Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Equipment Update - Sage's Bargain Hunting

Found a steal of a deal on a Marmot Zeus down jacket at Dick's sporting goods.  Wasn't number one on my list, but couldn't pass it up for the price.  Sometimes luck and patience pays off.


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Art of the Gear - Part 2 Eating

As I stated in a previous post, I love good food.  I not only love eating good food, I love making good food.  I have a great appreciation for well made home cooking.  That does not say I do not appreciate the masters of haute cuisine and their over-the-top radical creations, I just am not in that league in either skill or pallete.

I will pay for a well stacked hamburger over the tenderest filet mignon, even if it were free, any day of the week.  The home cooked meal is what brings comfort and routine into our taxing lives.  Be it mac and cheese, goulash, collard greens, buscuits and gravy, fried chicken, clam chowder, grilled cheese, or even english muffin pizzas, these primal dishes are catalysts to our happiness.

Monday, August 22, 2011

The Pretentious Sage Burns His Thesarus

As the saying goes, there comes a point in every project where one must shoot the architect and start building.  Looking at my previous posts, and how long it has been since my last, I think the time has come.  I appear to have started to become that which I despise, a fancy touchy feely pretentious hack, having little practical knowledge to share sporting only an elitist attitude that is puffed up with lots of big words.

This is where I should slice away the complications, burn my thesarus, and follow my own advice of KISS, keep it stupid simple.  Not that I won't stray from the path of simplicity, but I will do my best.

So, with indifference to my audience and there mental faculties, I will stick to small words and short entries where possible, and provide many many pictures for the visually inclined.  I would hope someone shoots me the moment I start using phrases like "double plus good" however.  If you don't know what I am talking about, please become literate and read 1984 by George Orwell.  While you are at it, find a paper copy of Fahrenheit 451, and  Brave New World...if you can.  Muahahaha...

But I digress yet again...


Monday, June 13, 2011

Fat Sage on the Trail

I love food.  No, actually I am addicted to food in the most literal sense.  Mainstream science is just now catching up with what has anecdotally been know for generations and what certain fast "food" companies that serve what vaguely passes as food have probably known for decades.  In essence, fats, sugars, and salt are like cocaine and heroine to the human brain.

Friday, June 3, 2011

What's in a [trail] name...

Before the cease and desist order comes from some overpaid lawyer hired by some anal retentive media agent trying to justify their job by "protecting" the copyrights of a creative talent they probably have never met from someone who has no interest in stealing from them, let me explain the nature and reason for the trail moniker I have selected.


For those who do not know, I am an avid viewer of what most folks would call cartoons.  I grew up on them, and it is one of the last refuges I have when I feel the need to regress during an escapist mental vacation.  From Warner Bros. classic shorts like What's Opera, Doc featuring the infamous duo of Bugs and Elmer, to the feature films of Walt Disney (the person not the company) and current king of big picture classic animation Hayao Miyazaki who has

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Art of the Gear - Part 1

The gear I will be examining in this part pertains to the first assumption on my list.
  1. I will need to drink
This is the more simplistic aspect one will have to plan for on the trail.  It thus lends itself to the most variability of all aspects.  Every hiker will think they have the better mousetrap, and will be happy to tell you as much (like I am going to do).


First off it is the number one subject for any person anywhere on the planet to worry about,

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Assume I will do stupid things...

Holding true to my assumption that I will do stupid things, I've updated my list of assumptions with a very basic principle one would make when going on a hike.  Essentially, I will be hiking/walking.  Another no brainer, but the trees got in my eyes for a moment.

And so it goes...

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Art of the Gear - Preface

Gear, gadgets, gizmos, hardware, tech, cheaters, it is what makes a trip hard or easy, but not in the way most would think.  Having the latest and greatest, the most expensive or complex pieces of gear will not guarantee success or comfort on the trail.  A complicated item that was intended to be a boon to one's trip may turn into a lead brick that does nothing but take up space and break one's back.  Those items will quickly be pitched from the edge of a ravine in frustration.


This series will cover my personal gear selection methodology as it applies to my own needs, philosophy, and budget.  If some or all of it applies to you, great.  Be sure to apply your own criteria and judgement in gear selection though, because not all of you are fat, balding, middle aged, nearsighted, arthritic, middle income, stubborn, intellectual geeks with sleep apnea.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Logistics of a Long Walk

To quote Samuel L. Jackson's character Mitch in the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight, "Do not make an assumption, cause when you make an assumption, you make an ass outta you; and umption!"

Making inaccurate assumptions about walking 2100 miles can do one of two things, scare one off completely from the idea if it is unrealistically assumed the worst is bound to happen, or get one in a world of hurt if an overly optimistic, nothing can happen, rose colored glasses approach is taken.  One of the sageful things I have learned in life, which comes mainly from

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Road More Well Travelled.

When I was, oh, between 12 to 16, I had a subscription to National Geographic Magazine that my grandma was kind enough to give me as a birthday gift every year.  There are three things I distinctly remember that came from that subscription.  First and foremost, which will stay with me as I am sure it will so many others my age who saw it, is the famous photograph of a young Afghan girl on the front cover.  I only remember it and find it important to me because she is the same age as I am, and she has intense green eyes.  There but for the grace of God (and a Y chromosome) go I.

The second thing that interested me, as most won't admit to perusing but is a known fact males my age were compelled to review, was all the wonderfully exotic women, nude or otherwise, to fuel my teen fantasies.  I credit N.G. for my very eclectic taste in the ladies, and for starting me down the path of my dignified, refined