On Not Getting Lost in the Wilderness (or Dying)

Quebec Run Wild Area. Photo by author.

 “I was in Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park, a 75-minute train ride northwest of Tokyo, with half a dozen other hikers out for a dose of shinrin-yoku,or forest bathing. The Japanese go crazy for this practice, which is standard preventive medicine here. It essentially involves hanging out in the woods.” Florence Williams, in an article in Outdoor Magazine

I’ve been trying to exercise more lately, but I’ve had a hard time finding something that I like to do that doesn’t feel like a chore. I’ve tried running, but have never been able to get into it (probably due to poor lung capacity, laziness, or both). I’ve always liked hiking though, and while searching for new hiking trails I came across a backpacking class offered through the Explorer’s Club of Pittsburgh. Backpacking! Finally, something that appealed to me. I checked my schedule and signed up for the class without a moment’s hesitation.

I’m really glad I did. One thing I love about backpacking is that it can be done by a broad range of people, regardless of athletic ability, age or skill level. The trick is to pack carefully and go at a pace that’s comfortable for you. There are plenty of great day and overnight hikes within a 100 miles of Pittsburgh and there’s sure to be a trail for just about everybody out there ( I recently even discovered this really cool Braille Trail in North Park).

Not being a great athlete, I was quickly won over by one of the more surprising aspects of backpacker culture—it’s nerdiness. Even if you are not a very skilled hiker, you can become an A+ packer. The idea is to include everything that is essential, but to keep your pack as light as possible. There is even a class of extreme backpacking called Ultralight, and these hikers will go as far as cutting the handle off their toothbrush to lessen their load. I’ve already learned a lot from the folks in the Explorer’s Club, although I don’t anticipate becoming an Ultralight extremist. Still, there are other sub-genres of backpacking to get into if you want to get nerdy in the woods. You can become an excellent map reader by joining an Orienteering Club, or a gourmet backpack cook by pouring over tons of blogs and books, or become a master of survivalist skills by taking a wilderness survival course.

Whatever your interest or skill level, there are tons of resources available to get you started. Here are just a few:

Books

The Backpacker’s Field Manual

This was the textbook for my backpacking class with the Explorer’s Club, and I found it indispensable. This book covers all the basics.

The Complete Walker

I’ve been told that this is the old stanby for backpackers. It covers all the basics, with some additional philosophical musings.

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Pittsburgh 

These are mostly days hikes, but if you’re just getting started hiking around Pittsburgh, I can think of no better book to begin with.

Websites

Keystone Trails Association 

A vital website for any Pennsylvania hiker or backpacker.

Venture Outdoors 

These guys are great, and can help get you started with everything from hiking and camping, to kayaking and snow-shoeing.

R.E.I. 

A great place for gear and maps, and also a few classes.

Explorer’s Club of Pittsburgh 

A volunteer group that currently offers once-a-year classes in backpacking, rock climbing, and mountaineering. The also have gear available for rental for first timers.

DVDs

Appalachian Trail 

This National Geographic special highlights this great trail, which runs all the way from Georgia to Maine.

Mile Mile & A Half 

This documentary follows five friends who leave their daily lives behind to hike California’s historic John Muir Trail, a 211 mile stretch from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney.

Tell it on the Mountain

This documentary follows a dozen thru-hikers who try to complete the Pacific Coast trail–a trail that is over 2,663 miles long.

Be safe and happy exploring,

Tara

What I Did On My Winter Vacation.

Me & My Bike
Photo: P. Blanarik

On Thanksgiving Day I had turkey and all the fixings, excellently prepared by my husband (he always says I help, but really I push microwave buttons.) Then I put my bicycle in a truck and drove 22 hours to Key Largo, Florida. I spent 8 days riding to Key West and back (with a little South Beach Miami thrown in) with two awesome dudes.

We crossed 40 bridges (including the famous Seven Mile Bridge), rode at least 300 miles, had two flat tires, stayed in four campgrounds and two hotels, visited Ernest Hemingway’s house, the Southernmost Point of the United States, and the historic Key West Cemetery, drank gallons of water and coffee (and adult beverages), watched the sun rise and set every day in a most spectacular fashion, and formed a serious love/hate relationship with mile markers (at least I did.)

What a good librarian I am!

The Good (besides all of it)

• I’m a good camper! My tent came out of the box for the first time on this trip. Now I can put up a tent in heavy wind in the dark on gravel while fighting off fire ants.
• I learned exactly how much stuff I need. And it’s not a lot. Next trip: less clothes and toiletries, more fluffy stuff to sleep on top of.
• Getting to know my two traveling buddies. We were together (more or less) 24/7 for 10 days. This included over 40 hours of sitting in a truck cab and riding 5 to 6 hours a day together, plus every meal. We really got to know each other and it was a fantastic experience.
• The ADVENTURE. For most of the trip, we had only a vague idea of where we were going to stay each night. We saw giant lizards, endangered Key Deer, all variety of sea birds, and miles of open water. We rode on beautiful fresh pavement and gravel and sand. We met people who offered us camping space in their yard (“If I’m not home, just throw your sh*t in my yard and go have a beer.”) and lots of fellow travelers. In case there was ever any doubt, Pittsburghers are everywhere.

The Bad (as bad as being in paradise can be)

• Did you know you can get sunburn on your elbows? How about the crook of your arm? Behind your ears? I assure you, you can and it is exquisitely painful. Use sunscreen, lots of it, and make sure you get ALL THE PARTS.
• It’s winter. Things close early and you end up eating dinner at Walgreen’s. Due to poor planning, several times we missed the dinner boat. We did learn, however, that you can get Chinese food delivered to a state park. And to always have snacks on hand.
• You’re going to have a day you don’t want to ride. And you’ll have to do it anyway. And every single mile marker will be a punch in your teeth. And you’ll have a headwind. And you’ll be happy that you did it.
• Coming home to the cold was traumatic. I hate fixing my hair and wearing grown-up clothes again.

Read about far more epic trips than mine!

The Lost Cyclist, David V. Herlihy

Pittsburgh dude! In 1892, Pittsburgh accountant Frank Lenz quit his job to cycle around the world, ostensibly as a correspondent for Outing magazine. After two years and nearly 20,000 miles, he disappeared in eastern Turkey. In what seems like a supremely stupid move, Outing magazine sends another correspondent (William Sachtleben) to find out what happened to the first one.  Luckily, he doesn’t disappear and actually finds the people responsible. Herlihy documents not only the investigation, but (more interesting) Lenz’s epic bike ride around the world.

Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia, Mark Jenkins

Despite my love of all things Russian, this is NOT a trip I will be taking. Seven people (three Americans and four Soviets) rode 7,000 miles from the Sea of Japan to Leningrad in Soviet Russia, much of it through swamps on dirt roads.  They encountered angry KGB agents and extraordinary Russians and lived on a diet of potatoes, bread and milk with nary a Walgreen’s in sight. Bag of nopes.

Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die, Chris Santella

We are already talking about 2014’s trip to Key West. This time we want to be there for the full moon. But this book has inspired me to think bigger! Why not RAGBRAI or the Tour de Tuli? Although I’ll pass on the Washington State Challenge (320 miles in 24 hours, with 32 miles up hill!).

Miles From Nowhere, Barbara Savage

For two years, Barbara and Larry Savage traveled around the world on their bikes. Covering 25 countries and 23,000 miles, it was the trip of a lifetime, planned on a whim over dinner. And they did it on bikes way less fancy than mine. The book is a little dated (1983) and their description of riding in the Florida Keys is the polar opposite of mine: the Seven Mile Bridge was described as a “nightmare.” In my case, it was one of the most beautiful, exhilarating parts of the ride! SPOILER ALERT: Barbara Savage died in a bicycle wreck right before this book was published!

Tons more pictures if you’re so inclined!

happy trails-
suzy

Look About You, Nature is Everywhere

“The poetry of earth is never dead.” On the Grasshopper and Cricket,

John Keats

Most people who know me know that I love being outside. I love to feel the sun warm on my face, the breeze muss my hair, and the air on my skin. My psyche needs to be in  it every single day.

I also love to notice the changes in the weather; even during a humid heat wave, I like to detect the subtle temperature differences in the air from one morning to the next.

Nature surrounds us if we only just pay attention.

• Observe a robin doggedly digging for worms on dewy morning grass or rabbits grazing on some clover
• Enjoy the cool shade on a hot day under a mighty oak tree
• Watch a yellow swallowtail butterfly flit among purple coneflowers
• See flowers on a tree where there were just buds the day before or
• Find wild edible berries

Even in the heart of a big city, you can find  and appreciate nature.

There are a lot of edible wild plants growing in and around the city. But to be safe, check out some of our foraging  books at the library.

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~Maria, who enjoys long meandering walks in the woods, along the lakeshore, and all over town

Autumn’s Rituals

To many in Western Pennsylvania, autumn is more than beautiful foliage and a growing chill. Fall marks the onset of deer season, the annual migration to State Game Lands or private tracts in pursuit of America’s most ubiquitous game animal, the whitetail deer. Few activities are so shrouded in myth, misperception and controversy.  For hunters and non-hunters alike, Carnegie Library has scores of interesting and informative titles.

In my own reading I was lucky with an early find, Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt by Ted Kerasote. If you can only read one book about hunting, this is it. My own recent path into hunting was a winding and twisted one, from dalliances with vegetarianism all the way to some sort of neolithic spirituality couched in the desire to consume vension. Reading Kerasote’s book was a great relief; other people had wrestled with the same concerns and arrived in similiar places.  The book is something of a survey, illuminating a spectrum between Inuit subsistence hunters and wealthy American businessmen on the hunt for record-breaking trophies abroad. Kerasote also spends time with anti-hunting activists and shares his experiences with the nature surrounding his Wyoming home. This book is a must-read, especially for non-hunters.

Controversy between hunters and non-hunters seems trite compared to the bitter debates between hunters, other hunters, the biologists working at the behest of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and anyone either concerned with PA’s habitat or just upset because the deer keep eating their shrubbery. This fascinating book, Deer Wars: Science, Tradition, and the Battle Over Managing Whitetails in Pennsylvania by Bob Frye, provides the ins and outs of these contentious issues. How many deer can Pennsylvania’s various habitats support? How many should be hunted, how many bucks vs. how many does?

Hunting is fascinating if only for the links we can trace to our hunting and gathering ancestors. It’s hard to even imagine what it must have been like to live before farming and its surpluses changed things so profoundly. Some anthropologists make their careers out of reconstructing how people might have survived back then. CLP has a gem of a book by one such individual, George C. Frison, pioneering founder of the University of Wyoming Anthropology Department. His fascinating book Survival by Hunting: Prehistoric Human Predators and Animal Prey is packed with details about prehistoric hunting. An unexpected treasure is the first section where Frison relates his life experience, especially during his youth, around animals and hunting. Frison grew up on a farm during the depression and describes a completely alien world to most of us city dwellers.

Finally, for hunters new and old, CLP has all sorts of books with advice and instruction, for bowhunters too, and some very helpful guides to processing and getting the most from deer. The library also boasts many, many books to help anyone in the woods more fully appreciate the habitat. It’s nice to know what kind of trees you may be looking at, or leaning against and dozing off. There are some great books on tracking and sign, which will help answer the question, “who left that poo there?”

Don’t forget these titles celebrating whitetails:

I just can’t get enough of these creatures.

—Sky

Getting Outside in the ‘Burgh

As the newest member of CLP’s newest location, I’m keenly aware of summer’s approach as I plan our presence at neighborhood festivals, farmers’ markets, and other quintessential summer happenings. And while the writers of this blog have a well–documented love of the out-of-doors, I haven’t seen anyone mention what I consider to be our region’s best outdoors asset: Pittsburgh offers tons of natural beauty and strenuous outdoor activity right in the city limits. So for the countryside-averse, the car-less, and the time-pressed urban outdoorspeople out there, here are some of my favorite sources for info on how to get your hike/bike/boat on in the city of Pittsburgh.

Bob Regan’s The Steps of Pittsburgh: A Portrait of a City (Local History Company, 2004)

Recent research out of McMaster University in Ontario suggests that brief, extremely strenuous bursts of activity (known as intervals) yield health benefits comparable to longer, lighter workouts. Following that logic you may be able to get a year’s worth of cardio workouts done in an afternoon by traversing Pittsburgh’s quirky city steps. Follow Regan’s exhaustive survey of city streets that no car or bike can use to take your urban hikes to new heights.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Navigation Charts for the Mon, the Al, and the O

So you’ve gone on a moonlight kayak tour, maybe paddled around the Point a little bit, and now you feel ready to explore Pittsburgh’s three beloved rivers on your own. Great! If you don’t want to bump into a bridge pile or run aground at Brunot’s Island, make a note to stop by the Main Library in Oakland and check out the navigational charts for the Allegheny, Mon, and Ohio rivers.

Louis Fineberg’s 3 Rivers on 2 Wheels (Mon Quixote Press, 2002)

The spandex-clad diehards will likely always consider Oscar Swan‘s Bike Rides Out of Pittsburgh to be the ultimate statement on rides in the area. But as the title implies, Swan’s routes all take the most direct path out of town. For those of us who prefer to stay within a quarter mile of a good restaurant, cafe, or library branch, Lou Fineberg (scroll down a bit after the click) keeps you in the neighborhoods with his excellent 3 Rivers on 2 Wheels. Just be sure to cross-reference your ride with a current map at Bike Pittsburgh’s website. The Pittsburgh cycling infrastructure was nowhere near where it is now when Fineberg penned the guide ten years ago.

Franklin Toker’s Pittsburgh: A New Portrait and Buildings of Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) and Buildings of Pittsburgh (University of Virginia Press, 2007)

When you’re hiking out in the wilderness you might take along a field guide to help you identify birds, plants, and whatever else you might encounter out there in nature. When you’re hiking in Pittsburgh, give yourself a little cultural context by bringing along these guides to architecture and the history of the built environment of Pittsburgh. Toker, a popular professor at Pitt and architecture historian of national renown, uses buildings as a jumping-off point for an examination of the cultural, economic, and political history of Pittsburgh. And just as you might hope to spot a yellow-bellied sapsucker on a hike in the Allegheny Forest, you can get a similar thrill by spotting a Scheibler, a Burnham, or a Kahn where you’d least expect them to be.

Part of the joy of getting outside in the city is discovering new favorite places right in your neighborhood. You can’t always plan these discoveries–I found one of my favorite secret running route connectors when my street was blocked by a festival and I needed to get my groceries into the fridge before the ice cream melted–so the most important thing is to just get out there.

Do you have a favorite outdoor spot in the city? If you do, please mention it in a comment for others to discover!

–Dan

Plenty to Celebrate

It seems that a lot of people are mourning the loss of summer right now.  I’ve never been a fan of the excessive heat and humidity, but I can understand the reluctance to let go of activities we traditionally associate with warm weather.  So rather than packing away your gear with a heavy heart, why not find ways of extending your favorite hobbies into the colder months?

For example, even though you may be scrambling to collect the last of your harvest right now, your gardening days don’t have to be over when you run out of zucchini.

Fallscaping: Extending Your Garden Season Into Autumn by Nancy Ondra

A Gardener’s Guide to Frost: Outwit the Weather and Extend the Spring and Fall Seasons by Philip Harnden.




Speaking of which, those of us who enjoy cooking (and eating!) local, seasonal foods have been looking forward to that harvest.  In addition, dropping temperatures signal the return of baking season.

The Taste of the Season: Inspired Recipes for Fall and Winter by Diane Worthington

Autumn: From the Heart of the Home by Susan Branch

The Fearless Baker: Scrumptious Cakes, Pies, Cobblers, Cookies, and Quick Breads That You Can Make to Impress Your Friends and Yourself by Emily Luchetti




And people who love the outdoors know there’s no reason to head inside yet.  Hiking, birdwatching, and many other activities can become fresh again with the change of seasons.  (In fact, depending on your sport, the ability to wear more protective gear and clothing can be a plus!)

Fall Color and Woodland Harvests: a Guide to the More Colorful Fall Leaves and Fruits of the Eastern Forests by C. Ritchie Bell

The Bumper Book of Nature: A User’s Guide to the Outdoors by Stephen Moss

Backyard Bird Secrets for Every Season: Attract a Variety of Nesting, Feeding, and Singing Birds Year-Round by Sally Roth.




So even though summer’s days are numbered, autumn gives us plenty to celebrate.

-Denise