Posted by Ted Hopton on August 3, 2008
I remember being terrified of jellyfish when I was a small child, but I don’t think I ever actually was stung by one. This NYT article about the dramatic increase in jellyfish along shorelines around the world is worrisome not just from a tourism standpoint. When nature sends us a message as loud as this one, we’d better listen. There’s no simple answer, of course — there never is to big problems.
Let’s just add it to the long list of daunting challenges we are facing these days…
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Posted in Animals, Environment, Outdoors, Science, Travel, Trends | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on June 29, 2008
Up in Jim Thorpe, PA, there’s an outfitter with a trip they call the “Big Day Out,” and this weekend our Get Out Philadelphia Adventurers Meetup group tackled the challenge of biking, hiking and rafting all in one long day. After the 25 miles of cycling, I wasn’t sure how much fun the hike would be, since my quads felt shot. In fact, I never would have kept up for the last ten miles on the bike if I hadn’t drafted behind a stronger rider (thanks, Brian!).
I was amazed how well drafting really works. It’s one thing to see professional bike racers do it, and I understood the physics behind it, but when you actually get it working for yourself — especially when you are desperately tired and really need a break — it’s almost miraculous.
Then there was the hike up to see numerous waterfalls. There’s a really nice reward waiting at each waterfall, and I don’t mean the photo opportunities: air conditioning. When you get close to the falls, the temperature drops considerably, and for a tired hiker the change is most welcomed.
The last leg of our journey was whitewater rafting… except the river was so low that there wasn’t much water that was white. That’s okay, as we had a very pleasant float interspersed with a handful of rapids. Not wanting to be denied my fun, I provided my own sound effects as we went through them, to heighten the experience. For some reason, this amused my fellow paddlers.
Brian, CJ, Captain Mickey and I manned one raft. We stayed right with our trip leader, and while the other rafts engaged in splash wars with buckets, we stayed dry, avoided getting stuck on rocks, and led the way through all the rapids for the first portion of the trip. Yes, as Brian put it, we were the brown-nose raft.
Unfortunately, when the other rafts had all soaked each other and saw we were still dry, Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
Young urbanites, learning that dirt can also be soil, are using their Carhartts as originally intended.
Posted in Career, Economics, Environment, Human Interest, Outdoors, Trends | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 26, 2008
I have to plug a new blog, “The World Is My Oyster,” being written by one of my fellow Costa Rica travellers, Kimsan (aka, El Heuvito). It’s fun to read, but take it with a grain of salt, as my friend likes to tell a good story and doesn’t let little things like accuracy slow him down. That’s part of what makes it so much fun to read, after all.
Truly our trip to Costa Rica would not have been the same and surely would not have been as much fun without the light-hearted and adventure-loving Kimsan. His blog reflects those same qualities and I recommend it to you!
Posted in Blogs, Costa Rica, Outdoors, Travel | Tagged: Blogs, Costa Rica, kimsan ting, the world is my oyster | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 17, 2008
I’m not a fisherman, nor even particularly fond of eating fish, but I have always been fascinated by the amazing migratory life of salmon. They start out in fresh water rivers, migrate downstream to the ocean, adapt to salt water, grow amazingly large, and then return to the same river where they started, swim an exhausting journey upstream to spawn, and then die after accomplishing their life’s mission. Surely there are lessons, inspiration and metaphors for human beings in this animal’s tale.
So this NYT headline caught my eye: “Chinook Salmon Vanish Without a Trace.” Here’s the synopsis:
The Chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations — and coming up dry.
With the collapse of the fall Chinook, the questions have begun. Is our aggressive, meddling species to blame? Or were there natural causes at work? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Animals, Environment, Outdoors | Tagged: chinook, fishing, king salmon, sacramento river, salmon | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 7, 2008
Mike has posted his photographs from our Get Out Philadelphia Adventurers trip to Costa Rica. He’s got one of the best group shots I’ve seen yet (click on it, to the right, to see the large version of the photo).
I recommend you check Mike’s photos out, as he’s got a good photographer’s eye and captured some spots/action that aren’t well represented in some of the other photo galleries. And his last picture is quite mysterious . . .
Posted in Costa Rica, Outdoors, Photographs, Travel | Tagged: Costa Rica, La Danta Salvaje, Outdoors, Photographs, preserve, Puerto Viejo, rain forest, swimming, waterfall | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 6, 2008
Another country heard from! Check out Maureen’s photographs from our Get Out Philadelphia Adventurers Costa Rica trip. Her pictures include the Volcano Irazu that she and Andrew visited when they arrived ahead of the rest of our group. Thanks for posting these, Maureen.
Posted in Costa Rica, Outdoors, Photographs, Travel | Tagged: Costa Rica, La Danta Selvaje, Puerto Viejo, rain forest, Travel, Video, volcano | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 4, 2008
Here’s the latest online gallery of photos from our Get Out Philadelphia Adventurers‘ trip to Costa Rica — Tina’s pictures are now available for your viewing pleasure. Since the monkeys in La Danta Salvaje’s rain forest particularly liked her (they expressed their affection the same way young human males do, by throwing objects at her), she was able to get the best photo I have seen yet from our group of a white-faced capuchin monkey.
Posted in Costa Rica, Outdoors, Photographs, Travel | Tagged: Animals, Costa Rica, La Danta Salvaje, monkeys, Outdoors, preserve, rain forest, white-faced-capuchin | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 3, 2008
One of the highlights of our trip to La Danta Salvaje in Costa Rica was swimming in a pool of icy water at the top of a 500′ waterfall. I can’t say I had ever done that before, and I don’t know when I might ever do it again. I’m happy to report that we recorded most of the memorable event on video, so I can share it with you.
While Andiana Jones was the first one in the water, Big Mike proved to be the boldest pioneer among us. Not only did he discover the spot to climb up to for a fun leap out into the water, but he was the only one who went directly under the pounding cascade of the waterfall. (Ooops, found out later we weren’t supposed to go there . . . too dangerous . . . as Mike learned when the water pushed him straight down and there was no bottom that he could find.)
I happily followed both of them into the bracing cold water, which actually felt quite good after a long, sweaty, muddy hike to get there. After the initial shock, we got used to the water and played contentedly in it. Even Kimsan (El Heuvito), who is aquatically challenged, got in and splashed around.
Although my video camera started to steam up at this point in the trip, due to the high humidity in the rain forest and at the waterfall in particular, I got enough footage to put together my first Costa Rica video, with an appropriate soundtrack. Enjoy!
Posted in Costa Rica, Music, Outdoors, Travel, Video | Tagged: cataract, Costa Rica, La Danta Salvaje, Outdoors, preserve, rain forest, swimming, Video, waterfall | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 1, 2008
“Nah, I’m not going to do a surfing lesson. I don’t have that kind of balance.” That was the negative attitude I began with, based on my experience trying to balance on skateboards in the past. They always flew out from under me. Something about that side-to-side balancing on wheels just does not come easily to me.
Andrew, who has surfed before, insisted I would be able to do it. Tina was psyched to try it, and so was Mike. Finally, I decided to take a chance and try it, why not? So what if I fell in the water a lot. Plus, even though I wanted to go on the Medicine Hike and learn about all the plants that have medicinal uses, my feet really really really did not want to do any more hiking any time soon.
When we got to Puerto Viejo we had determined the best day and time to do the surfing lesson would be the next morning, but we had nothing set up in advance. No problem, Dawn knew just who to call, and she set up our lesson with Beto, the local surfing guru from Uruguay with dreadlocks and a completely laid-back vibe. After a brief description of what the lesson included, Mark was in, too, so there were five of us. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Costa Rica, Outdoors, Sports, Travel | Tagged: Beto Torres, chillaxing, Costa Rica, Puerto Viejo, surfing, surfing lesson, Travel | 2 Comments »
