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Well, ok, I don't need to know "eactly" where I am to within a couple of meters at any given moment. A map and compass and a glance with my eyes looking around at my surroundings will get me as close to "exact" as is practically required for almost any purpose, and the ability to do that at...

Carbon fiber canoes and paddles. This country and its "leadership" get a grip on the escalating inflation that is making the cost of everything that used to be affordable, go out of sight.

So Where does this activity fall in the continuum? https://www.salemnews.com/news/taking-the-plunge-cold-water-invigorates-fundraiser/article_c702b4f2-ab17-11ed-9da7-afcd5917252e.html

I remember an early computer language translator from the 1960's or early 1970’s Clold War era that was famously asked to translate a phrase from the Bible in English into Russian and back to English again. In English: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” Computerese In...

Well, lets see, looking at the calendar, if Phil had not seen his shadow today, I count just about 6 1/2 weeks remain until the first day of spring. Either way, enjoy the season.

I have come up with a list of speed adjustment factors for when instructing a land navigation training course. Most of these are negatives for why I dislike the method of pace counting, but certainly many do apply to timing as well. For some reason I find it much easier to dynamically...

With lots of practice, I got to be pretty good at visually looking at a topo map with my starting point and destination, and without making a direct on map length meaurement, I can come up with a good estimate of my hiking arrival time, whether it be via bushwhack or trail. I did this long...

Snowmobiles, ATVs or any type of motorized vehicles (not even chain saws, nor recreationaal drone aircraft) are by regulation not legally allowed in any areas designated as Wilderness areas in NY State. Look to the series of guide books by Barbara McMaritin and Bill Ingerssoll: "Discover the...

Russian Lake near Big Moose Here's a story about the area, including a recommendation for hauling in. pulk Remote, isolated, and quiet with little chance for other traffic https://adirondackwilderness.org/explore-russian-lake/

An old scouting friend gave me a small yellow kids sled he had modified with aluminum flat bar stock reinforcements and an angle aluminum keel. Later, after it wore out, I aslo modified one of those orange sleds (called a "Paris" sled) the same way. For lean2rescue jobs hauling in substantial...

Lots of potential exists outside of the high peaks in the Western Adirondack region. I like the area in the Five Ponds and Pepperbox and Pigeon Lake Wilderness areas near and north of the Stillwater Reservoir and the nearby Ha-De-Ron-Dah Wilderness. West of there, certain areas of he Tug Hill...

Welcome to the club. My long term goal was also to retire at age 62, which I did a few years ago. After a short ceremony on the last day of work, the very next day I headed to the Yukon River for a 1000 mile canoe race. i've done three more Yukon races since then and a dozen Adirondack 90 miler...

I read that she was well known to be deathly afraid of getting lost if she ever stepped off the trail. When stepping off trail to take a bio break, a simple glance at compass, the sun, or even noting wind direction would be a helpful quick assist in self preservation.

Geraldine Largay, known to her friends as Gerry, disappeared on 22 July 2013 after leaving the trail to relieve herself, wardens said in the report. She remained missing for over two years. Google the story. Although rare, there are a number of unsolved missing persons cases in the wilds of...

As a member of a NYS volunteer SAR team for the past almost 30 years, it is true that large campaign rescue incidents lasting perhaps for several days have dramatically fallen off, especially in the past 6-12 years. Before the common advent of the cell phone, my team, located on the western edge...

Yes, I did also have to apply a correction for atmospheric refraction when celesstial objects were observed at low angles, even (and especially) at negative dip angles below the horizontal. Most people probably do not realize that at ground level when the sun is viewed on the distant horizon...

They are the same tables, The geometry of earth relative to the universe does not change when going from sea level to 40,000 feet. My refernce ephemeris was called the Air Almanac and with it I used a set of three volumes aptly called "sight reduction tables". The only addiitional factor I had...

One of my fondest moment memories of my pilots was more than once when flying over (and beyond) the north Pole as I was busily taking sextant shot measurements to navigate by the stars, he said "Hey Nav, would you like another sandwich? Here, take mine". Once when the installed Inertial...

I can recall and poin to any number of those moments in my earler days. I never forgot what my navigator flight instructor once told me.... "All navigators will make mistakes. The difference between the better navigators and those not so successful is in quickly recognizing the mistake and how...