Posts Tagged ‘America’
“We are Outdoor Nation!” So say thousands of young people in America, a dedicated group of philanthropists from the outdoor industry and now two pilot programs’ worth of inner-city youth and their collegiate guides in Atlanta, GA and Washington, D.C.
My name is Colin Steele, and I’m one of the Outdoor Nation Campus Club Fellows in Washington, DC. Along with three other students from Georgetown University and a half-dozen from Howard University, I’m helping Outdoor Nation to get high school-aged children from D.C.’s underserved neighborhoods into the outdoors.
The elegance of the concept lies in its simplicity and its holistic vision. In both pilot cities, fellows like myself were drawn both from universities with extant outdoor programs (Georgetown and Georgia Tech) and from nearby historically black universities (Howard in D.C. and [the consortium of HBUs] in Atlanta). In that way, the fellows coming from established outdoor programs can help coach the fellows from our partner HBUs — who are eager to start outdoor-education programs at their universities, which have none at present — in the daily workings of a collegiate guiding program.
At the same time, both sets of fellows share the same goal: working together to help instruct under-privileged middle school students outside and instill in them the love of the outdoors that we fellows have developed through 20-some years of playing outside. The students we’re instructing may not have had the same access to the outdoors that we fellows enjoyed while growing up, but it is already clear that their capacity to appreciate the outdoors is no less than our own.
During the first semester of the program, fall 2011, and working with students from a local non-profit partner, Groundwork Anacostia, we helped put together two events: a mid-autumn kayaking trip on the Potomac River and a hike along the Billy Goat Trail in C&O Canal National Historic Park in Maryland. During each trip, the other Georgetown fellows and I tried to show our colleagues from Howard how we handled the planning and logistics for the events as guides, then all of us fellows from both universities set about introducing the participants to the opportunities for outdoor adventure within and just a short way outside of Washington, D.C.
Before anyone got in a boat for the Potomac kayaking trip, we asked all the participants to give us some sense of what kinds of outdoor experience they had and what their favorite activities to do outside were. Although most students had some experience with the outdoors, it was usually minimal: bicycling, walking, running, and so forth. Through their involvement with Groundwork Anacostia, the students who were coming kayaking with us were starting to get more exposure to outdoor recreation than most of their classmates, but I was still struck by the realization that I had grown up taking the outside almost for granted while even these most-interested of high-schoolers from Southeast D.C. (the poorest, most disadvantaged part of the city) had such limited access to and experience with the outdoors.
Just like the socio-economic disparity that marks D.C. in general — the city is more than 50% black, yet you’d hardly know it walking around Georgetown — the dichotomy between my experience and that of the Groundwork students could in some ways hardly be more pronounced. I grew up hiking with my family, vacationed in the Rockies for the first time the summer after seventh grade (the same age or younger than most of the Anacostia students), took a month-long NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course after my first year of college, and attend a university where I feel cut off from the outdoors yet where North Face clothing is a fashion statement.
In spite of the differences in opportunities and experiences with the outdoors, I also see similarities between myself and the Groundwork students. First, we live in the same city and must bring a certain amount of creativity to bear on our desire to play outside. D.C. is the most urban place I’ve ever lived, which I found quite challenging for the first couple of years as a student here. It took me a while to figure out how to approach my desire for outdoor time creatively: running and bicycling were good; walking through the city and finding hidden and not-so-hidden gems like Rock Creek Park was better; finally becoming a Georgetown Outdoor Education leader was best of all.
From the perspective of seeking outdoor time in D.C., then, my experience has been somewhat similar to the students the other fellows and I are guiding this year. Though I began with experience and interest, it took a while for me to figure out how and where to pursue outdoor activity in a city environment. That – connecting a variety of people to the outdoors, even and especially when the outdoors seems far away – is the most important mission of the Outdoor Nation fellowship program. The National Parks, America’s “best idea” and national birthright, often play host to our fellowship activities. I was blessed with tremendous access to national parks growing up, from the Lexington and Concord battlefields near my home to the huge parks of the West that I visited with my family, and I especially came to treasure them after spending a month living in national wilderness in Wyoming for my NOLS course. If the idea of preserved wildland was not alive, I would not have had the opportunity to take that course.
National parks, conservation and the outdoor ethic in general are not immutable things. Just because President Theodore Roosevelt had a good idea a century ago does not guarantee the survival of the idea. More importantly, it does not secure the idea behind the idea: that conservation is worthwhile for its own sake – that there is something so special about the lands, animals and ecosystems preserved in our national parks that they are worth maintaining relatively untouched for future generations to enjoy. In these days of short-term focus, monetarism and global climate change, then, I think it is vital to the health of both people and the planet that America’s “best idea” get passed on and owned anew by the next generation of Americans.
That’s a lofty goal for the occasional paddle on the Potomac or walk in the woods, to be sure. But I still think it’s worth keeping in mind – Teddy Roosevelt didn’t create the first national parks by thinking small. This program is about fellowship after all: the idea that college students and urban youth who may not have otherwise met might all teach and learn from each other in the common classroom of the outdoors. A fellowship is usually a relatively small thing, but a nation is a much bigger one. With luck, our little Outdoor Nation fellowship may push America towards becoming an “outdoor nation” writ large. And that, as TR might say, would be “bully” indeed.
~Colin Steele, Outdoor Nation Campus Club Fellow
Join Us On Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo & YouTube
Functional Apparel for the Unconventional Spirit
Images via Natures Path
Join Us On Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo & YouTube
Functional Apparel for the Unconventional Spirit
Load this beautiful video in 1080p (we know it takes a minute or two), hit full screen and enjoy a seldom seen view of our beautiful little planet!
An intimate tour… in 1080p… of Earth’s most impressive landscapes… as captured by astronauts with their digital cameras. Dr. Justin Wilkinson from NASA’s astronaut team describes the special places that spacemen focus on whenever they get a moment.
We start with the coast of Namibia in southwestern Africa, the very dry desert coast of the Namib Desert. You can see a cloud band butting up against the shore and some straight sand dunes in the lower left of the picture. Yeah those are big red sand dunes that the astronauts say is one of the most beautiful sites that you can get when you’re flying.
Coming into the view on the left is an impact crater right in the middle of the picture, right about now and some wind streaks. We know where this area is because it’s a bit unique. We’ve got a major dune field coming into the picture on the left there: the Oriental Sand Sea, as it’s called in French, and on the top is the Isawan Sand Sea.
This is the island of Sicily with cloud over Mt. Etna, so you can’t quite tell there’s a big volcano in the middle of the picture right now. And there’s the toe of the boot of Italy coming into the picture from the left. See a good example of sun glint on the right with the sea reflecting the sun.
This is the smooth east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula again. As you move inland it gets even more striking as a picture because of all the volcanoes on this peninsula and the snowy mountains. There’s a volcano just coming into the picture from the top left there. You can see a knob-shaped feature.
Here is a smaller finger of land in China sticking into the Pacific Ocean. In winter you can see all the snow lower left. This is called the Qindoa P eninsula and we recognize it. And again, the sun glint point moving along the coast upper center.
In a very clear picture, the Zagros mountains with snow on them in Iran, in the country of Iran.
Here we have the north coast of Australia and the gulf of Carpenteria and some islands. The biggest island at the bottom of the screen there is Groote island, which means the big island in Dutch.
When you see a huge powerful feature like this and the astronauts do shoot them a lot and we have had some detailed views looking right down the eye, looking at the eyewall. In fact I seem to remember views of breaking waves on the sea surface at the bottom of the eye. Amazing detail.
Look at this neat picture of Great Salt Lake in Utah. And the variation in color? That’s due to an almost a complete blockage of the circulation of the lake by a trestle for a railroad that crosses from one side to the other. It stops the circulation and things get a little bit saltier and certainly saltier at the north end of the lake.
Here you see two circles coming in to the top of the view now. These are either volcanoes or effects from inside the earth producing circular features. We think this is the Big Bend area of Texas.
This is an interesting sideways view of the peninsula of Florida, with the Keys stretching out into the lowest part of the picture there. And the shallow seas around the Bahama Islands top right. And Cuba coming into the picture lower right.
And this I believe is the coast of Northern Chile in South America. It’s a very straight coast, except for that strange headland out to the right just disappearing. And so the desert is the first part of the inland zone, and then you see much blacker at the top of the picture the Andes Mountains with some many dozens of volcanoes.
Here is a thunderhead. The typical look of the thunderheads, the big rainstorms, that develop over the Amazon Basin. And another one coming in top right. Here’s an obviously a major river. There’s an even bigger one coming in on the right. That looks to me like it could well be the Amazon River, with one of its big tributaries on the left. And the flow would seem to be from the bottom of the picture to the top.
Breath, life, vitality of the spirit.
With an ongoing love affair for Latin America travel, I admit, I sometimes forget about the incredible locations close to home. Which is a little ironic, because the Southwest is unforgettable. It has some of the most stunning landscape in the United States; it is a favorite destination for this Montanan to do a little backyard adventure. My last trip was a whirlwind of Zion and Arches National Park, squeezed into a short week in early April. And this time, I took my five-year-old.
Samuel, has little fear and lots of joy, which makes him an excellent adventure companion. It also helped that we were going to the place – as I explained – is where the Coyote & Roadrunner battle it out, AND is littered with fossils. Samuel, like many five-year-olds, is an expert in all things dinosaur, and likes to prove as much by volunteering dinosaur facts at the dinner table, dentist office, to strangers at the grocery store, and while sitting on Santa’s knee. In Samuel’s defense, Santa did start things by asking, “And what’s your favorite dinosaur, young man?”
Hiking was on the agenda (the relaxed, yet beautiful hike to Zion’s Emerald’s Pools is a great option for families – the subtle elevation is easy on little-legs), but I decided to start our trip with a day of canyoneering on the outskirts of the park in Snake Alley. West of the main canyon, this is a gorgeous area right outside the Kolob Plateau section of the park. It’s a great place for beginners. I hired a guide, a nice guy named Dave, who obviously had experience working with kids – he had a bag of tricks that consisted of everything from a corny quarter-behind-the-ear gig, to a huge fluffy Golden Retriever that serves as both chick, and child, magnet. Samuel and I were not immune to Dave’s charms.
Snake Alley is, give or take, a twenty-minute jeep ride from the middle of the town, Springdale. A half-hour hike took the three of us into the canyon. In route, Dave and I took turns reminding Samuel of proper trail adequate: Stay on the path… Stay on the path… The sun was out; a little bit of snow still found refuge from its warmth in the shadows. We made good conversation – Dave, did you know birds are dinosaurs? – hurdled a few large boulders, did a little chimneying and squeezed our way into the canyon.
“Samuel, you know how many times I had been canyoneering by your age?” Dave said. “Zero times.”
Samuel put his hands in his pockets and rolled heel to toe. He smiled at Dave.
“Mom, you’re first.”
We fixed ourselves into harnesses, ropes, carabiners, anchored in our safety tethers and watched Dave did a quick demo that I quickly forgot. But I made my way down regardless, and promptly landed into a puddle at the bottom of the canyon.
“Off rope!”
I leaned up again the wall of canyon while I waited for Samuel to follow. There was something very unnerving about standing at the bottom, looking up into the small slit of sky. A small turn in the canyon made it impossible for me to see Samuel from below. I suddenly found myself having to reassure that the gear was steadfast. I had to assure myself that this is a blast, he’ll love it. This anxiety was unexpected. What was going on here? As a kid, I used to spend my summers doing back flips off the walls of Yellowstone’s Firestone Canyon. I slept countless nights in tree house made out of rickety wood in a rickety tree that would bend in a stiff breeze. I was the founding member of a junior Polar Bear Club; the colder the temp. the higher the honor. I have fond memories of scraps and bruises, bee stings and poison oak. I cannot wait for my kids to embrace this bit of danger from life. But at that moment, standing against the cool canyon wall, waiting for my 5-year-old to make his way down the sheer rock, I anticipated his adventure, but I just wasn’t so sure I wanted to watch. It became obvious that both Samuel and I both had to conquer his first rappel.
I could hear Dave providing clear instructions. Keep leaning back. Feet higher. Lean back. And of course, my anxieties were unwarranted. Samuel did his part. He tiptoed his way down the canyon. There was definitely some dangling involved, but Dave did an excellent job controlling the descend without taking it over. Samuel slid his way down, slightly quieter than usual. Was it pretty? No. Was I proud? Yes. I played my combined roll as cheerleader and photographer from below. He was smiling. So was I.
“Samuel, that was amazing!” I said. I grabbed him about four feet from the ground to avoid the puddle, and hugged him in close, holding for an extra moment or two before setting him on the ground.
Samuel nodded his head and smiled. “Mom, I’m Spiderman,” he said.
I laughed, agreed and slipped his rope from the carabiner.
“Off rope!” Samuel said.
What a kid…
~Beth Reese, Adventure Life
Adventure Life provides authentic adventure travel to our world’s legendary locations. Combining award-winning operating standards with exceptional itineraries, our trips are carefully designed to experience the best of the region, while allowing flexibility for the unexpected and unpredictable that make each trip unique. For more info visit adventure-life.com and facebook.com/adventurelife.
Food & Water Watch (@foodandwater) works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. We work to promote the practices and policies that will result in sustainable and secure food systems that provide healthy food for consumers and an economically viable living for family farmers and rural communities.
We wanted to illustrate something that people in rural America have known for a long time: family farms are being replaced by factory farms, and these facilities are overwhelming some regions of the country. This method of raising livestock harms rural communities and puts small family farms out of business. It takes away consumers’ choice at the grocery store, makes food safety problems happen on a larger scale, and creates more waste than the surrounding environment can adequately absorb. It keeps animals packed tightly together inside buildings, leading to stress and disease that are managed with treatments like the constant use of antibiotics that can ultimately harm public health.
By concentrating the amount of animals into one factory farm, and factory farms into one part of the country, we concentrate the effects of their waste on the environment, while sending products from unsustainable, potentially unsafe facilities far and wide before a problem is even detected, putting consumers all over the country at risk.
For more info and to use the interactive map visit factoryfarmmap.org or join us at facebook.com/FoodandWaterWatch
Thanks to Rock & Ice for the list…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10/14 Allied Climbers of San Diego Annual Fundraiser San Diego, CA www.alliedclimbers.org
10/15 Bloc Party: A Planet Granite Bouldering Series #2 Belmont, CA www.planetgranite.com
10/16 Stone Age Climbing GymYank N Yard On Yale Albuquerque, NM 505-341-2016
10/16 NDSU Fall Crawl Fargo, ND douglas.wyckoff@ndsu.edu
10/23 Granite Gripper Houston, TX tweakman@mac.com
10/23 Warehouse Rock Gym South Sound Pull Down Bouldering Competition Olympia, WA www.warehouserockgym.com
10/24 Edgeworks Blacklight Bouldering Competition & Climb Tacoma, WA www.edgeworks-climbing.com
10/29 Aiguille Rock Climbing Center Dead Hang Longwood, FL www.climborlando.com
10/30 Texas A&M Gravity Check Climbing Competition Commerce, TX 903.468.3174
10/30 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival Banff, AB Canada www.baffcentre.ca
11/05 Penn Pull Down Bouldering Competition Philadelphia, PA 215.746.8622
11/06 Triple Crown Bouldering Series #2 – Horse Pens Steele, AL triplecrownbouldering.com
11/06 University of Nebraska Big O Boulder Bash Omaha, NE unoclimbingclub@gmail.com
11/07 Northwest Snow and Avalanche Summit Seattle, WA www.alpinesafety.org
11/11 Reel Rock Tour El Paso, TX 915-760-6878
11/19 Bloc Party: A Planet Granite Bouldering Series #3 Sunnyvale, CA www.planetgranite.com
11/20 Town of Breckenridge ABS 12 Breckenridge, CO www.breckenridgerecreation
12/04 Triple Crown Bouldering Series – Stone Fort Chattanooga, TN triplecrownbouldering.com
12/13 Sandstone Ice Festival Robinson Park, Sandstone, MN www.sandstoneicefest.com
01/14 Wild and Scenic Film Festival Nevada City, CA www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org
