Just a note that I'll be signing off today for a week. I'm off to Southern Utah for an extended backpack trip with my son.

Expect a rash of pictures on return - my camera gear almost weighs more than everything else I'm carrying. Consider that my pack (before consumables) weighs in at 6.5 lbs while my camera gear is coming it at nearly 5 lbs. Egads.

So I'm off to red rock country with my boy, a few good books and a nice camera.

I'll leave you with a favorite quote from Ed Abbey:

"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast... a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."