Pictures from outdoor exercise.

1171820222344

Replies

  • scaredofscale
    scaredofscale Posts: 24 Member
    Sometimes I walk at night.
    kcv0v3uvgog3.jpg

  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 12,814 Member
    Sometimes I walk at night.

    Me too... It's curiously peaceful...
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    Yesterday was The Great Willamette River Clean-up, an event sponsored each year by Willamette Riverkeeper. In years past, I would go upriver to another city and participate with my partner in a tandem canoe. One of my paddling clubs sponsored one of the events up there. I remember the first time we went, the organizer gave us a sideways look as he was concerned about us in the tandem given there are some class II rapids and all. But after he saw us, he realized we had plenty of skills not just to navigate the river, but to really get to some difficult garbage.

    Fast forward: My partner cut me loose after 13 years, and I decided to participate in one of my local events sponsored by an organization I'm involved with. I thought it would be fun to take my raft and be one of the "mother ships" that people in kayaks and canoes could offload bags of trash into. We also stopped along the way, secured the boats, and hauled out some large amounts of stuff from abandoned camps. When there were active camps, we'd offer to take garbage and leave garbage bags if the people wanted.

    At the confluence, we got out and cleaned up a lot of stuff, and I saw, right there by the river, a habanero with ripe fruit. Was it a volunteer, or did someone plant it? Who knows. Very interesting!

    mi8o49yt2juw.jpg

    There were two other rafts, only slightly smaller than mine. There was a small fishing cat with a gear platform. There was a drift boat. There was a sled that State Parks brought. It was good we had all this capacity, because we had a lot to collect. Everyone else was in kayaks and canoes.

    This is the view from my seat as we got close to the end of our trip:
    p6rotm0oses3.jpg


    This is my boat before I unloaded it:
    05mmristncmv.jpg

    Someone took a picture of all of us with the pile o' garbage, and I'll probably get a copy of that some time.

    My device said I burned over 700 calories in a little over three hours.
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 12,814 Member
    Why, oh why, do people figure they can just toss stuff away...? It doesn't just disappear... :(
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    edited October 2019
    Half day mini rowing "camp" on my home river, coached by a multi-time Big Ten coach of the year, assisted by his wife, a high-level masters rower. I'm in the bow (left hand end in photo) of a double in the approximate center of the photo, in a fluorescent yellow shirt, orange hat, behind the similarly dressed 80-something-year-old guy in center foreground in the single. ;)
    4hf0h2cxtzgn.jpg

    (My double partner is 73, and had a hip replacement on July 1 of this year; 4 weeks to the day later, she was back rowing a boat. :heart: ).
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    UncleMac wrote: »
    Why, oh why, do people figure they can just toss stuff away...? It doesn't just disappear... :(

    Well, like my old sainted uncle used to say, "Peoples is *kitten*."

    To be honest, a lot of what we cleaned up was from homeless camps. Some people are homeless by choice, some not so much. Some of this tragedy is from mental health issues. I feel for those folks who are sick and can't get help or don't realize they are sick. I am sad about people who's luck put them in a place where they can't afford a roof even if they have a job. Others are just slobs. Cleaning up these camps before the river comes up is just a nice way to give back to the river I love. Some stuff we just couldn't get out -- already buried among rocks. We tried to free a shopping cart that had been there for years. We found some bikes that were also impossible to get out. Some things were just out of reach. There were active camps that certainly will contribute more garbage, but what can a person do?

    What I don't get is empty bags from fast food restaurants that people toss out of their damn car. That really gets me. You can save it and put it in the trash. You don't have to put it in the river, which is where it's going if it gets into a storm drain. It's those people for whom I wish a special place in hell.

    But yea, @UncleMac -- there is no "away." Even what we send to the landfill, which is where all of this old stuff is headed, isn't "away." Those of us who can afford to would really serve ourselves, our friends & families, and our future generations by being a little more responsible and maybe buying less stuff.

  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Half day mini rowing "camp" on my home river, coached by a multi-time Big Ten coach of the year, assisted by his wife, a high-level masters rower. I'm in the bow (left hand end in photo) of a double in the approximate center of the photo, in a fluorescent yellow shirt, orange hat, behind the similarly dressed 80-something-year-old guy in center foreground in the single. ;)
    4hf0h2cxtzgn.jpg

    (My double partner is 73, and had a hip replacement on July 1 of this year; 4 weeks to the day later, she was back rowing a boat. :heart: ).

    Yay rivers! Glad your weather is letting you stay on the water!
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 12,814 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    Those of us who can afford to would really serve ourselves, our friends & families, and our future generations by being a little more responsible and maybe buying less stuff.

    Agreed. Yet one of the booming businesses in the city where I live is self-storage places... climate controlled safe storage for your excess "stuff" for a monthly fee... So crazy...
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    UncleMac wrote: »
    Agreed. Yet one of the booming businesses in the city where I live is self-storage places... climate controlled safe storage for your excess "stuff" for a monthly fee... So crazy...

    Guilty to some degree.

    I buy a lot second-hand, and I re-purpose whenever I can. I like to repair rather than replace, and when something needs to leave my ownership, I try to find another owner other than the landfill.

    But boy howdy do I have a lot of "stuff." I have a weakness for button-up shirts. I have a collection of long- and short-sleeved shirts to wear to work. I only buy them second hand, and focus on things that are 50% off the already lower price, and only those that aren't threadbare, have bleach stains, or are otherwise not suitable for work. My closet is full, so my new rule is if I bring home a new shirt (like I did yesterday) I have to get rid of one that's already there. This is good. I have some shirts I really like the print, but that really don't fit me well... or don't fit me well anymore (yay!). Funny -- sometimes the shirt that goes away is the shirt I just brought home. Not often, but it has happened.

    Perhaps a bigger "transgression" is gear. I have a lot of hobbies, many of which are gear-intensive. I paddle whitewater kayaks, sea kayaks, and canoes. I row a raft. I SCUBA dive. I telemark ski and am trying to get back in to cross conuntry skiing. I play guitar. I used to homebrew, and I used to make fermented foods. For some of my outdoor pursuits, gear can cross over from one to another. A good example is thermal layers. These I do buy new, and I wear them until threadbare. Some things don't really cross over; I have a paddling drysuit and a SCUBA drysuit. I also have a SCUBA wetsuit, but it's so warm I need to get another one for a warm-water trip I am planning. I also have a shortie 3mm wetsuit for paddling. Then just thinking about the raft.... SO much gear. I have a kitchen that can support about ten people, rescue gear, repair gear, and....

    I have actually been thinking about getting a storage unit. I don't have a good place to keep my boats out of the sun other than under some trees where they get detritus on them. I don't really have space to make an addition to my house, and my spare bedroom is already the "gear room" and is pretty full. I've thought about balancing the expense of an addition to years of renting a space, but I don't remember where the break-even point is. I am working on downsizing my gear collection, but the reality is I have lots of stuff to support the fun aspects of my one and only life.
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 12,814 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    UncleMac wrote: »
    Agreed. Yet one of the booming businesses in the city where I live is self-storage places... climate controlled safe storage for your excess "stuff" for a monthly fee... So crazy...

    Guilty to some degree.
    Most of us are guilty of holding onto too much stuff. At least you're using your stuff.

    I've got boxes from my most recent move still unopened. I'm lucky enough to have space for everything but the clutter does bother me. It might not seem as cluttered if I didn't have a half-completed renovation happening.
  • sdereski
    sdereski Posts: 3,406 Member
    faics37ag7c8.jpg

    elyzi6cybzep.jpg

    300320nanwgz.jpg


  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    @sdereski -- where is that?

    I Went stomping around the forest today in search of chanterelles and boletes. I found a few chanterelles — fewer than I expected considering how I beat the brush. It’s a popular spot and was probably picked over pretty good over the weekend. I did eventually find a few patches once I started wandering into the shiggy that other folks didn't want to bushwhack through.

    istpzqttvobr.jpg


    I also found a couple boletes, but not kings or queens. They were Boletus fibrillosus. Arora says, “edible and fairly good, but certainly not the equal of B. Edulis or B. aeries.” Mine are full of maggots. I might not cook them.

    wikx6dp045f5.jpg


    I also found winter chanterelles— too early for them really. I also found a white Hedgehog mushroom. Also too early. I saw lots of cats tongue. They are cute and edible, but not much to them.

    I found LOTS of lobster mushrooms. I will cook some and give some away. What a pain to clean, but tasty! There were so many lobstr mushrooms... I found some right away, and they are HEAVY. I decided when I was at a trail junction to just go ahead and hike back to the truck and drop off the lobsters so I didn't have to bounce them around in my bucket, and so I didn't have to tote them. They really are dense. About half will be waste; they are notoriously dirty, rotten, and full of maggots.

    4iorq2bsif0w.jpg

    It was good to be in the forest. It was quiet aside from the wind and the creaking of the trees. I saw two guys on bikes and that was it. There was one vehicle at the place I park; the cyclists had parked about a mile down from there. On my way out, a truck with three more mountain bikers was on the way up. Otherwise... had the forest to myself. Very nice. Would have been nice to see more boletes.
  • sdereski
    sdereski Posts: 3,406 Member
    Not sure what happened to the third picture, and why it would not upload correctly. I was not able to write anything either. Probably just me, as I have a new phone I am still trying to figure out.

    This is "Sandy Beach". A local beach on the north shore of Lake Superior. It is stunning! It is literally around the bay from my house.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    I thought, for some reason, it looked more like a great lake than a seashore. Very lovely. I would like to see the Great Lakes some time. I'd like to paddle some of the beautiful areas and dive some of the wrecks.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    It was such a nice day. I knew it would be, so I put in for this afternoon off yesterday. I stopped by and picked up some groceries on the way home, then wandered over to the disc golf course for a quick round. I can't say I was happy with my score, but I was trying out some discs I don't usually throw. I am glad I went, and I'd do it again. I might do it again tomorrow, but it will be much more crowded.

    w06nnfomribj.jpg


    I can hardly believe I got the disc flying in the one and only picture I tried to take. It's that white thing in the air about a third of the way from the right and a third of the way from the bottom of the image. It was a decent hole -- one of the few pars I shot for the day.

    Came back home and mowed the lawn -- needed it for sure. There's still tomatoes on the vines; the tarps I used the last two nights kept them from certain death. I might actually get more ripe ones as we have some warmer weather on the way.

    My raft club is doing a float tomorrow, and I am SO tempted to go, but I will probably sleep in and do chores and play outdoors. Maybe I'll take a canoe out right near my house and try to catch a couple fish. If I'm lucky, I'll get a few more ripe figs to put in the dehydrator. Sunday is a Shift Captain meeting at the aquarium, so I will probably divert by my mushroom patch on the way home. It will surely get picked over pretty heavy tomorrow, so I'll have to stomp around in the thick brush where sane people generally avoid. I need to be VERY careful for yellowjacket nests. They are really bad this year.

    I hope you enjoyed your day today and had great weather. It was 41 years ago today that the first manned Apollo mission was launched (Apollo 7). Then 35 years ago today, October 11 was the day the first American woman made a space walk from the shuttle Challenger. Then just 19 years ago, the 100th Shuttle mission was launched. No wonder I've been feeling spacey.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,945 Member
    Holy ocelot. I had maybe the best day of chanterelle hunting in YEARS today. I could be very selective which ones I harvested and left WAY more than I picked. Oh wow. My limit was easy to collect, and then I stomped around to scout some possible new places to go back next year.

    62pkmwjzytpo.jpg
    2ccdc2o6gqrh.jpg
    naeqbbgs5rt0.jpg
    50dw3e3l2y0c.jpg
    qb7wflnguvc5.jpg
  • Just_Ceci
    Just_Ceci Posts: 5,926 Member
    6ch7a944ez86.gif
  • Just_Ceci
    Just_Ceci Posts: 5,926 Member
    I'm going on a hiking/ camping weekend early next month. Hoping to get some good pictures!