Cool song, cool video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8xPZnMkL4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Shuttles and Transportation Info

Hey! Look what I just found!  It's a  cool PDF from the ATC

This may help all you Eaglets out there in planning your trip...

Shuttle Contacts

Hiking in the Swamp, A photo Essay.

The start.  40 Degrees is COLD for Florida.

The End.  Somewhere in the middle, the camera's battery ran out.  Maybe because someone left it on.

They have too much energy at the end. Should have left it all in the swamp.  Harder hike for them next time.

And, because they're MY scouts, pictures of feet.

Playlist

Almost as important as gear: 

A list of tunes in no particular order (though maybe Going to Maine should be first):

Name	Artist	Album	Year
Long Way	Antje Duvekot	The Near Demise Of The Highwire Dancer	2009
Hard, Ain't It Hard	Woody Guthrie	This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol. 1	1997
The Littlest Birds	The Be Good Tanyas	Blue Horse	2000
Light Enough To Travel	The Be Good Tanyas	Blue Horse	2000
Cold Feet	Tracy Chapman	New Beginning	1995
The easy way	Dar Williams	Promised Land	2008
Going to Tennessee	the Mountain Goats	Why You All So Thief?	1994
Walking For You	The Avett Brothers	A Carolina Jubilee	2003
Going to Maryland	the Mountain Goats	Beautiful Rat Sunset	1996
Going To Georgia	the Mountain Goats	Zopilote Machine	1995
The Traveling Song	The Avett Brothers	A Carolina Jubilee	2003
Wave Over Wave	Great Big Sea	Up	1996
This Land Is Your Land	Woody Guthrie	This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol. 1	1997
Going To Maine	the Mountain Goats	Ghana	2002
Hold It All At Bay	Girlyman	Joyful Sign	2007
Why Walk When You Can Fly	Mary Chapin Carpenter	Stones In The Road	1994
Mean Talking Blues	Woody Guthrie	Hard Travelin' (The Asch Recordings Vol. 3)	1998
Homeward Bound	Simon & Garfunkel	The Essential Simon & Garfunkel	1966
Night Rider's Lament	Nanci Griffith	Other Voices, Other Rooms	1993
Traveling Again	Dar Williams	Honesty Room
Long Way Home	Raffa & Rainer	No Mercy	2009
Have You Ever	Brandi Carlile	The Story	2007
Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound	Nanci Griffith	Other Voices, Other Rooms	1993
Tennessee Waltz / Tennessee Mazurka	The Chieftains & Tom Jones	The Long Black Veil	1995
North Carolina Boys	Raffa & Rainer	No Mercy	2009
The Mountains Win Again	Blues Traveler	Four	1994

Gear List

Most of my gear (not including food and water).  Not shown:  fleece jacket, hiking poles and 50' paracord.

Here's the whole list:

Pack--Granite Gear Vapor Ki
20* Down sleeping bag
Rain coat + Rain pants
Tent--Eureka Spitfire + 4 v-shaped aluminum stakes (not the stock stakes, those are terrible)
1.3 L titanium pot
MSR simmerlite stove + fuel bottle
Brunton compass
Aluminum alloy spork
Lexan mug
AT data book
2 t-shirts (the extra one is a luxury item, I guess, but I like to have a dry tshirt)
midweight-polypro-longjohn top and bottoms
SOL heatsheet (carrying this with the kids but I may ditch it later)
Camp shoes
Sunglasses
Fleece hat
Thermarest Neo-air shorty


Let's take a closer look:

 3 pairs socks
Katadyn Hiker water filter
Electronics:  SPOT, Phone, Camera + chargers
Zipka headlamp
Hiking pants
bandana
fleece gloves
hand sanitizer
1 oz castile soap
matches + lighter
2L water bladder
small first aid kit (more on this later)
toothbrush + toothpaste + glasses + contact soln (that's in the green bag)
hiking boots
Knee high gaitors

All this gear puts my base weight around ~15 lbs.

In other news

I figured out the table.  Yes, I'm answering entries to the form on the Schedule page now.

cheers
Captain.

Wet feet

One thing I cannot abide, is wet feet.  Unfortunately it's a fairly frequent occurrence  when hiking outside (contrasted with hiking inside, where one rarely gets their feet wet).  There are ways to deal with wet feet.  Rubber boots.  Foot-ectomy.  You'refineyoulikeit.  and so on.    Here's my system for inundated feet:
1.  After my feet get wet, I stop and dump the water out of my shoes.
2.  Wring out socks.  If I'm at camp: replace with dry socks and put feet into camp shoes.  If I'm not at camp put wet socks back on.  Suffer.
3.  Sometimes I put my dry feet and dry socks into plastic bags inside my wet shoes.  This is called the Vapor Barrier Method and it's also very useful for staying warm.  This is a good technique if I'm wearing tennis-shoes because the heat from my feet will dry my shoes before my feet get soaked with sweat.  There's a trade off though--because plastic is impermeable to water (the point!) my feet sometimes get quite sweaty which can also cause wet feet!  Conundrum, I know!

Other folks have different methods.  Here's a new one I'm interested in trying:  Neoprene socks Little wetsuits for your feet!

Here's a picture of one of my scouts demonstrating this skill:

I had a big problem with keeping my feet dry a few years ago when I was in Ireland.  I also didn't stop as often as I should have to take care of my feet.  As a result I got a nasty case of what I think may have been Immersion Foot (trench foot) which is probably one of the most painful things I've experienced.

Right before I went to Ireland, I was given a video camera.  I took MANY (tm) videos.  By the end of the trip, most of these videos were closeups of my feet.  I made a little montage for you.  Viewer Discretion is Advised.