utenzi

Over on Discovery Network it's Alaska Week again. They're rolling out new shows and using the wilds of Alaska to promote them. Some are naturals, like Deadliest Catch and Out of the Wild since both of those shows take place entirely in Alaska. Others, like Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs, just have one episode that takes place in Alaska. This is the second season they've done Out of the Wild and the format has changed quite a bit. Now it's a single team of 9 people that are supposed to follow a map 56 miles over around 6 weeks time to their destination. They had a two-day survival class before starting the reality show but little else. Last season the people were broken into small teams, sent to specific locations where partial provisions were cached, and then needed to live off the land for the rest. The show's not really all that interesting but the footage of the area is breath taking. They use the great camera equipment and the HD broadcast is just amazing. It...

The mushroom in the title refers to that big fella in the picture above. That's my leg in the background to give some scale to the thing. It was HUGE. I took the picture while hiking near Carrboro on Saturday. Just 15 minutes or so after I took that picture it began raining. Hiking loses some of its appeal when it rains. As for crabs, that refers to the season premiere of The Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel this upcoming Tuesday. This weekend Discovery has been running marathon sessions of the first three seasons of Deadliest Catch but I've only watched snippets here and there. I'll be sure to watch the new season though. Those guys on the Crab Boats make a lot of money in just a few weeks, but the hell they go though to catch the crab is just nuts. Going days without sleep, in freezing temperatures, salt spray constantly on them, hauling around hundreds of pounds of gear and bait--and knowing that one slip can mean almost instant hypothermia. Yikes. No amount of mone...