Outdoor Source Magazine

Now that spring is here and I have a yearning to get out and be in nature, I thought it was finally time to put up the series of photos that I took back in the fall. As a reminder, I went out to the Muttontown Preserve for 4 or 5 weekends spanning from September to November. There’s a couple of different pieces of nature out there. First is a rolling meadow that’s been taken over by wildflowers. The second is a forest featuring several different types of hardwoods and pines. I can only imaging that this is what all of Long Island used to look like before the hordes from NYC turned into millions of people with a million cars. Anyway……

The first shot below was taken walking through forested section of the park in mid to late September. Off on the right side are the first signs of fall with the changing of the leaves.

My family (wife and daughter) and i went out to a great park this weekend.  We went to a county park on Long Island called Blydenburg Park.  The next time we go I’m definitely bringing my camera along.  I had some wonderful opportunities to take some shots — but alas, i didn’t plan ahead.

 The park had a feature that’s pretty rare on Long Island.  There’s 2 areas that you can let your dog run and play off leash.  There’s one huge area (about 2 acres) for large dogs — there was a bunch of dogs running around including some Boston Terriers, which ain’t that huge.  There’s also a smaller area of around 1/2 acre for smaller dogs to run around and play.  My doxie is just a pup of around 4 months old, so she’s still pretty wimpy, but she seemed to warm up after a while.  My daughter got a live illustration of the birds and the bees when Georgie (a fat older Beagle) tried to mount her.  Ya gotta give the old guy credit for trying.

 Anyway — hurrah for these areas within the parks.  We definitely need more of them.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve actually been able to get out and do some things — no major backpack or hiking trips, but I’ve been able to get outside. I’m in the process of putting together a couple of posts.

The first one is going to be about a great family activity for those in the northeast. Apple picking.

The other one will be a photo essay. There’s only a few wooded patches left on Long Island (i guess a 120 mile by 18 mile island can’t hold too many more than 5 million people. Anyway, the Muttontown Preserve towards the north shore in Nassau County offers up some great woodlands as well as meadows. I’ve decided to return to this meadow several times as we get through autumn to illustrate the changes that come during this time of year. Most people in the northeast are so focused on the changing of the leaves that they miss an incredible amount of life offered in these meadows. That’s what my photos (with accompanying text) will be illustrating and discussing.

Just like there’s a type of saw for various jobs, there’s also a different kayak for each job out there. In this intro article we’ll review the different types of kayak.

1. The recreational kayak. These kayaks are typically the easiest to manuever in basic water conditions. They are designed for the novice kayaker to be used in a calm river or stream as well as basic paddling around in calm bays, lakes and ponds.
2. The touring kayak. These boats are designed for long hauls and to carry a lot of gear. The touring kayak is typically a long thin boat but do not turn very easily. Catalogs and web sites often refer to these boats as sea kayaks, but these boats are perfect for an area like the Boundary Waters Canoe area with their carrying capacity.
3. Whitewater kayak. For those of you that have seen some action sporting event on TV or have watched Olympic competitive kayaking, you’ll be familiar with these boats. These short boats with either a flat or a rounded bottom. These boats can be difficult to go in a steady straight line so they are generally not comfortable for touring purposes.
4. Downriver kayak. This is a specialty boat that is designed for an experienced paddler and designed to easily cut through the water, so they are typically used for racing. These boats are quite long and thin which makes turning a difficult task.

The simple advice for anyone that is looking into kayaking — rent first. This way you can check out what you like and dislike about particular boats. Once you’ve found something that you’re comfortable with and are able to get around with, just purchase the boat that you’ve been most pleased with as a rental. This way you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Last week I was getting all excited about getting out into the woods during my favorite time of the year (for the woods), fall. As I began making plans for the coming long weekend (Labor Day), i was reminded that there are potential issues with getting into the woods in the late summer and fall, particularly if you’re looking at mountainous regions. Here’s a couple of things to keep in mind to make sure that you have a good experience:

If you’re sleeping outside, make sure that your sleeping bag is going to be warm enough. If your sleeping bag is not rated to be able to deal with cold enough temperatures you can either go get a better bag or you can double them up. Putting on additional clothing might not actually keep you warmer (just the oposite).

Watch the weather forecasts. Mountains contain very irratic weather and can create some very unexpected situations. Last night (August 20th), Lake Placid NY went down to 30 degrees. That’s 10 degrees colder than the forecast called for and about 20 degrees colder than my wife would be able to deal with. There’s nothing like shivering to really kill a fun trip.

Keep an eye out for bears. As fall approaches, they’re trying to finish fattening up for the coming winter siesta so they are out eating almost all the time (close to 20 hours a day). Don’t sleep with any food near your tent (if you’re tenting). Keeping it in the car could even cause your car to get torn apart.

Finally - stay dry. As the temperature dips to highs in the 50s or 60s you have to treat you getting wet to be a big problem. If you can help it, don’t wear cotton. Cottom retains water and if it’s right on your skin you could run into problems as the sun goes down.

These are just a few things to keep in mind if you’re heading into the woods as the weather cools. Planning ahead can help keep a fun time fun and safe.

I’ve been involved in several on line debates regarding this actually little debated topic. A lot of people on one side of this discussion have professed that the debate is clear that humans have irrevocably harmed the environment and have caused the planet to heat up to our ultimate demise.

I was doing a little thinking on this subject, particularly since the big culprit that environmentalists hang their hat on is the amount of CO2 emitted by cars into the atmosphere as being one of the leading causes. I was thinking about this and wanted to crunch some numbers. The data that I’m using was found on the internet so there could be some pretty big errors due to originating data errors. First, let’s look at cars and some facts that I found:

• The average American drives around 12000 miles per year.
• Let’s assume that 45% of the US population drives (I arrived at this figure by backing into some other figures that were released by a department of the US gov’t under Clinton)
• Let’s assume that 40% of the miles driven in the world are driven by an American (personally I think that’s high)
• The current EU emission goal is 499 grams per kilometer.

All of these figures will calculate out to about 3,270 billion kilos of CO2 emitted by automobiles around the world every year. That’s a lot.

Now, let’s look at what our basic survival emits per year. I found a stat out on the web that the average person exhales about 1.98 pounds of CO2 per day. Now if the world population is now 6.6 billion, that will calculate out to 2,166 billion kilos of CO2 emitted per day — JUST BY BREATHING.

I honestly don’t see what the fuss is all about about what we’re doing to the environment with all of our cars. The worldwide use of automobiles only adds 50% more CO2 into the atmosphere than just breathing does.

Personally, if the environmental crowd is so hepped up on what we as humans are or are not doing to the environment they really need to start off by looking at population control as the first line of defense.

Once the middle of August hits and we get that week of rainy and raw weather (at least in the Northeast) I start to think about a fall expedition/hike into the woods. Every year around my birthday (end of September), I love to pack up a few things and hit the trail.

Think about it. The fall is absolutely perfect for both hiking and backpacking. First off, the weather is just prime for it. The evenings (and even the days) begin to get a little cooler. The cooler evenings I find to be just perfect sleeping weather. After a day of being on the trail, then a short rest with dinner, I’ll walk another mile or so to get away from the smell of my dinner. Once I make my camp for the evening I can’t wait to hit the sleeping bag for a nice cool sleep.

Another benefit of fall hiking is that the majority of the summer bugs have signed out for the year. I’m one of those people that opens the door and gets bitten by something. It really prevents me from getting out more often.

Yet another benefit is probably the most obvious - School started. Most people have finished up their vacations for the year while Mom and Dad are getting their kids back to school, the start of the soccer season really curbs the overall attendance in most places.

Finally, particularly in the hardwood forests in the northeast, we’ve got the changing of the colors. Since foliage changes at different times during the year, you’ll need to find links to your particular area so that you know when it’s best to get out there. Here are a few links that I’d like to offer up:

• http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/fallfoliage/uscurrentfallfoliage_large.html
• http://www.maine.gov/doc/foliage/


• http://phototravel.com/fall.htm

To summarize, fall is a GREAT time to head into the woods for either a day hike or a short backpacking trip. Cooler weather, less insects, less people and interesting colors can make for a wonderful time. The only issue that you need to keep an eye on is the weather. Fall is the transition season so dress for success.

I’ve had a pretty stressful few months work-wise so when I was given the opportunity to chill out by my brothers pool for a few days I took him up on his offer. The first night I slept extremely bad and was up for the day by around 3:30. Thinking quickly, I thought back to my NYIP (NY Institute of Photography) courses and all of my issues of Outdoor Photographer and decided to head out with my camera.

One of my favorite subjects is birds, I particularly love Egrets. They’re a very skittish bird that fears pretty much everything. If you make noise or sudden movements, they’re gone. I was in one of my favorite birding hangouts out in Orient, NY (the tip of the north fork of Long Island) when I came upon this scene — 3 Egrets getting themselves ready for breakfast and the day. This shot illustrates a couple of good outdoor photography points, in particular that early morning is a GREAT time to get a pretty cool shot.

In the shot below, you’ll notice the soft bluish tone to the photo, you can’t get that tone during with the blazing sun to your back. I took this shot over 3.2 seconds so these guys were pretty still. I wanted to use a very small aperture to make sure that I got some great details about their surroundings (the shore behind the birds is about 3/4 of a mile away).

The lesson from this shot — early morning light (this was actually about 1/2 hour before official sunrise) or late day light is the best for taking effective outdoor shots. The critters are active (or like in this case just waking up getting ready to be active).

We’re in the process of finalizing a new section of the site. I had a lot of this content on another website and got a lot of great feedback. We’re now including listings for every National Park, Monument, National Battlefield, Wildlife Refuge, etc. in the United States in a new section of the site.

You can find and navigate this section using the Parks By Type page and roll from there [if you click on the Parks by State page today, you’ll get an error, but be patient, we’ll get that one done too.]

The page is available here http://www.outdoorsourcemag.com/Parks/parksbytype.htm.

Well the other week when I headed into the woods, I had some nice success with the camera. Over the last year or 3, I’ve been having a tough time getting out due to business requirements, but when I get out and get shots like this, it’s all worth it.

The photo below is Kaaterskill Falls. These falls are a very short easy walk in from the road up in the northern Catskills. The falls are a total of about 260 feet in 2 stages. I took this shot with my Canon Digital Rebel (a few photogs were convinced that it was film). The walk is right off NY 23A about 3 miles from Pallenville, NY. Right along the road is another set of waterfalls called Bastion Falls. If you’re a waterfall fan (like I am), this under 1 hour round trip walk is definitely worth checking out. There’s a parking lot that can accomodate about 10 cars about a quarter mile from the trail head. [Be careful around the trailhead, the road is really crazy right there.]

For more information check out http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/kaaterskill_0000.asp