Tag: Outdoors

Ohio Hiking Trail resources

john

Been digging around a bit for more trail resources. Came across some useful sites. A lot of these are primarily bike trails over old rail and canal ROWs but still pretty interesting:

* “The DNR”:http://ohiodnr.com/?TabId=11915 summarizes trails across all state properties, including length and difficulty. Helpful because trail length does not correlate with park size at all. The list is organize by county, so here is a “county map”:http://www.dot.state.oh.us/MAPS/Pages/CountyMap.aspx just in case you’ve forgotten the 88 counties and their county seats (which I had to memorize in 5th? grade)
* “Buckeye Trail”:http://www.buckeyetrail.org/map-n-sections.html. A walking trail around the state, a lot of it on parkland, some on roads. Interesting and might be a fun way to see some stuff.
* “North Country Trail”:http://www.northcountrytrail.org/explore/ex_oh/oh.htm. A trail through the state, connecting with neighboring states. Overlaps the Buckeye Trail but has some different elements.
* “Miami Valley Trails Org”:http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/Interactive-Maps.htm. Nice interactive map of all the trails in southwestern Ohio.

Great things about Central Ohio — Part 3

john

OK Central Ohio doesn’t have a lot of huge national forests or national parks, and so at first I thought hiking opportunities were constrained.

But now I’ve stumbled across all these “state nature preserves”:http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/tabid/860/Default.aspx and some of them are pretty darned big — plenty of ~100 acre preserves, and some huge ones — Blackhand Gorge at 956 acres, Cedar Bog at 427 acres, Lawrence Woods at 1035 acres! I’ve yet to visit any of these but I will get out to at least one in the next week.

Stuff I Want But Don't Need — August Edition

john

* Possibly the most ill-considered travel item ever — those TSA agents love a good joke. Ha ha ha, strip your clothes off sir.
* Vex robotic kit. Never had robot love, but if i did…
* Sticky tripod. No idea why but seems like I should have in my camera kit.
* I don’t know why I don’t have an eye-fi yet.
* Cooling bandanna. At less than $2 I should certainly get
* Dramm fogg-it hose nozzle. Doesn’t the name sound like a spoonerized curse phrase?
* Dynomighty wallet. If they had a buckeye one i’d be there
* Digital rachet wrench. Seems like a horrible idea.
* Traverse switchplates. Nice, I hate generic plastic switchplates.

All over the place — Distilleries of Scotland, DC, Bullets, Games, Doghouses, Golf, Currency, and more

john

Owl!

john

!>http://jhludwig.smugmug.com/photos/326309800_TAsa6-Ti.jpg!:http://jhludwig.smugmug.com/photos/326309800_TAsa6-X3.jpg first time I’ve ever seen an owl in nature. Apparently a juvenile barred owl. Very curious about us.

Stuff I Want But Don't Need — Outdoors Edition

john

* Coghlan’s – Product Display — mini lantern and clipon headlamp. I’d actually use the headlamp
* Easyroaster. Cool but I don’t really like hotdogs or smores.
* Yaktrax traction control. I rarely try to hike on snow.
* Mini Tissues. Just because I like the rehydration aspect.
* Lightweight drybags. Maybe I should just pay Brett to outfit me.
* Carbon fiber tripods. These claim to be lightweight but is this really the lightest possible?

Ignition blog posts of note (or related blog content)

john

* Awesome Local Deals Content in Seattle & Atlanta at Starting Up by Rahul Pathak — Rahul talks about latest Judy’s Book release — the content is starting to vastly improve…
* Phil’s Blackberry app gets some good press coverage\
* The opportunity for Network Magic — home networks are just way too frickin’ complicated
* Marine forecasts for the San Juans — thanks Rich
* Rich also on how to read charts … I learned all this as a kid on Georgian Bay but a good refresher
* Brett finds the best guide to the west coast trail — good luck brett!

More stuff I don't need but want

john

* NITON XRF Analyzers for Toys & Consumer Goods — I saw this on a news program, testing toys for lead. totally cool. $1000 to rent for a week so probably ridiculously expensive.
* iStraw — well we just had a case of giardia in the extended family so this looks pretty good
* Urwerk Watch — another stupidly priced watch but awesome
* Electric bike. Absolutely no need for this.
* Two dimensional kid popup. This is a little disturbing for some reason.
* Pie slice ejector. I only need this about once a year, but when you need it, you need it.
* Hand made knives and tools. I’m not sure how functional, but they are cool
* Puke inducing flashlight. A thousand and one uses.
* Your Personal Moon.

More stuff I don't need but want

john

* No-staple stapler is better for the environment (and looks cool) — I hate freaking staples. This looks useful and cheap
* B&W Zeppelin iPod speaker system. I would probably never actually buy this but it looks wicked.
* Powerkayak. Take a nice ecofriendly sport like kayaking, and jam some gas-consuming horsepower onto it! Wonderful!
* Tancher wrist beacon. I think this is just a concept but looks cool and is lifesaving
* Credit Card multitool. This would be super useful. TSA approved?
* Another HD hard disk videocam. Decent reviews.
* Digium asterisk appliance. Now if it would just use my cell service as the outbound line…
* A bunch of awesome watches all with a black theme.
* Emergency food supply
* Edge Brownie Pan. OK I actually got one of these. It works great — the fins really help with heat distribution.