Island of Misfit Stories #4

Walking solves all problems, thru-hiking loneliness, a new California condor, and my official National Doughnut Day endorsements

Jun 01, 2023

The National Archives Reading Room, Air New Zealand Building 1985 // Material from Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Well, it’s a bit of a short week this week (hope y’all had great long weekends!), and I just wrapped a big project that ate up a decent chunk of my time … and I already sent out a bit of a bonus newsletter recently… so instead of giving myself another pass I’ve decided to instead just share the May ‘Island of Misfit Stories’ roundup with everyone instead of just the paid subscribers who usually see this thing.

I’ve done a few of these before, but for anyone who missed the explanation on the first edition, these are a little looser, a little more apt to go down tangents, and (I hope) just a slightly more personal glimpse inside my brain on topics that don’t strictly adhere to the outdoor world. Generally it’s less timely than the regular weekly newsletter because sometimes I hold onto these stories in the hopes that I can shoehorn them into the main newsletters.

I hope you enjoy this one … and hey, if you do, consider supporting this project with a paid subscription, maybe?

Go Take A Hike. Or Walk.

You know that over the past few years, Western science has caught up to measuring and quantifying the improvements we feel when we’re out hiking, but good ol’ fashioned walking is really no different. Most of the writers, thinkers, and artists we’ve elevated to a level of greatness over the past few hundred years had a habit of just taking a walk when they were feeling down or working on a problem, and no doubt you have noticed something similar. There was a great essay in the New York Times that highlights some of these luminaries with the excellent title “Whatever the Problem, It’s Probably Solved by Walking.” So maybe next time leave the car at home and walk to your next errand or appointment?

Hippocrates proclaimed that “walking is man’s best medicine.” The good doctor also knew that walking provided more than mere physical benefits when he suggested: “If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.” He was alluding to what so many who came after would attest, that walking not only nourishes the body but also soothes the mind while it burns off tension and makes our troubles recede into a more manageable perspective.

Welcome to the World, Condor 1215!

California condors have a wingspan of 9.5 feet, the largest of any bird in North America // pixabay

The story of the revival of the California Condor is a rare uplifting environmentalism tale. In 1987, there were only 22 California Condors in existence. But after many years of hard work from environmentalists, conservationists, and zoos (including Griffith Park’s L.A. Zoo and the San Diego Zoo), they now number over 500 in the wild.

Pinnacles National Park is home to many of these large birds, and earlier this month condor pair 589 and 569 successfully raised the new hatchling, Condor 1215. The little week-old fluffball was shared on the National Park’s Instagram account.

Condors 589 and 569 have already successfully raised four new condors inside Pinnacles National Park, and the park has given them the label “super parents.” Last year, some California condors were released in Northern California in coordination with the Yurok Tribe, meaning the birds are back in the Pacific Northwest for the first time in over a century!

This One Group Isn’t Worried About the Big Melt

In case you’ve been on vacation for the past … nine months (and if so, congratulations and do you have career tips?), you know much of the West had an abnormally large snowpack this winter. And now that temperatures are rising, much of that extra snowpack is melting, flooding rivers, washing out trails, and reviving old ghost lakes to their former glory.

One group that is not quite as worried about the Big Melt? Whitewater rafting guides, who have spent most of the past three years relying on scheduled water releases to run trips only a few days a week. Now they’re flush with water, with rapids revived and restored—but still bringing their own challenges.

Will Thru-Hiking Highlight Your Loneliness?

these adventures in solitude // Mukuko Studio via unsplash

If you know someone who’s done a really long-distance thru-hike, you’ve probably seen them have a bit of difficulty readjusting to “normal” life again. They say doing a long distance trail like the Pacific Crest Trail or Appalachian Trail really changes a person, but I think what it does more is highlight what’s important and meaningful to you. And that may not always line up with what you thought was important and meaningful before you spent a few months on the trail.

In Outside, Maggie Slepian wrote about this based on her experience on the Appalachian Trail, specifically the way the trail community’s altruism and generosity clashed with the American obsession with self-sufficiency—and found that she actually felt less lonely way out in the middle of nowhere.

Outsmart AI with Poetry

this image is not poetry, but do you have any idea how hard it is to find an image for poetry? // pixabay

I’ve been very interested in tracking the developments in Artificial Intellegence over the past year or so. I also love poetry. So it was extremely fun to read this piece by poet and poetry teacher Jaswinder Bolinaabout using the weaknesses of large language models like ChatGPT to inspire our own creativity in language and thought.

Related:

Two of my old friends recently put together a very entertaining podcast about AI called AI for Humans.

Is Los Angeles the Best Donut Town?

The Donut Hole in La Puente // Los Angeles Conservancy Archives

If you know me, then you have most likely either heard a donut recommendation from me or heard me ask you for a donut recommendation. Basically, I love donuts, and even though I live in Portland, Oregon now—a city that prides itself on its wide range of donut options—my former city Los Angeles was pitched as the country’s best donut town in the New York Times earlier this month.

The piece doesn’t necessarily say that L.A. has the fanciest or most gourmet donuts, but rather that the city has an extremely solid selection pretty much anywhere you go. So that no matter when you’re in the mood for a donut, you can find a good one nearby. It also leans into the region’s donut history, both in programmatic architecture like the Donut Hole and those iconic pink boxes.