If Earth had 100 people

http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm

Pretty interesting.

ASB Uruguay Spring 2009

"Bienvenidos a Uruguay" 

Hey everybody

So the next big trip on site for me (and a group of ten other awesome travelers) is the Alternative Spring Break trip to Montevideo, Uruguay. I am leaving tomorrow, Friday 13 at midnight or something. We stop in Panama City for a layover and then we are on our way to Montevideo. When I say we, I am referring to the group of 11 that is going down to Montevideo...just for some added clarification there. Anyway, in Montevideo we will be building a home with a family and 20 other students from around the country. The home will be for a family in a poor area of Montevideo. Besides doing the actual work in the community, we will also have an opportunity to get to know a bunch of people our age who live in a Jewish community in Uruguay (also very cool). We hopefully will have some time to site see...explore a little bit, go to Punta del Este (a beautiful beach about any hour away from Montevideo). Overall, the excursion should be awesome!!!!

I am extremely excited about this trip and I am going to attempt to update the blog a few times while i am down by writing and uploading photos. 

For those of you going on vacation, have fun and safe travels. And for everyone else, get out! 

Safe travels and happy trails

-David

Death Valley

Death Valley Trip Review 

Zabriske's Point 

Yo yo guys

The Death Valley Trip turned out to be a great success. I really could not have been much happier...it was a great way to start off the semester for SCoutfitter overnight trips! The scenery in Death Valley was breathtaking. Because the landscape is so barren, the lighting is crucial to getting the full dramatic effect. Our first full day in Death Valley started at 5:30 am: we woke up early to go to Zabriske's point to watch the sun rise. It was a chilly, windy, morning as we watched Telescope Peak, the 11,000 ft. peak above Death Valley, slowly be lit up by the rising sun from the East. The sunrise was one of the most dramatic i have ever seen, especially with the Badlands area below us being lit up all sorts of different yellows and oranges by the sun. After the sunrise, we cleaned up camp and made our way out to begin seeing the sites in Death Valley 

Here is a list of what we saw: 

Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level)

Natural Bridge Canyon 

Devil's Golf Course

The Artist's Palette 

A Hike from Golden Canyon up to the Red Rock Cathedral and then down Gower Gulch to exit back into the valley. 

We watched the sunset as we exited Gower Gulch...an extremely dramatic sunset indeed. I felt like i was in another time and very far away from any civilization we know today...Death Valley is barren and foreign. It is really like no place i have been before. 

That night we made camp and enjoyed delicious pasta and some bomb eggless cheese cake. After Dinner we did a night hike into the petrified dunes surrounding camp...watched the stars and constellations for a while and than headed back to go to bed. 

The Next day we woke up...made breakfast burritos for breakfast and than got on the road to go to Salt Creek to See the Pup Fish ( a fish only found in Death Valley).

After Salt Creek we made our way to some gigantic sand dunes. We trekked around the dunes for a while and brought sleds with so we could slide down the 400 foot or so sand dunes. It was a blast. 

The Drive out of the park was spectacular. We exited from the North end of the park, going through the Panimant Mountains and than dropping into Owens Valley. We saw the entire eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain range from the top of the Panimant Mountains and the view was just insane. 

Overall I would give the trip to Death Valley an A+++. We had an awesome time and I love seeing new places. It was great! 

Here are some pictures

Sun Salutations at sunrise 

Badwater Basin...gettin gnarly 

Natural Bridge Canyon 

The Guys at Badwater Basin

Devil's Golf Course

The Artist's Palette 

Charge it!

Gower Gulch 

Dune Mobbing 

Until Next time

-David 

This Weeks Trip: Death Valley

Yo everybody, 

Tomorrow I am going to Death Valley for the weekend. I am really excited to go! I have never been to Death Valley for one and also because of all the precipitation we have gotten this winter, the wild flowers should be in full bloom. I a plan on giving a full review of our trip when i get back....pictures and everything!

happy trails

-david 

Preacher Bleeper of a Blooper

Can Ya Dig?

A video that everyone should watch. This made me laugh really hard. I wonder if he still has a job?

Ganja Ganja Ganja 

Mid Morning Tea Sesh

Darjeeling Leaf Tea

I just opened my tin of new Taylors of Harrogate Darjeeling Leaf Tea...and i must say i am stoked. After a long night of drinking makers mark a little tea in the morning was the perfect thing to get my day started and clear the hangover. Darjeeling Leaf Tea is considered the "Champagne" of teas and is usually brewed in the afternoon. The Tea leaves are grown in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains and because of the cool climate, altitude, and rich soil the tea has its muscatel flavor. 

I would highly suggested trying a cup of fresh Darjeeling Tea. It really made my morning. 

I'll leave you guys with some nice pictures of the Himalayas (I want to go there) 

Mount Kanchenjunga seen from Tiger Hill 

Tea Garden

Fresh Bud of Tea Plant 

Multiverse

Crazy use of Google Maps

Ever wonder what it would look like if your city got nuked? Well now you can. Who thinks of this stuff?

hundred miles from home: Matilija Creek

MATILIJA CREEK 

Whats up guys

so another thing i am going to be posting about is all of the places i travel to. I am usually traveling every other week to go backpacking, camping, climbing, surfing, etc... I thought it would be nice to inform you all (readers) about the places i have been and how they are.

The Matilija Wilderness in Los Padres National Forest

The last place i went to was the Matilija Wilderness in Los Padres National Forest (East of Ojai). We traveled to the spot via the 101 freeway and than to the 32 East. The wilderness area up there follows a creek up into the mountains and is absolutely breath taking. I really felt like i was in another state or something...There was snow on the mountains above the creek and everything was so lush because of the rain we have been having. The Matilija Creek leads up the main canyon to beautiful pools, cascades, and water slides. Large shale slabs border the creek for sunbathing beneath the steep canyon cliffs. Up canyon are several towering waterfalls.

On the trail we saw only 1 or 2 other groups of people, which is always really nice. A storm was blowing in, so it was not that warm, but it was still very pleasant. We walked maybe 3 or so miles and found a great water hole for swimming and than above that there was supposed to be a waterfall, but do to the snow and cold weather it was actually partially frozen...hence not a lot of water flowing.

We were supposed to be backpacking and staying overnight in the wilderness area, but due to the forecast for a hardcore storm (potential snow and lots of rain) we decided to hike back out after a few hours and go to an established campground. Once at the campground we made camp and started a fire to relax and hang out by. It was valentines day so my friend tiffany decided to cook up Ratatouille and some great cuss cuss. We had delicious cookies for dessert as well (vegan pumpkin chocolate chip). 

After dinner it began to get pretty cold so we hung out watched the stars for a bit and went to bed. I think it got down to about 32 degrees that night...not too bad. Overall we had a great trip, but i wish we could have stayed out in the backcountry instead of at a campsite. 

And guess what...it never even rained! 

Here are some more pictures of the excursion 

Looking up at the canyon wall 

Matilija Creek 

Snow up by the clouds 

The crew by the campsite... 

End of the flu?

Scientists have discovered a potential "universal" flu vaccine that uses injected monoclonal antibodies selective against a non-mutating part of the influenza virus that is shared by a significant number of known strains, including H5N1 (bird flu) and H1N1 (Spanish flu-- cause of the 1918 pandemic). I hope this delivers because this has the potential to literally wipe the flu off the map if it proves as effective in humans as it seems to be in the study on lab animals. Bet you big pharma will try to kill this so it can continue to make money off of yearly flu vaccines, just like it resists funding research into better treatments for other common illnesses such as diabetes.

Read this article here

Cheap stuff

Cheapandsteep.com

Cool stuff at a discount. If you don't know, now you do. 

ghost ride the whipper

So my first blog post... 

Its time, my friends, for me to educate you all a little bit about rock climbing and the dangers faced by rock climbers... this sport is fucking awesome. Its athletic and gnarly like that...but also extreme, in that you could be a few pitches above the ground or totally upside down the entire time. I started rock climbing last September or so and since then I have been totally addicted. It feels bomb as fuck to be climbing up a sheer wall and to (hopefully) be in total control. 

Anyway... without further ado here is what this blog is all about. Here is a video off of rockclimbing.com of a guy taking a SERIOUS SERIOUS whipper 

a whipper is a fall from above a bolt when Leading a climb....

Until next time

happy trails

-Price 

Welcome to Hundred Miles From Home

Hello everyone and welcome to our newly formed blog. This blog will be edited by two college guys from San Diego, living in LA, with wandering minds and divergent interests. Here you will see everything from rock climbing videos, cool science news, backpacking tips, reviews of new things we buy and experience, as well as a few surprises along the way. We made this as a place to post the sweet stuff we manage to find online and experience in real life. We figured that if we find it cool, others might also.

With that, here we go.