Pathfinder's Blog


Question for the candidates

If you had the chance to ask McCain and Obama each the same question, and only one question, relating to the outdoors, what would your question be?
read more

Add a light to your sleeping bag

Black Crater unveiled a small new light built into a cord lock at the recent Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2008. It works just like any cord lock when placed on the cord of anything from a sleeping bag to a stuff sack to a hoodie, but also keeps a three-beam-setting light handy on the bag, sack or garment.   The little eight-gram light is water resistant.
read more

Jelly from Queen Anne's lace flowers

The flower heads of Queens Anne’s lace (Daucus carota), which is also known as the wild carrot, can be transformed into a delicious jelly, supremely delicate in taste and color.   The broad, flat, lacy clusters of myriad, tiny, white flowers are a dominant part of roadsides, ditches, meadows and wild fields throughout the region.   To produce a gently flavored, wine-colored jelly, gather and rinse about three dozen of the flower heads. Bring four...
read more

Too cool! Underwater wallpaper

National Geoggraphic is making a series of underwater wreck photos, including one from the Titantic (sans Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet), available as computer monitor wallpaper. The images at nationalgeographic.com are incredibly clear and sharp. They'll keep any diver, even us shallow snorklers, longing for the water over our heads. 
read more

Great launches across the U.S.

BoatU.S., the Boat Owners Association of the United States, has added nationwide boating ramp and marinas locator feature to the website for its Trailer Club.   <font face="Times New Roman">Available to members and non-members, the locator can search wthin your parameters to find locations to launch a boat including municipal or state boat ramps, marinas, boat clubs, private sites and other locations that offer trailer boat access, as well as fishing and boating supply stores....
read more

No child left inside

Have any of you been following the national No Child Left Inside initiative focused on U.S. House Resolution 3036? From what I've been able to learn about the Act, it seems that it could pump a lot of money into environmental education requirements and environmental education research without ever getting many kids outside, or at least without getting kids to get outside once they are no longer required to do it for class. Am I...
read more

Powdered milk on the trail

If you already know a reason other than cooking that you might want to have some powdered milk in your backpack, you don't need this interesting article at the Backpacker Magazine website. Otherwise you might want to give it a click.
read more

Bond, James Bond, cruising underwater

Like something cool that Q just handed over to Bond (007), the Sea-Doo Seascooter is the kind of gizmo we all want. However, unlike those Bond toys, most of us will probably never actually need the Sea-Doo Seascooter. I still want one. For about $400, the little, 15-pound Seascooter tows a swimmer through the water at about two miles per hour for about an hour or 90 minutes on a single charge.   It can...
read more

Tick removal

When I first heard of the following method for removing a tick that has already attached itself I couldn't believe it either. However, every time I've tried it - on dogs and humans - it has worked.   Put some liquid soap on a cotton ball. I've used both kitchen dish soap and all-natural liquid hand soap, and they've both performed just fine. I've also used cotton swabs when I couldn't find any cotton balls....
read more

Who is the typical camper?

<table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="3"> <tbody> <tr> <td>   About 20 percent of American go camping every year, but that doesn't mean we're all one big homogenous group, according to Responsive Management, a Virginia-based research firm specializing in outdoor recreation. For starters, we camp in may different ways. Camping at a campground in a tent is the most popular method of camping. About 67 percent of all campers camp in a tent at a campground compared to 30...
read more

fblike = '' $$("body")[0].insert({top: fblike});