A recent ride in the Grand Canyon

Due to some last minute cancellations and knowing the right people,I was able to wrangle a "Free" working mule ride trip the Phantom ranch and back. I love the Grand Canyon and have hiked it many time and crossed it on mules a time or two also. I look forward to getting back to the GC soon for more exciting mule ride adventures.

See you on the trail!

Col. Tomahawk

Edible plants and lore

About a mizagillion years ago, (1983?) I was working as a bike messenger in Chicago while studying Herbology at a local college. Once while making a delivery on south Michigan avenue I stumbled onto an Herb shop. Up to that time I had never seen one and had no Idea they existed.

I walked in and met a few old folks that were hanging out talking about plants  - both medicinal and edible - It was very educational and I learned a lot in a very short time. The shop had a good relaxing feel and I was invited back for a pot luck dinner the following Sunday.

The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald

Back in the day (the early 1970s) my mother got me involved in reading. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was my 1st "adult" book. It was a tough read for a 13 year old but I worked my way through it and it helped me to gain confidence as a reader and tackle other books like "The learning tree", and "To kill a mocking bird" and numerous others by a wide variety of authors.

See you on the trail!

Colonel Tomahawk

Fishing in Thailand

Ernest Hemingway once said “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

Well, I have been to Paris and have to disagree with him on that but , substitute Bangkok for Paris and Im in…I lived in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand for several years and will always remember that time with great fondness. Basically Thailand spoiled me for life elsewhere.

Throughout those years I engaged in many different adventures and outdoor pursuits with locals and visiting friends. Things like hunting at night for squirrels, rats and bats, foraging for wild edibles in the forest, learning blacksmithing, and perhaps my favorite – fishing.

Once in March a few years ago I contacted my good friend Captain Eddie Mounce of Fish Thailand(http://fishthailand.co.uk/).

My interest was in doing a jungle fishing safari on Kanchanaburi Lake at Khao Laem Dam in western Thailand. I had heard about the massive snake head species in the lake.

Eddie informed me that the snake heads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channidae) were not biting at the time so I opted to do some fishing for Mekong Catfish and other catfish species at Bungsamran Lake near Bangkok.

It turned out to be a good day, Eddie provided me with an excellent fishing guide named Ali and under his guidance I managed to Hook and land 38 catfish all over 20 kilos in weight over an 8 hour period.

The Mekong Catfish(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangasius_gigas) is the largest fresh water species in the world and is protected under thai law. So it is catch and release only, and a real honor to see and handle such awesome fish.

A few days later I took the bus south from Bangkok to Ko for some Tuna fishing. I was able to hire a boat for the entire day for just over 30 bucks American.

I didn’t catch any tuna but toured the fish farm, drank some Chang beer, dined on excellent sea foods and got wayyyyy too much sun.

While at the fish farm I had some fun feeding the captive tuna, I would throw a small bait fish over their pens and watch them shoot through the water, I believe they are the fastest fish in the ocean.

I ended up spending the night because I missed the last ferry back to the mainland.

The next morning I caught the ferry, then took the bus back to Bangkok, and had a long nap before heading out in quest of my next adventure.

Colonel Tomahawk

A moveable feast - Hemingway in Paris

 I love this book.

Col Tomahawk


"In 1956, Ernest and I were having lunch at the Ritz in Paris with Charles Ritz, the hotel’s chairman, when Charley asked if Ernest was aware that a trunk of his was in the basement storage room, left there in 1930. Ernest did not remember storing the trunk but he did recall that in the 1920s Louis Vuitton had made a special trunk for him. Ernest had wondered what had become of it. Charley had the trunk brought up to his office, and after lunch Ernest opened it. It was filled with a ragtag collection of clothes, menus, receipts, memos, hunting and fishing paraphernalia, skiing equipment, racing forms, correspondence and, on the bottom, something that elicited a joyful reaction from Ernest: 'The notebooks! So that’s where they were! Enfin!' There were two stacks of lined notebooks like the ones used by schoolchildren in Paris when he lived there in the ’20s. Ernest had filled them with his careful handwriting while sitting in his favorite café, nursing a café crème. The notebooks described the places, the people, the events of his penurious life."

-- Hotchner, A. E.  A Moveable Feast is a memoir by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years as a struggling young expatriate journalist and writer in Paris in the 1920s. The book describes the author's apprenticeship as a young writer while he was married to his first wife, Hadley Richardson.
The memoir consists of various personal accounts, observations, and stories by Hemingway. He provides specific addresses of apartments, bars, cafes, and hotels --- many of which can still be found in Paris today. Among other notable persons, people featured in the book include: Sylvia Beach, Hilaire Belloc, Aleister Crowley, John Dos Passos, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Pascin, Ezra Pound, Evan Shipman, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Hermann von Wedderkop.
The memoir was published posthumously based on Hemingway's manuscripts and notes by his fourth wife and widow, Mary Hemingway, in 1964, three years after Hemingway's death. An edition altered and revised by his grandson, Seán Hemingway, was published in 2009.

"The airmen and the head hunters" by Heimann

I just recently finished this book by Judith Heimann. It is a good account of a survival trek made by a B-24 crew on the island of borneo in WW2. The Dyak people were of course instrumental in the ensuring the survival of this crew. I like the fact the author goes over the survival gear carried by the crew and their trek through the jungle. Pretty cool.

It took me back many years to Kuching in Borneo when I was there sitting in the old time coffee house reading "Farewell to the king" by Pierre Schoendoerffer, it is another great read if you find the time.

See you on the trail!

Tomahawk

Jungleland by; Christopher Stewart

I just finished reading this book today. Most of you adventurous types will like it Im sure.


Wall Street Journal editor Stewart (Hunting the Tiger: The Fast Life and Violent Death of the Balkans' Most Dangerous Man, 2008) makes use of the legacy of a 1930s explorer and adventurer in a new attempt to locate a fabled city in the tropical rain forests of Honduras.

The author found a walking stick and map that once belonged to Theodore Morde, who claimed to have discovered Ciudad Blanca, the White City, in 1939. Stewart’s research also produced the logs and records, which included interviews with Indian inhabitants and uncovered Morde's great knack for storytelling. Even Stewart and his experienced archaeologist guide Chris Begley were unsure about what they had found and whether they followed Morde's trail to the city he claimed to have discovered.

But they have crafted a clear trail to follow on the way. Set against a background of the latest military coup in Honduras and the activities of narcotraficantes, corporate jungle destroyers, pirates, robbers and other human predators, as well as deadly snakes and insects and almost impenetrable jungle, their modern search bears eerie parallels to the trail made by Morde and his companions.

Back then, the United Fruit Company was on the march, and exiles from Nazi Germany were trying to scratch a living from the unforgiving terrain. Stewart left his wife and daughter in Brooklyn and traveled to the Mosquito Coast, from which he set off overland. Modern transportation, however, seemed less reliable than the river routes followed by the earlier crew, and the modern explorers embarked on an exciting journey in search of landmarks, tribes and, in the depths of the jungle, the Monkey-men, worshipers of the Monkey God.

See you on the trail!

Col Tomahawk

A recent camp out in the Madrian archipelago

 Here are a few pictures from A recent camp out in the Madrian archipelago; see you on the trail!

Colonel Tomahawk

 

Everglades National park, Florida USA

Just a few pictures from my recent trip through Everglades National park in Florida. I had never been the Florida before, and enjoyed this trip immensely. I doubt that i would go back but, you never know.

https://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm

Col Tomahawk

Bahía Kino Mexico

Bahía Kino is a town in the Mexican state of Sonora, Hermosillo it about a 5 hour drive and a lifetime away from living in the good ol' USA.. Situated on the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California); it was named after Eusebio Kino. The name also applies to the adjacent bay between Tiburón Island and Punta San Nicolás, Sonora. The names Bahía de Kino, Bahía Kino and Kino Bay are used interchangeably. it has changed a lot over the years and IMO not for the better. It was formerly a great place to escape to and live cheaply if you didnt want to travel very far. Now?? well, its like an extension of California with wayyyy too many "tourons" and rich people driving up prices and making it non affordable for the average vagabond.