Outdoors on the Internet

It seems like every time I go backpacking I get web ideas. This time the idea was actually related to backpacking. Leah and I had a hard time planning our trip with the resources we had available. We used the official book and maps from the ATC, Google Maps, and even Trails.com to try to find the best place to hike and camp.

The result is the Appalachian Trail Data Project. Find camping locations, shelters, water, landmarks, and more along the Appalachian trail. Add your data to help the project grow!

Leah and I decided to take Jackson on his first backpacking trip (and Leah’s second) over the July 4th weekend. We looked at the maps to find a place closeby but remote enough that we wouldn’t see too many other hikers (Jackson isn’t always friendly when he meets people). We decided to try Salt Log Gap since we could drive up into the forest to get started on an out of the way section. We tried out Jackson’s new backpack at home and he absolutely loved it so we were confident he could carry his own food and water.
The trail was pretty unspectacular for the first 3 miles or so, just dense forest, ferns, and some short climbs. We checked out the view from Wolf Rocks (mostly blocked by trees) and then descended to what I gather is Greasy Spring (still not sure). The spring was actually much more of a large stream with two crossings and there were lots of interesting rocks with trees growing out of them nearby. Seemed like a good camping spot but we moved on.

After a couple more large stream crossings we found ourselves at the Seeley-Woodworth Shelter. Nice shelter with lots of camping nearby plus a piped spring and a privy. Since it was only 4pm when we arrived we figured chances were good that others would end up there for the night so we moved on. Next stop: Porter’s Field.

After a short descent, we arrived at Porter’s Field to find a small grassy area at the convergence of several overgrown forest roads. We pitched our tent in a nice grassy spot and explored one of the roads as it winded gradually down toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. We turned around at a medium sized waterfall marked “Private Property” and settled in for the night.

At one point during the night, Jackson started growling at something outside. Now I can’t recall the last time (if ever) I’ve been scared camping at night but this had me worried. I wasn’t worried so much about what was outside but I WAS WORRIED about the stupid dog drawing something into a brawl right in our campsite. Fortunately I was able to calm the dog and everything and whatever was outside had moved on by the morning.

Sunday morning we packed up and hiked the 7 miles or so and were back at the car by 11:30am. On the drive back down we saw Staton Creek Falls off FS Road 633. Jackson fell asleep in the car almost immediately, clearly satisfied with the trip.

If you’ve never heard about the 9-9-9 challenge, it goes something like this: eat 1 hot dog (with bun) and down 1 beer between the first pitch of each inning and the final out at the end of the inning. For mathematicians out there, successful completion of the challenge means participants will eat 9 hot dogs and drink 9 beers in the space of just a few hours.

Matt and his neighbor did the challenge last year and I must say I was intrigued. Matt was the record holder, making halfway though the 6th inning before “folding.” My goal was to make it over half way (through the 5th inning at least).

Nine of us showed for the challenge and Todd graciously donated the dogs and buns left over from his graduation party the weekend before. We each brought our own beverages and Matt decided to allow beverages other than beer (requirement: must be canned) for those of us who can’t hold our liquor. I decided to alternate between beer and canned lemonade and this turned out to be a wise decision.

After the second inning one of the participants, Eric, almost got caught with soda in his can following a double play and a quick end to the inning. After the fourth inning 4 were out and 5 of us remained. I made it through my 5th hot dog and drink and decided to call it quits - I was getting the sweats. Bob rocked steady through the 7th, then called it quits leaving just Kenny and our host, Matt.

Kenny showed no signs of slowing down and calmly downed his Nestea and hot dog within the first few minutes of the 8th inning. Matt struggled but stayed strong. After coming this far he was determined to finish! We decided that the true winner, should there be a tie for most innings completed, would be the man who finished his drink and hot dog the quickest in the 9th inning.

The first pitch of the 9th inning came and Kenny looked as if he were eating his first hot dog. Before we knew it, the contest was over - Kenny won. But Matt needed to finish the challenge and he decided to switch his routine up - dog first, then bun, then beer. Needless to say this only made things tougher but in the end, Matt did it. Unable to throw up, he spent the next 10 minutes with his head in a bucket trying to refund.

Based on nutritional information on the hot dog package, each inning packed a whopping 300 calories per dog/bun plus 60 to 160 calories per canned beverage (depending on whether it was light beer, beer, or soda). Kenny put away more than 300 grams of sugar and almost 3600 calories! It took me 2 days just to get my digestive system back on track but I’ll be back next year - ready to challenge the champ!

I admit it - I’m a bit of an outdoor guide junkie - I probably own at least 50 mountain biking books. It’s not just guide books either - I love maps, pamphlets, any media for that matter that talks about mountain bike treks, backpacking routes, hikes, camping spots, etc. Surprisingly it has taken me a long time to give Trails.com a try but they finally got me with an offer I couldn’t refuse: a 1-year, 50-trail membership for just $24.95.

It seems like recently Trails.com was charging around $30 a year for membership and you only got to download 5 trails or so and additional guides cost $1.99 (though I could be completely wrong about this). The 50 for $25 deal made alot more sense for me because I am accustomed to paying roughly $12 for FalconGuides with around 30 or so trails (10 of which I would actually be interested in reading about). So the price seems right and even the regular price of $50 a year for 50 trails is reasonable if you do a good bit of outdoor traveling.

The Trails.com interface is fairly straightforward, although the state activity maps are a little tough to use (no way to zoom in and tiny dots representing trails that get jumbled together in popular locations). All the trails are geo-coded to show you the closest town to a particular trail but the coding seems inconsistent and just plain wrong in many cases. For example, Cades Cove Loop Road (biking) is listed as being located in Cherokee, NC but actually it’s on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg. This might seem like a minor oversight but driving from Cherokee to Gatlinburg will take you the better part of an hour.

Trails.com also lets you sort activities by the most popular attractions for a given activity in a given area. This seems to be pretty good for certain areas (Tsali, for example, is the best of mountain biking in Western North Carolina) but you get strange results for other areas (UNC Wilmington is the best mountain biking in the state of North Carolina?). Clearly the rankings are based on the popularity of trail guides on Trails.com and if the average Trails.com user isn’t you then these rankings won’t help you much. If I had to guess (based on the rankings) Trails.com users are suburban families who enjoy mild outdoor activities - not necessarily experienced, rugged outdoor types looking for adventure.

Which brings me to my next point: Trails.com is only as good as the published guidebooks they use for content. Trails.com is basically an iTunes for outdoor books - you can buy single digital trail descriptions online without having to buy an entire (printed) outdoor guidebook. As such, you’re pretty much at the mercy of what is available in print (which I’m personally often disappointed with). Take the Mountain Biking Colorado Springs FalconGuide for example. There are at least a dozen trails in the book that don’t go anywhere near singletrack, sticking instead to gravel roads open to vehicular traffic. The reason these trails get written up is to fill out an entire book (otherwise there just aren’t enough trails in Colorado Springs to make it worth publishing). So, despite the fact that the content is freed from the bounds of physical binding, the chaff remains online making it difficult to find the best trails.

At times Trails.com is just plain confusing. I’m a big fan of Jim Parham’s series Off the beaten Track and I was excited to find his book listed on Trails.com. I previewed some of his trail descriptions and was stoked to use one of my 50 downloads to see what Jim had to say about a trail in Tennessee. But wait - where was the “buy” button? Did I miss something? Nope, for some reason Jim Parham’s books aren’t available for download, they are just there to tease then frustrate you. I also read that in addition to the free topo maps a Trails.com membership promises, there is also GPS data available for download. I’ve yet to find this part of the site despite the simple online layout.

Purchasing a trail guide is easy and you get a fair amount of information on the trail summary pages. These pages give a paragraph describing the trail and you can decide to purchase based on the summary. Once you “purchase” a trail it is saved in the My Trails section of the site for quick retrieval at a later time.

The purchased trail guides themselves are presented very well and the online viewer has worked flawlessly for me. You can’t download the guides since they “expire” once you membership is up but you can print the guides and view them as many times as you like while your membership is in effect. The guides also come with helpful “additional pages” from the books to help explain symbols used on maps or to give you information about the author. Viewing online is not ideal so you’ll probably want to print the guides purchase for easier reading.

Trails.com offers a good service if you do alot of outdoor trekking but aren’t interested in purchasing entire guidebooks. But if you’re looking for specific trail information, your best (and cheapest) bet is to turn to Google because you’ll often find information, photos, and reviews (and sometimes even maps) of popular trails from local enthusiasts who know the trails best.

It seems like all the innovation in consumer GPS units lately has been in those used in passenger vehicles. These units have color screens, have the ability to map addresses, and many can even talk to you! But what about recreational GPS units like those offered by Garmin and others?

My Garmin eTrex Vista (which is still nearly top of the line) has very basic mapping functionality and is easily confused by loss of satelite signals. I’ve been using GPS units for recreational purposes for about 6 years now and I’ve been building a mental list of the features I would like to see on a next generation recreational GPS unit:

• Rechargeable batteries: I know many of the units have these today (in fact my Garmin Forerunner has this) but it is really annoying how fast these suckers drain AA batteries. Ideally the unit would allow you to use AA batteries in a pinch since you won’t always be in a location where recharging is an option. Speaking of batteries, a second generation unit should also have a tight battery compartment to keep the GPS from losing power when jostled as the batteries shift
• A built in digital camera: Ok, so now this is sounding less like a GPS and more like a consumer electronics device (but what’s wrong with that, really?). I would love to be able to snap a photo and have the location of the photo digitally attached for later reference and for building digital maps. I’m guessing this feature will first appear in a digital camera rather than in a GPS device but I would personally prefer a robust GPS with camera rather than a camera with a basic GPS built in.
• Better error correction: For some reason my Garmin Vista leaves blank spaces in my track log when it loses satelite signal and this is annoying when I import the data. Clearly I didn’t magically jump from one location to another so why not at least attempt to connect my current position to the last known position with a straight line?
• Better graphical contrast: I don’t really need a color screen on my GPS when I’m out backpacking or bombing down a gnarley mountain bike trail but many times my track map looks like a jumbled, confused mess of thin black lines. This is especially bad when I’ve imported a saved GPS track that I want to follow. In this case where I’ve been blends in exactly with where I’m going and there’s no way to distinguish the two, especially if I veer off course. Perhaps saved tracks could use a hashed line while the current track could be solid?
• Faster computer connection: this is another problem that I hope has been solved with the latest GPS units but I’m still skeptical about transfer speeds. Most units still use a serial connection and it is painfully slow for transferring data to a computer (10K track points takes more than 10 minutes to download). Track and waypoint data is just text and it should be blazing fast to download/upload but for some reason it isn’t. How about a USB2 connection to make transfers quick and painless?
• Improved software: I’m still waiting for someone to create an iTunes-like software interface for GPS units that lets you easily transfer track and waypoint data from your computer to your GPS and vice versa. The program should allow you to view maps and elevation profiles plus allow you to easily edit the data as well. The program should also allow you to easily build clickable maps with markers for your photo locations and offer multiple background layers for your data (maps, satellite, topo, etc.).

That’s my partial list and I’m interested to hear what others think is missing from today’s recreational GPS units. The data collected by GPS units really is quite simple (time plus x, y, and z coordinates) but there really is no limit to the number of ways once can display and use GPS data. I know better devices are coming and I can’t wait to see what they can do!

We managed to pack in a ton of outdoor stuff on our trip to Andrews and the Great Smoky Mountains. We stayed at the Fernwood Cottage which was absolutely perfect and we would highly recommend it. Here’s a run down of what we did and links to more info:

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Checked out the Road to Nowhere, Clingman’s Dome, and drove from end to end Cherokee to Gatlinburg.
2. Mountain biking at Tsali: We biked the Left Loop and it was wet and muddy. Took the Overlook loop for the first time, well worth the extra mile or so.
3. Shopping and waterfall watching in Highlands, NC.
4. Trail running at Old River Road: 40-minute trail run down Old River Road parallelling the Nantahala River.
5. Backpacking Wayah Bald to Cold Spring Gap: Short 6 mile trek Tuesday afternoon and back out Wednesday morning.
6. Mountain biking at Hanging Dog: After an afternoon nap and recovery from backpacking in the morning, we hit Hanging Dog outside Murphy. Good amount of climbing but a fun trail.
7. John C. Campbell Folk School: Took a look at this interesting folk school just outside Murphy.

Despite the jam packed schedule the trip really was relaxing and we even had time to go rafting (though luckily we decided against this, the river was VERY low). Awesome trip!

Leah and I took our first backpacking trip together and it was a great trip. I was a bit concerned in planning this route since we would be starting at the high point of the hike and walking downhill for most of the first day but we actually ended up coming back up much faster than we went down (3:30 to Cold Springs on the way out, 2:40 back up to Wayah Bald on day 2).

The Cold Springs shelter is very small and there we met “Mr. Breeze” who had just hiked up Wesser (location of the Nantahala Outdoor Center) in the opposite direction. We scouted around for a more private campsite since we knew there was no rain in the forecast and found the perfect spot on top of a ridge above the shelter. This campsite was seriously probably one of the best I’ve EVER seen with views, nice soft grass, a large fire pit, and total seclusion. I’m sure after this first backpacking experience Leah will be spoiled and expect perfection from every backpacking trip!

Ever since reading about the Road to Nowhere in Jim Parham’s mountain biking guidebook Off the Beaten Track: Smokies I wanted to bike the road for myself to see what it was all about. We drove out from Bryson City and planned on parking at the gate and riding our bikes the 6 miles or so in to the tunnel located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

We were surprised when we arrived at the gate to find it open, so we decided to drive in instead of biking. We found parking area at the end of the pavement and hiked less than a quarter mile to the tunnel. The tunnel itself was pretty amazing, I would estimate it was more than a quarter mile long and it seemed high enough to accomodate a tall semi tractor trailer. The tunnnel was a bit smelly and we were sure we were stepping in horse manure (though we couldn’t see where we were stepping) since we saw a trail of manure leading up to the tunnel. Stupid horses…

Our next stop in the park was Clingman’s Dome, the highest point in the park and (nearly) the highest point on the east coast of the United States. The weather was nice most of the way up but as we drove above 6,000 feet the fog moved in and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the clouds.

The parking area at Clingman’s Dome is still several hundred feet below the actual summit and the paved path to the top was surprisingly steep. At the top we climbed the tower for a great view of the clouds (it was difficult to even see the ground from the 30 foot tower!).

We descended into Gatlinburg and were completely amazed at the scene there. Like an Appalachian Las Vegas, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge have thrill rides, wax museums, theme restaurants, and throngs of people walking the sidewalks staring at the billboards and shops. I’ve never seen so many pancake restaurants, go-cart tracks, and mini-golf courses in one place in my life. What a huge contrast from the North Carolina side.

I’ve realized over the past few years that the books I tend to enjoy reading the most are those that chronicle some kind of travel or adventure. My interest isn’t limited to true stories either, I’m just as interested in fantastic adventures as well.

Right now I’m flying through A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. It was written in the 1970s but it’s still a fascinating read today. I love imagining what it might have been like to hike all those miles and to camp along the road, all the way from New York state to the gulf coast of Alabama. A similar backpacking story I enjoyed was On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage by Robert Alden Rubin. Rubin chose to hike the trail to discover himself after a sort of mid-life crisis and offers great insight into what drives people to hike to find themselves.

Last summer I read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer about Chris McCandless and his solo adventure around the US. McCandless was eventually found dead in the Alaskan wilderness and his final days and months remain a mystery that Krakauer attempts to recreate through his book. This truly was a gripping story, perhaps one of the most interesting travel novels I’ve read.

I also just finished Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux about his journey overland from Cairo to Cape Town just a few years ago. This novel does a great job painting a picture of the issues facing African nations and is entertaining in its accounts of the adventures of travel in a third world country.

I’m reminded of Paul’s trip and the way his blog is essentially a novel about his trip visiting friends and parks around the US. Paul recommends Blue Highways and it’s definitely on my list of things to read. That list also includes Kon Tiki and Peter Jenkins’ “Looking for Alaska” so I should be set for a while. I’m also interested in hearing which travel adventure novels you recommend. I plan on putting together a top 10 list when I get a chance to formally rank my favorites.

Paul and I decided to hit the Elena Gallegos mountain bike trail in Albuquerque since it came highly recommended from my buddy Mark Kittelson. After calling 5 or 6 bike shops in town, I found the one place that rented bikes: Northeast Cyclery. In fact, only one location of Northeast Cyclery rented bikes for $25 a day so we drove to the store around noon. Paul talked Chris into letting him ride Chris’s diamondback so I was the only one who needed to rent a bike. Twenty-five bucks seemed a bit steep but it was the only choice plus it was less than I remember paying in Marin to ride China Camp. I was hoping I could try out a sweet full suspension rig since I’m considering buying one this summer but I ended up with a piece of crap, heavy as lead Raleigh hard tail. Seriously this bike was one step above a $100 Wal-mart bike but I was determined to ride by this point.

The trails at Elena Gallegos are great and well worth the $1 per car entry fee ($2 per car on weekends). We headed out on FS Trail 365 and made a loop around the park using various numbered trails. At one point we came to an interesting rock pile obstacle and I demonstrated the correct line on the Raleigh. Paul followed, rode the pile perfectly, then endoed on the flat sand beyond the rock pile. Determined to land the obstacle cleanly, Paul decided (against my advice) to try again. This time the endo occurred on top of the rock pile and according to Paul was more painful than the first.

The weather was cool and windy and there was a fair amount of snow on the trails in the shady spots. I was very uncomfortable on the Raliegh for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the lack of clipless pedals (I asked the shop if they had any, they said no.) Next time I rent a bike I’ll have to remember to bring my own pedals (in addition to my helmet, shoes, gloves, etc.). Needless to say I was not impressed with Northeast Cyclery and would not recommend them to other mountain bikers. Elena Gallegos, on the other hand, gets two thumbs up.

After a relaxing Saturday of chorizo and egg burritos and catching up on email, we struck out around 3:30pm for Durango, CO. After initially missing our exit for US 550, we quickly got back on track and heading high into the desert. There was some snow in patches on the rocks around us and by the time we rolled into Durango around 8pm it was a full on snow shower. We ate and Scoot n’ Blues and were treated to some live music from a local jazz group. After dinner we checked into the Hampton Inn just as the pool and hot tub were closing for the night. Not that it really mattered anyway, we were planning on getting an early start on the slopes in the morning.

It ended up snowing all night and when we got down to our free breakfast around 7am there was almost a foot of new snow on the ground. Fortunately Paul’s Subaru has 4 wheel drive and we were able to quickly get on the road. The first ski rental place we hit in town was PACKED with high schoolers from Texas so we decided to head for Durango Mountain to rent our equipment there. The roads up to the mountain were pretty snowy and there was a good bit of traffic, including several idiots who felt it necessary to pass in the middle (unplowed) lane. Paul kept a steady course and we arrived in one piece.

The rental line at Durango Mountain went quickly, like a well oiled machine. While in line two men offered Paul and I lift tickets for $25 (retail $59) and we decided to bite. I was a bit nervous that the tickets might be counterfit but in the end they were legit. Chris returned the two tickets he had just purchased for us so it was all good. Paul and I ended up renting the “Performance ski” package for $32 and the skis were awesome and just what we needed for the 2+ feet of powder we encountered on the mountain. I’ve never skied that much powder and it definitely took some getting used to. Few of the trails were groomed and by the end of the day almost all the trails were “bumped.” It was a great chance to learn to ski powder and to find out why I need to buy new skis.

This morning we broke camp and hit the road around 9am bound for Albuquerque. Paul’s friend Chris recommended that we take the scenic route to Albuquerque and skip the flat, boring route through Roswell. It turned out to be great advice and well worth any additional driving that we ended up doing.

Our route today took us through Cloudcroft, NM which kinda reminded me of Woodland Park, CO. I realized after the fact that there’s an interesting sounding mountain bike trail in Cloudcroft that we could have checked out but it was a little too cold and windy anyway. We descended into Alamogordo and stopped at White Sands National Monument. White Sands is very cool and we took tons of pictures and did some sand hiking in our bare feet. The sand is actually gypsum crystals and the stuff was blowing everywhere during our visit. We both ended up with lots of gypsum in our ears and hair but it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

We got into Albuquerque around 6pm and had dinner at Gardu?ɬ±o’s, a chain of Mexican restaraunts in town. They put either green or red chile on EVERYTHING, a great authentic New Mexican dinner.

We spent a VERY windy and dusty two nights at the Carlsbad RV and Campground with the tent tied to Paul’s car to make sure the thing didn’t end up on the nearby highway. The campground had free wi-fi, an indoor pool, and a sweet game room so we didn’t complain.

On Thursday we hit Carlsbad Caverns for the basic tour since all the special tours were already booked. We spent about 2-3 hours underground then headed out to Sitting Bull Falls. Sitting Bull was interesting for the fact that it is about 30 miles away from everything but with excellent parking and picnicking facilities and a $5 entry fee. There were a few trails here but we were tired from our backpacking the previous day and elected to only hike up to the top of the falls (about 170 feet high).

I flew into El Paso, TX on March 7th and after a fairly uneventful flight (there was a woman on my flight I’m quite sure was Rachel from the Real World Austin) Paul and I hit the Albertson’s to get some backpacking grub. Next we hit a sporting goods store for some stove fuel and a camping pillow and we were off into the wilds of west Texas.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in the great state of Texas. We struck out on the 4 mile, 2,500 foot climb to the Pine Top campground at around 4pm and made it up just after 6pm. The campsites in Pine Top are great and as soon as we had our tent up the winds started and continued for the duration of our stay at Guadalupe.

The next morning we decided to leave the tent up and take a day hike around the park. We did a nice 10 mile loop through the interior of the park and had lunch on the trail. After our 4+ hour hike, we settled in for a quick nap before packing down the Bear Canyon trail. As we were laying in the tent it started hailing, quite a surprise since it had been sunny all day. We got a few moments later and packed up camp. The 5 mile hike down the Bear Canyon trail was very steep, I would not recommend climbing this trail. We made it down around 5 or 6pm and headed into the town of Carlsbad for the night.

I’m heading out to New Mexico for a week to do some hiking, camping, backpacking, skiing, spelunking, and potentially mountain biking. I’ve only driven through New Mexico a couple times (and each time I have encountered local law enforcement) so I’m stoked to actually get my feet on the ground for a few days. The plan is to hit Guadalupe Mountains NP (actually in Texas), Carlsbad Caverns, Taos or AngelFire, and Albuquerque. I’ll be taking lots of photos and posting all my adventures on various TripleBlaze sites (camping, hiking, and mountain biking) including this blog.

You can also follow along on Paul’s Road Trip Blog. Adios!

Well, Leah and I finally did it. We first talked about running a marathon about five years ago and ran the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving in 2003. At the time I decided that was far enough to run as the 2:07 it took us to finish felt absolutely brutal. Up until that time the greatest distance I had run was probably around 8 miles or so and 13.1 miles felt like a real accomplishment.

After living here in Durham for the past year Leah and I found ourselves running more and more as the local mountain biking left much to be desired. Plus the weather is great for running outside pretty much year round (except a few weeks during the summer) so we decided to pull the trigger. Actually Leah did all the work, signing us up for the race, building our training plan, etc.

So we finished the Richmond Marathon on Saturday in 3:50 which was well under the 4 hour goal we set for ourselves. Amazingly our half marathon split during the race exactly matched our second half time. The last 4-5 miles were, in my opinion, the worst miles I have ever run in my life. The most disappointing part of the race came in the last quarter mile when I started getting cramps in the back of my legs, then my calves. It was pretty ridiculous too because the steepest part of the course was in the last quarter mile and it was all downhill. I suppose for some this is a nice psychological reward since downhill should be easy. However, anyone who has done any amount of running will tell you that downhill is usually the hardest on your muscles as you contract your legs to brake yourself down the hill. Anyway, I had to stop at least once or twice in that last quarter just to stretch and I ended up running the final 10 yards or so with a cramped calf that forced me to run with my right toe pointed outward.

The training was time consuming, although not too difficult. Some of our early “long runs” were difficult but that might have been due to the extreme heat during August and September. The weather in Richmond was great, seemed like it was in the 50s most of the time we were running. The course was good too, very flat with a few reasonable hills sprinkled here and there. I’m glad we did the marathon and I’m also glad it’s over with. Now it’s time to pay more attention to our lonely mountain and road bikes

This week I’ve noticed a lot more people biking along my regular bike commute route through the Duke campus. I’ve been riding the 3 miles from our house to class at Fuqua pretty regularly for the past year and just a couple weeks ago I hardly ever saw anyone on the road.

Last night on my way home around 6 I saw at least 5 bike commuters, all genders and ages. I guess gas prices are finally high enough for people to consider biking a reasonable option to driving. Perhaps it is the weather, too, since it seems to have finally cooled off to a decent temperature here in North Carolina. But based on my own (informal) observations and comparing the number of commuters I saw to the numbers I saw last year at this time, I would definitely say there is more at play than simply the weather.

There’s even a guy that does the commute on a Segway! He looks like an older guy, probably a professor, but he rides the Segway on the sidewalk like it’s no big deal with his book satchel attached to the side of the machine. The police at Duke also have at least one Segway and I see them riding it on my route from time to time as well. Seems to me these high gas prices may actually be having a positive effect if it gets more people into the fresh air!

I’ve been reading about the Garmin Edge over the weekend and from what I’ve read, the Edge should be the heat. It promises to fix many of the limitations with eTrex and Forerunner lines and appears to be designed with cyclists in mind.

One of the most tantilizing features I read about is the SiRF chip technology that improves satellite reception in the trees. When I was riding in Colorado this wasn’t a big deal but getting good GPS data here in North Carolina is nearly impossible on most of the bike trails. Almost sounds too good to be true, I’ll be interested to see how much better the Edge handles this situation.

The Edge also gets rid of the clunky PC serial interface and instead sports a sexy USB connection PLUS it’s rechargeable. Hopefully you will be able to use batteries as well for those long trips when you’re away from electrical connections. The trackpoint capacity of the Edge is also expanded to 13,000 points which is 3,000 points more than the top of the line eTrex Vista. This should allow you to keep even the most epic rides in memory long enough to get back to your PC.

Another new addition on the Edge is the use of “Courses” which sound very similar to tracks on older units. The main advantage of Courses over tracks seems to be the way the unit handles the Course; when calculating estimated time to arrival, the Edge will take into account both distance and elevation (instead of just distance). Seems pretty minor to me, it’s still just estimating and has no idea how fast (or slow) you climb (or descend).

With Courses you will now be able to “virtually race” others by sharing their Course data for a particular ride. For those of you who have been using Singletracks.com over the past year KNOW that we started offering virtual bike racing more than a year ago using routes instead of tracks or Courses.

The other unknown with the new Garmin Edge is how proprietary the data storage will be. Courses may be difficult to share with others who don’t use Garmin products and may even require current Garmin users to upgrade their hardware in order to play. Based on Garmin’s previous offerings, I’m definitely skeptical about over promised features and proprietary data schemes. Guess we’ll have to wait until November to see…

Before our trip to Vermont this summer, Leah and I looked online for campgrounds to visit along the way. In the past we’ve used the web for camping info to varying degrees of success. One of the most frustrating experiences was booking a (privately owned) campsite for Memorial Day weekend near Boulder and finding out that the place was a dump. Based on our impressions from the campground’s website, we thought it would be a nice, secluded camping spot. Instead it was right on a busy highway with little to no tree cover and with bathrooms that looked a little nicer than a cave.

Most national, state, or local camping areas have websites with great photos and lots of information about showers, picnic areas, restrooms, etc. There are also sites that allow you to book a reservation online but we were unable to find a site where we could read the opinions REAL PEOPLE had of the places we were considering. Fortunately we picked the right places this time but things could have been bad.

So now, for a 3rd project, I’ve posted an application for campers to post their reviews of camping locations around the world. Tell us about your experience there and let us know if the place is worthwhile. Most importantly, point us to the official website for the campground so we can get as much info as possible along with your opinion of the place. Once again, please give me feedback so I can make this as useful as possible.

I got a Garmin Forerunner 201 a few months back to keep track of my runs and to possibly use on my bike. I have been using my Garmin eTrex when mountain biking for a couple years and it’s been great and I was excited at the possibility of using a GPS for running as well. Unfortunately the Forerunner did not live up to my expectations.

First off, let me just say it is great to have a GPS device that is small enough and convenient enough to run with. I saw a GPS wrist watch a couple years back so I knew it was possible to put GPS electronics into a small device but I didn’t know how much data I could really get from a tiny watch LCD screen. Anyway, the Forerunner actually seems kinda big for a “wrist device” and I found it nearly impossible to wear on my wrist while biking as it made it difficult to bend my wrist. For runs, however, it doesn’t seem to be overly cumbersome.

The data you can watch during your run is great as you can see your pace, time, and distance traveled on one screen. You can even create custom screens to watch things like the grade you’re running, the time of day, altitude, and more. You can also view data on your past runs, see maps of where you’ve been, and even back track on a run to estimate your time to completion. The controls are quite good and pretty easy to manage while running. The screen is large too so you don’t have to squint just to see what’s happening on screen.

Garmin pitches this as a device you can use for running or cycling and they even make a bike mount bracket so you don’t have to wear the Forerunner on your wrist while you tear up the trails or the road. But one notable omission from the data you can track: speed. The Forerunner is set up great for running where pace is everything but to a cyclist, there is a need for speed. The antenna in the Forerunner seems to be pretty weak too as it loses satellite signals fairly often on my trail runs and even on densely forested neighborhood streets. I’ve found the best way to keep a good signal is to run in the absolute middle of whatever path I take (including running in the middle of the street in my neighborhood when I get the chance!). I’ve also found the strength of satellite signals changes throughout the day due to the positions of the satellites themselves; some runs work get great data in the morning but not so great data in the evening. It will take some experimenting to find the optimal time and path for each of your runs.

The accuracy of the Forerunner is also suspect. I’ve heard from some people who assume the Forerunner overestimates distances since the navigation accuracy can be off by up to 50 feet or more at any given time. These slight inaccuracies add up over the course of your run and can lead to an overestimate of your total run distance. I tend to argue that these inaccuracies can also be underestimates and in the end perhaps they cancel each other out. The other thing that affects accuracy, and in my opinion, has a much greater effect, is the built in error correction. When my eTrex loses a satellite fix, it typically treats the distance you travel without a signal as not having been traveled at all. That is, say you are at mile 1.5 and the unit loses the satellite signal. You ride (or run) for about half a mile with no signal and then pick up the signal again at exactly the 2 mile mark. The eTrex will say your distance traveled is 1.5 miles while the Forerunner will attempt to guess (it might say you’ve been 1.87 miles). As far as I can tell the Forerunner makes it’s guess by drawing a straight line from the point where it lost the satellite signal to the point where it reacquired the signal. So if you’re running in a perfectly straight line, this estimate should be right on. But if you’re moving around a curvy trail, the Forerunnner will miss the real distance you covered by making all those turns. You’ll even be able to see this on your map as an odd looking straight line section. Because of this I often add up to 10% to the distances the Forerunner reports, depending on the availability of the satellite signal and the direction of the trail. The error correction that the Forerunner uses is, in my opinion, still much better than the eTrex since the Forerunner at least TRIES to guess where you were when the signal cut out. I just wish there was more documentation about how the unit works.

Finally, I find the software the Forerunner uses to be mildly helpful but with tons of room for improvement. Like many electronic devices today, computer interfaces seem to be an afterthought to product development. I understand there may be some third party applications and websites that make good use of the Forerunner data but I haven’t used them myself. The most annoying thing I’ve found is that when you attempt to export the data from your Forerunner Logbook application you have to export your entire log to a single file. Fortunately Garmin has chosen to use XML to store the data (although not quite GPX compatible) but it is still tough to work with a single file that holds hundreds of miles of data.

The Forerunner 201 is a good start to a GPS enabled running/training device but it still has a ways to go. Perhaps Garmin could actually hire some runners or bikers with experience using these types of devices to work out some of the obvious limitations. The Forerunner is great at taking some of the guesswork out of gauging distances and pace and is a great way to take advantage of the latest in technology.

During my summer internship I came across a report from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association showing the participation in various sports in the United States. The free report shows participation numbers from as far back as 1987 and highlights some interesting trends. All the data referenced in this entry come from the 2005 Topline Participation Report from the SGMA. Sports are broken down into various categories like fitness, team sports, indoor sports, wheel sports, outdoor activities, winter sports, and more. It is really is unbelievable how comprehensive this report is.

The first sport I looked at was mountain biking (naturally). As a mountain biker I had the impression that the sport is growing in popularity as I personally know plenty of people who either want to get into the sport or who have recently purchased mountain bikes. But according to the SGMA report, mountain biking participation in the US has been declining since 1998! The SGMA estimates that 5.3M Americans will go mountain biking at least once in 2005, down from the peak of 8.6M in 1998. In 2005 more people will go Trail Running than mountain biking. What’s up with that?

It’s also interesting to note that almost all team sports saw participation numbers decline from 2004 to 2005 with the exception of cheerleading, softball, and volleyball, which all happen to be traditionally female dominated sports. Even soccer has seen huge increases in the numbers of female players participating over the last few years but not enough to stem an overall decline in participation by 10%. Perhaps kids today are choosing X-box and Playstation as their sports of choice? Does playing Triple Play Baseball on Playstation count as participation? Even skateboarding is down almost 5%, although participation is up almost 50% over the past 6 years.

This report also opened my eyes to the potential sizes of various sports markets and how that should play into business decisions or models for start-ups. More than 51M Americans will go camping at least once in 2005 and 37M will go running or jogging. Recreational participants make up huge numbers of sports participants and far outnumber the more serious competitors. 52M Americans will go for a “recreational” bike ride in 2005, 92M will do some recreational walking (whatever that means?), and a whopping 95M will go for a recreational swim. The potential to sell to or convert some of the recreational participants certainly represents a large opportunity for savvy marketers.

This SGMA report does a great job at putting sports participation numbers into perspective. The SGMA offers more detailed reports on each sport to give entrepreneurs and industry leaders a solid understanding of the numbers behind various sports in the United States.

So I finally got myself a road bike after 11 years or so of mountain biking (actually Leah got it through Performance). It’s a Giant OCR-C2 and it’s a sweet ride. Leah had it weighed and the sucker barely tips the scale at 20 pounds. The wonders of modern materials science…

Once when I was in middle school I borrowed a kid’s 10-speed road bike and cruised it up and down the block. I had never ridden a bike with gears or hand brakes and I immediately fell in love with the speed and the ease of pedaling. I asked my parents for a 10-speed for Christmas that year but on Christmas morning I found a 10-speed mountain bike under the tree. At that point I don’t think I knew the difference between mountain and road bikes and I was happy to get the bike but in the back of my mind I knew I still wanted to be a roadie.

In high school mountain biking was the cool thing to do among my group of friends so I stuck with the fat tires and upgraded my Western Auto brand bike to a used Bridgestone MB-5. It was a great bike, though that was in the days before any kind of suspension. I think some people did have front shocks on their bikes but it was ultra expensive and I only paid $200 for my whole bike!

This morning I took the Giant out for a spin around the country roads outside Duke University into Orange County. Before I knew it I had ridden almost 30 miles in an hour and 45 minutes! While I was riding I was thinking about the things I like about road biking as compared to mountain biking. For one thing I got to experience some new scenery since I’ve mountain biked every legal (and some illegal) trail within a 250 mile radius of my house. This morning I saw a roadside tomato stand in front of a house and an RV park I never knew existed. Road biking also presents a better opportunity for using a GPS in training. I’ve been having problems getting good GPS signals on the local trails due to tree cover; on a road bike, you’re almost always able to get a good signal. Road biking is also much faster than mountain biking, though I think the sensation of speed is comparable for both (since you have trees whizzing by in close proximity on your mountain bike). One of my least favorite things about mountain biking is worrying about my gear and keeping it well maintained. With a road bike, your ride isn’t as exposed to dirt and mud that sucks so much of the life out of your drive train.

I’m certainly not ready to give up the mountain bike yet and I’m still dedicated to finding the best, most scenic singletrack in the world. Some of the things I’ve been able to see on a mountain bike are completely inaccessible on a road bike. But for now, while living in North Carolina with a limited set of new and exciting trails, I think I might just get into road riding for a while. Save the singletrack for vacations to more exciting destinations…

I originally wrote this as an assignment for my India Global Academic Travel Experience course at school after a 10+ day trip to the country in March, 2005. I got a good grade on the paper and I’m pretty proud of the writing so I’m posting it here for others to read. Enjoy.

The gleaming corporate campus of Infosys rivals the grounds of any country club in the United States, with swimming pools, a chipping green, and lush landscaping crossed by meandering walkways. After an introduction to the company and a walking tour of the campus, we were posed an interesting lunchtime choice: banana leaf or Domino’s? This question succinctly captures the underlying contrasts in a culture trying to find its place in the new global economy.

On the surface, the contrast of serving traditional foods on a banana leaf in the company cafeteria struck me as interesting. Here we were at arguably the most successful company in India on an ultra-modern campus, but we were eating with our hands from a leaf just as Indians had hundreds of years before. Young info-tech workers, many chatting in English, ate the meal just as their parents had, and their parents before them. Globalization to many evokes notions of Western imperialism and the death of local culture but in this setting the benefits of globalization seemed to coexist peacefully with a rich cultural heritage. Indeed, sprinkled amongst the crowd of blue jeans and t-shirts, women in Saris and men in more traditional Indian garb stood in stark contrast to the western idea of business casual. Looking beyond the surface, one finds contrasts more fundamental to the future direction of India as a part of the global economy.

Women occupy a unique position in Indian culture. In many respects, women are expected to be modest homemakers, a position not too different from women in the United States in the 1950s. One can see the women in the streets in India, modestly riding side-saddle on their husbands’ motorcycles or covered head-to-toe in Islamic burqas. But inside many Indian corporations, one finds Indian women in positions of authority rivaling those held by women in the west. Indeed, at each company we visited within India (with the exception of Standard Chartered Bank, whose lack of visible women is not surprising considering the number of women in the US banking industry) we met successful and confident Indian women doing jobs that would have been dominated by men just a few years before. India appears to be on the way to establishing itself as a world class meritocracy where individuals can rise to the highest levels of ability regardless of gender, and sets a great example for other developing countries around the world. For now it appears that the contrasts between traditional thinking about women’s roles and gender equity in India are able to peacefully coexist.

In stark contrast to the idea of peaceful coexistence, one notices the daily conflicts between the old and new in transportation and labor issues around India. Overloaded oxen and human powered carts attempt to share the roadways with taxis, busses, and large trucks on a daily basis in India, leading to crippling traffic jams and dangerous lives for all involved. Construction projects appear to drag on ad infinitum as men and women carry rocks and gravel in small pans perched on top of their heads, leading to further congestion of the roadways and no clear end in sight. Leaders within India claim that a lack of transportation infrastructure is to blame for the problems on the roadways but clearly the lack of capital, both physical and intellectual, limits the possibilities for swift change.

Despite the seemingly counterproductive nature of the contrasts observed in India today, the Indian economy is clearly headed in the right direction. Companies like Infosys and Wipro demonstrate that the use of technology to “catch-up” to more developed economies is indeed a viable option. Instead of toiling through the messy and often painful transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy like many of today’s G6 countries did during the early 20th century, India has capitalized on its strengths while taking advantage of the global demand for information technology. Cleary this is a time of transition in India between old economy and new; because this shift is happening without many of the intermediate steps that other economies have experienced, the contrasts stand out even more.

Gender equality in India, despite contrasting appearances, is years ahead of most developing countries. Indian women are truly leaders in the business and political worlds and bring diverse perspectives and ideas that clearly benefit any endeavor. India has certainly capitalized on this diversity and is in a position to set an example for both developing and developed countries alike.

Lastly, despite the opportunities presented by technology utilization and gender equality in India, the lack of capital seen in India is a major hurdle to overcome. The stark contrast between the old and new in terms of capital shows just how limiting this issue can be to national progress. With capital the immense human and intellectual potential in India could be unlocked, releasing a huge flood in productivity and economic growth. Indeed, many global investors have realized this and continue to pump investment into the country. It appears that the simple limiting factor in India today is capital, without which the contrasts between old and new will continue to conflict and slow the country’s growth.

In times of transition, contrasts can always be seen between old and new. The contrasts within the Indian economy and society are visible hallmarks of the sweeping changes affecting not just India but the rest of the world. As our group struggled to keep our pressed shirts clean while eating with our hands, we all got a much better feel of the unique changes taking place in India today.

Infosys campus in Bangalore

Banana leaf meal

Leah recently showed me a report on the top 100 sporting goods retailers in the US and I wanted to write about some of my thoughts about the data. All the facts and figures I’ll be referencing in my post come from this report, put out by Sporting Goods Business, just so ya know.

First of all, it is no big surprise that Wal-Mart is at the top of the list of sporting goods retailers but it really is surprising how big Wal-Mart is in this space. With $17.1B in sales (sporting goods + toys) they blow away #2 Target ($2.6B in athletic goods only) and all the “Big Box” sports retailers like The Sports Authority and Dick’s. While many sporting goods retailers would like to believe they “own” their particular sport, no one can outsell the big chains. Take for example Performance, Inc, owners of the Performance, Nashbar, and Supergo retail operations. Performance comes in on the list at #47 and clearly they are the 800 lb. gorilla in the retail bike industry. But I would wager that with $200M in estimated sales in 2004 that Performance is way behind Wal-Mart who could easily sell over $1B in bikes and accessories without breaking a sweat. Wal-Mart = the 8,000 lb. baseball bat wielding gorilla in the sporting goods industry.

I also found it interesting that Bass Pro Shops weighs in at #5 overall in the retail sporting goods sector with just under $2B in sales. The most amazing thing about this is that Bass Pro does this with just 26 stores! Just think about all the Foot Lockers (1,448 stores, $1.7B revenue) and Dick’s (235 stores but just $0.15B more in sales) out there that manage to sell just a fraction of what a single Bass Pro Shop sells. I remember reading that the original Bass Pro is the #1 tourist attraction in the state of Missouri with millions of customers each year. Wow. Cabela’s is also doing well with just 10 stores and $1.55B in revenues (even beating Bass Pro on a revenue per store basis).

Coming in at #15, Nike was estimated to have $1B in retail sales in 2004. This is not surprising since Nike is easily the biggest name is sports; but wait! Isn’t this a list of sporting goods retailers? Yep, it is and yep, they are. Nike has over 100 Niketown and Nike “outlet” shops around the country where customers can buy the latest gear at suggested retail prices. But what if you’re a retailer who sells Nike shoes? Isn’t this a little unfair for your vendor to sell directly to the public? Of course plenty of other suppliers have chosen this path (most notably Apple Computer) but the magnitude of this arrangement becomes evident when you look at the size of the stores below Nike on this list: REI, Champs Sports (probably huge buyers of Nike products), The Athlete’s Foot ($400M in sales), and Footaction (also $400M in sales). Seems like a tough business when your #1 product (shoes) is being offered directly by your #1 supplier (Nike). Plus Nike will never run out of the hot products while you beg for the scraps. Reebok and Adidas are also in on the action, coming in at #45 and #53 respectively.

There were lots of mergers and acquisitions in 2004 as Foot Locker snatched up Footaction (#31), EastBay (#37), and part of Athlete’s Foot (#31). Now maybe they can stay ahead of their biggest competitor/supplier (Nike). Dick’s bought Galyan’s (which I always liked better than REI, hopefully Dick won’t screw it up) and the VF Corporation bought Vans. VF, if you don’t know, has been snatching up distressed brands and now owns North Face, Jansport, Eastpack, and Reef to name a few.

One glaring omission in this year’s report is Sports Endeavors, Inc., #69 in the 2003 report. I’m actually doing an internship at Sports Endeavors (producers of the Eurosport soccer catalog, the Great Atlantic Lacrosse catalog, Soccer.com, and Lacrosse.com) this summer and I’m pretty sure that their 2004 revenue would place them squarely in the top 70 again this year. The only reason I can figure they weren’t included is that they don’t have any brick-and-mortar stores (which makes their business all the more impressive in my opinion). Since the report doesn’t mention having physical stores as a criteria for inclusion, it leaves me questioning how accurate this report really is since they are missing such a large player (and who knows how many others were similarly overlooked?).

All in all this is a great (if not somewhat incomplete) report for understanding the retail sporting goods industry and for identifying opportunities for the future.

Just what the web needs. First Mudhunny jumped onto the bandwagon and now here I am. I actually set up this site (tripleblaze.com) to host some of my “side” projects and ideas that don’t have clear profit potential. I’ll build some of these projects here and see which ones stick…

I also want to use this site to share some of the things I’ve learned while building singletracks.com and in b-school at Fuqua. My intention is to make this blog useful and interesting, but mostly just to solve those little problems you run into when building a business or website.

A “triple blaze” on a hiking trail indicates either the trailhead or the end of the trail. Hopefully this site will be useful as a starting point for others’ ideas or as the end of the trail for still others’ search for information.