I’ve decided to spend the day brewing, due to the weather-guessers’ reports of rain all day.  My first batch, Ginger beer, is done and bottled.  No rain.  Next batch, Root Beer, is in the works, I’m waiting for it to cool so the yeast doesn’t die when I add it.  Once yeasted and mixed well, bottling will ensue.  This recipe for root beer calls for an hour of sunshine to start the aging and fermenting process, I predict that is when the rain will start.

I spent most of Saturday searching for some moderate sport climbing routes, unfortunately most routes appear to be either trad, more difficult sport ratings than I am able to climb, or multi-pitched ascents.  While I hope to one day have the skill to climb 5.12 and multi-pitched routes, I must first improve my strength and technique on outdoor rock.  One of the few places that I was able to find an abundance of 5.9-10 is Shelf road, a good 2.5 hour drive from me.

Cave bacon in Huccacove.

The 2012 National Speleological Society’s Convention is being held in Lewisburg, West Virginia.  A week long extravaganza of everything caving.  I’d love to make it, but taking a week off from work and getting airfare and all that will be a bit much this year….I really should have made it to the 2011 NSS convention in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

This weekend, a group and I decided to hike to a cave, sleep in said cave, then explore the cave the next day and hike out.  Great plan! 

Unfortunately plans get snagged.  Weather in Denver caused us to head out an hour later than what we wanted.  NO big deal, we’ll just get to the trailhead a little bit later.  We start hiking on the 4wd trail that leads to the cave’s actual trailhead at around 10pm.Hiked along the road and ended up at another major road.  This was not as I remembered.  I re-check he GPS and find that we missed a split a little ways back.  We get to the split and follow until we reach a gate.  Again, not as I remember, but it has been almost 2 years since I’ve been here….

There is murmurings in the group questioning my navigation skills, but since I have a working navigation tool and know the general vicinity we are headed to, I continue to lead the wan, breaking trail through between 1 and 2 feet of snow on the side of a mountain.  After about 3/4 of a mile of bushwhacking, it is decided by one in the group that because “none of us knows where we are or where we are going”, we should go back to the car. 

This presents some problems:

1) If no one knows where we are, then logic dictates that no one knows where the car is compared to where we are at.

2) If no one knows where we are going, what is the blinking waypoint on the GPS that we are going to?

3) If my navigation skills are so horrid that I got everyone lost (apparently not the first time), why is there a group of people following me and insisting that I lead the way because I’ve been there before?

4) Why am I the only one with a working navigation device? (I have GPS and compass, but no map…I know I should also have a map, but I am 2 for 3 compared to the other peoples 0 for 3…)

Suggestions go out:

Go back to the car.

Keep going for one more hour then set up camp and find the cave in the morning.

Set up camp here.

Continue to the cave.

In the amazingly democratic process, “we” decide to go back to the car, although 2/3 of the group want to camp or continue, but definitely NOT go back, our suggestions and votes have no meaning and are not taken into consideration…

I learned valuable lessons on this trip:  1)Bring a topographical map.  2)If someone persists in questioning my navigation, politely ask if they would like to compare my map with their map, and when they reveal that they do not have a map, politely ask them to keep their negativity to themselves and let the person that came prepared for this outing to do his thing.  3) Drive in separate cars, so when the one person that drove says “I am going back to the car, see you guys sometime.” we can continue to trek on because that person has had their power removed. 4) DO NOT go searching for something that I don’t know precisely where it is located and step-by-step directions, in triplicate, on how to get to said place, with a nagging person that insists on making every decision in spite of her ignorance.

Lessons learned and I am the wiser.

I am once again wanting desperately to go ultra minimalist. 

After my truck blew a head gasket a few weeks ago, I’ve been having engine problems that I have yet to diagnose.  On top of that is the pre-existing problem with loose steering causing my tires to wear unevenly.  If I could figure a way to all of the outdoorsy stuff I love without the use of an automobile, I would be super happy! 

Alas, caves are not located on bus routes….I will continue to be enslaved by mine auto.

While on a bat survey trip today, I learned a valuable insight into the politics of the caving community.  It seems that there is a split between those that are for the scientific research of bats and caves, and those that are against helping those doing the research.

Those for the research tend to be white collar workers, mostly of the scientific persuasion.  They are ok with helping study the bats.

Those that are against helping the researchers tend to be blue collar workers.  These people believe that we should tell the Forest Service to go screw themselves for kicking us out of the caves, then asking for our help.  Some also believe that by helping out the USFS, I’ll get my name put on “the list”of confirmed cavers, and then ticketed whenever I am in the vicinity of a cave because cavers go into caves and caves are illegal go enter, so this guy is going to go into a cave.

As it turns out, I don’t fit into either category.  I am a blue collar worker that will do whatever “work” trips I can get on in order to get me into caves I wouldn’t normally have access to.  By helping the Forest Service in bat research, I could be helping to create a cure for the cave closures. 

These groups I’ve listed are mostly generalizations.  There are many people that don’t fit into either, but the majority of what I’ve seen is consistant with these 2 groups.

If the Government has a “list” of cavers, they have everyone that has ever posted anything on any blog, social network, email, text message about caves on said list, so I’d be on it already. 

“Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints, Kill nothing but time.”

For a few months now, I’ve been wearing Vibram Five Fingers while hiking.  These shoes force me to walk in a way that is completely different than how I walk wearing traditional shoes and boots; walking on the balls of my feet as opposed to heels.  What is the difference? Walking on your toes is how “primitive man” has been walking and running for…a really long time.  This is the way human bodies were designed to walk.  With the creation of shoes and boots with padding inside, mankind started walking on our heels.  Recent medical research indicated this is a bad thing; causing joint problems, foot and back pain.  Enough with the paraphrased mumbo jumbo….

I’ve started hiking barefoot! Sounds painful, I know, but my feet have started toughening up.  Sunday, I hiked about a mile and a half barefoot, and Wednesday, just over 1 mile.  It is very refreshing and I feel less hot when I’m barefoot.  I was getting looks of shock and disbelief in Albuquerque, NM last week when I would take my sandels off as I left a store, to walk the parking lot’s scorching asphalt with no shoes. 

Try it, you might like it!

Yesterday, after work, I decided to go hiking the mountain that is just east of the city of Albukwerky.  I stopped at the local wally world to get some water, put on my Vibram’s Five Fingers,and drove my borrowed company truck to the hills.  Following the first trail I saw, and choosing the forks that appeared to lead up, I gradually made my way up through boulders, cacti, and desert grasses into juniper and pinon(insert the squigly over the ‘o’). 

After about an hour, I come to realize that I’m in an unfamiliar terrain, in an unfamiliar place, with one liter of water, key to my borrowed pickup, cell phone(a dumb one), wearing monkey feet and shorts…alone.  I am suddenly aware that I have none of my normal hiking gear: rain jacket, compass with signal mirror, map, first aid kit, duct tape, fire starter, waterproof matches, backpack, trail food, etc…  This is a terrain that is wholly unforgiving.  Rattlesnake country.  Extreme heat, only 93 degrees. A place where the plants have developed passive defenses against animals, including human beans; prickly pears the size of my head covered with 2 inch needles; stiff, thorny bushes; grasses that’ll cut you as you brush by. 

I was a tourist, an unprepared idiot asking for trouble.  With that realization, I continued onward and upward!  I put these thoughts out of my mind and enjoyed the desert landscape.  Beauty covered in a harsh outer shell.  A brutal environ teeming with life.  2 rabbits, 3 lizards (one named Abraham…he insisted as he posed for a photo), a variety of insects, and swarms on knats(much more annoying that gnats). 

Who knew that an unprepared tourist could have such a great time in the desert!

How long would it take to set up a tumblr thingy? Not long…but figuring out how to do stuff took me a little bit longer….I found out after posting as an Anon about an awesome raptor pet that I was doing something wrong.  I am not as tech savy as some would believe, but I do well for myself.