Category: uncategorized

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BackpackGearTest.org – Home Page

… a site where backpackers evaluate new gear in the field over a six month testing period. We report to BackpackGearTest.org in a setting that encourages discussion.

For gear tests, manufacturers provide a set of gear to go to a broad range of testers. For other evaluations, we provide individual reports on our own gear with which we have had significant field experience. All of our reports are available to hikers seeking to make educated decisions about gear purchases and use, and to manufacturers and retailers seeking market exposure, recommendations from third party sources, as well as research and development feedback.

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BackpackGearTest.org – Home Page

This site has great potential.

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new all-terrain Segway

Another mode of transport to regulate on hiking trails.

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I’m not sure if I like it not. The geek in me thinks “cool”, but the hiker in me can only forsee paths cut everywhere for these things so the fat and lazy can pretend to interact with nature.

The Segway Personal Transporter x2 provides enhanced performance on varied terrain with minimal environmental impact. Featuring all-terrain tires, a robust fender design, lithium-ion batteries and specially tuned software, the rugged Segway x2 will go practically anywhere in the wild that you want to go, whether it’s along nature trails, over hilly terrain or on the beach.

As an electric vehicle, the Segway would have a minimal impact on noise and emissions, but it does need a wider path than a bike or person on foot. It would be great on snowmobile trails in the summer, though.

Dvorak Uncensored » Newest Segway targets the off-road crowd

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Cannondale’s LE Carbon clothing

Time Magazine’s annual “Most Amazing Inventions of the Year” issue rates the LE Carbon collection of cycling apparel one of 2005’s coolest inventions.

Cannondale utilizes TrapTekâ„¢ technology to imbed their proprietary QuadTex fabric with activated carbon made from coconut shells. This activated carbon provides Cannondale’s LE Carbon apparel with exceptional moisture management and odor adsorption characteristics.

When the body heats up, Quadtex Carbon’s MicroClimateâ„¢ activates, with 45% better moisture transfer than most fabrics. It keeps a body cool during hot days and heats up during colder ones. This revolutionary new fabric also traps odor during physical activity. The odor is “adsorbed” along with bacteria and is only released during a normal wash and dry cycle, during which the carbon re-activates itself again for another ride. Cannondale LE Apparel also boasts UV protection with an SPF rating of 50+.

details

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books – Anthony Bourdain

There’s only one cook who will be highlighted on besthike.com, my culinary travel hero Anthony Bourdain.

I recently got the chance to see Bourdain at a Vancouver book flogging event. He was irreverent, controversial and extremely entertaining. I got an autographed copy of his most travel related book — A Cook’s Tour — companion to the TV series of the same name on the Food Network.

In July 2005 his new TV show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, premiered on the Travel Channel.

Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

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books – Robert Young Pelton

You’ve probably heard of Pelton’s TV show or his books:

The World’s Most Dangerous Places
The Hunter, The Hammer, The Heaven
Come Back Alive
Three Worlds Gone Mad
Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror

Pelton was the first Western journalist to meet with the Taliban after they set up offices in Peshawar, Pakistan. He simply walked in the front door with his cameras. When told the Taliban do not allow photographs because of the Koran …

I explain very carefully that only cowards do not show their faces and that in my culture a man who does not wish to be seen cannot be trusted. Just to make sure I get my point across I ask, “Must their leader hide as women must hide behind the veil?”

Pelton survived that time.

In fact, his most harrowing tales in the one I just finished are of an upbringing in a broken Canadian home. Good book.

A Life In Dangerous Places

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highway animal overpass

Boing Boing: Animal overpasses enable critters’ “sex across the highway”

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We have had the overpasses in the Canadian Rockies for 9 years. Collisions with animals were reduced by 80%. Over 70,000 large mammals have crossed in that time. But is that enough to maintain a healthy gene pool? A genetic research study is planned.

stats from Parks Canada.

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top 10 travellers

1. CAPTAIN JAMES COOK
2. XUANZANG
3. SIR RICHARD BURTON
4. IBN BATTUTA
5. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
6. CHARLES DARWIN
7. FRIDTJOF NANSEN
8. YURI GAGARIN
9. MICHAEL PALIN
10. APHRA BEHN

There is no doubt Cook is the greatest of them all. His 3 voyages of discovery are unmatched.

The rest of the top 10 can be argued.

Certainly Michael had it a little easier than the rest.

The 10 greatest travellers of all time

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weird world maps

In 2003, 665 million international tourist trips were made. … Western Europe is the most popular destination for international tourists: 46% of world tourist trips. At the other extreme 0.1% of world tourist trips are made to Central African territories.

Size shows proportion of world international tourist trips to that territory.

world map

Worldmapper: maps you have never seen before