Posts by Olin Lathrop
This answer is "you shouldn't", since it appears from your description it's not your land and you have no authority over it. Unauthorized private modifications to public land can be a serious prob...
There are several ways to determine true north, especially when you have a map and compass: Competent maps, like most intended for backcountry hiking, will have the magnetic declination marked. T...
This is a good question, and there are actually some scientific issues to consider. I think morally we can all agree that it would be wrong to kill someone to eat them. But let's consider the sit...
Here in the US, it depends on whether it's just a historical site, or if there are artifacts. Disturbing or defacing historical or archeological artifacts on public lands is a felony, and is taken...
I appreciate everyone's help and opinions here, and want to report what we ended up doing. We (the Town of Groton Massachusetts Trails Committee) looked at a variety of options. At first the plan...
A bunch of years ago I got a good enough look at a Canada Goose on Plum Island in Massachusetts to read the tag number. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly where I eventually found to report it...
I have no idea what "sounded like wind chimes" is supposed to mean. No animal that I know of makes a metallic clinking sound. The closest would be several frogs, but that doesn't fit at all with ...
You don't see robins in the woods for the same reason you don't see prarie dogs there either; it's not their habitat. Notice that most of the time when you see a robin, it's hopping along the grou...
First, don't be holier than though. People resent that. Be realistic. Push for what matters in the area you're in. Hard and strict rules without regard to the situation are just religion. Peop...
You may like the look, but those trees are in the process of being killed by a nasty invasive, Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus). It is one of the more common invasives in MA. There ha...
Great Blue Herons don't seem to be territorial. Nesting sites usually have a few to a dozen nests at a time, sometimes three in the same tree. This is so common they are referred to as heron "roo...
I've probably been car camping at a public campground a few 100 nights in my life. Of all those, I can only remember having stuff stolen from the campsite once. For some of the early experiences ...
I don't know about poison oak, but have lots of experience with posion ivy. I think the irritant in both is similar (urushiol oil, or something like that). This answer applies to poison ivy, whic...
Mountains change height on geologic time scales. If a list of mountains above a certain height changes in one or two human lifetimes, then very likely this is due to measurement errors or refineme...
People getting killed by black bears is exceedingly rare. There are roughly 1 per year in North America, and most of those in Canada and Alaska. If you are in your tent at night and hear what you...
The automatic f-stop mechanism (iris) in your eye is less sensitive to red light than the shorter wavelengths. Therefore, red light provides some illumination, but doesn't trigger your eye to stop...
There are many trails and therefore many trailheads with a variety of road types leading to them. Most of the roads in Rocky Mountain National Park can be traveled by ordinary passenger cars, at l...
Invite them both on a day hike. That's a end onto itself, so no need to pretend anything else. You can watch the interaction between #2 and #3, and talk about experiences to find out what #3's qu...
Here in the US, "horses in a field" would imply the field is fenced. That means you should stay out. There is one exception, which is if you know the land is public property and it's OK to walk o...
No, 100 ml per hour is way too little in many circumstances. That would mean only 1 l over a 10 hour hike. Anyone that's been on a 10 hour hike, even not in particularly hot or dry weather, can t...
No, it doesn't matter much. The regulations for what can be done in a national monument or park (the only difference between the two is that one is established by presidential edict, the other by ...
What you are specifically asking for is quite rare. That is because any place wet enough to have the kind of grass you want will have trees. There are vast grassy areas in the center of North Ame...
Many printer drivers and other software allow you to "tile" a large document or a magnified one on multiple pages. You can usually specify the overlap between pages, which only needs to be enough ...
Since wide open plains is one of your objectives, I'd stick to the relatively drier areas east and north of the northern end of the Sacramento Valley. The coastal range is quite wet in comparison,...
35° is 35°, whether in your car, in your pack, or in your refrigerator back home. However, handling raw meat otherwise is very different outdoors than at home. Personally, I think bringing raw me...
