Caution: Ticks & Lyme Disease

by Adrienne Wilson on

Ticks usually aren’t a concern of mine when traveling, unless of course there is a huge problem with them in the area, but for the most part I have been tick worry free. However, the other day, one of our unsuspecting walkers on the Steps Across team had one on her shirt searching for her flesh. Searching to take a nice cool bath and sip of her ruby red blood, I’m positive. Before the little creature could prove successful in its mission (thankfully) another walker from our group saw the vicious insect lying low and swooshed it up and off the other’s shirt. Whew! Too close of a call if you ask me. Point of this story – know your insects I guess and if you don’t plan on studying fuzzy creepy crawlers, then at least know where more of them are hiding out. There is a current short piece from the Chicago Tribune listing states with the highest Lyme disease rate, which means the ticks are lurking. Here’s the list of CDC figures from Backpacker magazine as found in the Chicago Tribune:

  • Rhode Island 68.39
  • Pennsylvania 46.34
  • Connecticut 40.28
  • New Jersey 33.42
  • New York 28.13
  • Delaware 25.93
  • Massachusetts 23.81
  • New Hampshire 14.76
  • Wisconsin 13.52
  • Maine 13.40

Lonely Planet’s The Cities Book

by Erik Olsen on

Prepare to be dazzled…and to give the biceps a nice workout at the same time. Lonely Planet has released a new book…a tome, really…that takes a quick and dirty and luscious view of many of the world’s great cities. And a couple of the crappy ones too. The book, called simply Lonely Planet The Cities Book ($31.50 on Amazon)  is a monster, with the hardcover edition weighing in at almost five pounds. But that is five pounds of eye-savoring goodness. This is not a book you’re going to take with you; this is a book you’re going to keep on your coffee table and salivate on after a long day of work with dreams of long-term international escape flitting about your brain.

The book covers 200 of what the editors call “the most vibrant, diverse, hypnotic and chaotic cities in the world”, which have been given esteemed rank by the people who, presumably, know what they are talking about :namely, Lonely Planet’s staff, authors, and readers. The book contains factoids and information on each city that is enough to whet your whistle, but may also send you to Wikipedia to learn more. Several of the sample sections are: Vital statistics, which provides the city’s strengths (i.e. great views, beaches, interesting culture) and weaknesses (i.e. stodgy cuisine). There are also interesting bits like “Starring role in” which lists the various movies or poetry or books that the cities have been featured in (i.e. Auckland was the place where The Chronic (what?!) cles of Narnia was filmed).

They have obviously made ample use of the Lonely Planet Images stock photo library, because the book is sumptuously illustrated with photos that do a fine job giving you an immediate visual impression of a place. In all honesty, the biggest problem is that you want more. You want the pictures for each city to go on for pages and pages rather than just one or two.

Probably the best part about the book is learning a little bit about cities you’ve never heard of, or know only a little about. (Kyviv, Dhaka, Abuja).

This book would make not only a fine gift, but also a superb addition to your coffee table. It’s the kind of book that you can thumb through as you’re forced to endure some dreary TV show that your wife wants to watch (or was that just me?).

Symbiot Sportback

by Erik Olsen on

I know that the hip new thing these days is the saddle bag. People all over town lug their stuff around in these things that hang at your hip like a fatty appendage. And before the saddlebag…or messenger bag as they are now called after an apparently widely successful rebranding effort…there was the briefcase.

Don’t even get me started on what an outdated symbol of 1950s American salarymen chic that was. I still think the briefcase is a silly thing to carry for pretty much everyone except obscenely rich guys who chain them to their wrists when they transport a pound of uncut diamonds.

But back to bags. So the point I’m straining to reach here is that all this time, I’ve been partial to one form of “crap transport”, and that is the backpack. But the backpack has its drawbacks. Even when you cinch them up around your shoulders, they flop around. They are pretty much useless for rigorous activity like running. If you will, flashback to high school and think of how the geeks would sometimes get all excited and run around with their packs on…well, you see what I mean.

So now there is a company seeking to solve the pack flop problem. Called the Sportback, the pack here looks a little bit like a training bra for Sir Edmund Hillary, but the idea is fresh, original and solves the problem of pack-flop. The company making the new pack, which wraps over your shoulders and seems to fit as snugly as a vest, does do away with some of the problems of traditional packs. The company is called Symbiot Design, and according to Jonathan Gross who started the company with some friends, they came up with the idea and design to help folks who are into biking, hiking, running and adventure racing.

The Sportback looks very cool, and certainly useful if you are a runner, mountain biker, tri-athelete ,etc .There are space limitations, so you’ll have to cut back a bit on the amount of stuff you carry, but you should be doing that anyway. Oh, and there is space for your water bladder should you want to have the pack replace your Camelback.

Seaway Trail

by Erik Olsen on

The idea of diving cold rivers may sound less appealing than diving, say, the Bahamas…it does to me…but over at Divester, they suggest that if you pair the diving with a beautiful drive, well, that may make the whole thing worth while.

Divester calls out the Seaway Trail in New York State, a 454-mile scenic route that runs along Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River. You can drive and dive, as it were, following the suggestions of the “Dive the Seaway Trail” campaign. And before you complain too much that diving lakes holds little interest, keep in mind that the lakes of the region were once major hubs of interstate and international commerce, and so they are loaded with wrecks. Wrecks, of course , mean fish. Divester provides some links to back up the claim:

So perhaps you were heading up-state anyway, or hadn’t yet made up your razadook what to do with your summer. Diving in New York may sound kooky at first glance, but the idea might be worth a second look.

Commando Kayak

by Erik Olsen on

I’m not sure how to begin to describe this site I came across on kayaking. I mean, it’s not about kayaking exactly. Well, it is, but it’s not about kayaking in the way that you and I think about kayaking. It’s not about heading out for fun and relaxation on a body of water…or maybe it is. Ugh. Well, look, I spent some time slicking around the site called Commando Kayaking, and despite the strange guy whose ghoulish, Viking face graces every page, I want to say it is really cool. The site seems to be about how one can take ones kayak pretty much anywhere…and now only how the commando kayaker does this, but why he must. There are also instructions here for how to roll, how to perfect paddle techniques and, the wonderfully named exercise called the Qajaasaarneq.

Seriously, though, the site is pretty cool. Off-beat to be sure, but if you’re like me, a paddler and a fan of the obscure, you’ll spend some time here.