Urban Exploration

by Erik Olsen on

When I was a kid I used to explore my town as if it was some exotic land. The places to go were always the places I wasn’t supposed to go: people’s backyards, the basements under stores and restaurants, any kind of tunnel whatsoever, the darkened classrooms and offices of the school at night. We were what are now more formally called urban explorers. Well, OK, sub-urban explorers, because we lived outside of the downtown area of Los Angeles. But no matter, the point is that some people, and this included many if not most of my friends, were really into checking out the world around them, “discovering” places that we’d never seen and going places we knew we weren’t supposed to go.

I’d like to say those days are gone, that I’m a grownup now, but the fact is, I still spend a LOT of my free time just walking around NYC and exploring. No, I don’t break into buildings anymore, but if I see a dark alleyway that looks interesting, or a way to get under a bridge to see a new view of the river, I’ll do it. Urban exploration is still in my blood. But that said, there are some folks for whom the urban exploration idea gets taken to the extreme. They live and die for this stuff. Go over to this site called Infiltration.org, for example, and see some of the stuff they do and the places they go. They offer strategems and tips, all part of an actual book/zine they put out. This is hard core, but still very cool.

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?).

Pikes Peak Celebrates 200 Years

by Adrienne Wilson on

…on America’s map. The Seattle Times covers an awesome happening this year surrounding the 14,110-foot summit along the eastern slopes of the Rockies known as Pikes Peak in Colorado. The peak was placed on American maps 200 years back after Zebulon Pike spotted the peak, never reached its top, had a horrible time in the Rocky Mountains, was eventually captured by the Spanish and taken into Mexico. To celebrate these fine details in history the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and other organizations will run lectures, reenactments and hikes over the year. The events scheduled will illustrate Zebulon Pike’s 1806 journey and images of the mountain in art and advertising. Very cool!

As a teen living in Colorado Springs I never gave a whole lot of thought to the beauty or the story behind ole Pikes Peak. For the most part it made for fun family outings except the one time my father thought he knew the gas tank better than he did and we ran out of gas up yonder. Though it may be a bit smaller in comparison to Pike’s troubles, I’ve still got my own stories to tell about that very same mountain. In any case the real explorer’s tale sounds much worth trekking to Colorado sometime over the next year to experience the all the activities.

Peak to Peak

by Erik Olsen on

Hikers, campers and outdoors folk alike might be interested in this site called Peak to Peak that has nicely grouped together outdoors links for easy access to information. There are lots and lots of links here to everything from books and trips to gear and articles on the National Parks.

It is essentially a clearing house for outdoors links, and a nicely organized one. The links into the national parks is better than the navigation at the Park Service itself.

Summer at the Ski Resorts

by Erik Olsen on

The snow has all melted and the crowds have left for the beaches, but that doesn’t mean the fun stops at various US ski resorts around the country. Many of the biggest resorts, and a few small ones too, keep their ticket booths open to accommodate outdoor folk in search of warmer thrills.

This piece in CNN takes a look at what some of the resorts are doing this summer to provide opportunities for mountain bikers, campers, fisher folk, golfers, horseback riders, et al. The piece covers most of the big ski states like Colorado, Utah and California and does justice to most of the areas providing this kind of fun. Myself, I’ve always been partial to Mammoth Mountain whose summer mountain biking is epic. Ditto Whistler/Blackcomb, which gets short shrift in the piece.