Faint trace of deer - actually pretty clear trace

With 3" of wet snow on the ground I did a little tracking.   Outside the fence I immediately found deer prints, coming and going randomly as they do.   They're either smaller than I imagine, or have some kind of 6th sense when it comes to navigating through brush at night; they chose paths through a thicket and a stand of little pines that I had trouble navigating during the day.    Found a bed spot where one had laid down, 2-3' long by about half that wide.  No idea what size deer that is, although last year I saw a pretty decent doe in the area.  I know there's a 6 pt buck in the area too.   It bedded down probably 100' into the woods from my fence, and another 200' from the neighbor's.   It looked something like this.  Scale seems about right, too.

1997 AT Mileage

I started southbound in June of 1997, with too much pack weight, bad boots, and a few unrealistic expectations.   By Hannover my fasciitis was so bad, I had to get off the trail.   Here's a Google doc spreadsheet of my campsites and mileage.   I believe this will be useful to someone planning.   Maine is hard, very hard, in the Spring/Summer, and you need to be realistic about what you can accomplish.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DSc5v1GdnsDzVis1db_9tAgkbNulZ60mZZsG0G2BNMU/edit?usp=sharing

1999 AT hike mileage

In 1999 I completed my AT hike, having done 450+ miles in 1997, getting off the trail in Hannover due to crippling plantar fasciitis.   I've created a Google Docs spreadsheet of my camp locations, miles per day, and a running average of miles/day for the whole trail.  Also included is my miles over a 7 day period, which peaked at 137.7 miles in PA.

During the first few weeks I suffered from some knee tendonitis, and in the last month or so I had terrible nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, I believe due to a combination of overuse of ibuprofen and probably some gastric distress due to not filtering my water.

I've included the last 3 days of zeros as well because I spent them in the Barn in Gorham trying to figure out if I could continue, having already completed the trail when I got to Hannover.    This skews the average somewhat, because I wasn't yet off the trail, but not substantially.

I hope that this list is useful.

All Downhill From Here 1999

Thanks to those who made this possible:
Fenrir
Little Engine
Red Fox
Shavin' Dave
Chewy
Dodger
Chocolate Thunder
Purple Turkey
VeeDub
Brooklyn

and anyone else who I missed

Happy trails.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16lFn57IGeP09KnCPmpSPyt-2uYJlNwlifZUk2gV1d9k/edit?usp=sharing

It's all fun and games, until someone is eaten by a shark

Some idiots self-incriminated by posting videos of themselves taunting a great white shark.

Protip: "the great white shark was a protected species and a conviction for interfering with, harassing, molesting or killing a great white carries a penalty of up to $10,000."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-13/fisheries-officers-hunt-for-boaties-who-harassed-shark/6013930

"Wild" movie review

Meh.

First off, it's not a hiking movie.   There's some scenery, and a few legit interactions between the main character and other hikers, and some might-not-have-happened-but-definitely-could-have scary scenes with some hunters, but it's not a hiking movie.

It's a movie about a woman who grew up out of control, in a house that was out of control, and when faced with the death of her mother, fell apart.  Her life degenerates in predictable Hollywood ways, and she has an epiphany about hiking the PCT to somehow make her a better person.  Later declaring herself a feminist, she retroactively empowers herself and justifies her former self-destructive behavior as somehow necessary on a cosmic level.  She doesn't complete the trail, she gets to somewhere in Oregon and is apparently healed.

Chick flick + hipster + some hiking scenes on the PCT.

The main takeaway - Plan Ahead And Prepare.  They made much of her almost-charming lack of planning, skills, or appropriate equipment.  Walk-in-the-Woods-esque.

Edit: Some further thoughts - it's possible that the production of the movie simply fell back on cliches - closeups of heroin bubbling over a flame, dimly lit room with a nipple in profile to prove that the actress was naked, etc.   It's possible that the book wasn't filled with self-indulgent cliches.  But the movie was.
Also, props to the movie for showing her lighting small campfires on a metal plate.   #MinimizeCampfireImpacts

Wolf "mistaken for coyote" shot in Utah

A coyote hunter killed a wild wolf which had moved from the Grand Canyon area back into its historic range.  Coyote can be "shot on sight" in Utah.  Commercial ranching and misinformation place incredible pressure on grey wolves and coyote, yet wolves and other wild canid species are critical for the health of the environment.  http://faint-traces.blogspot.com/2014/04/predators-affect-all-aspects-of-their.html

A couple of different takes on it are here:
http://www.livescience.com/49288-gray-wolf-shot-in-utah.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/31/us-usa-wolf-idUSKBN0K900X20141231

Peeing in the shower - "Go With The Flow"

Urinating in the shower saves water and paper waste, also reduces point-source pollution ("the solution to pollution is dilution", allowing for natural environmental processes to break it down.  I'm not sure I could do it though.

Kids at East Anglia University in England are promoting this - it would save swimmingpoolsfull of water each year.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-29552557

Where I live now we have a well and septic system that basically puts the water right back into the ground.   The well uses quite a bit of electricity to pull the water up 100s of feet from the ground, this could be a money saver as well as a time saver.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but Plan Ahead And Prepare!

http://gawker.com/brooklyn-man-vanishes-while-on-yoga-retreat-in-mexico-1677123622
http://www.ny1.com/content/news/221277/brooklyn-man-who-went-missing-in-mexico-found-dead/

Terribly prepared man dies while hiking in Mexico.  RIP Hari.

Lowlights from the article:

• accidentally summitted another mountain
• "I'm not exactly sure how to get down"
• the phone company released all the information from Khalsa's phone but said the GPS had been turned off before his disappearance
• was reportedly carrying with him only a liter of water and a package of trail mix

Plan Ahead And Prepare is the first rule of Leave No Trace
bring a map, know the terrain, carry sufficient supplies