Let me start off by thanking all the mothers of the world, in their struggles of razing hellions like me. My brother and I personally got are mother her favorite perfume which she is running out of and a watch that came with a matching bracelet. Even though today is Mother’s Day, I still found some time to get out and have some fun which I ended up going Geocaching with my Dad and the dog.
We went to Marengo ridge which is part of Mchenry Count Conservation District, but for us locals we remember it as Kunde Wood’s. To brush up on the history of this land it was originally owned by Dr. Emerson Kunde who noticed that the land was heavily over grazed by livestock and is famously quote saying “The soil was so hard you could hardly put a pickaxe into it.” He planted many kinds of pine trees believing that these trees had the ability to survive in the poor soil conditions, and now the park is a thriving forest.
Anyway, I went there to enjoy the woods, walk the dog, and most importantly find a few Geocaches (Marengo Moraine, Chicago land Battleship Geocaching Challenge: A1, The Daniel Jackson). My dog, Koby, made it a bit difficult because he gets extremely excited on walks but I managed to find them all. The Battleship one is difficult unless you have the map, which I so happened to be here. Also the Marengo Moraine isn’t a normal Geocach, once you get to the area there will be a post to help you answer the questions to log this one.
The Marengo ridge is unique because it is the farthest west distance traveled by the Lake Michigan Lobe of the Wisconsin glacier. In one part of the park you stand upon the Marengo Moraine an enormous pile of rocks, gravel, sand which is called glacial till. The deposit of rock, gravel, and sand is up to 280ft deep and is 40 miles long. The earliest deposit of glacial till is from 270,000 years ago and the most resent only 15,000 years ago.
All in all it was a good day, I was worried it might be cold, but that wasn’t the case. Again I wish all the mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.
Till the next Adventure.
North Wall Gym in Crystal Lake Illinois
I would like to mark a changing point in my website with today’s post. I find that Climbing is a great metaphor for something that I have been dreaming about, and that dream is that “I want to replace Mike Rowe.” While that may seem mean it should be taken as complement because I want to be like him. What I like about him is how he brings everything and everyone’s mood down to earth. He just seems to fit in everywhere, while retaining who he is as a person. He just laughs when in pain or bad a situation. These are some of the reason why I want to be like him, but do my thing.
As for why I choose “climbing” as a metaphor, it’s really simple to explain, I have joined a rock climbing gym in Crystal Lake, IL called North Wall Rock Gym. If you have been inside a martial arts gym where you can openly talk to your Sensei you know the feeling. But if you don’t, it’s basically a place to hang-out, with 25′ ceilings, and grips bolted to the wall everywhere, begging you to climb them. I should mention I do not use the ropes to climb and I do not use a safety harness of any type to catch me if I were to fall. Instead a very thick mat is below me, referred to as a crash pad. This style of climbing without ropes and generally a short distance off the ground is called Bouldering.
Now this sport is very demanding physically and let me be the first to tell you, “I need practice,” but I see it as the next challenge to, well, climb. I have already paid for a month and bought myself some climbing shoes. Five Ten – coyote Lace-up to be precise and I go about three times a week now. Let me tell you these new shoes made a huge difference from the ones I have been renting from them. Now, I was surprised and you maybe be too to find a lot of these people climb in jeans and what seemed to be everyday clothing, but as it turns out shorts and very seemingly loose fitting clothes are not necessary.
My new pair of 5.10 Coyote Lace-up
As for how I’m going to change the website, I would like to begin to blog about all things outdoors that my friends and I do. I may get side tracked with something’s like the phone I want, HTC EVO from Sprint which I have entered to win one, but I will try to make sure everything is at least a least a little bit relative. Like I plan to use that phone for logging trails, taking photos, video, and of course the social aspect of it while outdoors. Which bring me back to why “I want to replace Mike Rowe.” I want to create a TV show that while similar Dirty Jobs, a show Mike Rowe hosts, I too want to go about America meeting average people doing their thing. But where I change it up a bit is that I’m not visiting them at their Job but rather an outdoor sport or hobby they do. Which include things like Hiking, Backpacking, Mountain-Biking, Kayaking, Canoeing, Rock Climbing, Camping, and Fishing just to name a few. Now I’m going to start of slow by taking video, pictures, GPS tracks and posting in a similar fashion to the trail write-ups for all the adventures I have. Also in the works I plan to really get into Youtube with video of what I’m doing outdoors.
With that said I will begin my journey.
The hunt is on to find three Jeep Tiki to win a brand new 2010 Jeep Wrangler Islander. The Three Tikis are named Steel, Trail, and Wave which I suspect their individual names are an indication to where they are hidden in the US. The Jeep Tiki Hunt contest started on April 1st and continues until all three Tiki are found. But in the mean time the date you need to remember is April 26, because that is when the Tikis will be hidden at there respective locations and at which time only 3 clues will be reviled. First three clues released so far are Steel – People ride waves of a different kind in this area, Wave – Your Jeep, Wrangler Island will take you anywhere but skip this location if you are eremikophobic (afraid of being alone), Trail – Snow or Sun, the people and Tiki love it here year around. Supposedly Jeep will be releasing more clues on there Facebook and Twitter pages.
So go on over and check out the official website of the Jeep Tiki Hunt at http://jeeptikihunt.com/
So Good-Luck Hunting, and Have fun!
I subscribe to the National Off-Road Association e-mail newsletter that is sent out about once a month, with this months having quite the surprise. If you don’t know what NORA is I recommend you just over to their about NORA page. Instead of the usual list of trails that are being threatened to close, this months announces that in Northumberland County located in central Pennsylvania there will be a new Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) recreation area. This new OHV park in Pennsylvania is 6,000 acres of old coal mining land intended for the public to enjoy. Instead of paraphrasing their email I’ll just quote it below.
“You just don’t see this everyday” says Pearse Umlauf, Founder & CEO of the National Off-Road Association. “We see many trails being closed across the United States, most recently the Upper Tellico OHV area, but it’s very rare to see new trails being open”.
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