The Travel Page

Interactive World Map of My Trips
Trip Tech | Trip Diaries | Backpacking & Other Links

Here you will find some links to my trip diaries and other travel related material. This set of pages changes often so you really should check back now and then.

As you read about my travels you will come to realize that a person with a disability, like being legally blind, can still do a great deal if he or she wishes. I presented a workshop at the 2003 ALDHA Gathering on Hiking With Disabilities. The information there should be of interest to people with and without disabilities.

Trip Tech

Here are the trip diaries. These are pretty much taken directly from my MessagePad (some written on an MP120, some on an MP130, and then on a MP2K). Starting in June of 2001 I am going to try a Handspring Platinum Visor. The built in memo program is on par with the old Notes program of the Newton's. I will also try some of the third part word processors in the hopes that they will work more like Newton Works, but I do not expect the Visor to be as good as the Newton (it's big advantage for backpacking is its weight - about half the Newton system). Even the older MessagePads were pretty good even though I was limited to using the rather sluggish Note Pad application (Newton Works word processor did not arrive until the MP2K came along). But, even with the MP2K errors probably crept in since I could not view the screen as I typed. All errors are my own. I've done a tiny bit of editing (i.e., spell check) only.

I have had decidedly mixed results with the Handspring Visor Platinum over the past 18 months. While the Visor and its portable keyboard are considerably lighter than my Apple MessagePad 2100 and its keyboard I have had problem with data integrity that never happened with the Newton-based system. The Handspring is a Palm OS device and like all (that I know of) PDAs in this category it stores data in volatile memory. This means if the device crashes or the batteries die you loose your data. All your data. I learned this the hard way during 2001 summer AT hike (not online). I have purchased a backup module that allows me to back data up in the field but it is one more, admittedly tiny, piece of gear you must deal with. I am also not fully pleased with the build quality of the Visor. The unit now will turn on but nothing appears on the screen. This makes the Visor essentially useless. This failure happened much more rapidly than I would have expected especially when I consider hwo many hard days the MessagePad received (to be fair after several years of abuse the screen on the MP2K has gone pretty much out of alignment making the Newton rather hard to use too). When looking at the current crop of Palm OS-based devices I was not thrilled with their build quality. I have purchased a reconditioned Platinum from Handspring and it will be interesting to see how it fares. I really would like to see a rugged, light, takes field-replacable batteries, PDA enter the market that I can use to write journals as I now do. I've not seen that device yet. But, if you have don't hesitate to write me. --krk December 15, 2002

Staring in June 2004 I wrote journals on a Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 sometimes using the built-in keyboard and sometimes using a PocketTop external keyboard. I had mixed results in part due to the IR keyboard sometimes just not responding reliably. Starting in the late summer of 2005 I switched to a Zaurus C-1000 and so far results have been quite good though I have yet to use it on a really arduous trip. One big advantage of the Zaurus line, a Linux-based PDA, is that data is overall secure. If the Z crashes or your battery dies you'll only lose what has not been most recently saved. The Z is not perfect, but I have found it a definite improvement over my experience with Palm devices though it still lacks some things compared to the Newton. But I expect I will continue to use my C-1000 for the foreseeable future.

The oldest pictures in the trip diaries are 20-40kB JPEG images. They were scanned in at 72dpi using millions of colors (30 bit scanner) and I've done nothing to them. So, while in some cases they don't look quite ideal they're decent enough. Enjoy them.

Photos taken after the summer of 1999 were shot with a Nikon Coolpix 950. While the vast majority of the pictures were taken in 1600x1200 "Normal" mode. Photos taken after June 2004 were taken with a Canon PowerShot S70 usually shooting at 5- or 7-megapixel resolution on the superfine or RAW setting. I've substantially compressed and shrunk them due to space and bandwidth limitations. Movies were also shot with the Canon Powershot S70 and converted from Canon's Motion-JPEG to mp4 QuickTime movies.

Trip Diaries

If you just want to look at the photos then follow the Photo Gallery links. The photo galleries include brief descriptions of each picture and links to the trip diaries. Slide shows of some of the photo galleries also exist. These slide shows were created with Apple's QuickTime. The slide shows contain all the photos and descriptions present in the galleries only the presentation is different.

One last thing the travel pages (including this one) require javascript be anabled in your browser. The pages use Javascript to display the photos and their associated captions. If you are viewing this page now and no images have appeared then you have disabled javascript on your browser. To enable Javascript you will have to go to your browser's preferences and make the appropriate changes.

Michigan Dayhikes

Over the years I've done several dayhikes in Michigan. I tend to take photos and write small trip journals for even these hikes. I have created a set of pages for these hikes. These pages will change at irregular intervals as hikes and time permit.

Backpacking & Other Links

• On several trips I mention HF Holidays. I have taken several trips and been quite happy every time.

• The Smithsonian Study Tours program is superb although expensive. While not for everyone they are quite enjoyable for me.

• I am a serious backpacker. I have learned plenty along the way and some of what I have learned I share in these Ultralight Baackpacking Pages. Ultralight backpacking involves both philosophy and method and I hope the ideas I present are useful.