Hiking Dude Blog

Do you remember what it felt like when Mighty Casey struck out?
"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — little GoLite has struck out."

I received an email today that GoLite.com is having a liquidation sale. I figured it was some spam so I viewed the source - and everything looked legit. I went to GoLite.com and there was a banner "Liquidation Sale", but then every page after that just showed "service unavailable" - I imagine their server is overloaded today.

It's true - GoLite.com is bankrupt and selling out all their inventory to pay off debts.

GoLite is (was) my favorite, daniel-vs-goliath, ultralight gear provider. They pushed the price of gear down and seemed to really try to offer good stuff and reasonable prices. Over the past few years, they tried different sales models. Obviously, some part of their business plan didn't work out. :-(

When I hiked the Arizona Trail, my most important item was my GoLite chrome dome umbrella. It protected me from sun, rain, and big horses. I still have, and use, it but now will never be able to replace it as it is wearing a bit thin.
Also, my wife and I both got GoLite down jackets from Christmas gifts and I wore mine every night across Arizona. She wears hers from Oct. to March here in MN. :-)

But, it's not just me. Andrew Skurka's gear list includes many GoLite items.

Now that GoLite is going away, I find myself wondering if I could have helped prevent the closing of their doors. Here's all I could think of - do you have other ideas?

• Buy More Stuff - purchase what you need, or just want
• Give Feedback - let them know you like them and why they are your favorite
• Promote - tell your friends about them

Well, there are still lots of lightweight gear retailers - Granite Gear, Gossamer Gear, HyperLite, AntiGravity, ULA, ZPacks, ProLite, LightHeart, EMS, Katabatic, ... but I'll sure miss GoLite. Guess I need to find a new favorite.

Can you see the deer ?
My 8 mile hike was pretty chilly this morning, just 9 degrees!

Just wanting to get out to enjoy the sun, we headed to Lowry Nature Center to see what colors we could find. We wound up taking a short 3.5 mile erratic loop around the nature preserve and encountered quite a few nice little surprises.

The parking lot was packed so I was expecting a noisy walk, but most people were in a different area, taking pictures of a couple of swans. Good for us! We made a clockwise loop from the nature center, usually taking the left-hand trail at intersections until we wound up where we started.

Right away, the buzzing of bees collecting the last of the summer's nectar brought us to their hive. Many years ago, we brought our sons here and one of them got to wear a bee suit and help collect honey. It's nice to see this bee colony is still active.

The trail traversed open meadows, skirted marsh, and crunched over many hills covered in bright yellow maples. If yellow isn't a fun color for you, then this certainly isn't the place to visit!
There weren't many animals out since so many people were out on the trails, but we did get to visit with an old owl. He has lived here for 14 years, since he was hit by a car and rescued. Normally, he'd be released to the wild after recuperating but his blind eye meant he'd most likely not survive.
A new living area for this owl and room for a few more birds is just being constructed. It looks great and will be yet another glimpse of nature for folks visiting this nice preserve.

The trail here is all wood chip, but today was completely covered in many areas with crunchy maple and oak leafs. Not much in the way of hills, and plenty of miles to wander around. Picnic tables and benches sporadically dot the path with nice views of lakes, marshes, and meadows.

You can View Larger Map with Photos.

Here is the trail route and a few photos. When you click on the thumbnail pics, a larger picture is displayed, but using the link above to open a larger map works much better.

Keep reading below the map...


(click the pics below to see a larger version)

A very cool thing for me to find on this walk was a Knot Board created as an Eagle Scout project by a local Boy Scout troop. It's an interactive, self-directed way for visitors to practice knots and lashings. I really liked the rough wood and natural look of the display, plus it's close to the Nature Discovery area where kids can build shelters out of logs, sticks, leafs, and whatever else they find in the area. It's just a part of the woods set aside where it's OK to build and get dirty.

 

Hike On

Guess what I'm doing!

Sunday's hike took us 6.5 miles around Staring Lake and Purgatory Creek.
You can View Larger Map with Photos.

October has been simply beautiful, with blue sky and sun every time I hit the trail! My wife and I stayed near home this weekend since the fall colors are pretty much the best here right now. The trail gets lots of use - LOTS of use - and it's paved the whole distance. The southern half is wooded, traveling around the lake and along a small creek. The northern half is open and you realize you're really right in town while walking around this lake/swamp/bog/marsh area.

Here is the trail route and a couple photos. When you click on the thumbnail pics, a larger picture is displayed, but using the link above to open a larger map works much better.

Keep reading below the map...


(click the pics below to see a larger version)

The animals were out today- some squirrels, dozens of ducks, a handful of hawks. I tried to capture the view of 6 or 7 hawks circling above and catching some updrafts, but they were moving too fast for me.

We also enjoyed playing with the perfectly ripe milkweed seeds along the trail. They float on the air just like dandelion seeds, but much larger. It's amazing how they are tightly packed in a pod and then practically explode into the breeze when released. Tons of fun!

 

Hike On