To Iceland?

by Erik Olsen on

I’ve been planning my own summer vacation and wondering where to go. As I was thinking about all the places I’d most like to head, I realized that Iceland kept popping up, so I decided to poke around in some old posts about the country to see what I’ve written. I was reminded of a post about a piece by Mark Sundeen, who went rafting in Iceland. Sundeen, you may remember, wrote the book The Making of Toro, which made my summer reading list last this year. 

In the article, Sundeen talks about the thrills and chills of riding rivers in a place that while less cold than Greenland…and more green that Greenland, is still rather cold.  Face it, being close to the Arctic Circle does not make for the most promising notions of good river rafting. But as Sundeen points out, the weather is warm enough during the mid summer months that the glaciers melt and create some pretty ideal (albeit ball shrinkingly cold) rafting opportunities.

Paddling Opps

by Erik Olsen on

Gonna do a lot of paddling this summer. I’ve already go myself a nice little boat, and now I have to figure out where to take it. Sure, the Hudson River is great. I’ll be doing a lot of that. But I’m also eying some other opportunities. For example, one of my favorite outdoor sites GORP has got an older piece on paddling the “Finger Lakes of the South,” what they call the “sapphire necklace” that makes up the numerous reservoirs across the region.

This is a series of water bodies that cover a million acres of mountainous forests between Asheville, North Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee, and are superb paddling destinations. Among the places mentioned are Santeetlah Lake, Fontana Lake (where the unfortunate film Nell was filmed), and Calderwood. Maybe I’ll add these guys to the list.

Manhattan (Beach) on the Hudson

by Erik Olsen on


I give a big thumbs up to efforts that various groups and government organizations have made to clean up the Hudson River. I use it every week. I paddle on the Hudson, I’ve gone swimming in it and some of my runs each week take me along it’s sparking edge. How cool, then, to read about the effort to give us outdoors deprived Manhattanites a place to sun ourselves.

Yes, we might be getting a bona-fide beach. Say it with me: a beach in Manhattan. And what’s even more amazing is that the beach, should it be built, might be located just a few blocks from my apartment. This is crazy news. But of course, like a Nascar race beauty pageant, there are always a few big buts. In this case, one of the buts is that the beach won’t even be started until 2012 when the city sanitation department depot relocates at that time.

The second but is that this is where the city sanitation department is located. So that can bode well for the cleanliness of things, even if they do say it will be cleaned up. But no matter how you look at it, a beach along the river would be tres cool. It may be aways off, but I am already shopping for beach towels.

California Secrets

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve lived in California almost all my life and therefore took it as a challenge when National Geographic Adventure recently published an article entitled, California Secrets: Hiding in Plain Sight. 

I had to ask myself, are these places truly secret? And, if nobody knows about them, are they really worth mentioning?

Well, it looks like the magazine did their homework for the most part.  Check out the link for a detailed write-up of the locations, but in the meantime I’ve spotlighted a few of the “secret” places below.   

Channel Islands — “Hiding in plain sight” is the perfect description of these islands.  Located just off the coast of Los Angeles and Ventura County, few locals even realize they exist.  The result is eight wonderfully isolated and rugged islands perfect for weekend escapes, camping, and snorkeling.  Only Catalina, the furthest south of the islands, registers on tourist radars. 

Mount San Jacinto – Rising above Palm Springs, this would be just another mountain in the distance if it weren’t for the aerial tramway that jaunts visitors to the summit from the desert floor below.  There is a great hike up from the opposite side but I can’t tell you the disappointment I felt the first time at having backpacked up to the summit only to run into a gaggle of overweight tourists who had taken the easy tram route.  Damn!  I hate that. 

Sespe Creek – Never heard of it and never been.  But, judging by the great Adventure write-up, I am truly missing out. Located above Ojai, a few hours from Los Angeles, Sespe Creek is loaded with slot canyons, hot springs, and hidden swimming holes.  This is definitely going on my summer itinerary this year. 

Kayak Pics

by Erik Olsen on

Not only do I very much enjoy shooting photographs, I am also a passionaet kayaker. Of, course, I’m not very good at either of them. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate good work on both fronts. Take a look at the work of Joel Rogers, by clicking on his amazing sea kayaking photos at Great Outdoors. From all over the globe, including places like Japan, Crete and Belize, the series is superb. Rogers has his own site, where you can see his stock photos, and lots of other sweetpics.