The Budget

I've been re-crunching the numbers lately concerning my budget for my camping trip I want to take this fall. The last thing I want is for my trip to be cut short or an outright failure because I failed to budget properly.

It's approximately 900 miles to get to the park I want. I took the average gas mileage of my car, which is 30 mpg, to figure out how much gas I will need. Then I multiplied that by a gross overestimation of gas prices.

900 miles / 30 mpg = 30 gallons

30 gallons x $4.50 = $135.00

Now since it will be a lot of highway driving I expect to get slightly better gas mileage than 30, but a conservative estimate is better than the actual figure. The price of gas probably won't be that high but it's better in this case to overestimate. There will be a few toll roads, plus I'll want to get a few snacks along the way so I'm just going to make expenses an even $200. I probably wont use all of that budget and that's fine.

I decided that I want to pick up some new hiking boots as well, but I need to try on shoes before I buy so I don't really have any picked out. $150.

Backpacks are the same way, I need to try them before I buy one. $200.

I already know what tent I want: the Eureka Solitare. $90

Stove and fuel: $50

I don't need a knife, I don't need a compass. I'm considering getting a small hatchet. I also need a bear bag as well as some rope. A headlamp would also be nice. Mess kit. $120

So right now you add all that up it comes to $830. And that's a relatively high estimate, especially on the back pack, tent, and boots since Amazon generally has everything cheaper and I get free shipping with prime. That's if whichever store I go to doesn't price match it. I would rather buy from the actual store but money is money and I've yet to plan meals for this trip. I'm figuring that will probably be around $50, but that's is an extremely rough estimate.

All the Stupid People

            One of my favorite things about walking through the woods, besides just having time all to myself, is the likelihood that I will see the native wildlife. In Ohio that generally means seeing a white tail or two, maybe a turkey or a coyote if I'm lucky. Each time it's a magical experience. They'll know I'm there and we'll just stare at each other. I'll sometime take a few photos and they eventually wander off. What I don't do is try to pet, get close to, or in any way interact with them.

            That's why every time I hear about some tourist at Yellowstone that was gored by a bison I can only sigh and shake my head. It's not an uncommon occurrence at the national parks for something like this to happen or just barely be avoided thanks to the quick actions of a park ranger. Alright, I suppose if you consider the park visitor to injury ratio these kinds of things are somewhat rare. It's just that anytime something like this does happen it's well publicized.

            The trouble is that in almost every case the tourist was doing something stupid. Trying to take a selfie with a bison is just asking for trouble. Playing with a bear cub right next to a salmon run is even worse. Putting your young daughter on the back of a Bison is just... Why? What did you think was going to happen?

            It's not like these people can feign ignorance either. 

There. 

Are. 

Signs.

            There are signs everywhere telling visitors to stay a good distance away from the wildlife. They have no excuse. It's just common sense to keep a good distance between anything bigger than 500 pounds and has teeth or horns but if these tourists can't be bothered to read the warnings, odds are they don't have much good sense.

            I would love to pinpoint a cause to these kinds of things. Maybe argue that we live in a society that is too used to animals being domesticated and safe, but the sad truth is that this is not a new phenomenon, it's just better publicized. The sad, sad truth is that some people are dumb, ignorant, or both. Dammit people you're breathing, you must have a brain. Use it.

Times They Are A Changin' But Not Too Much

            There’s been an important development this week. I was offered the chance for a promotion at work which if I get it should allow me to not work on Saturdays. I really look forward to having long weekends again. If I get the promotion that is. I’m not one for counting anything before they hatch, but if my manager is to be believed my chances are good.

            I really want my weekends back. I’ll only have to have one job where I’ll still be making more than I was before with the two I had. Longer weekends will let me go camping more. Once I get my gear all sorted out it shouldn’t be that big of a deal to just take off for a weekend to a park. Plus just having an extra day to do whatever I want is very enticing.

            A promotion would make my résumé more impressive too. Maybe. Either way it improves it, so hopefully after a few months I can find a job more in tune with what I want for a career. I’ve said before that if I’m still at my current job after two years someone needs to shoot me. I’ve got a year and a half before that happens, so there’s a bit of time but the sooner the better. What I should do is take this opportunity to take some more classes at the university and pick up another degree.

            Anyways, that’s what happened this week. The roommate search continues, but hopefully it will be figured out by the end of this week.

What Did You Think Would Happen?

            There is a culture in the US of not taking responsibility for mistakes. It's not just in the United States and it's nothing new. Man has been trying to pass the blame ever since we formed societies. We're a bunch of right greedy bastards combined with an amazing potential to be huge dicks to one another. Passing the blame really only works when there's something or someone else to put it on, after all.

            Take the BP oil spill in the gulf for example. Perhaps the worst oil disaster the world has ever seen all due to gross negligence and a fair bit of incompetence. Now, there was no way that BP could have shifted all the blame away from itself. They owned the oil rig after all and no amount of finger pointing was going to cause that to change. That didn't stop them from trying to shift the most egregious of their offences onto their subcontractors. The subcontractors deserve their own share of the blame, but it always sounded like a six year old who has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar tattling on Billy and Timmy for taking cookies too. It's a means of shifting the spotlight.

            There is no corporation on the planet whose main goal is to pollute the world like some captain planet villain. The goal of a corporation is to stay in the black and survive. Unfortunately this incentivizes risk taking and gambling and in turn it also constitutes a need for damage mitigation when those gambles fail. It's also unfortunate that the heaviest burden caused by these failures is often shouldered by people who just happened to live in the area, often with no real recourse. The corporations can throw money at the problem, they can pay for damages but they can't ever put that oil back in the ground or decontaminate everything. They make a momentary payment for disasters that will stretch decades or even centuries.

            Hydraulic fracking is a prime example. There is always the risk that fracking will contaminate the groundwater in an area, even if the corporations claim they have safety protocols or methods that will not allow it. Those can be ignored in the interest of greater profits. It's been done before, it's happening now, and you can bet it will happen in the future. Then there's the relatively new development that fracking is causing earthquakes in the surrounding areas. I don't know how they expected breaking the bedrock of an area to not have any adverse effects, but that didn't stop corporations from acting surprised.

            Corporations have the best chance at affecting lasting change for the better when it comes to the environment. I'm not saying they shouldn't be turning a profit, but when it comes to the planet's health having a large margin should come second. There's a pickle jar that I loathe to open, because who can say how much money is enough? But come on guys, do you really need that much? Really? A person could live comfortably off a fraction of a percent of what you make. A better world should beat out large sums of money every time, because even with all the money in world, you still have to live here. Why not make it better?

The Sum of All My Fears

            One of the goals of this blog was to get better. Not just in my writing but in other aspects of my life. So far that hasn't really happened. Oh, I've met a few of my goals, but only really the small ones. In light of that I've decided to break from the more researched post this week to analyze the progress I've made as well as what I'm doing wrong. Hopefully I can come up with some solutions.

            I'll focus on the writing aspect first, because it's the easiest to talk about. When I started I had planned on doing one good article each week but it quickly became apparent that I couldn't keep up that level of writing for very long on that time schedule. So I took to every other week, alternating between the more editorial posts and self-updates every other week. That's been working for me so far. It presents a challenge, but along a timeline that I can meet. Two weeks to write a post I can manage.

            There are two big hurdles to my writing that are presenting an issue: Finding something to write about and my own insecurities. I'm one of those types that don’t like repeating what's already been said, except where necessary. Generally when I'm cruising around the internet I'm finding and reading news articles, press releases, and tweets there are a plethora of good topics, but in my mind everything I want to say has been said already. Often better than I could have said it. You see how my own insecurities feed into my writing.

            So how do I overcome this? I have a feeling that this is one of those things where I just have to buckle down and keep writing, no matter how I few what I write. They say writers are their own worst critics and in my case it's definitely true. And that solves both of those problems. Since I don't have trouble finding topics to write about, only feeling that I don't have anything to contribute, saying what I think about whatever topic despite that feeling seems like the only thing I can do. Even at the risk of sounding (to myself anyways) repetitive.

            Surprisingly, I haven't had much trouble actually sitting down and writing. Some days I'll write these posts, some days I'll just do a stream of consciousness and sometimes I'll write a short story for a friends blog, but I am writing almost every day which is meeting one of the biggest goals of the blog.

            I haven't had a chance at failing any of the camping goals I've set, but I am well on my way to meeting them anyways so that shouldn't be much of an issue. I have most of the budget put aside; I'm just currently waiting for my housing situation to be resolved before I start gathering all my gear. I imagine once that's done actually getting out to go camping shouldn't be terribly difficult, or at least it will be easier.

            Well, there it is. As always the biggest problem I face is overcoming me. It's what I consider to be my biggest character flaw. I tend to get in my own way as often as I help myself along. I don't actually self-sabotage, but I do refrain from making big decisions due to my own irrational fears.

Slowing down a Bit

It's time for another update on the camping preparations. I'm ashamed to say that at the moment they've come to a stand-still. I kept meaning to get out to the Cabela's to purchase a backpack and tent, but then every weekend there's been something else popping up that's prevented me.
And now it's May first, and that means that my lease is up. It's well on it's way to getting renewed, but until all the details of that are worked out I figure it's better to hold onto all the cash I've saved up instead of spending it to buy all the gear I need. Not to worry, there's still time to get all that sorted and still make the camping date I've set for some time in June.
I would talk about the gear, but so far the only specific thing I know for sure that I'm going to get is the tent and I've already talked about that. I'm one of those people that prefers to hold something in my hand before deciding yay or nay.
At any rate, that's what's going on.

Parks Not Personal Monuments

            My favorite thing about going about on trails and seeing huge natural formations is the sense of discovery that comes with it. You can never be quite sure about what is just around that next bend or over that next hill. Unfortunately, all the natural wonders I enjoy have been slowly eroding, but not by natural means. We’ve all seen the litter along trails. We’ve all seen the names carved into a rock or tree.

            I love it when structures are built to complement the landscape. Trail improvements should be the same way. They should move along with the contours and trees instead of cutting right through it. I’ve seen a lot of trails that do just that. Adding stairs and bridges that don’t detract from the scenery can enhance the experience. At least they make the parks that much more accessible. If done wrong though, they can destroy the magic of a place. The last thing I want when I go to a park is to feel like I’m in the middle of a commercialized enterprise.

            That’s one of the reasons I’m against the proposed “improvements” to the Grand Canyon National Park. The addition of a gondola to ferry tourists to the bottom of the canyon and an increase is commercialized space would intrude too much. The National Park Service has other reasons for opposing the development. Mainly they have concerns about the water situation, which is already tenuous at best. I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, but when I eventually do visit I don’t want to feel like I’m in a mall with a view.

            For the most part trail improvements are necessary and can increase park visitor numbers, which is only a good thing. I praise anyone that would go spend an afternoon walking along a trail, but with greater accessibility comes an increase of those who lack respect for the park. We've all seen litter along the trails. You're just as likely to see a water bottle as much as a tree. But unfortunately, that's the least damaging thing we've all seen.

            If you ever get the chance, go see the Rock House in Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio. It's a good little jaunt and you can easily walk the entire thing in an hour or two if you take your time. The parks department has made several improvements to increase the accessibility of the cave. But the site is marred by the continued and repeated wear and tear caused by visitors. With one goo look you'll see dozens upon dozens of carved names on the floor and walls. There are large grooves worn into the soft sandstone by people repeatedly scraping their foot in one place.

            If this isn't cracked down on, anything natural in these places will eventually be destroyed, along with everything that makes these places special or interesting. Instead of natural beauty all that will be left is a battered and scarred monument to self-gratification. At that point what’s the difference between that and a shopping mall? The park service can’t do it alone, so the next time you’re walking along a trail, pick up that bit of litter. Maybe this time don’t hold your tongue and tell the other visitors that carving on the rocks isn’t okay. Keeping the parks in good condition should be the goal of everyone.

The Job Search

            So I said when I started this narcissistic indulgence I call a blog that one of my goals was to find a better job. I believe I gave myself until the end of April to have found on. Well, I've found plenty of jobs between then and now. Unfortunately none have hired me. All the employers are probably trying to figure out the answer to that age old question: what do you do with a BA in English? If someone knows please tell me.

            It's rather unfortunate that I didn't know what I wanted to do until I had graduated. If I had I certainly would have changed majors. Not that many of the classes I had would have done me much good in switching majors. Not outside the basic classes. But that's not important right now.

            I don't have much more to say, but there's where I stand at the moment.

Mile Markers

As Americans, we really like to memorialize things. It certainly seems like if anything of even minimal historical significance happens somewhere or if there's a house or other object that's stood since the 1800's it will end up with a plaque on it sooner or later. Not that that's a bad thing by any means, but sometimes it seems a little strange.

            Here's an example of what I mean. Between Fremont and Rossford, Ohio, along the north side of Rt. 20 is a series of square stone pillars, each one with different number on it. They're fairly easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. I must have driven that stretch of road dozens of times but I didn't notice them until last weekend. It didn't take long for me to realize they are old mile markers, from before they started marking miles at county lines.

            While I drove I kept an eye out for each one. I was on a long drive with nothing better to do, so why not? Driving West, the numbers on the markers counted down. But when going through Woodville, still watching out for each one, I spotted the sixteen mile marker in front of one of the storefronts downtown. This marker seemed to sprout from the middle of the sidewalk and right next to it on a post all of its own was a plaque. Of course I had to stop.

            The plaque offered as much information about the mile markers as it could I suppose. It certainly offered more than I asked for. I found the whole situation amusing. Just the fact that memorializing a mile marker seems silly, but at the same time it had piqued my interest enough to get me to turn around and stop. What was most surprising was that most of the mile markers were still there. Some had obviously been moved, but were still visible from the road.

            That’s just one example, but it’s one of those things that if you kind of stumble upon. It allows you to learn about things, but at the same time gives you a sense of discovery and exploration. Maybe that’s why we like to memorialize things in this way. People discover something interesting, then share the information in such a way that the rest of us can get that same feeling. 

Making a Few Changes

I've decided that doing one post a week is a bit much for me, especially this week when I've got such a nasty cold. That said, I will be alternating between larger posts and smaller posts each week.

750 plus words is also a bit much, so instead I'm going to strive towards having a much more precise word economy. It should help keep posts much more focused and to the point. Plus it won't look like a massive wall of text.

In other news: IT BEGINS.

A Nation of Wolves

Ever since the unfortunate killing of Echo, the first wolf to been seen in the Grand Canyon, my inbox has been bombarded with emails asking for my support to “save the wolves.” Don't get me wrong, I would love to see wolves return to the US. They can be a driving force of change within an ecosystem. But there needs to be a serious discussion about the problems they cause.

 It’s assumed that when reintroduced, wolves will primarily hunt the other natural wildlife. I'm sure they would take rabbit or deer if they got the chance, but there’s a reason that the wolves numbers are the way they are.

Humans have worked long and hard to ensure there are as few predators as possible that pose a significant threat to livestock. Because of that quite a few people are left scratching their heads as to why we should reintroduce wolves. Suppose we effectively eliminated mosquitoes, what kind of resistance would their reintroduction face? It's really hard to see the positive effects when the downsides are so immediately apparent.

Most issue surrounds livestock. Wolves taking livestock is certainly the biggest hurdle anyways. Wolves do pose a threat to humans but in general they avoid us as much as possible. I won’t claim that they are a non-issue, but unless they are starving it’s unlikely they would attack an adult. But livestock are a different matter. They're the biggest reason why wolves were hunted to the numbers they are at now.

I can understand why most farmers don't want an active wolf population in their backyards. To farmers, reintroducing wolves means introducing a predator that could potentially kill their livestock. Each animal in the herd represents a significant investment of time and money. Losing one of those animals can be a massive loss. It's only natural that farmers would want to protect their investment.

For a reintroduction to be successful, wolf deterrent methods have to involve the farmers in a positive way. When over hunting threatened deer and other favored wildlife, hunters were the ones called upon to support the conservation efforts. Now the license fees they pay comprise the largest chunk of funds.

Electronic deterrent systems, such as lights and even sirens, can be effective. Some of these can even activate when they detect a signal from a wolf's radio collar. If it has a radio collar. Fencing can help stave off wolves, but that alone won't keep wolves from livestock.

The best methods are the ones that have been in place for thousands of years. Shepherds used to watch over their flocks night and day in order to protect them. Large dogs are also a good deterrent. Using these with other deterrents increases the chances that wolves will avoid livestock. These methods are highly effective for both livestock and wolves if defenders.org is to be believed.

But I’m a realist when it comes to getting farmers to agree. Each one of these methods requires an increase in a farmer’s time, money, and effort against a predator that right now does not exist in most places. If wolves are going to be reestablished in the US, farmers will have to help. Or at least see some benefits.

So what good can wolves bring? They would hunt weak and sick animals which creates a healthier ecosystem. With wolves culling those animals there would be less of a risk of disease spreading to livestock like sheep and cattle. And whether you believe that the benefits in this video are real or not, wolves do have at least some effect on the grazing behaviors of deer and elk.

            I would like to see wolves return for all those reasons, but most of all because it would be putting things right. There’s something alluring about that. It’s the same kind of thinking that led to the creation of our national parks. But we have a long way to go before the wolves’ future is certain.

Deadlines Wooshing By

The post for this week is taking a bit longer than I anticipated. I'm having a bit of trouble finding a consistent structure for it, so I'm going to put it off until next week. It's already over 900 words and I don't think I'm close to being done with it.
It's going to need some heavy editing to get it to somewhere manageable.
On the plus side, Woot.com is selling Sawyer mini water filters and it should get here sometime next week. IT'S HAPPENING.
I'm starting to get excited. See you next week.

Taking Stock

Ohio doesn't have much in the way of a true backpacking experience. Most of our state parks only have campsites that have relatively close car access and group everyone close to one another. It's nice if you want to meet other people that share your love of the outdoors, but it can make it difficult if you want solitude. Having campsites with all the basic amenities is nice for families, but it isn't the kind of trip that I want to take. I want to do something more challenging.

The first thing I did to prepare was I took stock of all my gear. Having never actually been on a strictly back packing trip, you can imagine just how under equipped I am.

My current back pack is old. It might be as old as or older than me. It's an old external frame backpack that’s seen a ton of abuse. It has a massive tear in the top compartment. A lot of the straps are broken or been torn off completely. I picked it up at an auction over ten years ago, and since then it's been on most of my camp outs with the Boy scouts. It's pretty clear that I will need a suitable replacement.

I have one of those orange two pole tents, and I know for a fact that it’s older than me. All the waterproofing has gone out of it. The one time I did use it dew soaked almost everything. Most trips I've been on have been with friends and they normally had a family tent or a two person dome tent.

 I've already determined to pick up a Eureka brand solitaire tent. It sleeps one, is lightweight, and has overwhelmingly positive reviews. The only downside is that it doesn't have any space for gear, so I'll have to make sure that whatever back pack I get also has a rain cover.

            My sleeping bag is in good condition but it has no stuff bag. They sell stuff bags on Amazon, but I’m not quite sure of the size. I also have one of those blue foam mats for a floor barrier, so no issue there. I don't think it would be worth it to look into some kind of bag for that too, but it might be nice to have one.

My current mess kit is an old aluminum one and it's high time that it gets retired for something a bit more sturdy and compact. I also need a portable camp stove. I wrestled back and forth for a while between a white gas or a butane/propane stove, but the efficiency and low effort of a compressed gas stove finally won out. White gas won't heat food as fast and also requires pumping and priming. Since the only downsides to a canister stove is potential failure in the cold and the inability to determine exactly how much fuel is left, the choice was obvious.

I have a good flashlight, It's a tiny little Smith and Wesson LED light. It's pretty lightweight and it can poke a beam out there a pretty good distance. Still, I've heard that it's a good idea to have a headlamp for situations where I need both hands. Like if I needed to setup my tent after dark, or even just for cooking in the dark.

From previous experience, it’s generally a good idea to have some kind of lightweight rope or cord, because you never know when you'll need it.

I plan to pick up a personal first aid kit. I'm the kind of guy that could make do with some Kleenex and duct tape, but out in the middle of the woods I would rather not improvise that kind of thing.

I have good enough pocket knives, but I could certainly do with a better multi-tool.

Then there's the toilet situation. There aren’t that many restrooms out in the middle of the woods so I'll need a small trowel to dig a cat hole and plastic bags to carry soiled toilet paper out. Gross. Speaking of which, I wonder if they make TP just for hikers.

I'm not sure what to do about food yet. Pasta seems to be the favorite when it comes to back packing meals. Pasta and peanut butter. Hell, I could do an entire post on just food. At some point I probably will. I haven't quite figured out what to do about the water situation just yet either. To take the trip I want to, I will need some method of filtering water. Water will probably be the heaviest thing I have to carry, so finding ways to minimize that weight would be great.

I’ve been putting some money aside each week to afford all the new gear I need. Now the biggest challenge I’m facing is getting to an actual store to do some shopping. Sometime in April or May I want to have a short weekend trip to test out new gear. It's important to familiarize myself with new gear and identify potential problems.

            That seems like enough for a good start. It’s exciting to have a project to work on and the prospect of being able to get away from everything is refreshing. Next week I’ll be working out the budget and logistics of getting to where I want to go.

Strange Madness

          Hello and welcome to By the Pine. I am Wodewose; poet, philosopher, pretentious loser, nature enthusiast. This is my own attempt to get out of the house and start doing something semi-productive again. Playing videogames and watching Netflix is fine, but when it became routine to spend almost a quarter of my day doing nothing else I felt it was high time to re-evaluate my priorities. It's not exactly the healthiest of lifestyles. Anywho, I had to get out of my room and back into the habit of writing (Have to put that English degree to use somehow). So now I sit in a coffee shop and write. I’m just one MacBook away from being that guy. Before you know it I’ll be wearing a scarf and skinny jeans while adjusting my black rimmed glasses with condescension. Welcome to By the Pine, an ongoing effort to get out and get better.

            My intention for By the Pine is to produce a post once a week about anything related to the outdoors and to document the planning and preparation for a backpacking trip I want to take sometime this October. To accomplish this I've set for myself a few lofty goals:

            - By the end of March I need to have a better job. The two part time jobs I have right now are doing their best to kill me. Spam and ramen can only keep you alive for so long before you start to die inside. My bowels aren't giving me any thanks either. Second and third shift hours suck pretty hard and it’s really begun to eat away at me. Having waking hours from 1:00 pm to 6:00 am tends to turn you into a soulless husk cut into other aspects of your life.

            - I need to start writing on a schedule again at least five days a week. I know that if I don't take this seriously I'll just fall back into Netflix mode. I also want to be writing around 750 edited words a week. That is a bit subjective, but I really want to try and stick to that. I eventually want do more, but considering my current schedule this seems entirely reasonable. Creative writing may happen sometimes, but I doubt any of that will end up here.

            - As I said before, I want to plan and execute a backpacking trip for sometime this fall. Ideally, the trip would be in October to avoid crowds, give me time to plan properly, and mostly just because I love autumn. I have an idea of where I want to go and for how long, but I already have a few other ideas if for some reason the first option falls through. I want to be able to go somewhere outside of Ohio. Not that there’s anything wrong with Ohio, it’s just well, you know, Ohio. We don’t have that much going on.

            - Criticism. I've never really been the best at handling criticism. Part of me right now is screaming “IF I DON’T POST IT THEY WON’T KNOW HOW DUMB I AM!” It would take me a week to get into the right mindset to read critiques from my professors and peers (verbal criticism I’m strangely okay with). Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but at times it felt like it. I'm hoping that by opening myself to the deluge of critics that is the internet I can break down that mental barrier. I have to develop that thick skin sooner or later and since sooner has long since passed, later will have to do. Please, don’t be a major douche canoe.

            - I want to have most posts planned in advance and get a good backlog going. This will help get me into the routine and stay on track. It should also allow me to do adequate quality control and editing. Should.

            Now that I've bored you enough with my own shortcomings, I'll see you next week where I'll go into more detail about my preparation for my backpacking trip. Until then here's a quote one of my roommates put on our whiteboard:

"Rejection just means you're pushing the upper limits of what's possible. Unfortunately, some people have extraordinarily low upper limits."

-          Anonymous