A hiker in Hawaii who disappeared was found in a lava field where he survived by drinking the
water he squeezed from moss that grew in the scarce nooks in the lava.
Gilbert Gaedcke was crossing a series of desolate lava fields near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park when he got lost
amid vast miles of blackened volcanic rock. He was rescued when a passing helicopter caught the glint from a mirror
that he used to get their attention (good thinking, Mcguyver).
Here in the states we often finish up a hike, set up camp and get the
fire started. Then we break out the freeze dried meals and sit down to a delicious dinner of powdered lasagna.
Yum. In Europe, they do things a little differently. There, hikes are more likely to end in a pub or a
mountain cabin, where the smell of peat fills the air and some beer hag is drawing Steins of the sudsy stuff large
enough to park your Jet Ski in. Well, not always. But it makes for a good image, doesn’t it?
Americans used to vast, gaping Western expanses are likely to frown upon some of
these
Euro-Hikes listed here in the New York Times. But let us not judge them so quickly. There is history
in there thar hills, and it behooves us Yanks to learn a little bit about our cousins overseas, and get a little
exercise in at the same time. For example, how about a hike along Hadrian’s Wall? Did you know that this
famous wall, built by Emperor Hadrian in AD 122 was an 84-mile national trail? That’s nothing to scoff at.
And Gran Paradiso, which became Italy’s first national park in 1922, has got a eponymous peak that stands at
over 13K. Pretty sweet.
Again, we go to the Gadling Flickr group for
our POTD, and we draw from the
photography of Rob Brooks-Bilson for this photo of Cochise
Stronghold in Arizona.
It is a mixture of the brilliant sky and the cool shaped rocks that caught my eye in this photo. I would have
guessed it was Joshua Tree, but alas, I would have been wrong.
If you’re stuck on something to do this weekend, and yet you know that somewhere out there, just a few miles, or
perhaps an hour drive from your home there are mountains and trails, but you have no idea which ones are out there, and
you really want to find out, and you have a computer that you can look up such things, then you might just consider,
assuming you are not comatose and you are able to consider, a site such as
Trailmonkey, which provides links to trails and waterfalls and
lots of other things to do in your area, providing you have an area and are not an itinerant homeless bum without a
place to call your own, in which case you probably wouldn’t have a computer to check for nearby trails anyway, or even
read this extremely long run on sentence that I am writing on a Saturday morning because I’ve just had coffee and stop
myself and could almost go on forever, but I need to stop now and will stop right this second…(ah, whew).
Wow, this is a tough one.
Jiri Smitak, a Czech outdoorsman, was camping last February in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, easily one of
the most beautiful places on earth. While hanging out one evening, he accidentally kicked over his travel stove (um, in
50 mph winds), and started a fire that
quickly spread out of control, ravaging some 35,000 acres of parkland. Oh, and this violated park rules. That is, it
was illegal. Ouch.
Thankfully, the fire is not expected to affect visitation at the park, as most of the burned area was outside of where
tourists and trekkers typically go. In fact, the famous W trek was completely spared. Immediately after the blaze,
Smitak turned himself in and was fined $250, the maximum amount allowable under Chilean law. He paid it, and then gave
an additional $1000 voluntarily. But that is not enough. In March, Chilean authorities
sued Smitak for reparations. The Czech government has
offered to help, but the Chileans are saying they
might seek as much as $20 million and seek to confiscate Smitak’s Czech property (how they would do this, I have no
idea).
Now, there is no denying he caused the fire, and Smitak has said publicly that he is very sorry. But my question is:
accidents happen, and something of this scale is probably for governments to handle. Or no? Should the Chileans pursue
Smitak? In other words, are the Chileans being cool or lame?