Table of Contents.

Why a Camp Chair is a Time Machine: A Memoir of Gear, Adventuring, and Very Real Life

By Tony Piff

Prologue: Strangers in the Woods

Part I: A Theory of Gear

   Chapter 1: Sad Sack

   Chapter 2: Fresh Wheels

   Chapter 3: Killing Everything

   Chapter 4: The Power of Gear or Why a Camp Chair Is a Time Machine

   Chapter 5: Religion, Sex and BMX

   Chapter 6: The Rat Race of Upgrading

   Chapter 7: Irreplaceable at Any Price

Part II: A Theory of Adventure

   Chapter 8: The Freedom Lifestyle Fantasy

   Chapter 9: The Divorce Gets Real

   Chapter 10: Sacred Time

   Chapter 11: Fucking Context

   Chapter 12: From Zero Friends

   Chapter 13: Precipice of Bliss

   Chapter 14: Find Sky on a Map

   Chapter 15: Sleeps of a Lifetime

   Chapter 16: Career Change and Calamity

   Chapter 17: Ride the Petri Dish

   Chapter 18: The Joy of Pooping

   Chapter 19: Bonded Like Cavemen

   Chapter 20: Broke Up

   Chapter 21: No One Gives a Shit About Your Amazing Vacation

   Chapter 22: Roadtripping With the Homies

   Chapter 23: Navigating Without Nav

   Chapter 24: Pit Stops, Bald-Faced Trespassing and Escaping the Bubble

Part III: Adventure as Pilgrimage

   Chapter 25: Concrete Destinies

   Chapter 26: City of Gold

   Chapter 27: The Impossible

   Chapter 28: Dad’s Ditches

   Chapter 29: Rhythm of the Road

   Chapter 30: Confirming the Impossible

Fourteen Theses

Works Cited / Recommended Reading / Recommended Viewing

Appendix: What I Pack and Why I Pack It

   List 1: Loaded Pockets

   List 2: Living on the Trail

   List 3: Car-Camping Like a Boss

   List 4: The Ultimate Roadtripmobile?

   Packing Sheets

Eastern Oregon Roadtripping With #NoBikes.

There's a great writeup of the 4th of July NoBikes roadtrip over on Embassy. Aaron Gates, the blogging force behind NoBikes (and now a Northern Embassy staffer), spearheaded the trip, as he does every summer. This year's route up the Columbia River Gorge meant that I was able to leave work Thursday evening (in Portland) and catch up with the crew in Hood River by sunset.

Two trucks, two cars, one minivan, 20 people, and 19 bikes.

All credit to Tony Archibeque Jr. for the lenswork. Aaron is assembling the video. (I got one clip on the last day.)

Lineup: Matt Desson, Aaron Gates, Donald Delp, Cary Lorenz, Delia Millsap, Tony Archibeque Jr., Slade Scherer, Jack Nicholl, Colin Fried, Jordan Thaden, Andy McGrath, Dave Butler, Carl Arnett, Ty Scott, Tommy Joseph, Mat Ridgeway. Down in front: David Clay and me, Tony Piff

Moose carcass. Bears. Trails at midnight.

It was almost two years ago to the day that I first voiced my appreciation of the Alaska riding blog No Bikes, in a parenthetical side note to a post about the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat.

The frequent anecdotes and photos offered glimpses of a tight-knit bmx scene in the midst of mountains, wilderness, wildlife, and frontier culture, and always left me hungering for more. With the release of No Bikes' seventh video, Burn This, that hunger has been finally, finally satisfied.

In addition to the full length video, rider / filmer / editor / photographer / blogger / husband / financial actuary Aaron Gates found the time to re-edit the footage into a surprisingly legitimate documentary, called The Hinterland, offered as a bonus item on the dvd. My recommendation: buy this $5 dvd right now, and watch the documentary immediately. Give that time to settle, and then watch Burn This.

Offered online are two standout scenes from The Hinterland. Enjoy.

You Love Alaska.

Great write-up of an unconventional bmx road trip on the NoBikes Blog. As usual, I wish there were more pictures.

My new favorite crew?

You'll Never Ride It III: Pripyat

Spot the crumbling hubba:


The Ukrainian city of Pripyat has been a ghost town since 1986, when, bullseye downwind from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, its entire population was evacuated in a span of 24 hours--50,000 people, one suitcase each. Everything else remained as it was left, a perfect time capsule coated in fallout. Three decades without human influence have given nature the opportunity to begin reclamation of the land.



Wikipedia reports that background radiation is at a safe level now; sometime around 2000, looters began clearing out the city's apartment buildings. "Nothing of value was left behind," Wikipedia states. "Even toilet seats were taken away."

Archaeologically speaking, it's too bad that the time capsule has been violated; or perhaps it's good news that Ukrainian entrepreneurs are tapping into these long-frozen assets. The city border is still controlled by the military, but tour companies are being granted access. I don't suppose that a bmx bike would be allowed inside. Maybe if you greased the appropriate palms.

How hilarious/cool would it be to hop that fence with a crew of friends, bikes, and camping gear, and explore the silent city, cruising down streets and sidewalks, carving around the trees and weeds pushing up through the pavement? I bet much of the city feels like utter wilderness.



...

(BTW, on the bmx+camping tip, check the NoBikes blog for photos of their excursion to a remote spillway in the Alaskan wilds. Wish the write-up went into greater detail. I'd be interested in the non-riding photos, too.)

...


Doubleset.


MACBA ledge.


Pool.


Not actually a missile.


Put some tiremarks on Lenin.


...Too many amazing Pripyat images to choose from. Here are handful from around the internet.
[Nuclear] Winter.


1970.


Amusement.


Chernobyl in the distance.


Lastly, some Pripyat YouTube: