tdh|blog

Okay, last weekend I had my first backpacking trip. I learned a few things, that I think I should share.

• Carrying 30 Lbs on your back dramatically affects how far you can hike.
• Hills are harder then flat ground
• Setting up a Tent for the first time at night, is not the best idea
• Every Ounce matters
• After 10 miles Legs, Hips, and Shoulders will be sore
• Stairs are not your friend for the next few days

The trip didn’t go exactly as planned. It ended a day early, but learned a lot. The next trip will be a more reasonable distance between camp sites. Overall the trip was great, and learned a ton.

You learn something new everyday; this weekend I learned several new things. One, do not treat a kayak like a canoe. Two, the Chicago River does stink, and clothes will stink after being washed in the river. Three, cell phones and the Chicago River do not mix. Four, kayaking is fun!

Just wanted to let everyone know real quickly that you can now view 280 of the choicest photos from Death Valley on my Flickr page.

I have not begun to caption them, yet, but I hope to get to that over the weekend. Check em out!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kowgod/sets/72157594153323452/

What a great trip. No one in our group died, everyone made it out. Unfortunately I heard someone did die not too far from where we were hiking. Apparently they only took 16 oz of water with them for their hike. In 110+ degree heat, that is just not smart. Not to say we didn’t have are own share of troubles.
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Tomorrow two friends and I are leaving on a nearly 2000-mile journey across the US. We are heading for the lowest, and hottest place in the United States. Death Valley. We are taking a week off work and exploring this harsh environment. Maybe we will stumble upon some snakes, scorpions, or sheep. We plan on hiking to the tops of a few peaks, getting lost in a few valleys, biking around the park, climbing sand dunes and sleeping under the stars. It will be a week of no technology (minus the car, gps, digital cameras, laptop, ipods and cell phones), a week of eating freeze-dried food, and a week of the great outdoors.

I can’t wait.

At some point during the 2004 primary campaign season, I declared that support for Bush is a character flaw. I remember at that time, some people became angry at what they considered to be me making a broad generalization about Bush supporters, and knowing how I myself hate broad generalizations, thought me to be a hypocrite.

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Having recently got back from traveling to Egypt. I thought I would try and clear everything up about these misconceptions, so no one else is caught off guard. First off, their are no mummies chasing after American’s. I did find mummies, but they were long dead, and were not moving. Second, there were no curses. I went into several tombs (including Tut’s) and no one got turned into a duck. Third, Egyptians people walk like everyone else, I was sad when I discovered this one. Fourth, NONE of the pyramids I went into had inclinators, nor contained casinos. Although some pyramids did have casinos near by. Fifth, the sphinx no long has a nose (Thanks Napoleon!), the eye does not blink, it lost its beard (it’s in the British museum) and is not located in Luxor, but near Cairo. Luxor did have a street lined with sphinxes, but most are gone, and are a lot smaller.

Hope that clears everything up!