ryanbuck

I created my own ultra this year and am hoping to slowly grow it into something really cool. This year I had about 16 local runners (mostly regular running partners) signed up to do it, but due to 95 degree heat only 10 people actually ran, including me. Yes, I ran my very own race (got second place). I know this is pretty nontraditional, but the thought of watching my running friends running all day long while I sit there and keep score is my worst nightmare. If I'm not running it, I don't see the point in even doing it.

So to that end I created a course and I hung colored jelly bracelets, the kind teenage girls wore in the 80's up on little hooks to act as a scoring system, along th

I keep seeing ! in front of the damage percent I do on my scanner when attacking. I cannot figure out what this means. Does anyone know?

I started playing Ingress this July but due to a variety of factors I slowly stopped and forgot about it. Two weeks ago a buddy of mine in real life told me about it, and I said, "Yeah, I was playing that, cool, let's play together."

And of course I chose blue, he's on green. At this point he was level 6 and I only got to 2 so I requested a faction change and started the 6 week timer. I played my ass off for the last two weeks and actually converted my entire town to blue and because of me blue is kicking major butt this cycle. I was number 1 for days and have now finally slipped to 4 because there is nothing to do within 5 miles of my house.

Fast forward to now, everyone in both facti

A buddy and I are planning our big trip for next year and we're looking at doing 5 days on the SHT. My preference on all trails is to start at the far South trail head and hike North, but our big trip this year was kind of lame as far as sights and experiences. I really don't want that to happen again, so what is the most amazing section of the SHT? We want to maximize our experience since it's a pretty long drive and it will be our longest trip of the year. Any opinions will be greatly appreciated.

http://imgur.com/a/awLgS

I just finished a solo trip to Salamonie Lake and hiked their Bloodroot backpacking trail. Was supposed to be 2 nights 1.5 days, but I got such a good start that I arrived at camp at 2pm on day 2, and setting up camp in the rain, then sitting around for 6 freaking hours until the absolute earliest I might consider sleeping just was not an option when my car was only 4 miles away.

The trail is a 13 mile loop. The first leg is mostly cornfields on the right and forest on the left. The swath of woods the trail is on is just a couple hundred feet thick. Once you make the u-turn it's pure forest and much more fun. The trail stays on top of every spur so you end up

Ok, so I am about to embark on my first solo winter hike. Temps are predicted to be just about freezing at night, and in the high 30's during the day. There is a chance of evening showers, but meh, once I'm at camp who cares. I have to admit, I'm bummed it's going to be so mild, so I'm kind of thinking outside the box here. Maybe this is breaking some cardinal sin, but are there any ways of intentionally making a trip harder? I've been toying with the idea of offering my hiking buddies a challenge and if they complete it they earn a merit badge, and they in turn can offer up challenges of their own.

But that idea aside, I'm kind of looking at challenging myself for several reasons. On

I bought a full size, yet fairly light multitool a couple of years ago for backpacking, but after the first year of zero use I ended up taking it out and replacing it with a pocket knife. I think it was a net gain of 7 ounces, so I'm pretty happy about that. I justify it throughout the year because my hiking partner insists on carrying his so if I needed one, there is one available. Now another year has gone by and I still have never asked to borrow his, and as far as I know, he's never used his either.

So, am I being silly not taking one? Is this going to bite me in the ass? Should I at the very least make sure to take mine on solo trips? I mean, what if I have to remove a bullet fro

Showed up at the gym tonight ready to get busy and as I was approaching the equipment I noticed a dude wearing full Carhardt overalls, and a John Deere hat. Now, I know it's winter, and we do live in the midwest, but our gym is heated. I have no idea what he was thinking. I've never seen him before, so I guess he just joined and expected the weight room to be cold or something. He was benching 2 plates so he wasn't a total amateur, so I guess it's possible he was going for a sauna suit effect, but damn it looked bizarre.

I'm gearing up for my first winter solo hike. 13 mile loop with the campsite at mile 9. Easy terrain, but if there is snow this will be my first trip with snowshoes. I'm practicing new winter techniques, aquamira instead of ceramic filter, esbit tablets instead of gas, and nalgene bottles in my pack instead of a water bladder.

What other problems have I not anticipated? I've got a zero degree bag on order and will test it out in my yard before heading out. If it isn't warm enough I carry one or two polar fleece blankets I have, and if it gets too cold I will cancel the whole thing.

I did a day hike yesterday, it started out 25, then warmed up to 32 and started snowing on me. My lay

I've been backpacking for about 3 years now, and while I did do a lot of winter hiking last winter I did it 100% in boots with my full gear on my back. I got a nice pair of snowshoes at the end of the season and it occurred to me that if I was going to do any real trips in winter a sled would allow me to pull most of my gear and not weigh my back down at all. So I bought a small sled that looks like it will hold 2 of my entire pack. My plan is to take out only a few heavy items, my food bag, my extra sleeping bag, maybe an extra blanket, firewood perhaps? I actually got the sled because it was $40 and a zero degree bag would be like $400, I can't afford that now, so that's why I'm bring

I absolutely LOVE The New Pornographers, and in general I freaking love female artists, but I cannot find any songs from Neko that I love. What am I missing? Her songs are all ballads as far as I can tell and I like to pick up the pace from time to time.

A discussion about the Bible this week got me doing a lot of reading about ancient times and how the oral history from Judaism became the OT. I'm reading about Judaism now and it is talking about how these ancient Jews were descendants of people that occupied the fertile crescent. I remember studying about the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers and how this area was home to the first civilizations. I'm also reading about Egyptians and Babylonians of the same time frame, and all of a sudden this stopped making sense. I mean in evolutionary terms it's fine, but in the context of the Bible I don't see the logic. Adam and Eve started off the whole race, and from their children all of these culture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHiXR43BhZ4

I'm watching a video right now on "Biblical Health" and while it's totally ridiculous on almost every front, the guy in the video is currently talking about the ages of people in the Bible. Right now he's claiming the reason everyone lived longer back then is because in the good old days there was more oxygen in the world and that's how our bodies were designed to operate. So now our modern world has less oxygen and therefore we die sooner. No idea if this is true or not, but my question is, is there any evidence people 5000 years ago lived to be 1000 years old? He was talking about Enos and he lived to be 900, I think I recall Noah was hundre