For dolphin blood.

Congratulations Michael & the rest of the USA Swim Team!

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In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans PD and Sheriff Dept. deputies began confiscating firearms in an effort to curb rampant violence and get a hold on the security situation in one of America’s worst natural disasters ever. The problem with this? A little document we in the States like to call The Constitution.

Now I’m not of the mind that it’s prudent for citizens to be toting anti-tank missiles and AK-47s, but the second amendment in our bill of rights was enacted for two reasons.

1. To protect against government oppression
2. To allow citizens to provide for their security when government is neither present, nor capable of doing so.

The days after the levy collapses, I believe, highlighted the foresight of our forefathers in both these regards.

The NRA is now seeking over three hundred rightful gun owners known to have had their weapons confiscated by police with no receirpt, and no compensation. Cheers for them, a natural disaster or emergency when law enforcement agencies cannot provide for a populace’s security is abhorrent, especially when enough of the bad guys are running around armed and free to act without fear of a sufficient law enforcement presence.

Here’s a video regarding the original situation:

Also, a link with more info on the NRA’s lawsuit and search for the gun owners…

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I’ve got admit, I’ve never heard of the term videophilia, but I have been a victim of it lately.  On the heels of news that hunting is in a decline , it appears that all outdoors activities may be losing interest with mainstream America. The national parks are reporting declines year over year since the ’80s too.

I just ran across this article, explaining more in depth.  Hopefully I can take a little more time to examine the bad news down the road, but hey this is a blog about having fun - right?

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We got restless one weekend not too far past, and my girlfriend (now wife) and a good buddy loaded up the fast car for some weekend fun in Western North Carolina. Friday night, it’s ten O’clock - we should have been going to bed, or out at the pub….. but Harrah’s casino in Chrerokee, NC, Ashville, and a true gem of a hike were about to be packed into the next 48 hours!

While losing money playing horrible computerized blackjack, history lessons on Native American prostitution in literature, and old men caught vandelizing city property are out of the scope of this blog, a 2 1/2 mile day hike in adverse yet gorgous weather should fit nicely here.

Introducing the Whiteside Mountain Trail, near Cashiers, NC (pronounced cashers, not casheers). Enough moisture stuck around through the advancing cold front from the night before to lend all of the truly fun weather conditions, you know: snow, ice, and low hanging clouds that would create a winter playground in the Southern Blure Ridge.

The Trail
It’s a moderate loop trail, well marked, with a distance of 2.2 miles on trail. Located in the Nantahala NF, just a few miles West of Cashiers, NC, the trail head is very accessible off of US 64, by turning South on Whiteside Mountain Road. The trail winds it’s way around Whiteside Mountain, leading to expansive views of the valleys below and Blue Ridge Mountains in all directions. There are also a number of spur trails, leading to even more exciting vistas, and cliffs that seem to drop into nowhere.

The trail begins as many do in this part of the Appalachians, through dense white oak stands and intermitant hemlocks and rhododendron creating the broken canopy left by winter. In summer, the trail’s vistas play a more stringent game of peek-a-boo, but will give way none the less on the steep cliffs and granite outcrops above. The high was only 34 degrees (F) that day, and we found ourselves alone next to a couple frozen waterfalls along the trail. We even got to play a little ice-sickle baseball with the shards that had come undone from their overhangs.

By the time we reached the first overlook, the clouds had closed in, providing a sensational, yet erie setting - especially when thousand foot cliffs lay near by. Not to worry, cliffs are well marked on the main trail, however overlooks become more tedious on spurs and scrambles. Over the next few hours, as we completed the loop and explored some spur trails and scrambled up, over, and out to miscellaneous ledges. We were offered fleeting glimpses of the views between the hanging clouds passing through our vantage points. We even had snow flurries off and on again through the second half of our hike, making it a unique experience, and other wordly compared to the heat and humidity found here during summer escapades.

Over all, I have to rate this trail as four stars on a normal day, but it becomes truly spectacular when old man winters does his best. Between the extended views offered by an empty canopy, high visibilty of cold clean air (this trip excepted), and an empty trail found these times of year, I would highly recomend it to anybody looking for a great way to shed cabin fever.

A few more photos from the trip:

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The other reason I’ve been away from my blog: PostMapper.com As many of you know, I’ve been trying to put together a way for all of our Outdoors Bloggers to tag their posts on a site wide Google map. Well, as usual, I went a little overboard.

Over the last month or so, I put together a utility that all bloggers can use to tag their posts on one searchable google map, hence PostMapper. I’ll leave the techno speak alone, but here is what it does and how my fellow outdoors and travel bloggers can use it:

What it does:

1. Takes the location of a post, and converts it to coordinates (geocoding)
2. Sends the post’s location, title, excerpt, and link to the PostMapper site
3. The PostMapper site then displays this information on a searchable map, allowing visitors to follow the link back to the participating blog to read the full post.

I’ve already written a mapping plugin for wordpress that does all the hard work, and it even includes a neat little tool for displaying a map within a post by simply typing “

” without the quotes. Soon, Ihope to have a tool for TypePad and Blogger users to tag the map also, I’ll post it here when I do.

I’d sure love it if anybody wants to give it a try, and please don’t hesitate to send any criticism my way.

Lastly, OutdoorsBloggers can already access this utility without having to do anything but activate the plugin.

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To both of my loyal readers, outdoorsbloggers, and everyone who has stopped by:

Thanks for your patience, I’m back from my blogging hiatus!  Things have been extremely hectic here, between work , charity work , developing my first wordpress plugin & API , and yes the best of seasons that brings out the worst in Atlanta drivers.  I still found a little time to go fishing though, more on that later.  In the mean time, I’ve collected a stack of emails to respond to, a lengthy to-do list for OutdoorsBlogger, lost one of our best bloggers , and let The Great Outsmores sit idle for too long.

I’m looking forward to not only getting back on track here, but taking it up a notch.  Once again, thanks to you all, and Merry Christmas!

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The first annual Outdoor Bloggers Summit is headed for St. Louis March 28-30. For those of you not familiar with the Summit, you can check them out at their website or view the Outdoor Bloggers Summit post on the ODB Blog.

They have a number great resources on blogging, outdoors pursuits, and is a great place to network with fellow outdoors bloggers. It’s also a great cause to get behind if you’re writing online about the outdoors, or have a interest in conservation. Check ‘em out, or better yet - add the badge to your blog roll and support the Outdoor Bloggers Summit.

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My apologies to The Great Outsmores Nation, yes, both of you.  I’ve been buried behind this computer screen fighting spam (and winning), adding a support forum for OutdoorsBlogger, and last, but certainly not least, hacking up the OutdoorsBlogger Big Post Map.  In between work and Georgia Football, I’ve also decided to start training for my first Marathon this Thanksgiving.  In reality, I’ll probably have to settle on the half marathon, but proceeds go to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving, so it’s all good.

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