Getting away from it all in 2010, when the Adventure Cycling Association’s Southern Arizona Road Adventure spent a day in Bisbee.
It’s not just bikes that are as rare as hen’s teeth, rocking-horse shit, and integrity in the nation’s capital.
Now it’s everything outdoorsy, from camping equipment to boats and birding binoculars.
Pretty soon “getting away from it all” will mean “going home.”
Tags: Adventure Cycling Association, Southern Arizona Road Adventure, The Great Outdoors
Mad Blog Media 
August 4, 2020 at 7:35 am |
Around here and elsewhere, the big topic is how to get IN! As in how to get kids and teachers back IN school. No risk-free, easy solutions for sure; but I did find it ironical that there’ll be a VIRTUAL town hall to help safely decide how to put kids and teachers back IN school. Virtual presence is actual absence in so many respects! 🙂
August 4, 2020 at 8:00 am |
For true. Down here the initial deal is a “hybrid model” — distance learning starting Aug. 6 followed by a combo of in-school/distance beginning around Labor Day. I don’t think it is thrilling anyone.
I recently read an argument for moving classes outside, which might work in temperate climates. I’m not sure how long you could pull it off in the high desert or snow country, though. And the distraction factor would be high. When I was a sprout we didn’t clamor for outside classes because we thought it would enhance learning.
August 5, 2020 at 10:14 am |
When is it safe to reopen schools is a fairly easy question to answer. To open safely, the community that the students and staff come from must have a robust testing and tracing program in place. And the overall testing percentage of active virus (PCR nasal swab) and antibody (blood) testing should be at 5% or lower. Masks are mandatory if you can’t observe social distancing, 6 feet minimum, between people. If these requirement are not in place, there will be virus transmission and spread, guaranteed. I understand the need to get kids back in school. Most schools in Arizona, are either no opening or using an hybrid model. One thing is for sure, this is a local decision based on local COVID-19 data.
August 4, 2020 at 8:13 am |
i have been acquiring camping stuff for several years now so i can theoretically get out of town on a moment’s notice. convincing the girlfriend to bug out is the problem. there are some nice places up in central and northern alabama that are really nice but it’s as hot and buggy there as it is here. winter is coming.
August 4, 2020 at 8:32 am |
I have the camping basics — bag, pad, tent, cookware, etc. — but I don’t have a serious backpack anymore.
My Gregory Miwok 18 is a nice snacks-and-water daypack, but unless I was doing some speedy out-and-back overnight with a tarp for shelter it wouldn’t cut the mustard. I also have a majorly old Eureka rucksack, which I bought years ago for reasons that elude me. It’s basically suited for car camping, if you’re not hiking far from the car.
The temptation to acquire rarely used sporting goods is hard to resist. I just spent a few enjoyable moments browsing the Gregory site. Ooo, shiny objects. …
August 4, 2020 at 8:50 am |
i’m in the process of learning to sew and the project i’m working on now is a backpack. assuming i don’t get pissed and burn it, it should be good enough for a week long trip. i’ve done a couple of hiking overnighters and i really enjoyed it. i’m also set up for bikepacking and touring but the most i’ve done is 3 days. if it wasn’t for this stoopid job…
August 4, 2020 at 9:14 am |
I have all the stuff including the venerable giant Kelty Expedition backpack. I just don’t have the back for it any more.
August 4, 2020 at 2:23 pm |
I hear you. My wife and I have a pair of Class-5 backpacks – durable as hell and heavy as lead. What we need are harnesses to pull all terrain bike trailers.
August 4, 2020 at 5:16 pm
As in the pack brand is Class 5? I knew they made incredible clothing way back. Daughter is still wearing their down vest 35 years later.
August 4, 2020 at 2:44 pm |
I had this giant-ass Gregory Palisade Plus backpack with more straps and buckles than a bondage dungeon. It looked like something one might use in a pinch to bury a murder victim at sea.
August 4, 2020 at 8:34 am |
I hope that the folks getting out, or getting out again, appreciate nature anew.
“When you forget and forgo nature, you do so at your own peril, for someday you may have to return.” Dr. David Suzuki”
August 4, 2020 at 9:00 am |
There is a certain subset of society that very much appreciates the great outdoors: the evildoers who burgle autos at trailheads.
Around here broken window glass is a given at any trailhead parking lot. This is one reason I tend to do my recreating out the front door.
Meanwhile, here’s a new entry in the competition for Greatest Phrases of All Time: “What in the unshirted fuck was this country thinking in handing executive power over to this gruesome bag of old sins?”
We may all be camping in the backcountry before long, and not just for fun, either.
August 4, 2020 at 12:21 pm |
“Uhhh, it is what it is.” What did we expect from him? We all know what he is, a dangerous sociopath. End of story.
August 4, 2020 at 10:41 am |
I guess I picked the wrong time to donate my tent and pack a couple years back.
August 4, 2020 at 1:04 pm |
We still have all our car camping stuff, even the porta-pot. I am willing to keep it, just in case we decide to try camping one more time. It is tempting, especially here.
https://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm
August 4, 2020 at 2:21 pm |
Meena’s idea of camping is a Holiday Inn Express. We did some tent and foam pad camping back in Hawaii, but were young then rather than old, crabby, with creaking joints.
August 4, 2020 at 2:27 pm |
Yeah, if I proposed a camping trip, Herself would give me the hee, and also the haw, and finally a swat with some blunt and weighty object.
August 4, 2020 at 2:58 pm |
It’s the sleeping on the ground that gets me and Sandy. Doesn’t bother Duffy.at all, in fact he prefers it. We tried cots, but couldn’t find one that worked well. We do have a full size, canvas covered, open cell foam sleeping pad that is like heaven once you get down on it. And some Slumberjack pillows that are the bomb.
Backpack stuff went away years ago, and we have no desire, or ability, to do it again.
August 4, 2020 at 3:06 pm |
I have a funny feeling backpacking would not be the same as Back in the Day. I used to love canoe camping. My first wife, who grew up Scouting, seemed to like it as well. Years later after The Big D, I found a picture of her on one of those whitewater rafting trips.
Spent one vacation up in Algonquin Park in Ontario. We canoed across a lake, portaged, halfway across another lake and it was getting late so we spotted a small island and pitched our tent and broke out the camp stove.
Woke up the next morning to a paddling sound and looked out the tent window. A moose swam up to the island, got out of the water, and proceeded to mark along side the tent. Apparently we had pitched the tent on a game trail.
Moose piss and camp coffee. I wish life had always been that good back then.
August 4, 2020 at 5:15 pm |
Yeah, the sleeping on the ground gets harder every year. I’m really not looking forward to sleeping under it.
As regards modern backpacking, I bet it’s even more important these days to get way the hell out there, putting a good long walk between you and everybody else. We did that a couple times in Weirdcliffe, up and over Music Pass, or up the North Taylor drainage to an old plane-crash site, but we cheated a bit. Hal’s burros did the bulk of the “backpacking.”