Les Wackaboos

11 years ago in 1996 I was a Junior at Clemson and part of the landmark radio show "Les Wackadous" featured every Saturday afternoon on WSBF 88.1 FM Clemson. My good friends Paul Dean and Terry B hosted the show and in honor of Halloween we did a Day of the Dead show. This special evil Halloween themed edition of Les Wackadous saw the Les Wacka crew at their peak and included appearances from all the key contributors to the 1996 season as well as regular guest Diamond David Lee Roth and special guest Count Dracula.

This show 1st aired on October 26, 1996 and by the wonders of the internets, I give it to you on this Halloween in its entirety HERE.

Happy Halloween Boys & Ghouls!

Letter to the Editor of Crested Butte News

Crested Butte is in the midst of a town council election and although I haven´t been involved in local politics for the 2 years that I´ve lived here, there´s just too many important issues to sit on the sidelines for this one.

I submitted the following letter to the editor of Crested Butte News in support of Reed Betz for Town Council:


To the Editor:

We all live in Crested Butte for a reason. I find myself day in and day out awe-inspired by this community and the beauty of this town. Conserving our watersheds, air quality, viewsheds, wildlife, and backcountry access while focusing on affordable housing and energy efficiency are values I share with many residents of this town. One of those residents is Reed Betz.

I have followed Reed’s responses to questions in Crested Butte News´ “Meet the Candidates” series and had the privilege of hearing him speak at the Candidates Forum on October 18th. Reed’s positive vision for Crested Butte on housing, schools and energy-independence coupled with his principled stances on the Red Lady and Snodgrass Mountain issues demonstrates that he has what it takes to make critical decisions with our community’s best interest in mind.

I cast my ballot for Reed Betz earlier this week and I hope you will do the same.

Sincerely,

Lawton Grinter

Rockies Ruckus 2008 (Feb 29th - Mar 2nd)

The Rockies Ruck is a low-key get-together of long-distance hikers held every Winter in Leadville, Colorado. My homeboy Mags just sent me the following e-mail below with details on this year's Rockies Ruck.

The photo above is of my other homeboy D-Low enjoying his time at last year's Rockies Ruck.

From the Desk of Mags:

There have always been Gatherings, Rucks, Kick Offs and Trail Days
on the East and West coasts.... many of us here in Rockies felt it
was time to do one in our neck of the mountains. In 2005, 2006 and
2007 we did!

The Ruck is a low key get together for those who enjoy the long
trails. Does not matter if you are thru-hiker, a section hiker, day
hiker or a dreamer...you just need to love the outdoors and the long
trails!

More info on what a Ruck is all about:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040111105214/friends.backcountry.net/ruck/

This year, we are again having the Ruck at the Leadville Hostel

(http://www.leadvillehostel.com) in Leadville, CO on Feb 29th - Mar 2nd.

The last weekend of February/ first weekend of March. (Leap year,
don't you know!)

Some of you CDTers/CTers and American Discovery Trail folks probably
know Wild Bill and Cathy from your stay at the hostel. They are
continuing to be one of the most friendly hostels owners on ANY trail.

As with previous years, the cost will be ~$60 for a bunk, shower, four
meals (2 dinners, 2 dinners. We'll do a potluck lunch on Saturday).
There are LIMITED amounts of private/couple rooms, so if you prefer a
room to a bunk, I suggest reserving early.

All reservations can be done at:

http://www.leadvillehostel.com

You can also make reservations at:

(719) 486-9334

Tell Bill that it is for the ROCKIES RUCK. The hostel can accommodate
vegetarian needs. Pets are allowed. "Adult drinks" are allowed for
those who behave like adults. (Which means, I can drink my wine! :D)

The hostel itself has a HUGE TV for the slide shows, plenty of space
downstairs for gear stuff. If you are doing a trail, there are AT,
PCT, CDT and other trail veterans happy to answer any questions.

During the day, plenty of skiing/snowshoeing opportunities abound.
There is even a shop in Leadville that rents the equipment, too. For
anyone who enjoys alpine skiing, Ski Cooper is nearby at Tennesee
Pass. If you need supplies, Leadville has a Safeway.

Photos from previous years at:

http://snipurl.com/12agr

http://snipurl.com/1sv76

Any more questions? Please e-mail me at pmags AT yahoo.com
(replace the AT with an @)

Also suggest going to the Yahoo Group set up for the ruck at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rockies_ruck/

Scarps Ridge Hike

Today I took off with P.O.D., Gimpy, Matt and Andy to scout some backcountry terrain in the area around Copley Lake and Elk Basin just outside of Crested Butte. We started at the Elk Creek Trailhead before 9 AM and hiked up to the Copley Lake junction with the Standard Mine. Heading into Elk Basin was mellow but the hike up to Scarps Ridge was gnar. View from Scarps Ridge were sickbird and included: Mt. Emmons, Gunsight Pass, Redwell Basin, Peeler Lakes, Ruby Peak, Mt. Owens, Purple Peak, Afley Peak, Beckwith, the Anthracites, Mt. Axtel and Carbon Peak along with a few hundred others! Pics are on the web now. We finished up the hike by heading down the ridge just West of Elk Creek and then dropping back down to the trailhead. 2,5oo´of up and 2,500´of down. Good hike on a beautiful day minus the haze over Gunnison County apparently due to a large prescribed burn somewhere nearby.

DANG!!!

Made it to DANG!!! tonight. The best thing about this snowboard film was that a good bit of it was filmed at the Crested Butte Ski Resort and in the backcountry near town. It was pretty cool to see video of places I had actually snowboarded myself.

From the Siskel & Ebert & Ropert standpoint . . . this was an independent / low-budget / filmed by locals snowboard flick and was probably edited on a Mac with Final Cut Pro and was really well done. Strong soundtrack. My only complaint was the audio quality in the voice-overs . . . it really sounded like they used their Mac´s built-in microphone which produces mediocre sound quality with a lot of noticeable background noise. A $50 microphone would have done wonders for their voice-overs. All in all it was a good flick and worth the $10. Apparently DANG!!! will be available for sale online from the Colorado Border for the same price in the coming days and will include a bonus film for free. I almost wish I had saved my $10 for the 2 DVD´s but what can ya do?

The end of the night was spent with a crew of folks at a friends house watching the Rockies go down 10-5 in Game 3. Geez.

Hot Tubbin´

Hot Tubbin´with a cocktail on an early Friday evening. It´s one of my few saving graces after a long long day of laying down Benjamin Moore semi-solid wood stain on some 2nd homeowners decks.

Not a whole heck of a lot to report from today. I listened to Don & Mike for a couple of hours on P.O.D.´s iPod at work in addition to Mac OS Ken. The MacCast wasn´t really doin´it for me today. Sometimes it just gets too geeky.

I didn´t make it to the Schralptown Revisited flick tonight, but hope to check out DANG!!! tomorrow at the CBCA. Check out the trailer for DANG!!! It makes me want to shred the gnar and try to get in 100 DAYS this year. The mountain opens in 22 days. Woop!

Pot Luck

Crested Butte is big on pot luck dinners and tonight P.O.D. and I went to the Red Lady pot luck complete with live music and the annual report from the High Country Citizens Alliance (HCCA) . . . the organization that is spearheading the fight to keep a big Molybdenum mine out of our town.

Tomorrow night HCCA is hosting the ski movie "Schralptown Revisited" which is part of the Keep Winter White Tour from Thrillhead Creations. Should be cool. Just about anything other than painting houses is cool these days.

Lifecasting ???

People blog. People podcast. People videocast. And now . . . people lifecast. I came across this article on Yahoo news with a video report on people that lifecast . . . they allow their lives to be filmed and broadcast 24/7. You might be thinking that this is some kind of explicit/internet porn thing but it's not. It's PG at best for the most part and really not that exciting. It's everyday life.

Lifecasting got its start back in 96' with a college student in a dorm room but now Justin Kan, owner of justin.tv, has taken it to another level with mobile feeds and wireless technology.

I checked out Justine Ezarik's lifecast along with a few others on justin.tv and I gotta say that for the most part, they´re boring. But then again how exciting can it really be to watch people go thru their daily routines . . . morning chores, going shopping, bowling and spending time on a computer? In my opinion . . . not very. Take a look and tell me what you think.

No Mine on Mt. Emmons

The big mountain just above Gimpy´s head and to the right is Mt. Emmons . . . locally known here in Crested Butte as Red Lady. Red Lady is visible from anywhere you stand in the town of Crested Butte. US Energy Corp. owns 5,465 acres within the Coal Creek & Ohio Creek watersheds which this mountain is a part of and they want to open a large Molybdenum mine on Red Lady what would be in operation for a minimum of 10 years and as long as 50 years.

Our town is up in arms about this. Crested Butte has a Tourist/Outdoor Recreation-based economy and this mine would kill it. Not too mention what would happen to our water supply if a large-scale Molybdenum mine with its associated tailings pond existed above the town.

Tonight at 6:30 PM the High Country Citizens Alliance held a town forum on what could be done to stop this mine from ever happening in our town. It looks like a buyout might be possible but it´d take some big $$$ to make that happen. As it turns out, the fight to keep Red Lady mine-free has been going on for 29 years now. This town is in for the long haul and my hope is that we do keep Red Lady mine-free.

Why I Don't Have to Work Today . . .

My roommate's weather clock shows it to be 14.2 Degrees this morning and that does not bode well when you paint house exteriors for money. 40 is the magical number in the painting world . . . 40 Degrees that is. Anything lower than that and it's a no go. Today's projected high here in Crested Butte is 32 so I've got the day off work!

I've got no immediate plans on how I'm going to spend this bonus day but I'm sure I'll figure out something. The one thing I keep putting off the most is a little sewing project I have to do sometime before I start my Pacific Crest Trail hike this coming April with P.O.D. I'd jump on it but I haven't yet figured out the French Seam. I have a lot of Spanish homework to take care of before class tonight.

1st Snow of the Season

Woke up this morning to 5 inches of fresh snow!

And working outside as a painter means that I got a Snow Day . . . just like elementary school!!!!

Winter is on it´s way and the ski resort opens 1 month from today!

More snow is expected on Sunday and Monday with another front moving in.