For the serious outdoor gearhead, there’s always a place to shop online for that all-important gear fix. When you simply have to have that one thing, a number of websites will cater to you and even send you a daily email with a link to the latest and greatest gear.

Many of us have heard of steepandcheap.com, which offers “one killer gear deal, one item at a time until it’s gone” right on their home page. Similarly, there’s outdoordaily.com, where I got a kick out of today’s deal: a mahogany cocktail case with an adjustable shoulder strap and service for two. The case contains an impressive list of items, including martini glasses, but I didn’t see any Water Wings to help the inebriated picnicker swim home.

Then there’s Moosejaw Lowdown, which offers a new deal everyday at 11:00 EST.

Of course, one can only have so much gear. What do you do with the stuff you no longer want or need? Why, you donate it to outfits such as Gear4Good.org, whose policy of reuse gives useful items new life and keeps them out of the waste stream (i.e., our clogged landfills).

Gear: Good for everyone, good for the planet.

~winehiker

• The Profound Tenets of Bootism
  One cannot provide sufficient answer to those who must ask Why. If one must ask, one cannot know the answer. One must merely start walking - and keep walking. The answer just may reveal itself, and change one forever.
  (tags: walking hiking why bootism philosophy friendowl winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)

This morning I discovered a very wonderful message on the Summit Post bulletin board by a fellow from Los Angeles who calls himself friendowl. I felt compelled to share friendowl’s post here on this blog; one might presume that friendowl had just begun a trek of the Pacific Crest Trail at the Mexican border.

A border patrol agent pulled up next to me. He rolled down his window. “You know, I’ve seen other people doing this walk. I just don’t get it… I mean, what do you get out of it?”, he asked. There I was, only a day from the border, and for the first time someone had asked me the direct question, “Why?”. I couldn’t articulate a proper response. “It’s just a great experience…”, I told him, “It’s a wonderful feeling of freedom.” He squinted at me, like that made no sense to him. What he really seemed to want was reassurance that he wasn’t missing some great truth, and that’s what he seemed to get. He drove off shaking his head. Further down the road, I posed the question again to myself. “Why?” There were an infinite number of choices to take in life, a million routes to happiness, why had I picked this one? I suppose I always knew the answer, but like so many things, that answer was complicated. I thought of all the things I could have told the man:

I hike the trail because life is made of experiences, and I hope to have as many as possible.

I hike the trail because unfulfilled dreams become regrets, and I intend to have as few as possible.

I hike the trail to share in something unique that few have known, or will ever know.

I hike the trail to experience beauty, to be immersed in it.

I hike the trail to see and to better understand the country I live in.

I hike the trail to learn about my own limitations.

I hike the trail to learn about how the world works, and to better understand my place in the natural order of things.

I hike the trail to avoid living a life that has already been played out by countless others.

I hike the trail to think, to dream, to imagine and to reflect, unencumbered by the distractions of modern life.

I hike the trail to endure mental and physical hardships, and perhaps become stronger as a result.

I hike the trail to learn what is truly important in my life, in any life.

I hike the trail to separate my wants from my needs.

I hike the trail to meet people, and learn from them.

I hike the trail to live an active life rather than a passive one.

I hike the trail to gain perspective, not only to think, but to live “outside the box”.

I hike the trail to be able to share the experience with others who either cannot or do not care to do it themselves.

I hike the trail to achieve a level of physical conditioning I’ve never thought possible.

I hike the trail to experience things that cannot be described with words or pictures.

I hike the trail to live not in fear, but in wonder.

But I was fairly certain that even if I had told [the border patrolman] all those things, he still would not have understood. And frankly, I would not have fully explained anything. What I really should have told him was that if he had to ask, I could never provide a sufficient answer. It was a question that could only be answered within. Finally, I thought that maybe all those things were just details, that hiking the trail wasn’t a thing to be thought of that way. Maybe it isn’t what we do but rather who we are that is important. I hike the trail not to “do something”, but to “become something”… to become someone. I didn’t know if that person I’d become was good or bad, but there it was - I was someone else.

Eloquent thoughts. I believe friendowl is right to say that one can never provide a sufficient answer. It can only be the choice of the questioner to think beyond his or her own personal treadmill to discover the answer for themselves. One has to decide whether to walk the trail and discover their own Bootism* - that place into which we walk, a place where we become connected with the Earth from which we’ve sprung, as well as reconnected with the Spring that is within ourselves. Such a choice can indeed result in a personal transformation - a discovery and an exploration of new self-truths.

And yet those of us who understand where friendowl is coming from know we cannot easily convince others as to why we hike. Neither should we beat our heads against the wall trying. However, if we recount enough stories in which our passion naturally exudes in their telling, we might intrigue a certain few to that point of criticality - that epiphanic moment in which the other person suddenly understands the truth of your words, filtered through their own experience, and says, in effect, “OK, you seem happy. I think I’ll try it.”

Mountains, indeed, can move us. And we, in turn, can move mountains, one bootstep at a time.

~winehiker

*Some might say that Bootism is all about the shoe. The winehiker contends that Bootism is all about walking in them. After all, style is fleeting; only substance endures.

• A simple change we can all make today
  The challenge we each face today is to shift to compact fluorescents in our own homes if we have not already. Few things can cut carbon emissions faster than this simple step.
  (tags: light bulb compact fluorescent energy savings environment CFL earth winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)

There’s a site called urltrends.com which sends me monthly reports, in visual and textual fashion, of how my website and my blog are trending. These reports display eight-month charts of Google Page Rank, Alexa Traffic Rank, Google Link Popularity, Yahoo! Link Popularity, and more. I can even compare my sites to other sites and blogs. The latest urltrends report for this blog arrived via email last night, and almost made me fall out of my chair.

Winehiker Witiculture suddenly has a Google Page Rank of 6!!!

I won’t attempt to explain what Google Page Rank is; plenty of technosites already do a pretty reasonable job of it. Suffice to say that ”6″ is good. It is very good, and it’s telling me that I’m doing the right things. I think I’ll keep on doin’ ‘em.

Already, my traffic has gone up about 20% today, though that’s extremely short term. We’ll see what the next month brings. But Holy Cow anyway.

~winehiker

I wrote recently about the inefficiency of incandescent light bulbs and the lack of municipal programs for recycling their lead content. But the fact remains that we need to replace these archaic energy-wasting bulbs with the much-more-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. In a world facing almost daily new evidence of global warming and its consequences, there is a need for a quick decisive victory in the effort to cut carbon emissions and stabilize our climate. If we can engineer a rapid phase-out of inefficient incandescents, we can almost ensure just such a victory, as well as generate momentum for even greater advances in climate stabilization.

CFLs can cost five times as much as incandescent bulbs. But a CFL uses only one fourth as much electricity, lasts 10 times as long, and easily saves $50 during its lifetime. 

According to the Earth Policy Institute, switching light bulbs is an easy way of realizing large immediate gains in energy efficiency. A U.S. government study calculated that the gasoline equivalent of the energy saved over the lifetime of one 24-watt compact fluorescent bulb is sufficient to drive a Prius from New York to San Francisco.

True, new CFL bulbs can cost five times as much as incandescents. But the real truth is: a compact fluorescent bulb uses only one fourth as much electricity, lasts 10 times as long, and easily saves $50 during its lifetime.

I noted previously that a disadvantage of compact fluorescents is that each bulb contains a small amount of mercury, roughly one fifth the amount in a watch battery. This mercury is only a small fraction of that released into the atmosphere by the additional coal burned to power an incandescent. Nonetheless, worn-out compact fluorescents, watch batteries, and other items that contain mercury still need to be recycled properly. Fortunately, fluorescent bulb recycling is possible in many locales, whereas the mercury spewing from coal smokestacks blankets the countryside, ending up in the water and food supply.

Home Depot was one of the first major retailers to jump on the incandescent bulb bandwagon with its Change a Light and Change the World program, which recommends qualified ENERGY STAR bulbs and appliances. The program claims:

If every U.S. household changed their five most frequently used light fixtures (or the bulbs in them) to ENERGY STAR qualified lighting, it would keep more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the air. This would also save a total of $6 billion in energy or approximately the annual output of 21 power plants.

In the United States, an ingenious website called www.18seconds.org (the name derives from the time it takes to change a light bulb), provides a running tally of compact fluorescents sold nationwide since January 1, 2007. As of early May, it totaled nearly 37 million bulbs, yielding a reduction in carbon emissions comparable to taking 260,000 cars off the road.  

The challenge for each of us, of course, is to shift to compact fluorescents in our own homes if we have not already. Few things can cut carbon emissions faster than this simple step. The best part is: we don’t have to wait for our government to tell us to make this shift.

Sources: Home Depot, Earth Policy Institute

~winehiker

Virginie Boone, wine writer for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, alerts us to a documentary screening slated for tomorrow night.

Zan Media will screen “A State of Vine,” a new documentary on the wine world this Thursday night at Boulevard Cinemas in Petaluma.

With insight and commentary from many in the local wine biz - including Two Buck Chuck’s Fred Franzia, members of the Robledo family, Pat Roney (who just bought Windsor Vineyards) and third-generation winemaker Mike Martini, it should be an interesting take on what’s going on in our own backyard.

Last time I was in Petaluma, two summers ago, a lot of construction was going on downtown. Now there’s a spanking-new theater district, and Boulevard Cinemas claims to be the first all-digital movie theater in California. If you can make it to the screening, take a walk down the block afterward to Sooze Café & Wine Bar for a plate of wine-braised short ribs and a glass of the ‘04 Preston Dry Creek Rhone Blend.

~winehiker

• Wine review: 2005 Protero Gumeracha Viognier
  When the weather suddenly turns warm, this 2005 Viognier from Protero of Adelaide Hills offers cool comfort.
  (tags: wine review viognier protero adelaide hills australia winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• Food & Wine Matching Guide
  From tastings.com: guidance and stimulation for the culinary imagination.
  (tags: wine food pairing matching cooking)
• Aussie moths invading California vineyards!!
  In February, an invasive moth species was discovered in nearby Alameda County and has now infested numerous areas including Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin and Santa Clara counties. Yikes!!
  (tags: wine moth vineyard pest california australia native leaf roll)
• The Top 10 Mother’s Day gift ideas for the wine lover
  Sons and daughters, and do your mom proud this Sunday.
  (tags: top ten 10 mom mother mama wine gifts gift certificate winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)

 

For all the joy she brought you, Mom deserves her special day.

Mother’s Day is fast approaching. Yikes - it’s this Sunday, May 13th! If you’re of a mind to patiently excuse all the shameless commercialism, you might just find that underneath the hype waits something special for dear old mom. And you know she deserves something special from you, right?

Hardly shameful myself, at least when it comes to rewarding my own mom, I hereby offer the Top 10 Mother’s Day Gift Ideas for the Wine Lover.

1. What to Drink with What You Eat. What Mom doesn’t want to know which wines will pair with anything from chicken enchiladas to cajun creole? In this extremely user-friendly beverage pairing guide you will get terrific suggestions for all sorts of drinks from wine to tea. A top notch accompaniment to your favorite recipe books!

2. A Subscription to Food & Wine Magazine. A Mother’s day gift that reminds Mom how special she is month after month! Food & Wine offers an array of food and wine pairings, easy to extravagant recipes and up to date tips on wine recommendations and concise reviews. A great option for a Mom that is beginning a wine adventure!

3. Wine Country Gift Baskets. Send Mom an elegant gift basket this Mother’s Day! Each basket is tastefully arranged and offers a variety of gift options - from wine, coffee, tasty treats, to spa baskets. Show Mom just how special she is by hand-selecting a fine wine or favorite chocolate to accompany her Mother’s Day flowers. Price range: $20+

4. Chocolate of the Month Club. The next best thing to a Wine of the Month Club membership would be a Chocolate of the Month Memberbship gift! Nothing says “Happy Mother’s Day” like wine and chocolate. Truly decadent gift ideas, for Moms this season. Price range: approximately $25 a month.

5. Sweet and Dessert Wine Club Membership from Avalon. Most Moms enjoy sweet treats. What could be sweeter than a wine club membership of nothing but dessert wines? Avalon Wine Club has put together a wine club tailored to the Sweet Tooth for a max of $45 a month.

6. The Olivier. The Olivier offers a exquisite olive oils, dipping oils and cooking oils, vinegars and mustards for Moms with Epicurean tastes. They also incorporate an impressive selection of accessories and gift ideas from handmade tableware from Provence to stemware and home decor - you can’t miss this Mother’s Day with a gift from The Olivier.

7. Napa Valley Wine Train Tickets. Who wouldn’t enjoy a day trip on one of Napa Valley’s most talked about excursions? Tour the famous California wine country on board an elegant railcar, for 36 miles of vineyard views!

8. Wine Themed Home Decor. International Wine Accessories provides a one stop shop for all wine related accessories and a commendable selection of wine-themed home decor. Why not give Mom a personalized cellar plaque?

9. Napa Style Gifts. Ahhh…the lifestyle of the Napa Valley…elegant, refined, yet casual and confident, bring a bit of the Napa lifestyle to your Mom this Mother’s Day with Napa Style gifts, gourmet foods, wines and much much more. Napastyle.com is a great starting place to find that perfect gift for the wine country Mom!

10. A Wine Gift Certificate. A gift certificate offers maximum flexibility and convenience this Mother’s Day. A number of online wine merchants provide a vast selection of premium wines and accessories for Mom to choose her own wine or wine accessories. California Wine Hikes, my tour company, offers gift certificates in many dollar denominations toward any California Wine Hikes wine and hiking tour. They are even affordable!

So come on, sons and daughters, and do your mom proud this Sunday.

Source: wine.about.com.

~winehiker

In February, an invasive moth species was discovered in nearby Alameda County and has now infested numerous areas including Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin and Santa Clara counties. The Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) is a native of the southern Australia states of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is believed to have been brought into California recently on infested plant material by private passengers on airlines.

The LBAM doesn’t look particularly threatening - unless you’re an apple tree or a grape vine. This moth spends its life sucking the nutrients out of the leaves of many commercial and horticultural crops. In fact, it attacks nearly all types of fruit crops, ornamentals, vegetables, greenhouse crops, and occasionally young pine seedlings, causing leaf roll and damaged fruit. It’s classified as a noxious insect in these United States, and must be controlled by integrated pest management practices which can include biological controls, pesticides, and mating disruption.

Whoa, I sure hope the State of California opts first to find a predator that will feast on these pesky varmints. Perhaps a marketing campaign to attract insect-eating birds that don’t eat grapes.

~winehiker