A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

appalachian trail

Notes from my noodle: August 3 edition

Ahhh the world of social networking.

Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. StumbledUpon. Tumblr.

Hash tags. Trending topics.

There is so much out there to digest. And it’s crazy to try and figure it all out. Alas, I’ve taken a jump with the social media for the HooHaa Blog and created a “fan” page. It’s not so much a page for fans, rather a spot where I will post updates for this blog and my photo blog. It’s a nice little spot to keep track of things and all that. I don’t expect anything major out of it, but it’s nice to have.

If you want to like the blog on there, hit up the HooHaa Blog Facebook page.

And now, there’s Google +.

I have accounts at other spots and got an invite for the Google +, so I’m all signed up. I’ve messed around a little with it and am trying to figure it out. Not sure if it’s the next Facebook or what, but it’s interesting.

I’m pretty sure I covered this all in a post not too long ago, but I guess I’ve taken the latest plunges into the social networking world. Well, at least for the blog!

***

Softball season is winding down.

Though it’s always disappointing when softball ends, that means there won’t be the worry of playing every Tuesday and Thursday.

Still, we have at least two games in our Oneonta City League remaining, with the possibility of three.

The championship begins Thursday as we play Miller, the lone team to earn a victory over us this season. It should be a fun series and, of course, I am hoping that we win this series and earn our second straight championship.

We ousted the Fuzzy Dogs in the semifinals, dispatching of them Tuesday for a sweep. Third-seeded Miller swept the Copper Fox (who we beat in last year’s final) to reach the championship.

Currently, we’re 17-1 and hopefully we can win two more and finish with one heck of a wild season.

***

The job hunt is going slow.

I’ve sent out things for jobs, took a workshop on some other things and have been keeping my head up as much as possible. It’s a bit frustrating, however. I have a couple of irons in the fire, so to speak, and hope that one of them catch fire a bit as they are spots I’d really dig. I keep looking and keep applying, though at times it becomes tedious.

Funny story though and it makes me wonder about some other jobs I’ve employed to.

A couple of people pointed me to an interesting job. I saw it on the company website, looked a bit more and it seemed like something I could deal with. Another friend had looked into applying for it at one time and knew the pay scale and all seemed pretty solid.

I looked at what I needed to do and one part included a digital portfolio of sorts to send along to them.

I started looking for things to include and got a few things together. But before I went any further, I figured I should call the company to see to whom I should address a cover letter and if there was anything else I needed to send.

Turns out the job has been filled, but had not been taken off the website.

I’m glad I called ahead as that would have been quite annoying to work on all of that stuff and find out the job wasn’t available any longer.

The job listing is off the website now, though, so that’s a good thing at least.

***

Researching obscure baseball players has been fun.

The thing about some of these baseball players is that they are so obscure that there isn’t much on them. There’s statistics, but not much more.

One of the ball players who I’ve sponsored on Baseball-Reference is buried in nearby Johnson City.

After touching base with the cemetery and finding out where he is buried, we went on a search. Alas, we got to the spot and there’s one headstone for someone else in this family plot, but not the person we were looking for. There were two things that seemed like they could have been bases for former headstones, but there was nothing to show that this person was buried there, other than knowing where he was supposed to be. The one headstone is for someone listed on the cemetery card for this plot, alas wasn’t the person I was hoping to find info on. It’s a shame, too, because some of the dates of his birth and death differ in certain spots.

I’ll keep up the research and will eventually have a post on him.

***

As those of you who read this blog will know, I’m quite interested in reading about, learning and hearing stories about long-distance hiking. It’s fascinating to see people who go through all of this and then see how they react at the end.

I got an e-mail the other day from hiker Skywalker (I’ve read one of his two books and will be reading the second soon), who arrived back in the states after hiking in Spain. It seems he had quite the experience. I’m working on doing an interview with him soon about his experiences, hiking and other things along those lines. If you have any questions you’d like to ask a long-distance hiker, let me know and I’ll put them in that interview.

That made me realize I hadn’t checked the hikers I started reading about at Trail Journals several months ago. Though I knew several people had dropped out of their hike of the Appalachian Trail, I knew several were still at it. Those that I was reading included both genders and ages ranging from recent high-school graduates to senior citizens.

It was sad to see that several of them had dropped out. There were various reasons, but all were valid. Many of them got several hundred miles in, too. A few of them are close to finishing or have already finished. It’s really quite impressive to think that these people will have hiked more than 2,000 miles over varying terrain to finish the AT.

I’m still intrigued by the AT. I’m not saying I will do the hike one day and I’m not saying I won’t. The odds are against it, but it does still intrigue me. It’s a shame I wasn’t better off financially or in better shape as being laid off for all this time would have been the perfect time to try it. We’ll see though. Only time can tell.

To those of you who have done it or finished this year, awesome job and congrats. For those who try it in the future, good luck.

And if you want to ask someone who has done the AT and the Pacific Crest Trail, let me know and I’ll add it to my question sheet!

***

Every year, Binghamton hosts the Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally. I’ve never gone and have always wanted to as it seems like it would be great photography.

Years ago, when working a summer job as a painter at a local college, a few of us used to listen to a Binghamt0n-area radio station. That year, Eddie Money was a headliner at the Spiedie Fest. Quite often during that summer, you’d hear Money’s song “Take Me Home Tonight” on the radio and them advertising for Spiedie Fest.

And every time the chorus part of the song came on, the announcer would — in a booming voice — say “EDDIE MONEY!”

Ever since then, it’s been a running joke between a few of us.

Eddie Money is back at Spiedie Fest this year. Two of us are going Friday to check out the festival, hopefully see some balloons launch and watch Eddie Money (hopefully) rock the stage. It should be quite fun.

And there better be some good spiedies as they are tasty as can be and will be something I am looking to snack on while down there!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Book Review: Skywalker – Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail

Skywalker on the AT

First, imagine being 6 feet, 11 inches tall.

You live your life above most people and some tree lines. People ask you “How’s the weather up there?”

Maybe you can even get some classic one-liners, such as:

“You’re so tall that the giraffes got jealous!”

Or…

“You’re so tall that even in the summer time you still have snow on your head!”

That last one might actually be a little more relevant to the book I’m reviewing. See, Bill Walker is 6-11. But the difference is, he set out to hike the Appalachian Trail, a trail that runs more than 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. A novice hiker at the start, Walker, whose trail name is Skywalker based on his height and his last name, learns so much on this trail during his hike. He’s funny, witty and, at times, puts himself in situations that you can’t help but feel a bit sorry for him.

After all, it isn’t easy doing something like this in the first place. But being 6-11 and barely 220 pounds makes it even harder.

Skywalker — Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail is his story about his hike.

Bill’s quest takes him through all sorts of weather and tribulations — including trying to stay warm or even fit into tents and set up tarps. It shows the hard side of the trail, but it also shows the light side. His interactions and descriptions of the people he meets on the trail are excellent and well-done. He holds no punches, either, which I liked. More on that later.

This book is a perfect book about the trail. History, personal stories and description make this a fine read.

Now for my thoughts…

The good

This book was a page-turner. I finished it in three days as it’s the perfect size to kind of go through it at a decent pace and really keep up with everything. Walker never lost me. In some of the other AT books I’ve read, there are parts where I found myself skimming. Not with this book. I smiled for most of it and never lost my bearing of where I was with it.

One cool thing? Walker gives cliff hangers. Seriously. I never expected this. But he starts off with talking about a few of the people he met and makes mention that the reader will find out more later, but then goes off elsewhere. As I read, I found myself wondering what happened. Especially when he meets some of the others etc. In the end, he tells the reader the endings to those cliff hangers. A very good and interesting way to write part of this book.

Humor. This was the best part for me. The reality of a thru-hike is this — you are on the trail for upwards of six months, covering more than 2,200 miles. If you can’t laugh, then it’s going to be a long hike. Even when things go crappy, you have to find a way to smile. Walker did that and he portrayed that in his writing. He told funny and humorous stories. He told of the awful things that happened and found a way to make it funny.

Most of all, he made me, the reader, care. He described the people he met and really developed them as characters for the book. Being he was with many of the same people over and over, it was good to develop them. The funny part is that even though this was real life, I found myself reading part of it like fiction. There were certain people/characters I really liked. There were certain ones I really disliked. And there were others who I wondered about. But I felt like Skywalker took me on the trail with him and that is something that I haven’t gotten out of every AT book I’ve read. This book really is one of the better ones that I’ve read about the AT.

The bad

There’s always a little bad to books, but I am hard-pressed to find any with this.

If you are reading on the Kindle, as I was, there are some formatting issues. So that was a little odd, but I’m not sure that should take away from the quality of the book and it shouldn’t come down on the author.

My only true complaint is there were some of the stories that I would have liked to have seen expanded and a couple that I would have liked to have seen shortened. I think that comes with a book like this because there is so much that happens over the course of a 6-month hike like this. And I’m sure Walker had his reasons for making some shorter and some longer. Just personal interest would have liked certain ones to have been switched in regard to length.

Overall thoughts

An excellent read. This book is right up there with Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” as my favorite reads on the Appalachian Trail. Walker is a likeable person and his thoughts are insightful, honest and real. He brings you close to the AT and really gives hope to “armchair” hikers that a hike like this can be made by people of all shapes, sizes and lifestyle. This man was not a hiker. He’s a tall, skinny fellow who hiked more than 2,200 miles over all sorts of terrain. He had to “beef up” to get to 220 pounds and by the end, he was at least 40 pounds lighter. He battles equipment, nature, his fear of bears, people and everything else along this memorable trip. And in the end, he stands atop Mount Katahdin in Maine.

He overcame a lot. And though the outcome is quite obvious (how many people write about failed thru-hikes?), I still found myself rooting for him the whole book.

The book took me about three days to read. It flows well and reads fast. It’s very enjoyable. I look forward to reading Walker’s account of his hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Rating

This is a tough one to rate because I try not to give a lot of 5-star ratings out. For my blog, it’s a 4.5-star book. The other sites don’t allow for half-stars, however. The book isn’t perfect. Rarely are books perfect. But this one captivated me, kept my interest and really was well-done in all aspects. So on those sites, I’ll do as I normally do and round-up to give it a 5-star. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in hiking or the Appalachian Trail. It’s well worth your time.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

There is crazy… then there is CRAZY…

I won’t lie.

I’ve thought about what it would be like to hike the Appalachian Trail. I have one friend who is hell bent on doing it one day. I’ve read books that have intrigued me in the possibility of a 6-month, 2,200-plus mile hike from Georgia to Maine (or vice versa).

But that’s a hike. Sure, there are some tall summits you have to crest. And the hike is difficult and challenging. But it’s a hike, in the end. People of all shapes, sizes and ages have done this hike. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not taking anything away from those who conquer this hike. Something like 10 or 15 percent of those who start this hike finish it. So it’s not easy. But it’s a hike, with a some challenging climbing involved. Not the other way around.

Hence why it intrigues me.

I would call some people who hike these long-distance trails (AT, Pacific Crest Trail etc.) a little loose in the noodle. One has to be. A person can’t undertake something like that without being a little screwy upstairs. And I applaud that. In some of the books I’ve read, it’s what makes the hike. And should I ever undertake this hike, I’d be a little loopy, too.

But then there’s just plain nuts.

In reading books, I often come across items of interest that gets me into researching online. It could be a word. Or an event. Or a person. But I’ll stop reading and research for the next hour or so. While reading Skywalker: Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail (review to come later this week), the author, Bill Walker, talked a bit about the devastation that can happen when people attempt to summit Mount Everest.

I know some things about Mount Everest.

I know a lot of people have that as a dream — to summit that monster.

And I know it’s not a cheap endeavor or one to take lightly. But little did I know about some of the things I came up with during my research. This mountain — the highest in the world — is 60 million years old. The first ascent to the summit came in 1953 and since it has been done more than 4,000 times (though this counts multiple ascents by people).

For mountain climbers, this is probably the ultimate summit to attain.

For me, I say it’s nuts.

People die on this mountain (to be fair, people have died hiking the AT, too). When you die on this mountain, the body is often left behind to freeze into place as part of the mountain. Why? Because it’s too dangerous to try and get the body (google “Green Boots Everest” if you want to see this in action).It’s said more than 100 bodies remain on the mountain. Some estimates say more than 200 bodies. I can’t seem to find a definite count of deaths and bodies on the mountain.

The worst part?

If you are going to summit this mountain, you’ll go past many of these bodies. Because of the cold and weather, the bodies are almost perfectly preserved. Some look like they just died that day. I don’t know about you, but if I’m passing bodies along my way up, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do that climb.

On Everest, many of these deaths come in the “Death Zone,” where the altitude and crazy temps can really play with one’s mind and body. And the oxygen is hard to come by. So most climbers use oxygen and climbers aren’t supposed to stay in this area for more than a few days.

The climb, including the ascent and descent, appears like it could take upward of two weeks (stopping at certain base camps along the way to let your body get used to the altitudes, weather etc.).

There’s no way I could take the risk of climbing that or something like K2 in Pakistan (another mountain many people would love to summit). Could it be a rush? I imagine so. But I’d never be able to survive in situations like that. Well, add to that, I doubt I’d be willing to shell out the tens of thousands of dollars it would take to do this climb.

I realize people love this stuff.

And if you love these hair-raising, adrenaline-pumping adventures, I would highly recommend you check out the National Geographic’s ultimate adventure list. Some of this stuff is downright nuts.

The craziest ones I saw?

  • Ski K2.
  • Free climb Yosemite’s El Capitan (which, according to National Geographic’s description, is two times the size of the Empire State Building).
  • Cross the Sahara Desert.
  • Descend into an active volcano (seriously, see the video below).

I’ve never been much of an adrenaline junkie and I don’t like to take crazy risks. But some of these things are just nuts. I know one thing — I’d love to talk to a few people who have done these things as I’m sure it would be fascinating. There’s some books being added to my future list to read, too.

I’ll stick to basic biking and hiking for now, however. Thanks.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Book review: The LAUGHalachian Trail

Not so many laughs...

I was hoping for something good here.

After the last book I read about the Appalachian Trail was a solid journal, I wanted something to show me the light side of the trail. Some funny stories. Some quirky things or something that would make me laugh.

When I see a title like “The LAUGHalachian Trail” by Tom Waite, I get excited. Especially when I read so many five-star reviews telling how funny this book is.

It had its moments, but unfortunately there weren’t a lot of them. In the end, the book fell well short of its title and I got to a point where I just wanted the book to end. It dragged quite often and there were times I considered saying heck with it.

Now for my thoughts…

The good

There were some funny stories in this book. Really, there were. Alas, there were far too few of them. The ones that he did mention and wrote about are ones I’ll remember as they were enough to make me laugh out loud.

And the book even started out with a bang — giving a really good story.

That gave me hope for this book.

It went downhill from there. I’ll tackle that once I reach the “bad” part of this review.

Waite has a decent writing style and the ways he mingled with people or told stories was quite good. It was interesting to see the trail from the eyes of a southbound hiker, rather than the normal northbounder. He gave some interesting history lessons and talked about some trail legends. He gave interesting glimpses of some of the hikers he met and some of them made for good stories. Not all, however.

In the end, the good parts were just too hard to find. There were glimpses of things and, for that, it kept my interest enough to finish the book.

The bad

Too many things here, unfortunately.

First off, he rambles a lot. There are points in this book where I wondered what I was doing reading this thing. I zoned in and out wondering what the point was. By the time he reached his point — if there was a point — I was completely lost or had given up interest in that part of the book.

The idea of a book is to entertain. Though there were parts of this book that accomplished that goal, too many did not.

There were times he got political in the book and that really annoyed me. If I wanted to read about anything with politics, I would have picked up a political magazine or book. Not one like this.

I just thought the book had too many holes. I realize he was trying to share humorous stories, but it jumped all over to different parts of his hike. It never stayed in one spot. The bike ride back was a very short chapter that almost made that yo-yo part of his trip an afterthought. I also think he should have expanded on his disease a bit as it came late and it was kind of like an “Oh, by the way…”

There were just too many of these instances and there weren’t enough laughs for a book that had “laugh” in the title.

Overall thoughts

I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book.

If you can borrow it, are a fan of thru-hiking and can handle someone rambling on at times, then by all means, go for it. But if you are looking for something with true humor, try Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.

In the end, I was disappointed. As stated above, there were parts of this book where I laughed well. But there were far more head-scratching moments and wondering why this book was supposed to be all humor.

Rating

I will go with my normal of rounding up when I feel like I am in between ratings. I would likely give it a 2.5, but considering most sites don’t allow half-stars, I am going to give it a 3 and would be wary of recommending it to anyone who likes hiking.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Hiking the long hike

I don’t mind going out for a hike.

But, I’m peculiar about things. I hate hiking when it’s super hot or when there’s too much snow (I don’t mind, however, if it’s sub-zero out, as long as I am dressed well and there’s no snow). I don’t mind mountains, but the reality is that I’m not in perfect shape, so I’m slower, take breaks and pace myself going up big climbs.

I also need a purpose.

Usually, that means an incredible photo op (such as the wonderful waterfalls following a nice 1-mile hike or so in Ithaca at Taughannock State Park) or for a geocache.

But, recently I’ve been reading trail journals of people who are hiking the Appalachian Trail, a 2,181-mile (give or take) trek from Maine to Georgia, or vice versa as most people hike the trail from the south to the north. The trail, which was completed in 1937, touches 14 states. According to the AT Conservancy, it’s the nation’s longest marked footpath.

The Conservancy also shows that the trail ranges from elevation anywhere from 124 feet to 6,625 feet. That’s quite the difference. And a couple of interesting tidbits are that there about 165,000 blazes to mark the trail; more than 10,000 people have reported they hiked the length of the trail; and it takes about five million steps to walk the entire length of the trail.

FIVE MILLION.

For those of you who use a pedometer and try to get 10,000-plus steps in a day, think about that. If you averaged 10,000 steps per day, you’d go 100,000 steps every 10 days. That’s 100 days to go 1,000,000 steps.

That means 500 days to complete the trail. If you average just 10,000 steps per day.

From things I’ve read, thru-hikers take about six months to complete this epic journey. Along the way, they’ll take zero days and stay in a town somewhere. Or they’ll camp along the trail or stay in lean-to.

I’ve known a little about the AT but a friend, Brent, wants to hike it in four or five years. He’s pretty into the hiking thing and he’s been slowly working on completing the Finger Lakes Trail, which is a hiking system in New York that goes for about 560 miles. I’ve done small parts with him, the longest being about four miles when we did a cache series near Cortland in 2009. As I said — I like hiking, with a purpose.

But, it was hot that day and I wasn’t prepared as most hikers would be. I didn’t bring enough water, didn’t stay hydrated and started to get a little cranky toward the end of it. But, that’s not being prepared. I think I could do that distance — and then some — if I’m actually prepared, physically, mentally and with enough supplies.

Anyway, as I learned more about the AT, I read Bill Bryson’s book “A Walk in the Woods,” which should be a must-read for anyone looking to hike the trail. That made me get more interested in the AT. Not so much to hike it (well, unless the feds allow caches on the trail again, in which case I could be persuaded if there was a serious power trail from Georgia to Maine), but to read about it. Research it. See who and what kind of people do it.

It was mind-boggling.

Teenagers. Senior citizens. Women. Men. Dogs. Husbands and wives. Kids and parents. Best friends (but were they at the end?) Total strangers. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

I’ve started reading people’s journals on a site called Trail Journals, where hikers basically blog as they hike. And there’s more than just AT trail hikers on there, too. There are many long-distance hiking trails and people journal about their experiences. It’s a very cool site.

But these people are troupers. They hike in crazy elements and really are focused. Many have done 20-plus mile days. It’s quite crazy.

I’d like to meet some of these people. It would make for a good blog entry and it would really let me see, first-hand, what these hikers are going through. Brent and I talked about going to a spot where the AT crosses in New York sometime this summer and doing some “trail magic.” Basically, it’s when folks like us, set up somewhere and give out some good food to hikers coming through. So set up and cook some burgers, dogs, have some drinks and snacks and give it to the hikers.

It’s good karma, too. And, of course, it allows the reporter in me to come back out. To talk to several hikers and learn about why they are doing this. What they are thinking. What they are going through. I’ll be taking notes, photos and hopefully recording some of these short interviews so I can write a few posts on some of the people we hopefully get to meet.

That being said, I want to do more research on it as not all “trail magic” is good. I’ve read several things where it got a little bad or there ended up being litter and harming other things. I want to make sure that whatever we do, it’s there and then all cleaned up. No traces, right?

In the end, it will give me that chance to meet some of these amazing hikers.

But I won’t be joining them any time soon on the trail. I’ll read, cheer and hope all goes well for these people. I’ll likely never see or meet them, but it’s way cool to be able to experience a slice of their life as they take on a challenge that might be one of the biggest they’ll ever face.

With all that in mind, I got peeking around a bit. There are several major hiking trails in the United States.These include:

  • Pacific Crest Trail — a 2,650-mile jaunt from Southern California to the Canadian border. It goes through three states (California, Oregon and Washington), but when one of the states is California, you don’t need many states for mileage!
  • Continental Divide Trail — This trail is about 3,100 miles long and goes from Mexico to Canada. According to its website, the trail is about 70 percent complete and appears to go through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
  • North Country Scenic Trail –When completed, this will be 4,600 miles long and stretch from New York to North Dakota, crossing through seven states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota).  Its website says it passed through 12 National Forests.

I found another — called the National Coast Trail which, apparently, will follow the coasts and the North Country Scenic Trail and other links and trails. When all said and done, it appears it will be about 10,000 miles long. But going through its website is a little confusing, so I’m not sure of the overall plan of the trail.

If you don’t live in New York, it’s also likely you have some major trail system like the Finger Lakes Trail in your state. Maybe more than one. The best about the FLT is that there are several side trails which equal about 400 miles. If you’re a hiker, check them out. Enjoy it. Take photos. Blog about your experiences.

I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who might have already hiked one of these trails or is planning on doing it. The whole idea of it really is fascinating. Think about it a little bit — five or six months on trails in nature. You and the land. Camping. Sleeping in a lean-to. Staying in small towns and cramped hotels on occasion just to try and relax. You and the elements. You and nature. And remember, you are doing it with a pack on your back that weighs upward of 40 or more pounds. Up hills. Down hills. Over trails that aren’t the easiest to see.

Could you handle it?

On the net:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.