Adventioneering

Who is interested in participating in another Backcountry Cooking Competition in the Seattle area? We will need cooks and judges.

While the event details are not planned, and details are currently subject to change, the idea is that it would be similar to years past where contestants and judges would meet at a predetermined backcountry spot. The event duration is typically a day trip but could offer overnight camping to those who would be interested (if this is you please let me know). All contestants are required to bring everything necessary to complete their meal in the field. No pre-prep or mise en place is allowed; everything must be prepared in the field to qualify (marinades currently excluded).

Photos from the last event.

Back from an excellent weekend in Oregon to the mysterious Site #4. And rest assured, it’s all true: J.P. actually went for-real camping. Unconventional camping at that, at a fairground at the tiny town of Fossil, OR (pop: 450).

Photos.

In October of last year Alex and I ventured out to the Index climbing wall. At that time, there was speculation that the area would be sold for use as a quarry. There is now happy news that the through the fundraising efforts of the Washington Climbers Coalition the wall has been saved! The WCC hopes to make further improvements to the area and in the future to donate the 20-acres to the Washington State Parks Association.

Link to the Seattle Times Story

Link to the original Adventioneering article

This tent is certainly interesting. Half for you, half for your gigantic adventure bike.

Why do we win wars? We have the best flashlights. My first SureFire was a A2 which was basically an incan with a 3 LED red backup. It was great; the incan had great throw and you could use the LEDs for reading, maps, protective illumination (handy around burning man so you’re not a darkwad, I’d just wander the playa with it hanging around my neck). The problem with my A2 was simple: I lost it.

A period of mourning later and some serious research, I ended up buying a C2L. I promptly replaced the engine with a Cree XP-G drop-in from ThruNite producing something under 300 lumens, thereby creating a Fenix flashlight for three times the price. I chose the C2 over the M line because the shock isolation bezel causes some heat dissipation problems for the brighter drop-ins, and the C2 gets you into a smaller head more suited for heat transfer. And it does get hot.

The real benefit to running SureFire over a Fenix or a lot of the competitors is the P60 drop-in engines are so common, that you are basically future proofed. New LED coming out tomorrow from cree? No problem, you’ll probably be able to pickup a drop-in for thirty bucks. Additionally, the SureFire flashlights (if you are careful) are completely modular.

None of this helps my weapon situation though, and I was lucky to find a great deal on a used surplus M951 system. This provided the millenium series shock bezel, a picatinny barrel, and the clicky tail w/ remote as well as the IR filter, very handy for… I don’t know what. Now I need nightvision goggles.

In the above kit I now have an incan P60 (useful for throwing IR-only w/ the pictured filter), a P60L medium intensity LED, and the high-intensity Cree. I’m shopping for a ridiculous trophy drop-in (>1000 lumens) and meanwhile everything you see in the picture is interchangeable. Thinking about going with some of the higher-cap rechargable (2700mah ea) cells, and there are a few people making barrels that fit that, or else I can get these bored out.

In terms of the ThruNite this dropin has a great, affordable, clean throw, is super bright, but be aware it’s a bit bigger than the standard P60 engine that SureFire produces. It fits fine in the C2 head (although it doesn’t screw down 100% of the way, but this has no impact on waterproofness or anything else), and it’s tight bordering on not working on the M951 barrel adapter. Your mileage may vary!

Photos are up from our Hilary-planned camping trip this weekend in Oregon. We had a great time, she did a good job. And what a neat area; the swimming holes were amazing.

Although Adventioneering is a mashup of adventure and engineering, it never hurts to be reminded that we can’t rely on technology without using our brains. This New York Times article about people abusing technology and leaving common sense at home is a good reminder.

Far more common but no less perilous, park workers say, are visitors who arrive with cellphones or GPS devices and little else — sometimes not even water — and find themselves in trouble. Such visitors often acknowledge that they have pushed themselves too far because they believe that in a bind, the technology can save them.

While I doubt any of us fine, beautiful, brilliant people would ever do the sorts of things in this article, we should always remember to use our technology for good without losing our critical thinking skills. Take your GPS, load up trail maps, record your progress and hikes, but always use your brain and remember that its up to you to get out of anything short of a life or death situation on your own.

Every once in a while we get a call from someone who has gone to the top of a peak, the weather has turned and they are confused about how to get down and they want someone to personally escort them. The answer is that you are up there for the night.

Be safe and have good adventures!

Put 5 new quarts of Mobil 1 in Betty tonight. Mileage 116010.

Photos are up from the trip this weekend.

Added this to my pile of fuh.  Delivered by some crazy Russian teenager in exchange for some career advice.  I am most pleased.