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Monthly Archives: November 2009
Choose My Adventure, Day 2: Fishing Hole, Swimming Hole
![[Photo: Stephen Regenold]](http://upnorthica.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lead.jpg "lead")
Photo: Stephen Regenold
The Gear Junkie has bagged a brown trout. Pam’s caught two. And our river guides? I’ve been too busy snagging branches and submerged rocks to pay attention. We’re losing sunlight on Day 2 of our adventure in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Think I’ll go for a dip in the 52-degree waters!
Each day, your votes decide which challenges I take on, during this Choose Your Own Adventure vacation I’ve won, via GearJunkie.com. Though today’s vote was close, the majority went to “Take a Swim in a Frigid Stream.” Read on for the story and a whole mess o’ photos.
Choose My Adventure, Vote #3: Bike Off a Sweet Jump -or- Race the Gear Junkie
On this second day of my Choose Your Own Adventure vacation with the Gear Junkie, I got to catch exactly *no fish* and go swimming in a frigid trout stream. And yes, as a matter of fact, it *was* fun. I’ll post the full report on that later, but first, I need your help.
Tomorrow we get to mountain-bike the newly-constructed Allegrippis Trails, which overlook massive Raystown Lake. But just in case that’s not thrilling enough, I need your vote on what to do for fun. What’ll it be:
Take Bike Off a Sweet Jump
A jump would be good, but if I find a log bridge, or bamboo trap to jump over, I will go for that too. I’ll take whatever the trail throws at me. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.
-OR-
Race the Gear Junkie
Will we do a lap around a loop? Or just shoot up a rocky escarpment, with tires buzz-sawing through gravel and calve muscles exploding like pistons in like, an exploding muscle car on fire? I think we all know who would win this one. But don’t worry, I’ll go easy on the Junkie.
Watch for today’s report, but VOTE NOW for Take Bike Off a Sweet Jump -OR- Race the Gear Junkie. And thanks to everyone who’s voted so far; this has been so fun! Keep ‘em coming…
Choose My Adventure, Day 1: Never a Boaring Moment
Woo hoo! Our first day here in the Allegheny Mountains was marked by high altitudes, high thrills, and truly high-on-the-hog living.
As part of this Choose Your Own Adventure sweepstakes theme, your votes had me tracking wild boar during our day hike. (Don’t forget to make your pick on Day 2′s activities, later on.)
Read on for lots of pics and tales of adventure!
Choose My Adventure, Vote #2: Swim a Frigid Stream -or- Fishing Contest
As winners of the Choose Your Own Adventure sweepstakes, we’re in the Allegheny Mountains with the Gear Junkie. But our trip is made even more special because you can vote on our itinerary! Your votes had me tracking wild boars today; watch for that report later tonight.
Our plan for tomorrow: Fly-fishing local trout streams, which we’ve been told, are among the best in the East. But to keep things interesting, you get to pick between two challenges for me to take part in:
Swim a Lap in a Frigid Trout Stream
Wanna see me cool down after a hard day of sweet-looking fly casting? Daytime temps have been about 45 degrees, but we’ll be bundled up in, like, 4 base layers and more polar fleece than an Eddie Bauer Outlet.
-OR-
Challenge the Gear Junkie to a Fish Catchin’ Contest
I haven’t fished in years — but neither has he. This could be a real upstream battle for both of us, but if you vote for this, I’ll promise save you a bite of trout. Heh heh.
Watch for our Day 1 report, later tonight. In the meantime, cast your vote in the comments section of this post for Day 2: Frigid Swim or Fishing Contest. What’ll it be, y’all?
Choose My Adventure, Vote #1: Tracking Wild Boars or Granola Bar Survival Fire
Wow! Tomorrow begins our adventure in the Allegheny Mountains, with the Gear Junkie. We’re extremely pumped — and you should be too, since you’re voting on our first day’s activities!
Since the trip is the grand prize of the Junkie’s Choose Your Own Adventure sweepstakes, we want you to be a part of it. We need you to vote on what to do during our hike in the mountains tomorrow. Will it be:
Tracking Wild Boars
Honestly, we know nothing about the Alleghenies. So while researching, we were curious about which kinds of wildlife we could expect to see. “Whitetail deer, chipmunk, groundhogs…” Nothing new, we have those in Minnesota. “…Bobcat, snowshoe hare, wild boar and black bear are also found in the –” Hold it right there. Wild boars? Yes! What an awesome chance to read Nature’s signs, feel the thrill of the chase and perhaps get our shinbones flayed by a vicious feral beast!
-OR-
Start a Survival Fire Using Granola Bars
A vigorous hike will keep you warm, but in those elevations… well, you just never know. If you vote for this option, we’ll attempt a fire fueled with bars of both the Chewy and Crunchy varieties — and who knows, maybe some of that paraffin-coated Key Lime Luna Bar crap (I sure won’t be eating that one, Survival or not.) It’ll be educational.
So, what’ll it be? Cast your vote NOW in the Comments section of this post. You’ll find out which option we chose, when we post our hiking adventure, tomorrow night. VOTE!
On an Adventure with the Gear Junkie — and So Are You
Word mighta leaked out that yours truly had won a vacation getaway to the Alleghenies, courtesy of everyone’s favorite gear junkie… uh, well, The Gear Junkie. Good news, right? Well, the better news is that you’ll be a part of that adventure.
As grand prize winner of the Choose Your Own Adventure Sweepstakes, I got to pick from an array of outdoor adventures in fly-fishing, kayaking, hiking and mountain biking.
So here’s where you come in: Each day, you’ll get to vote on the next day’s activities. Will you help pick a biking route? Request a demo of survival skills? Have me challenge the Gear Junkie to a physical challenge? Just like in the books, my fate will be in your hands.
But first: “What the heck is an Alleghenies?”
“I Don’t Care If This Post Missed Halloween — That Rock Still Looks Like a Skull!”
And if I’d seen this while lost on Gordon Lake during a cold rainstorm at night, I can tell you, I would have filled my bilge with fraidy-pee. I’m tellin’ ya… right off the cover of a Hardy Boys novel — at least from this angle. From the right, it more resembles a large, imposing rock, but a scary rock nonetheless.
Anywho, I snapped the photo while recently canoeing the Sawbill. I thought, I can’t be the first person to have noticed this (though I haven’t seen anything on the Intertubes about it.) And it was enough to try and get a show’n’tell going, so here goes…
Do you have any pics of unusual rock formations, creepy or otherwise? Maybe one that looks like a face or something other than a rock?
“Precious Waters” Documentary to Premiere Nov. 11
Last week finally saw the public release of the PolyMet environmental impact statement. Anxious to hear how the proposed mining operation could affect the neighboring BWCA, interest groups are still poring over the 1,500-page reading assignment.
The Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness have already been busy doing their own homework. Next Wednesday, they’ll premiere “Precious Waters: Minnesota’s Sulfide Mining Controversy,” a short film they have produced.
“Precious Waters” takes a hard look at the sulfide mining industry’s history of failed predictions and the threats new mines pose to northeastern Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams and sustainable economy, as told through the voices of citizens, scientists and advocates.
The showing, at Macalester College in St. Paul, is free, open to the public… and hopefully will provide some solid ‘next steps’ for people during the 45-day comment period that’s been set up.
Hit the Friends’ site up for details. I’ll bring the popcorn if you bring a friend or two.
Upcoming Canoeing DVD Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Film Fests
By the beard of Bill Mason, why’s it that so many outdoorsy film fests lately, seem to have largely forgotten Paddling? Unless it involves kayaking down the world’s tallest frozen-over waterfalls in a wingsuit? I mean, is the level of mere ‘extreme-ness’ their sole criterion for including a film?
Good thing we just found out about Justine Curvengen’s upcoming DVD on canoeing. The globetrotting documentarian first caught our attention this summer, while filming our friend Erik Simula’s Arrowhead Journey.
That Erik will be featured on the DVD is plenty good for us, but there are enough segments to make this sound like a standalone film fest all by itself. There’s the dude who runs rapids with his 4-year old. There’s the fluid choreography of a Canoe Ballet Champion. A 42-foot voyageur canoe’s adventures in Scotland. There’s Becky Mason, solo-tripping daughter of The Bearded One himself. And one 15-year old Wisconsin girl whose skills already got her a spot on the US senior team for canoe slalom.
That’s just a drop in the bucket. Reprinted below is the lengthy (and happily so) synopsis of what to expect:
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