Ah Maine, I don't know what it is, but I really like this state. I've been a few times now; My first time we went to Camden for a Wind Jammer cruise back in 1998, and it was hands down the best vacation I have ever had in my life.

Our most recent adventure in Maine was through L.L. Bean's Outdoor Discovery School where we did their Camping Bike Tour, or as I was calling it the Yuppie Bike Tour. The reason for yuppie is because of the camping part -- they provided tents, cots, Adirondack chairs, running water (showers and toilets), etc. I'm used to rugged camping and this felt like cheating. Of course, Ali was thrilled with the amenities, and probably wouldn't have even suggested the trip otherwise.

The program was just an overnight with two days biking around the Maine coast. We decided to take Friday and Monday off to give us leisurely travels to and from Maine. We left Friday morning driving most of the day. We got to Portland around dinner time and headed into the Old Port section of downtown to find a place to eat. After dinner we headed into Freeport to find our hotel.

Saturday morning we made it to the Outdoor Discovery Grounds bright and early beating the 18 or so other people who would be participating in the weekend events. Normally I would have given Ali a hard time about this, but we got first pick of the tents, and a few other benefits. As a result we took the tent with the best view of Casco Bay.

The first day of riding wasn't too challenging for me, but was a good ride for Ali. I tried to ride at Ali's pace for the bulk of the 20 mile ride. About half way through we came to a beautiful park right on the ocean where we stopped and had lunch. Afterwards we rode to a small farm where some live stock was about. We rested as we looked around, and eventually we continued on back to the campground.

At the campground Ali took a nap and I began reading L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon, which was conveniently left in all of the tents. It was good enough that I bought a copy the next day when we visited the Bean store. Eventually we showered and then drove into town to get a bottle of wine to go with dinner.

Dinner was fresh Maine lobster direct from the ocean, and for those of us who are allergic to shell fish they also had steak which came from a locally raised and organically fed animal. That evening, with a small fire glowing in the fire can, we all sat around chatting and getting to know each other. Sometime around 9pm a small rain storm moved in and everyone retired to their tents.

The next morning we were greeted with pancakes chalked full of fresh Wild Main Blueberries, fruit, and ham. After gorging on breakfast, I would have been content to sit around in my Adirondack chair and just relax, but alas the open road was calling.

We had a choice of the short ride, which turned out to be about 25 miles, or a long ride, which was about 32 miles. I took the longer ride, and Ali the short one. Since I had taken it easy the day before my goal was to ride hard, and I did just that. At the half way point we stopped at a wharf or a point or something and had lunch. Due to the varying lengths in the rides everyone was really spread out, and we didn't get to eat lunch together as a group. I guess we didn't really get back together after that. As people returned to the camp ground they packed up and left. Ali and I had another day in Freeport so we weren't in a hurry to leave, and ended up lounging in a hammock for a little while.

That night we ate at a great little pizza place called Antoinette's (or something like that). It was Greek like Mata's, and though they weren't as good as Mata's they were a close second. After diner we went to the Bean store and indulged our Beanly desires.

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So Ali and I bought a Wii a few weeks ago -- this thing is absolutely amazing! It comes with Wii Sports, which has golf, bowling, tennis, boxing, and baseball.

So if you haven't heard, the thing works via natural movement using an accelerometer and motion sensors. When playing sports, you actually perform the movement you would just as if it were real. This last sentence just popped a reference to War Games into my head:

David: Is it a game... or is it real?
Joshua: What's the difference?
David: Oh wow.

This dialog is very apropos. With the Wii, what is the difference?

One of the biggest benefits of the natural motion thing is that Ali is on a somewhat level playing field with me. In the past she has shunned games because she isn't very good at them. She never played games much growing up, and frankly playing with someone who has a lot more experience and is much better than you -- well, it sucks. With the Wii though, we are both about as good as each other, and that has made playing games with me fun for her. In fact, up until this week I could not beat her at boxing. It's fun for her; it's fun for me; we are having a great time with this thing.

With Wii Sports, they include a program called Wii Fitness. Once day per a Mii you can run the program. (A Mii is your avatar in the gaming system.) It gives you three random tests picked from the training simulations. They judge you on speed, stamina, and balance. At the end they tell you how old you are. Let me just say, this has been a blast. We were both in our 60s the first time we tried. I have been tracking in my 20s this week. Ali has been in her 30s. One other thing about Wii Fitness (or Wii Sports in general) you do not tend to do well if you've been drinking. For instance, Ali and I had a bottle of wine with dinner one night, and she scored as 80 doing Wii Fitness that night.

Even though they've been out since last November they are still hard to find. If you happen upon one, I highly recommend it.

One of the browsing habits I've formed over the years is using the right-click (or context) menu for back and forward navigation, i.e. to return to the previous page I was on. I've found this to be fairly efficient; I don't have to care where my mouse points is -- I just right click, and then click 'Back'.

I switched to Firefox a couple of years ago, and I've been really happy, except ... There are certain times when the 'Back' and 'Forward' options disappear from the context menu. The biggest annoyance is when text is selected on a page they get removed. I would often go to a page; using find to search for text on the page; get what I need; then try to right-click to go back only to find the option was gone. I would then have to de-select the text, right-click, etc.

Well one of the strengths of Firefox is that it is extensible through the use of plugins. A while back I wrote a very simple plugin called backforward. Its sole purpose in life is to keep the 'Back' and 'Forward' options in the context menu.

Anyway, it's not much, but I wanted to call attention to it in case other Firefox users have shared my frustration.

So Nate, whose blog is so defunct it is embarrassing to link to it, turned me on to Alias a while back. I've been getting the seasons through Netflix, which is how I view all TV these days. Anyway, I'm on Season 4, and I'm watching the "tech" guy Marshall, who normally works from the safty of his office. In this episode, he has to act as an agent, and he inadvertently killed the person he was trying to get information from. It just so happens that the data is encrypted with a bio-metric retinal scanner. So now Marshall is tasked by a "real" agent to cut the guy's eyes out. Marshall says, "I don't think I can do this." To which Jack Bristow, a senior agent talking into Marshall's ear replies, "Sure you can, I'll talk you through it."

Now this struck me as really funny, because I've said that a thousand times to people I've had to work with over the phone. When I have to do this it doesn’t matter how much experience a person has, I can get them through it. So I immediately stopped the show to write this entry. For the life of me, I can not fathom what Jack plans to say to get Marshall through this, but if I had to guess he'll do it coldly and calculated. Secondly, does everybody do this regardless of what industry you are in? -- "It's no problem, I'll just talk you through it."

As for what Jack says, you’ll have to watch the show to learn the answer.

Anyway, that just caught me off guard and I felt like sharing. On a related note, I have really enjoyed the show (thanks Nate!). They have this sci-fi 15th century prophet, Rembaldi, thread running through the whole series. What could be better than a spy show with sci-fi overtones? Well I gather Nate could do without the sci-fi, but I really like the formula.

The real title of this entry should be Grayson Highlands. Since there were actually wild ponies where we were hiking the other title just felt more fitting.

Grayson Highlands is the site of the trek David and I undertook in early June. We had the privilege of hiking with Brant, a friend of David's who lives in Abingdon, VA.

Brant is quite an experienced hiker. He understands about ultra-light hiking, and I feel like he advanced our knowledge by many, many years.

David and I have talked about how to get our packs lighter, much lighter off and on. Every time we take a look at it we seemed to walk away with the feeling that it just can't be done. Brant let us borrow a book Beyond Backpacking which has a lot of good information about how to lighten your pack.

I've figured out that my base pack weight without food, clothing, or water is 23lbs. My goal now is to get this weight to 10lbs or less. I believe picking the low hanging fruit will get my weight down to about 14.4lbs. I think the last 4.4lbs is going to be hard to get rid of, but I haven't yet taken a serious look at where I might be able to shave off the ounces and grams.

One of the big places I believe I can drop weight is by changing my pack. My current pack weights 5.56lbs (or 88.96 oz). I found a site that talks about making your own gear. A few people have designed backpacks, but there is one in particular, the G4 that weighs in at 12 oz and has the same amount of space as my current pack. It has gotten attention from a couple of companies and been commercialized to varying degrees. Quest Outfitters has put together a build it yourself kit. I am going to attempt this and have already purchased the kit. If I fail miserably at making my own, then another company, Gossamer Gear, has the pack for sale pre-assembled.

All of that is to say, I am really starting to understand how to lessen the load, and am very excited about trying to get there. One of the best quotes from the hike came from Brant, "You can easily have 80lbs of light weight hiking gear." The point is you have to be judicious about what you bring, and the things you do bring should have more than one function.

Grayson Highlands was great place. The AT intersects it in places, and as I said in the beginning of the post there were wild ponies. There was one group in particular that was right on the trail. None of the ponies we saw were skittish around people. One of them came right up to me and tried to eat my shoes, hiking poles, and shorts. It was quite amusing considering there was a sign when we entered the park that said, "Do not molest the ponies."

Brant was a great guide, and we ended up hiking about a 17 mile loop around the park. The first day was overcast, but that was nice since we were exposed most of the day. We found an awesome camp site. We setup camp; drank a bottle of wine; played around on a guitar Brant brought; and built a fire. Who would have thought you could bring wine and a guitar on a backpacking trip -- such luxuries.

Sometime in the early morning the rain came, and it was hard and steady all day. It turned out to be great because David and I had never really had to deal with rain on a backpacking trip. Since we were hiking out that day, it gave us a chance to experiment and gain some experience without any consequences. I was able to tie my hammock up to the guy wire and sit under its rain cover on a garbage bag, and stay completely dry. I was able to cook breakfast, and do my morning things without getting wet. I was unable to really get my hammock put away without it getting wet, but I now have a good idea of how to approach this in the future.

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