Puffins, landing into the wind, and bringing home the bacon.

First: Flaring nicely, a few knots in hand, and 'grease it on'!

Second: A C of G recalculation possibly required here.

Thanks for that Bruce. The Puffin is one of my favourite birds, but not having been to the coast for years I don't get to see them.

Just to follow up on Bruce's pictures...

http://s13.postimg.org/sayidnw6v/Puffins.jpg

60 meters = damn near 200 feet!

Yumping Yiminy!



ETA: Metres, not meters...

I volunteered to try to put together a caving trip for our boy scout troop. And there's a recommended cave about 3 hours from here that is 4 miles long or so and takes days to explore. I was reading about it and it sounded pretty cool until I saw this picture. Now I'm questioning if I want to go caving at all.

This passage is called the airblower. It's 30 feet long and requires wiggling the whole way to get through. It's slightly downhill as you go into the cave, so you can't wriggle backwards uphill. Cavers going through have webbing tied off to them so if they get stuck you can pull them back out. It's ten inches wide at its narrowest point and requires you to exhale to squeeze through.

There is absolutely no way that I'm doing this. Would you?
Attachment 48797

In a word. NO!

Just looking at that picture makes me uncomfortable. I can't believe they'd allow untrained visitors to attempt it.

No fucking way. :headshake

No fuck king way.
No

Nope

Noey

I'm going out for a walk.

Gah.


It looks like a birth cah fucking nal

10 inches? There has to be a bunch of skin cells and body hair ground into the pores of that rocky vagima.

That sounds like the thing I would like to do the least. Honestly, i would rather break a bone in my foot.

Other than that, it sounds like a fun trip. Have fun, glatt. Take a lot of gopro footage.

But none of that nightmare part

Here's my answer too.


No fucking way. It's... geometrically impossible unless we have different definitions of this thing you call and "inch".

As for trips in general, is there some way you can make a reconnaissance trip to a given destination with a more limited group, maybe you and some other adult, or you and your son. That gives you a chance compare what the trip's like on the ground to what it's like in the guidebooks or on the internet. Sometimes it's substantially different. Also, maybe not for this caving trip, but you can go to a site and travel only part of a trail suitable for the skill level and adventure desire of the kids on the trip.

I did this for a hike last winter. I scouted out about 1 mile of a 5 mile hike because there just wasn't time that day to scout out the whole hike. It looked perfect for our needs for a first easy hike the new scouts could do to train for a bigger 10 mile one in a month.

So we went back to do the entire 5 miles, and after the 1st mile, the trail went down a hillside into the shade, where there was a little snow and ice by the side of the trail, and then a little more, and a little more, and it was really incremental the way it changed. So we kept going forward until it got to the point that it was so icy, it was a little bit dangerous with the now icy rock scrambling. But by then we were 80% of the way around the loop, and nobody wanted to backtrack, so I and the other leaders figured we'd just keep going forward and be careful. That's when one of the boys slipped and smashed his forehead on the ice. Fortunately, he was OK and his dad was even with us, but he did get two golf ball sized bumps on his forehead, and looked like a Klingon.

But if we do this cave, it will be with a guide who is an expert, and we don't have to go through this crazy passage. A couple of the troop leaders have been in this cave before and recommend it.

Good man.

Overall, cave, yes. That death-trap, not no, HELLNO!

Caves are very exciting trips, they're different than practically all of the other experiences the young people have. It's dark at night in some places, but never darker than in the cave. That is cool. Have fun man!

Not something I see every day
Attachment 48805

I'm actually kinda impressed with the 'truck'.

That, friends and neighbors, is ingenuity. Or, enginuity.

:D

My head wouldn't fit through that hole.

And, unfortunately, no, that's not what she said.