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Quote from Datto: “Tip 63: Business Cycle vs AT Thru-hike Timing. ” I sometimes think you make out the best assuming that market behaviour is nearly random (except for the secular trend of economic growth). Multiply a simple exponential trendline by 1/f flicker noise and you get a pretty good model for just about any economic indicator. You don't do horribly badly betting on regression toward the mean, but there are no big wins to be had other than by dumb luck or asymmetric information. If you …

Quote from LIhikers: “Yea, I know, but it bothers me that I can't read it. Guess I'm not liking getting old ” Getting old is not for wimps. I REALLY didn't like learning that I had a detached retina. Fortunately, the repair went well. The only symptom I continue to have is the occasional annoying flash of light that isn't there.

Quote from Datto: “I did have a telephone interview with a sizeable casket making company and they told me they liked the way I could think out of the box. Needless to say, I was cracking up laughing. I don't think they'd figured out the humor. Probably not a good fit for me. ” It mustn't have been South Brooklyn Casket, then. Their management and marketing department DO have a sense of humor. There was one time that they were handing out tape measures with their name and logo at an undertakers'…

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Quote from meat: “You look lost ” Nope. You can see in the picture, I wasn't lost, I was right there in front of the camera. Elf and I nailed two summit canisters that day, and an off-trail viewpoint. The first peak was easy to navigate, because we could follow the general principle of 'the summit is up.' Getting to the second was more interesting - a direct course would have gone into top-rope territory, so we kind of had to plot our own switchbacks. It wasn't until the third peak of the weeken…

Quote from LIhikers: “WOO, that's a good, simple explanation, thanks for posting it My problem is that my eyes aren't good enough to read those tiny marks in that small mirror. ” The point is, you don't have to read the marks. You just have to line the crosshair up on the compass pivot, and the compass needle 'red in the shed'.

Inch of slush down here in the valley. 8-12 inches of wet snow anywhere above the Helderberg cliffs. Good: we need a decent snowpack if we're going to have water come springtime.

My mirror sight compass has all the features of a baseplate compass, including a little magnifier. It's also useful for tick checks. (If I have a hiking partner, I still ask them to check the back of my neck, which is one place I can't see even with a mirror.) Lighting a fire with a hand lens is a gimmick. I suppose it might be useful if I lost my fire steel, but there's enough chert and jasper around here that I think I'd need to lose my knife as well before I'd resort to a lens. (The nation th…

Quote from rhjanes: “One thing we teach in orienteering (hardly anyone uses a mirror compass) is that you sight to the object on the bearing (off the map), then lower the compass and map and just walk to the object you sighted to. Raise up the map and compass, check the bearing, look around at land features to see if it still seems correct, sight to the farthest object you can see on the bearing. Note that object. Lower it all and hike to that object. Repeat. ” Yeah, hardly anyone uses a mirror …

Quote from Rasty: “ Astraikis ” Uncommon name. Litvak?

Quote from WanderingStovie: “America's favorite sweet and sour sauce - tomato ketchup. appalachiantrailcafe.net/index…3ae95d60974046221a0b1b585 ” I'm too slow a hiker for that picture. I just can't ketch up.

I really wanted to post one of Mahalia Jackson doing this - but couldn't find one in a quick search. youtube.com/watch?v=tVBV6Z_PmAk youtube.com/watch?v=tVBV6Z_PmAk

Quote from Wise Old Owl: “Awesome, I agree with you but those reading here may not be up to your knowledge and we don't know what season you fell in. ” Late October in the Adirondacks. Temps in the low 30s, and sleet, so perfect hypothermia weather. I had my pack lined with a compactor bag, and my sleeping bag in a dry sack as well. The river wasn't even knee deep, but it was a waterslide! I've just about never been as scared on the trail as when I went down. It's ordinarily an easy rock hop, bu…

Quote from Dan76: “I dislike zip lines, particularly those set up in a semi-wilderness area. ” Except for this kind. Ask Coach Lou. fig02.jpg

And in other news, O'Hare air traffic controllers announced that they are overwhelmed with traffic volume, as the flying pigs all make approaches at once. Auld Nick posts 'help wanted' ads for ski instructors on the glorious powder slopes of the Alternative Destination. No, really, that sort of remark is unfair. Any team can have a bad century once in a while.

Quote from CoachLou: “Quote from mental note: “Quote from CoachLou: “longdistancetrailscrew.org/53-…t-a-3.html#previous-photo ” Nice job Lou! Perhaps it's obviously to some,but I don't know much about the why for's and how comes of trail design, what does that bridging do? I understand the swampy areas, but he areas up higher on the ridge. Enjoyed the video, I wanted to hike longer, thanks Brada. ” As I understand it.....the south slope to the trail gets real wet and this entire area is mud when…

Quote from SandyofPA: “ So modify to :pitch tent, remove wet stuff, dry body, crawl into dry sleeping system. Sorry I assumed some common sense. The point was, you are carrying a backpack full of survival gear, use it instead of trying to make fire. ” Sure. But in the case I was describing, I'd already had one accident - falling in the river - and some of my essential gear was (I suspected) wet. I pack to survive a torrential rainstorm, but had never tested the system with a complete dunking! It…

One traditional way of making applejack is to take strong cider and allow it to freeze. Go out to the shed once a day, skim and throw away the ice. In a hard winter it'll develop quite a kick since you're freezing away the water and keeping the ethanol. It's also instant headache for a lot of people because you're keeping all the dissolved organic compounds that distillation throws away, so go easy on the stuff.

Quote from Wise Old Owl: “I guess if I took a group of hikers on a trail and it rains - how many would have a good knife to remove the wet bark off of twigs to get it started? The question is open ended - some of you are exsperts and others may be just joining.. hence the diversity. ” The last time I NEEDED a fire, it was sleeting. I had been provident enough to have Vaseline on my balls. (Cotton ones, of course!) There was a mouse's nest under a fallen birch tree and even my little Leatherman S…

My voice doesn't sound Texan either... because I'm a damnYankee.