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I've Been to the Desert ...

It snowed, which was nice.

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To Hell in a Hand Basket ...

... whatever that means. I am starting to sell stuff. I never do that. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250364969103 -- the Selle Italia Trimatic road saddle, for sale now!.

Today's Ride

24.8 miles ... from San Mateo up Parrot, then over to Polhemous on Acension. Following the Ralston trail to Canada Road, then Woodside to Whiskey Hill, down Sandhill to Elcamino then a couple of miles south. Drive back to San Mateo.

Mike's Bikes in Palo Alto was totally Johnny on the Spot fixing a broken spoke at 10 on a Sunday morning.

I carried the camera the whole way but never stopped to take any pix.

In the Absence of Running Water ...

Polaroids, Contact Prints and Other Small Works.

Whatever that means. I am working on a show. 20 photos or so in black and white.

In my early life there were Polaroids, later, when I was grad school I met a woman from the desert, who had a thing for Polaroids. She took me to the desert and helped me to see it's richness, taught me to find life there, water there; I found myself there more often than not.

Later, I was in the Grand Canyon and Jack Dykinga was calling me "Roid Man," because I was taking all these Polaroids.

Years passed. A $15 dollar Polaroid camera and a passion for the desert grew. It turned into a fourbyfive and better Polaroids. Now, I am sorting through them looking for a show.

And testing out titles ...

First Aid Kit

I recently completed a ten day Wilderness First Responder (First Aid) course, during which I learned a variety of important things and received 2 different first aid certifications, bringing my total to 3. I have a workplace first aid (CPR, First Aid for Adults and AED), during the course I received an American Heart Association certificate in CPR and Basic Life Support for Health Care providers, and a Wilderness First Responder certification, which meets the standard set by the Wilderness Medicine Institute.

So I thought maybe I should look over some of the first aid kits around and try to make one that would be pretty comprehensive, just in case I need to (try to) save anyone.

I started with a National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) First Aid Kit from the American Red Cross:

5 packs of Antiseptic Wipes
5 packs of 1 fl oz Triple Antibiotic Ointment
2 packets of Hand Sanitizer (0.9 fl oz)
2 packets of Hydrocortisone Ointment (1 fl oz)
10 .375" x 1.5" Adhesive Bandages
25 .75" x 3" Adhesive Bandages
15 Adhesive Bandages-1" x 3"
5 Adhesive Bandages-1.5" x 1.5"
3 Adhesive Bandages-2" x 4.5"
3 Fingertip Adhesive Bandages
3 Knuckle Adhesive Bandages
2 Bandage Dressings-5" x 9"
1 Bandage Gauze Rolls-2"
1 Bandage Gauze Rolls-3"
2 Triangular Bandages 42" x 42" x 59"
5 Gauze Pads 3" x 3"
5 Gauze Pads 4" x 4"
1 Adhesive Tapes 1" x 10yds
1 CPR Breathing Barrier
1 Adult Emergency Blanket
1 Red Cross First Aid Guide
2 Pairs of Gloves, Non-powdered Latex-Free, size: large
1 Scissors, Pointed, metal
4 Thermometers, Disposable, Oral, Non Mercurial
1 Tweezers (Metal)
2 Aspirins, 81 mg each
1 Bio Hazard Waste Bag
1 Instant Ice Pack
1 No. 2 Pencil with eraser
1 Emergency Contact Card

In all fairness to the kit. It's pretty good, if you're in a playground in an urban area. If you're in the wild though, it might prove difficult with this kit. So I added:

2 Sam Splints
1 Trauma Pad
1 Ace Bandage with velcro closure
1 Trauma Shears
1 12 cc. Irrigation Syringe
1 Yellow Duck Tape
12 Ibuprofen
12 Aceteminophen
12 Naprosyn
12 Aspirin
1 Note Pad
2 Liquid Glucose (96 calories each)
1 Honey Stinger Gel (120 calores)
12 Dulcolax Laxative
1 Sanitary Napkin
1 Black Permanent Marker
3 Safety Pins
1 Package of Certo™ Liquid Pectin
1 Flashlight
1 Roll of Adhesive Tape
2 After Bite Towelettes
1 Qiuk-Clot Sport Clotting Sponge
1 Benzoin Tincture
2 Benedryl Tablets 25 mg.
10 Benedryl Strips 25 mg.
1 Fake Moleskin
9 Corn Cushions
1 Watch with a Sweep Second Hand
1 Gatorade Powder

Just for completeness, if I were employed by a company and/or had a medical advising physician, I might have epinephren and some antibiotics included in my kit, but a Wilderness First Responder can't administer any of these in most states without a well defined protocol and a prescribing advisor.

Needless to say, it no longer fits into the neat little bag. Additionally, it weighs 4 lbs. plus, so it's great for boating, or riding around in a truck, but is a bit heavy for backpacking. I'll be working on the weight of it, and working on a reduced list of items for backpacking.

This assumes a certain amount of other gear will be available for evacs (like a folding saw, or a section of rope, or some paddles, poles, or skis ...), and tasks like sterilizing water, and that someone (hopefully me) knows what to do with all of it.

Toenails, and Other Missing Stuff

I guess I never actually posted about my 12-15 mile hike in the Superstitions on 12/30 last year. The happy hiking guy and I and his wife walked around Weaver's Needle from the Peralta trailhead. In a day -- for like 12-14 miles total.

I had a black and blue toenail after that -- which fell off. Yesterday. I love it when that happens.

Enjoy.

Image of the Canyon

This is a 4" x 5" Polaroid taken during my 2003 Grand Canyon trip. It is untouched-up so you might detect a few minor flaws.

Portola Redwoods State Park -- Iverson Trail

I went for a hike in the redwoods today at Portola Redwoods State Park and walked the full length of the Iverson trail, including Tiptoe Falls. I saw a few mushrooms, and a banana slug.

Photos ... From Last Weeks Trip

As you may have figured out by now, I was in Mesa and Flagstaff Arizona for most of the early part of January. If you really must know, I was looking for a job. Mostly I was in oh so cold Flagstaff, rather than delightfully warm Mesa. Notice there are no pix of Flagstaff ... I was busy.

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Downtown Flagstaff

WFR Classroom

Cyclist Riding in Snowy Flagstaff

Brrrr!

NAU Outdoors

Mesa Camp at Usury Park

Yummy!

Breakfast at the Iowa Cafe

Mesa, AZ

The Endless Desert

The idea here was to show that I was just driving through an endless desert. Most people probabably don't think that the central valley in California is really a desert ... but it's a lot like a desert. Any way, I am in Twentynine Palms, CA for the night. Tomorrow, Joshua Tree, and onward to Phoenix.

Mussel Rock

Mussel Rock Beach

A Fork in the Trail

... I took the road less traveled. That's pretty cliché. Cliché is a French word that means snapshot. The French maybe don't quite have it right. What makes a cliché is that the image is effective, so it is subject to a bunch of agreeable use. It's widely understood and oft used, and we all know what it means.

Yawn. Now that I am free, I am going to run out to Arizona, for a few days. I'll spend the New Year Holiday in the Superstitions with the Happy Hiker Guy, and our friend Dale. We are going to Reavis Ranch for two days and I'll be in the Phoenix Metro for a few days. currently temps in Mesa are about like the are here, but promising to drop0 to freezing over the next few days. It will be cold at night in the superstitions at 3-4000 feet.

After a few days in Phoenix (looking for a job.) I'll spend about 10 days in Flagstaff, where it's snowing and the temps are ranging from 4 degrees F. to 25 degrees over the next couple of days. I am taking my bikes and gear and plan to try to ride a bit around Flagstaff while I am there. So I developed a little checklist for my gear for riding in winter with snow. Since I'll be a rodie in Mesa and a Snow Biker in Flagstaff, I'll have 2 bikes. The Trek mountain bike and the Marin San Marino.

• Spare platform pedals (so I can wear my boots).
• Gloves (2 pair)
• Cycling shoes (2 pair)
• neoprene booties
• rain pants
• long underwear (capilene or merino wool)
• Wool shirt
• Scarf
• Jacket
• Raincoat
• Socks
• helmet
• balaclava
• Pump
• Toolkit
• Spare tires
• Water bottle
• patch kit
• tights
• bike bag

I'll be getting ready.

HO HO HO!

This is a clipping from my grandmother's recipe book, which, according to my mother, came from the Jamestown, ND newspaper sometime before 1934, when my grandfather died of pneumonia. This recipe is interesting, because one, it assume the reader can cook and bake, and two, it assumes you'll find some business for 10 egg whites (like containerizing them and freezing them for the rest of eternity -- that's what I'm planning), and three, that you'll know what sort of flavoring might be good.

Any way, this was a staple christmas favorite in my family from the 1920's until well before my grandmother passed in 1993 (at 97). It's a bit of a simple dough deep fried and coated with sugar. I don't think my grandmother used lard (my mother says peanut oil, but I am thinking crisco), but I did. The recipe was lost in a pile of stuff at my mother's, but after a fairly long search today, I found this little scrap of paper.

And it says:

Fattigmand (sic, Fattigmann is more common)

10 egg yolks
2 eggs, whole
10 teaspoons sugar
10 teaspoons cream
Any flavoring can be used

Beat yolks and whole eggs; add sugar and beat. Add cream, and enough flour to roll like cookies. Roll very thin; cut in diamond shapes, punch holes with end of knife, and fry in deep (very hot) lard.

So I made them. It wasn't until I took a stab at poke holes in the dough with tip of knife and heard the scrape of the knife against the board that I began to hear my grandmother talking in my head ... "Keep the board clean, with a thin dust of flour, roll this really thin. Make sure the oil is hot, you can tell by the way the water boils off as soon as it hits the oil". I could all of the sudden smell the smeels of her kitchen -- the mysterious starting to roll back, exposing themselves.

Now if I could just find the recipe for the sticky buns ...

Note: It turns out my memory of events was a bit off, my ex-wife claims that she's never seen these, which means my grandmother had stopped making them before 1983-ish.

Ummm ... I Baked Some Bread

... Spicy Currant Bread, to be exact. I used to bake a bunch of whole grain breads, which, as we all know, takes special voodoo magic. I haven't baked bread for some years ... but it seems like maybe it's a bit like riding a bike ...

This recipe comes from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, which is a must read if you are interested in making good whole grain bread.

Tomorrow morning I will share it with some friends. Tonight, my place is filled with great smells and warmth.