If the Roadless Rule is rescinded, we lose the last untouched places that still exist in this country. Educate yourself and contact your representatives, or every last corner of forest gets logged.
I'm looking at thru hiking the Bartram Trail next March (I have thru hiked the AT and PCT before). I'm mostly looking for info on water and resupply, and any other sections or points of interest to be aware of. I know the BT goes through Franklin, NC, and overlaps the AT a couple times, but that's about the extent of what I've been able to find. It seems to be a relatively obscure trail in the thru hiking community.
Also, does anyone know if Farout will be getting a Bartram Trail map at some point, or what a good alternative resource is to use in the meantime?
I was with someone for 3 years who I suspect was a narc with severe depression. I knew quite early on that he was being emotionally and spiritually abusive to me but I was so naive (and I'm autistic) so I thought I could work hard to make the relationship work (spoilers: nothing I did was good enough for him).
It's been 4 years since I left him and just recently I've been educating myself about narcissists and the number of behaviors and things that line up nearly perfectly is making me suspect I was dealing with a straight up narcissist the entire time. Which feels cathartic on one hand, and on the other hand it's dredging up all sorts of bullshit.
In the course of researching this, I've learned that one of the best ways to continue healing is to return to places where I can make new memories. So I'm making plans to return to one of the only places that meant the world to me within the relationship (every other place was his, which ironically relieves me because looking back most everything I liked and valued he belittled, criticized, or straight up told me I couldn't do anymore).
On the other hand, I'm wondering if dwelling on this part of my life 4 years later isn't healthy. I've had one rebound since him (normal, casual, which I didn't want but that's my fault--also I bounced back from that so much more easily, which tells me a lot). I haven't tried dating seriously since then because I've just been focusing on myself.
I didn't realize just how fucked up I was from my narc ex until I woke up one day and realized it'd been four years. I can't really afford therapy. Is it normal to take this long to find myself again?
I'm in the market for a new pack. I'm planning on doing a sub-120 day AT thru (I've hiked it and other long trails before), but with a bear can. Because of prior experience, I've decided I absolutely need to use a framed pack to carry my can long distances or my shoulders just hate me. Right now I have an old Waymark Thru 40 that I used on the PCT that can carry the can ok if I keep the frame stays inside it, however my more positive experience carrying a can for hundreds of miles was with a ULA Circuit, which was too much pack for my gear.
I've been eyeballing the Kakwa 40 but want feedback from those with experience using it for thousands of miles. My 3 season kit with the can comes in just under 13 lb, and by the height of summer I will be down to just 10 lb if I go stoveless. Also I'd ideally like it to last for the CDT as well. I tend to take good care of my gear but have been sorely disappointed by multiple other UL gear companies in the past, as stuff just doesn't seem to hold up the way I would like for costing as much as it does.
The other pack I'm considering is the ULA Circuit SV.
I'm a skinny woman of average height with very bony shoulders, so getting weight off of my shoulders is my primary concern to avoid discomfort and longevity when I start pushing 25+ mile days.
I'm in the market for a new pack. I'm planning on doing a sub-120 day AT thru (I've hiked it and other long trails before), but with a bear can. Because of prior experience, I've decided I absolutely need to use a framed pack to carry my can long distances or my shoulders just hate me. Right now I have an old Waymark Thru 40 that I used on the PCT that can carry the can ok if I keep the frame stays inside it, however my more positive experience carrying a can for hundreds of miles was with a ULA.
I've been eyeballing the Kakwa 40 but want feedback from those with experience using it for thousands of miles. My 3 season kit with the can comes in just under 13 lb, and by the height of summer I will be down to just 10 lb if I go stoveless. Also I'd ideally like it to last for the CDT as well. I tend to take good care of my gear but have been sorely disappointed by multiple other UL gear companies in the past, as stuff just doesn't seem to hold up the way I would like for costing as much as it does.
I'm a skinny woman of average height with very bony shoulders, so getting weight off of my shoulders is my primary concern to avoid discomfort and longevity when I start pushing 25+ mile days.
I've been playing quite casually since launch. This is ridiculous. I don't even want to engage with the latest patch because there's just too much to keep track of. Achievements don't have valuable or interesting rewards. I'm feeling super overwhelmed by the game at this point. I'll get AotC as always, but this just feels... too much. Combined with the horrible pacing of a story that was hyped as "reuniting the elven tribes" and ended up falling completely flat and unearned for me, I'm just feeling super disenchanted with WoW at the moment.
I don't know, I can't be the only one that feels like so much of the game is empty at this point? What am I even grinding anything for? There's no reason to keep gearing because it's all going to be obsolete come 12.1. And the .7 patch is already on the PTR. Blizzard, SLOW DOWN.
Edit: Wow, I did not expect this post to blow up the way it did. There do seem to be a number of people who think I should just ignore the currencies, who can't seem to fathom that I want this game that I care about to be better. A few got outright hostile about it. Gotta love online disinhibition syndrome.
I did not post this just to complain and whine, but I see now that I should have provided my ideas for alternatives to the currency and system bloat. I've posted some of my ideas in the comments already, but figured I should put them here since there are way too many comments to sift through.
I think having a single currency (or 1-3 core currencies) for open world stuff would help immensely. It would open up open world content in a way that would not limit what people do in order to collect cosmetics. For example, voidlight marl feels like a solid currency that should be able to be used at every reputation vendor, for every cosmetic set.
Another issue I'm finding is having multiple steps for currencies, like collecting key shards that then get rolled into keys for delves. Why not just let us collect keys? And why is undercoin even a thing? Just let us spend voidlight marl on delve cosmetics instead.
Finally, removing crest cap earlier in the season would help immensely with crest bloat--though I do think crests are the least bloated out of all the systems. Getting rid of valorstones was a huge W. But there's absolutely nothing I can do with my adventurer or champ crests right now. I cap heroic crests in a single vault run of delves and hc clear, so I cannot trade them up. I think we are at a point in the season where most everyone has gotten aotc or is close to it. Combat gearing is obviously a more sensitive topic than cosmetic.
I should also point out that I am not actually physically tracking any currencies other than crests. You can see the checkmarks next to the respective currencies I am currently tracking. As someone with autism, I can see how my words were probably taken too literally.
And for all of you who commented saying maybe this game isn't for me, I love WoW immensely as a world and I want it to be the best it can be--despite the corporate overlords and penny pinchers making decisions for it that often don't feel good. As players who pay money for this game, we are entitled to be able to speak out about systems that are starting to feel overwhelming and bloated. When FFXIV comes out and announces they are doing away with alt gearing altogether with the release of Evercold, I expect WoW to continue pushing itself to match that level of respect for my time and energy. Housing is a great example of that. FF housing is abysmal in comparison to what WoW has given us, if that's your slice of cake.
I've always been of the mind that just because something is a certain way now doesn't mean it has to stay that way. I just wanted to share this post because I firmly believe that the game doesn't have to be this way and I want its devs to do better.