MERF Random Adventure Pictures

[Iodo]

Nice photo's Elleth

[Cimrandir]

Lovely photos all!

Desert Loon - What a beautiful landscape. I love nothing more than stark rocky crags jutting out into the sky. Great pictures!

Togon - I can see why you went with a Southern Ranger. Those photos are very Ithilien in feel!

Elleth - What a nice shakedown for your new pack. Love seeing the new puppy!

[Eofor]

So good to see people out and enjoying the wilds even if it's not in kit (though obviously I prefer to see in character shots!)

Lovely too to see new parts of the world and revisit memories of travel abroad.

[Togon]

Heading out on the Dark Canyon Trail, but theres nothing dark or canyon-like about it! Its tough fitting in photos less than 250 kb! No sword today. When I carry my stick, no sword and when i've got my sword, no stick. Next time, she'll be joining me.
Oh, and I always wear my glasses. I know, anarchronistic, but I don't want to miss any of that heavenly glory.

[Eofor]

Heading out on the Dark Canyon Trail, but theres nothing dark or canyon-like about it! Its tough fitting in photos less than 250 kb! No sword today. When I carry my stick, no sword and when i've got my sword, no stick. Next time, she'll be joining me.
Oh, and I always wear my glasses. I know, anarchronistic, but I don't want to miss any of that heavenly glory.

Take it from Eofor that you should never dumb down an evil sounding destination! It makes you sound far more heroic.

Glasses are a medical aid and should absolutely be worn. Heimir refuses and misses out on way too much for my liking but he hates the look in photos.

If you upload photos to Imgur then theres no size restriction.

[Iodo]

nice photo and yes, wear glasses, there's no point in going on an adventure if you cant see all the awesome scenery in it's full glory

as for:

Its tough fitting in photos less than 250 kb!

Eofor's right, imgur is the way, I made a tutorial a while back to help out new members:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4303

[Togon]

Right? That's like the one anachronism I won't go without! Almost like toilet paper.

Thank you for the tread. I'll use it well. Most of my photos are taken much further back, but I keep having crop them to save space and next thing you know, you've got my big mug in your face. Dug my old camera out and everything!

Heading out on the Dark Canyon Trail, but theres nothing dark or canyon-like about it! Its tough fitting in photos less than 250 kb! No sword today. When I carry my stick, no sword and when i've got my sword, no stick. Next time, she'll be joining me.
Oh, and I always wear my glasses. I know, anarchronistic, but I don't want to miss any of that heavenly glory.

Take it from Eofor that you should never dumb down an evil sounding destination! It makes you sound far more heroic.

Glasses are a medical aid and should absolutely be worn. Heimir refuses and misses out on way too much for my liking but he hates the look in photos.

If you upload photos to Imgur then theres no size restriction.

Oh no! Not at all! I love that trail. But the trail faces southeast, and I trek in the morning, so I had all that sun beaming down on me. And it was all uphill. I would say Dark Canyon sounds softer than how it really is! Maybe I could say Togon was patrolling the Mountains of Shadow; I think Frodo did say Mordor cooks you in the day and freezes you at night.

I guess that line came from the Rankin-Bass version. Rankin-Bass really shaped my perception of Middle Earth. Had to get a start somehow!

[Togon]

New patrol. I finished my bauernwehr bokuto, so I took her with me on this patrol. The Verdugo Mountains have signs posted for no weapons, but this gives me a surrogate. It was so hot that day! Also testing out my new 2L wineskin filled with posca. The strap was originally nylon, so I made a new, longer one out of braided sisal cord. And I know, metal eyelets on my shirt. But Faramir had a similar shirt in the House of Healing scene in Return of the King. Seriously, the Blu-Rays give you so much detail, little things like this are noticeable. The strings annoyed me so I just cut them off. My pants were coffee dyed tan, but they look white on camera.

[Desert Loon]

Togon, these pictures delight me. Your landscape reminds me of my own. I took a short stroll onto Mahogany Mountain this morning and the grass is yellow, with green still showing in sagebrush and especially scrub oak:


I didn't have time to follow the trail up onto the top of that hill in the background, therefore the disgruntled look here, when I had to turn around:


I was doing more field testing: still not full gear, but I wanted to see how my highland bonnet performed on a clear Utah summer day in the hills. For the past two years I too have been wearing shemaghs on my head, which are wonderful, but as I've written before I thought the bonnet might make more sense on the head of someone from northern Lebennin/Lossarnach region. It continues to give satisfaction: I can shift it to shade my face in whatever direction the sun shines.

At least my shirt was all cotton - from Greece, in fact, so I could kind of imagine it to be similar to a Gondorian garment. And then there's my new rucksack:


It's a Czech army rucksack made in 1958, so it has no synthetics: linen, leather and metal. If it looks anachronistic, I flatter myself that in its basic pattern it can resemble a Ranger's pack made with thought and skill. Here's a view of it sitting on the ground waiting to be picked up:


I might make a separate post about it. Very affordable and I found it comfortable for this brief trial at least, even with its narrow straps.

[Iodo]

Togon, awesome pictures and scenery

Living in the UK I sympathise with a ban on weapons, it's annoying because it means a kit never feels quite there, when I first started I use to carry LARP weapons sometimes, until I read a news story of someone who called armed police on a teenager because they mistook a LARP sword for a real one, so now I just carry a sturdy walking staff


Desert Loon, I would imagine a highland bonnet to be too hot in the summer, I have only ever used one in winter, maybe if you get/make yourself a thin linen or cotton hood in a lighter color to keep the sun off it might be better, it would also keep the sun off the back of your neck, just an idea

[Tom_Ranger]

Living in the UK I sympathise with a ban on weapons, it's annoying because it means a kit never feels quite there, when I first started I use to carry LARP weapons sometimes, until I read a news story of someone who called armed police on a teenager because they mistook a LARP sword for a real one, so now I just carry a sturdy walking staff

You need to journey to the New World. Here, I carry whatever I want.

[Iodo]

Yep, hopefully one day I will

[Desert Loon]

Iodo, when I took the bonnet off at the end of my outing it did indeed feel hot on top. I did wear it along with my full Highland kit (such as it is so far) to the Payson Scottish Festival on July 9: that was a very hot day and though the heat did cook up some clouds, we were in the hot sun for a lot of the time. It wasn't the bonnet that felt hot then, it was the wool over my shoulder, but having the ventilation down below helped balance that.

If I may take the liberty of showing the kilt again, here I am wearing my highland outfit on a family outing last week in the forest, about 2096m / 6877feet. On that occasion I took a little stroll, maybe a mile. I was warm but not too hot (and of course when the sun went behind the ridge then the air started cooling down very quickly).

[Iodo]

Nice get-up, I can tell you are a fandabidoz fan I am quite certain that the historically correct Highland outfit includes a thin linen scarf that is used to cover the head in the sun, failing that getting a lighter colored bonnet might help

[Taylor Steiner]

Glacier https://imgur.com/gallery/Og5QU7P