Suspect Waters

by Neil Woodburn on

Summertime means backpacking season.  That time of year when you pack everything you need to survive on your back and trek with it into the wilderness.  One thing you can never bring enough of, however, is water.  Your body requires far more water than most people are able to carry.  Backpackers therefore rely on the fields, streams, and lakes they camp near to provide them with enough H2O to survive.

The problem is that not all of this water is clean.  An informative article in The LA Times discusses the challenges that backpackers face in their pursuit of diarrhea-free weekend escapes.  Kathleen Doheny’s article reviews recent studies analyzing water samples throughout California’s Sierra Nevadas.  Most were free of intestine-attacking bacteria, but those measured below cattle-grazing grounds were not.  The problem, as Doheny points out, is that no one ever knows if cattle happen to be grazing up river from where you pull your water supply.

Smart backpackers treat their water to be on the safe side; a six hour hike out of the wilderness is no fun with loose bowels. 

Mexico By Train…With Money

by Erik Olsen on

We’re big on Mexico by train. Why, just a few days ago Adrienne posted about doing Copper Canyon by rail. I have it on good authority that this is a MUST DO trip, that the canyon is gorgeous and the ride, while at times perilous, offers a wonderful mixture of comfort, luxury and adventure.

And for those willing to pay out a bit more, you can enhance that luxury quotient by several-fold. The folks over at Luxist have posted about a company offering uber-luxurious trips in Mexico. called GrandLuxe Rail Journeys they offer a nine-day package that takes you on a meandering tour down from Texas to Mexico City. You will chug and choo-choo through Copper Canyon and then to Guadalajara and Tequila (where you will need to disembark and do a shot..sorry, it’s the law), then you are headed to the historic town on San Miguel de Allende and over to the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon at the ancient city of Teotihuacán.

But such fun doesn’t come cheap. The trip starts in October and a Presidential Suite costs $6,190.

Yosemite, With Children

by Erik Olsen on

Well, we’re tying up the Fourth of July weekend here with a nice flourish. Families all around the country are just now getting their things together: picnic baskets, bottles of vino, cameras, and heading out to catch fireworks.

But another soul, Roger Sinasohn who is writing over at bloggingbaby, took the kiddies to Yosemite this weekend and is writing about it. He suggets that a place you once knew by going solo can be transformed when visiting with kids. True? Well, I haven’t been to Yosemite yet with kids, but I’ll take his word for it. As for me, I’m heading out to catch some fireworks.

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

Travel Gadgets

by Erik Olsen on

Although I’ve strongly advocated brining one’s ipod along when traveling, I am not generally a fan of lugging lots of gadgets along with you on the road. First of all, they can be a big, messy encumbrance. Wires and cables and buttons that get all sticky. And the way your pack bulges with all these things and you have to take care of them and keep them dry and, well, fuggedaboudit.

So I am a bit dubious about this article that tries to name the top ten travel gadgets .Some of them make a modicum of sense: the GPS watch, for example. Now I have no idea whether or how well the watch works, but suffice to say it would be great to get directions and location coordinates directly on your watch. But what about the Wi-Fi finder? Sure ,it’s nice to know where a hot spot is, but do you really need to carry around something like that? Another rather absurd item is this digital luggage that tells you its weight so that you know whether you’re going over required limits at the airport. Come on.

For me, the best piece of digital travel equip to have, which has not been invented yet ,is a combination GPS/encyclopedia that not only tells you here you are, but something about the place ,little bits of history or arcana that would really add to a travel experience. Alas, that has not been invented yet. But I bet someday we’ll have one.