January 2013 – Hermit's Woodshed

riding a surly moonlander in antarctica — ericlarsenexplore.com

It’s eerie to listen to the voice. The transmission starts out chirpy, almost a forced chirpyness. As the voice goes on, loneliness and a sort of uncertainty come through. The voice is not real time but it’s still chilling to realize it’s coming from the middle of the Antarctic, the middle of that frozen desert. He’s alone. I can see pictures of him crouched in the orange glow inside the little tent, or huddled beside the bike trying to get out of the wind.

Eric Larsen just returned from an attempt to ride a Surly Moonlander to the South Pole…and I complain about a little bit of snow on the local roads! Spoiler Alert: He didn’t make it. At first he saw it as a failure, but on the ride back to the pickup point it sounds as though he started to enjoy the routine. That brings to mind a paradox; one needs a goal when setting out on a journey, but if the ultimate, original goal is not reached, is that necessarily a failure? What is the point of the journey after all? Sure, Eric had sponsors and he felt as though he let them down but at the same time he was being realistic. He calculated that he would be out of supplies before he reached the South Pole. How would his sponsors look and feel if he died?

Tom Allen set out on his own journey. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but when he found it he was self aware enough to know it. And lucky for us, he made a movie titled Janapar. We will be screening it twice this month (January 2013) so if you want more information about that leave a comment.

Paul Salopek is planning to walk from Ethiopia and across Asia before crossing over to Alaska and continuing the length of the North and South American continents, ending up at the “end of land”. That’s 21,000 miles. On foot. What’s scary is that I sort of get this trip. He is a journalist and his “goal is to cover the major global stories of our time by walking alongside the people who live them on a daily basis”. To me the hardest part of this trip would be the mental aspect. He plans on walking for seven years. Thinking about reaching the end, or even the day’s stopping place- o n f o o t- might drive me mad. His website is called Out of Eden

Paul Salopek in Ethiopia — John Stanmeyer
NPR.ORG

Tactical Flashlights and Survival Kits

Ever since I read “How To Use A Flashlight Tactically” on the Art of Manliness (yes, that’s for real) blog I have wanted a tactical flashlight. A tactical flashlight is not much bigger than the palm of the hand, has a bright LED beam, is made of impact resistant material, is waterproof and has a robust, shielded on/off switch. Technically a tactical flashlight would have “striking” bezel, a hardened aluminum piece which is scalloped or shaped in such a way that the flashlight can be used as a tool or for self defense. OK, I admit that if faced with the situation, I’m not sure I would have the wits or the skill to use the flashlight to temporarily blind and disorient an assailant long enough for me to get away or to punch him out. But the thought that I could is somehow comforting.

tactical flashlight fits in the palm of the hand — Maybe I can punch my way out of a wet paper bag with this!

My new flashlight is small enough to conceal in my fist with only the bezel sticking out and the on/off switch cradled against my thumb. And it has a metal clip to secure it to the pocket of a bike bag for quick access, or to attach it to the brim of a baseball cap so I can use it as a headlamp.

This flashlight weighs about 2.4 ounces or 70 grams. I don’t think I would want one much heavier.

On a related note:
Brother David Sunshine (pretty sure that’s his given name) posted on the Surly Bikes blog an article about his survival kit. While we’re not necessarily preparing for the apocalypse….we’re just going bike touring…..there are some good ideas for what to take with. And the specifics will change for each person depending on where they are going; a trip around the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound is different than riding the length of the Baja.

Items included in survival kit — From surlybikes.com

I can see that my own survival kit needs some work. For backcountry touring I want to get a signal mirror and a compass. And my fire starting skills could be improved. I should carry a fire steel and learn how to use it. When I was in Boy Scouts we spent a lot of time building fires. If you couldn’t start a fire with only one match and without paper, it could be embarrassing. So much of the fire building process was in the prep…plenty of dry tinder, several stacks of dry twigs in graduated sizes, then larger sticks and logs…and in the structure….making a teepee shape over the tinder out of the smallest dry twigs and slowly adding bigger twigs as the flame grew. What I did not know until I read this is that inner tubes will light on fire pretty easily. So having several strips cut out of old inner tubes means I will always have fire starter. Not sure that would have qualified in the Boy Scouts but, oh well.