Recent content by tketcham

Used to be road bicycling in the summer and skiing (alpine & Nordic) in the winter but I don't ride roads anymore and I'm only a half-hearted mountain bike rider. Fifteen years ago I moved away from some of the best Nordic skiing in North America and ended up 15 miles from a big alpine ski...

The Yakima Timberline towers ($240) and round bar adapters ($30) fit the rails on our Subaru Crosstrek and work well, even at interstate highway speeds. I hated having to give up on my old Yakima Q-clip towers, though, they were still in really good shape. At least I got my money's worth after...

I think car manufacturers should be the ones to come up with a better solution. Back when cars had roof gutters you could buy a roof rack and it would fit on just about all of the cars sold. But now that gutters are gone and roof rails dominate, Yakima and Thule have to accommodate all those...

I resemble that remark. 😆

I used to have the attitude that a little bit of plastic burned in a campfire was a proverbial drop in the ocean but not anymore. Sure, if I'm the only one burning a little garbage the harm is minimal, but millions of people go camping every year so the effect isn't small. Now I pack out...

I don't use cloud accounts so maybe I can send you a direct message with an attached file. I'll try it...

Yup, and you're welcome. I actually find spreadsheets and charts to be fun. And let USGS know that their data is useful. This is something new that they're offering and they could use some encouragement to keep it going. I'm not familiar with the suggested run levels you provided (never ran the...

A limited/permitted hunt of cougars (for meat) near residential areas might be somewhat effective in reducing attacks. Biggest problem is hunting IN residential areas. The overpopulation of deer is a related problem. Too many deer in and near residential areas but no good way to hunt them. I've...

As with most human foibles, the range of biophobia to biophilia is a spectrum but extremes in either direction probably aren't good for us. For example, I don't spend as much time in the woods or along streams and shorelines as I once did because of the risk of ticks/disease and the interaction...

I'm really looking forward to canoeing in 2026, more so than usual. Last year was an OK year but due to other commitments and priorities we didn't get out as much as I like. This year is dedicated to canoeing so I'm hoping to do a lot more camping and backcountry trips, paddling with friends...

I've been looking at that canoe as well. I found some reviews and discussions (here and other websites) but it's mostly about how well the Polaris works as a solo canoe, not as a tandem. There's a thread (kbobb) asking about the Polaris over at the Tandem Forum but no activity so far.

I like maps, too. I used maps extensively for my job and my love of maps goes way back, when I'd go into old drugstores or hardware stores to see if they had any old (pre-1950's) USGS maps. Those had all kinds of now-lost information about homesteads, camps, single-room schools, lookout towers...

We ended up terminating our Tracfone accounts and went with T-Mobile, which offers satellite texting when outside their cell coverage areas. We've used it once while driving within the Adirondacks but I haven't used it for texting while backcountry canoeing. I don't like using my cell phone...

Here's a chart of annual discharge averages for the Owyhee River at Rome, OR, which shows how variable the flows are from year to year: And here's a chart of monthly streamflow from 1950 to 2024 displaying middle 50% of discharge (2nd & 3rd quartile boxes with median and mean indicated)...

Snowpack water equivalent is tough to predict this early in the season because a couple of good storm cycles can bring it back fast. You'll get a better idea as the season progresses. And as mentioned, this can be a flashy river system come spring runoff, whenever that happens. You can get a...