This little $4 Esbit stove has been a huge winner for me. Dating back to the 1940s, it uses technology and design so simple and un-screw-up-able that I consider it honorarily Russian. And though it's as just a survival stove, if you add a coffee can to screen it from the wind and contain the... Continue Reading →
The Buddhist Backpack, Beads (and Bears!) Pilgrimage
Following an idea from the Manly Monk of Vilnius, I declared this weekend the Great Buddhist Backpack & Beads Pilgrimage. The idea was, one step, one mantra, and in 27 miles that would make fifty-five thousand mantra reps. That’s got to be enough to make you a buddha in this very lifetime (即身成佛), right? But... Continue Reading →
Acts of Faith
I had my first encounter with one of the hill dwellers who, I'd been cautioned euphemistically, "isn't real social." As it turned out, we just ignored each other. I was taking a break at the side of the road, he was watering Some Kind of Plant Life 100 yards away, and neither of us acknowledged... Continue Reading →
Into the Wild
To prep for the all-night ruck, I'm going out for a couple of days again in the Marijuana Highlands to conduct Official Scientific Inquiry. Here are today's dumb experiments Highly Dignified Research Questions. 1) How little food can I get away with? When I’m ketotic, I can go a long time comfortably without eating. This is... Continue Reading →
Fools Rush In
Needing some Macho Meditative Solitude™, I made my first overnight backpacking trip. It must be true that "God takes care of fools, drunkards, and the United States," because I identify with two of those things and I survived my own rash enthusiasm. But I did get in a little trouble. I was taking The Belgian... Continue Reading →