were getting larger.
The larger waves begin to toss water into the canoe amidships. Bunkerman shouted to The Mariner, "We're taking on water !" Still we paddled on and on. Then more water - worse - and steering broke down. Bunkerman shouted, "We're not going to make it". We had negotiated only a fraction of the distance . Sinking would really suck ! We chose to head to shore and rode there in a wave-tossed ride like a rocket with the wind. Smashing into the small trees, we held on, but were taking on more water as we were now parallel to the waves.
We struggled to edge around a log, made it to a small beach and lashed the canoe to some trees. Big Al came by to help - he had a kayak and thus much less wind resistance. We told Big Al that we'd walk for help. That we did and then after a couple hours, a CD$40 "taxi" ride for 5 miles, and the help of Big Al and Mrs. Al, we had the canoe and our gear back at the rental site at the park's entrance/exit.
We had survived !
The lesson ? Make your exit day flexible. The prior day was a fine day for canoeing - had we left the day before, we would have avoided this near disaster. Perhaps plan a longer trip, but keep a flexible exit day.
One more thing: in my "humble" opinion, the GORP prize goes to Mrs. Al. Her GORP had little butterscotch chips that imparted a fine delicate flavor. Congrats, Mrs. Al for your championship GORP. [GORP = Good, Old Raisins & Peanuts, a canoeist-hiker's nutritious snack food which can contain whatever else the maker wishes for better flavor.]
Actions
I checked the model and the weak sell signal for gold+silver is still there. TIPs are at a new high and I plan to sell more of those. I think I'll slowly take that allocation to zero. Those yield almost nothing and price risk is now very high. I also plan to cut back teh US stock allocation as the S&P approaches 1200.
Word of the Day
"Eidetic" - adjective [$10]
Eidetic means (of a mental image) having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible
Sentence: The winds, waves, whitecaps and water sloshing into our canoe has been imprinted as an eidetic image onto Bunkerman's memory cells.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Minimal vs. Maximal
Last year on the wilderness "Epicurean" canoe+camping trip, I tried to be a minimalist. That means taking as little gear as possible and being as self-sufficient as possible and having gear that did not seem decadent. After all, this was a wilderness trip. I had never been on a long canoe trip like this before and did not understand that for portages, when one must carry all the gear & canoe for a short distance over land from one lake/river to another, taking two trips was not only possible, but common practice.
This year, I'm going Maximal. Why limit myself to one backpack of gear ? I have hands. I lift weights. I can carry more gear in them as I hump over the portage. Except for the portage, the canoe carries all the weight. That's the great benefit of water travel that pioneers understood. I bought a fine waterproof duffel bag from Cabala's [ http://www.cabelas.com/ ] and I've put lots of gear into it: my sleeping pad and bag, some more clothes in case mine get wet, a warm coat, my coffee pot & coffee, a camp stool (so I won't have to sit on wet ground or a wet log), and some assorted other gear. It's fairly heavy, but the portages aren't that long.
Having the duffel bag also let me diversify my supplies of food and clothes - I split them into two parts and packed part in the backpack and part in the duffel bag. In case of accident and loss of one set, I'll have the second ... and will survive !
Perhaps I've overdone it. If so, next year I've know enough to hit an Aristotelian virtuous optimum.
PS: no posts next week as I will be on the Epicurean camping trip.
Actions
Futures are up this AM. I'm still riding on my Brontosaurus, looking for the next water hole when I'll get off and into the trees. But until then, it's a fine, enjoyable ride.
Word of the Day
"Farrago" - noun, plural [$10]
Farrago means a confused mixture, hodgepodge, medley: a farrago of doubts, fears, hopes and wishes.
Sentence: The P-O-R 'stimulus' was mostly a farrago of gifts to states to subsidize overpaid state employees and payoffs to political support groups. Less than 10% went to true stimulus - buying and fixing things that are needed such as roads, bridges, rails ports, air ports, air traffic control, high speed Internet, and valuable conservation and historic preservation projects that increase tourism. The P-O-R 'stimulus was squandered and that' why US poverty and unemployment are distressingly high.
This year, I'm going Maximal. Why limit myself to one backpack of gear ? I have hands. I lift weights. I can carry more gear in them as I hump over the portage. Except for the portage, the canoe carries all the weight. That's the great benefit of water travel that pioneers understood. I bought a fine waterproof duffel bag from Cabala's [ http://www.cabelas.com/ ] and I've put lots of gear into it: my sleeping pad and bag, some more clothes in case mine get wet, a warm coat, my coffee pot & coffee, a camp stool (so I won't have to sit on wet ground or a wet log), and some assorted other gear. It's fairly heavy, but the portages aren't that long.
Having the duffel bag also let me diversify my supplies of food and clothes - I split them into two parts and packed part in the backpack and part in the duffel bag. In case of accident and loss of one set, I'll have the second ... and will survive !
Perhaps I've overdone it. If so, next year I've know enough to hit an Aristotelian virtuous optimum.
PS: no posts next week as I will be on the Epicurean camping trip.
Actions
Futures are up this AM. I'm still riding on my Brontosaurus, looking for the next water hole when I'll get off and into the trees. But until then, it's a fine, enjoyable ride.
Word of the Day
"Farrago" - noun, plural [$10]
Farrago means a confused mixture, hodgepodge, medley: a farrago of doubts, fears, hopes and wishes.
Sentence: The P-O-R 'stimulus' was mostly a farrago of gifts to states to subsidize overpaid state employees and payoffs to political support groups. Less than 10% went to true stimulus - buying and fixing things that are needed such as roads, bridges, rails ports, air ports, air traffic control, high speed Internet, and valuable conservation and historic preservation projects that increase tourism. The P-O-R 'stimulus was squandered and that' why US poverty and unemployment are distressingly high.
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