On the trail - May 15, 2011

Suggested Title: Dying Ain’t Much of a Living

“Most men stranded in the wilderness die of shame. They just sit there and try and think of the one thing that will save their life, when the one thing that will save their life has been with them all along, thinking.” - Anthony Hopkins in the movie The Edge

There are 5 basic needs a human being needs to survive in the wilderness. They are in no particular order: food, water, shelter, heat, and spiritual needs. Take away any 2 of these needs and you are in trouble.

The general rule of thumb for a human being to live without something is illustrated in 3’s: 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Given that priority list, if you ever found yourself stranded in the wilderness, what would you do?

Now you may be thinking, this is not a problem, if I ever get stranded or lost in the wilderness, I’ll just call someone on my cell phone to come and get me. This seems to be happening more and more these days. People are calling search and rescue to come get them because they just don’t feel like hiking back. But what if you fall crossing a stream and your cell phone gets wet? Now what?

First off, try and not panic. Sit down and access your situation. Your fight or flight response is probably stuck in the on position, so this may be more difficult than you think. But lost or injured is lost or injured and compounding the problem by panicking is not going to help. You can do this. You have the ability to reason and think things through.

Where are you? Are you on a trail? If so, other hikers will be by to help you. If not, then that is a whole other ballgame. If you get into trouble, how you prepared for the trouble if it did accidently occur can make all the difference. Basic items such as extra water, extra food, a space blanket, a rain poncho, matches, aspirin, Band-Aids, a whistle and a signal mirror can literally save your life.

An example of what not to do happened to me years ago when I went hiking in May up at Beaver Meadows near Red Feather Lakes. It was a nice spring day with temperatures in the low 70’s when I decided to take a hike. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt when I set off to hike around the well marked trails sitting at around 9,000 feet in elevation. A storm quickly moved in. The winds picked up and the temperature dropped into the 40’s. It started to rain. It was time to get back to the lodge. Now which way was it again?

I was soon cold and shivering. I took out my trail map but I was confused. I started to jog to stay warm. I went the wrong way and went farther away from the lodge. Nothing looked familiar. I started to panic a little. The first stages of hypothermia were setting in.

Well like I said, the trails were well marked and after going completely around the long way back to the lodge, I saw people with winter coats on going in. Doo! The lodge fireplace slowly warmed me up and I got a hot meal and went home. I was lucky. I had made my mistake in a fairly confined area.

Being prepared is not paranoid, it is smart and responsible. Do yourself a favor and plan for the unexpected. Trust me; you’ll be glad you did.

On the trail - May 1, 2011

When he hikes, mountain lions hope to catch a glimpse of HIM. Sunny days are reserved for when HE is on the trail. The ground rises up to meet HIS stride.

He is the most interesting hiker in the world.

“I don’t always hike, but when I do, I prefer to hike in Colorado.”

When asked to write this weekly column about hiking in Colorado, I figured my audience might appreciate the lighter side of journalism, in other words, funny. Funny comes in many shapes and sizes and for the next 6 months, I will try and entertain as well as educate those of you out there looking for some helpful tips on the activity we call hiking.

Hiking is not a sport. You do not compete against anyone. Some people think that it is, but those Type A personalities probably won’t be reading this column anyway. They will be too busy knocking off their 3rd 14er of the weekend by the time the newspaper hits their driveway or rests snuggly in their front bushes. For those of you looking for a little humor and insight, welcome.

We all hopefully learn from our mistakes. As far as hiking is concerned, I have made my fair share. For example, I used to be so excited and eager to go hike some place, I would jump in my Jeep and be on the trail before I knew it. All I would forget to bring along in those days were little things like food and water. It was amazing how long the hike back was when I was dehydrated and weakened by hunger. Those kinds of errors were not just stupid, they were dangerous.

Since then, I have taken several wilderness survival classes and learned just how stupid ignorance can be. If I had gotten into any real trouble back then, nobody would have known where I was or where I had planned to go. I learned that being an island in the world of hiking was not what you wanted to be.

So, for starters, tell someone where you are going to hike and when you plan on being back. Check.

Force yourself to take the time to make that peanut butter and honey sandwich for your lunch. Check.

Bring more water than you think you need. Water good, delirium bad. Check.

If possible, hike with a partner. First, unless they are more trouble than they’re worth, they can help you if some unfortunate accident happens. Second, talking to yourself is a little embarrassing, especially when other hikers hear you answering yourself.

Avoid wearing anything cotton. T-shirts get soaked with exertion perspiration and become refrigerators. And everyone knows that blue jeans are for people to ski in when you are from Texas and not what you want to be caught dead in while hiking.

There is not much of the human condition that I have not made fun of, so if you see me coming down the trail heading in your direction, I would hide if I were you. Maybe pretend nature was calling. But if you do happen to run into me on the trail, say hi, and you might just find yourself reading about that time on the trail in the coming months on a Sunday while drinking your morning coffee.

“Stay thirsty my friends”.

Shut the Front Door

Since I was a philosophy minor in college, I sometimes get carried away with deep thoughts. So as I was sitting in our front room early this morning drinking my coffee, something occurred to me. As I was gazing out our front door, which was recently fitted with a storm door, I suddenly realized what I had been missing all these years.

Our front door was solid wood with a tiny peep hole in it. Now, we can leave it wide open, as the new storm door creates the barrier to the outside world. This barrier is made of glass and the world beyond, that has always been there, is now visible.

The new door opens up the whole area. It brightens up the room with light. It lets us see what is happening in our front yard. We now can watch the twins running around and eating grass. The twins are this year's crop of bunnies that have taken residence under our front stoop. We can also watch the sprinklers go off. And, we can now see the birds as they dart around from tree to tree.

Life is a lot like that I guess. Good things are out there. Sometimes, all we need to do is have a new storm door put on in order to see them.

The Eyes of Texas are Upon Me

"YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND * THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE"








I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin on May 19, 1984. I was 23 years old. Oh, the places you will go...

27 years have come and gone since that day. I remember sitting on some steps on campus a couple of days before graduation and looking out into the distance wondering what my future would hold.

Of course I couldn't have imagined all the twists and turns my life would take up until this point in time.

Back then, college was something you did to better yourself. You could get a better job if you went to college. College was also a 4 year buffer from the real world. It was the bridge that you crossed on your journey towards adulthood.

I spent about $25,000 for my college education. That amount was for room and board and all the privileges of youth we spent money on at the time. Today, $25,000 may buy you a year of college. It is really hard to believe.

College is a part of my life, a chapter in time that I remember fondly. I was lucky enough and determined enough to have that opportunity to get to know some of the truth and it has made all the difference.

Leashes for Labs - On the Trail

Are you one of those people who hate rules? Well, if it was a rule not to drink poison, would you do it?

Of course not and regulations about dogs off leash while hiking are kind of like that. They are there to protect your dog, not hamper his “wilderness experience” or yours.

Here are 4 questions I would like to ask you about your dog:

1. Do you care about your dog?
2. Do you want your dog to be healthy and live a long, happy life?
3. Do you take care of your dog, feed it, give it water, take it to the vet, etc.?
4. The dog can’t take care of itself, you have to take care of it, right?

Leashing your dog while you hike is part of taking care of your dog.

Here are just some of the things that can harm your dog by having them roam free off leash:

• Your dog can contract diseases like rabies, tapeworms, and salmonella by coming into contact or eating dead animals in the wild.

• Your dog can contract Guardia by drinking from the streams. Yes dogs and humans can get sick from drinking water that other animals have used as their toilets.

• Your dog can become dinner for a mountain lion...other large hoofed animals may just try and stomp them to death...and you may not even know your dog was bitten by a rattlesnake until it is too late.

• Your dog is much more likely to get ticks and bee stings off trail off leash.

• Hidden off trail hazards including rusty barbed wire and broken glass can injure your dog and lead to nasty infections.

• Confrontations with other dogs also off leash can lead to injury or worse.

The chances of your dog being hit in the parking lot or crossing the street, or coming in contact with mountain bikers or horseback riders on the trail, well all of these possible tragedies can be avoided if you take the simple precaution of leashing your dog when you go for a hike. And if you go for a hike to relax and enjoy the outdoors, why not increase your chances of doing so by leashing your dog when you take him or her with you?

Happy Trails begins with a leash for your dog and ends with Happy Tails of safe hiking adventures you took with your dog for years to come.

VE Day

The Vernal Equinox is upon us once again. Hello friend. It has been too long.

As I get older, the time period from September till March feels longer and longer. I don't like it. I prefer the time from March till September, my season of light.

As a kid, I grew up on a road that ran east west. On March 21st, the sun set right down the road. Around this time, the geese flew in giant v-shaped formations northward to their breeding grounds in Canada and the Spring Peeper tree frogs sang rhythmically serenading the season of Spring.

As a grown up, spring break for our daughter began our annual migration to Florida and a cruise around the Caribbean. The escape southward thrust us past Spring headlong into Summer. Spring in Colorado soon followed with the song of the meadow lark booming in the mornings.

The days lengthen. The grass grows. The birds sing. We yearn to be outside more. I wonder if we appreciate this season of light for what it is or because of what we had to endure to see it through for another year?

Backpacking 101 - Part 1

High school, senior year, a friend and I are in the school library talking about another friend that was going to go on some adventure to Kansas. We decided then and there to do something just as bold. We decided that we would go backpacking in the Smoky Mountains.

A couple of important facts to note. Neither one of us had ever been to the Smokies. We had never backpacked before either. The sum of my hiking experience, away from my forest preserve across the street in Northern Illinois, was reading adventure stories in Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines.

But it sounded cool. We would be walking across the entire park on a level, mountain top trail, the Appalachian Trail. And I had all the gear, like clod hopper hiking boots and wool socks, to go along with a pack that I bought at a Sears store.

My friend was a soccer player, a fanatical weight lifter, and a health food junkie. I was comparatively frail and ate food like pizza burgers. But we made the commitment to go and he gave up going to the senior prom so that he could afford to buy new tires for the Plymouth Valiant we were to drive there in. On the other hand, I mink oiled my clod hopper boots as my big preparation for the trip.

So in June of 1978, we set off and drove 15 hours straight from the suburbs of Chicago all the way to Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. We were in awe of the mountains as we approached the park and since we had no place to stay, we slept in the car at the ranger station. The next morning, we informed a ranger of our intentions to cross the park in 7 days and off we went to park the car at a nearby trail head.

What happened next was what happens when reality meets inexperience.

Did you know that it is very humid and muggy in Tennessee in June? Did you also know that hiking boots that are a couple of sizes too big when worn with wool socks will enable you to grow the biggest blisters on your heals that you have ever seen? Did you know that hiking trails in the Smoky's go up and down and are never level? Did you know that when one of your backpack straps keeps breaking, you have to stop and try and put it back together again while nats and other flying insects attack you? Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Long story short, I was 17 years old and under the stress of the real world, wanted to go back home asap. I told my friend that he could keep going, that I would just hitchhike my way back home. Like I said, I was 17.

He cut short his trip as well and we drove all the way back home like we were escaping from East Germany. It was a devastating blow to my hunger for adventure and my yearning to explore and I would not try something like that again for a long, long time. But I did try again.

For my 30th birthday celebration, I chose to go backpacking in Grand Teton National Park. This time, I was prepared. Prepared for everything right up to the point when we hoisted our full packs onto our backs and nearly fell over from the weight. A friend of mine and I looked at each other and said, "We are gonna die."

To be continued.