Clint "Lint" Bunting - Ultralight Long Distance Hiking Adventures
Clint "Lint" Bunting
Clint "Lint" Bunting came to backpacking late in life, but once he took to it he went "all in."
He has hiked over 14,000 miles, including all of the big American Thru hikes: the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail,
Ice Age Trail and the Continental divide Trail, some of them twice!
What’s more, he now hikes for weeks at a time with an 8-pound pack,
significantly less than the 40-50 pounds many backpackers typically carry.
When not riding bikes and burning wooden pallets down by the river,
Lint spends his time on the long distance trails in North America.
His life revolves around long distance backpacking, or &thru’ hikes as they are known.
Thus far he has completed end-to-end hikes of the Ice Age Trail, Appalachian Trail (twice), Pacific Crest Trail (three times),
Continental Divide (twice), Colorado Trails and Arizona Trails.
This adds up to somewhere around 20,000 miles, but who’s really counting?
Many more hikes are planned, since he cannot find anything better to do with his time other than walk thousands of miles
across this continent.
While definitely not a traditional athlete, his average daily mileage hovers between 30 to 40 miles
depending on how many times he gets distracted by a particularly interesting view or shady spot to rest.
Lint is affectionately known as ‘hiker trash’ in the world of long distance backpacking,
and if you ever meet him he’ll probably be hungry and in need of a bath –
something for all of us to look forward to!
The Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles thanks Dr. Steve Bein for recommending this speaker.
Ladies Night - Open Thursday
Marla Daily - Spanish Galleon Wreck at Catalina Island - Joint Meeting with the California Wreck Divers
EVIDENCE OF A SPANISH COLONIAL SHIPWRECK ON SANTA CATALINA ISLAND:
IS THIS THE SAN JOSE, THE LOST SHIP OF THE PORTOLA EXPEDITION OF 1769?
Hungarian archaeologist, Paul Schumacher (1844-1883),
collected Native American artifacts along the California coast and on at least four of the eight California Channel Islands
between 1872 and 1879.
In 1877, Schumacher excavated burial sites at the Isthmus on Santa Catalina Island where he unearthed copious quantities of
Spanish Colonial artifacts made of iron, bronze and brass.
Some of the items had been readapted and decorated by the native Santa Catalina Islanders.
European artifacts found at the Isthmus include a sword, knives, pieces of gun and pistol barrels, two cannon balls,
iron axes and a hoe, copper and bronze plates, cups, flatware, buttons, thimbles, scissors, brass buckles,
pieces of woven fabrics, and portions of spurs, horse bits and saddle parts.
In addition, a coin dated 1719 of Portuguese Brazilian issue and two religious medals circa 1725 were unearthed,
one of Saint Rosalia, and the other a Roman Sacred Hearts medal.
Surprisingly, a human scalp of black hair, nested in a copper vessel, was also found.
The presence of such a large and concentrated number of Spanish Colonial items suggests the Santa Catalina Islanders
living at the Isthmus may have had access to a nearby shipwreck.
The most prominent unaccounted-for vessel of the 18th century whose cargo would potentially match these artifacts
is that of the San Jose, a packet-boat destined to resupply Portola’s land expedition to Alta California in 1769.
Historical accounts simply note the San José failed to reach its destination and was presumed lost at sea.
Did the San José wreck at the Isthmus on Santa Catalina Island?
Further research is needed patroness of Sicily.
Every day, thousands of Southern California residents see the California Channel Islands on the horizon,
yet few can name all eight.
Santa Catalina Island, third largest, is by far the best known.
It is the only island with a city, Avalon, where dozens of hotels, shops, and restaurants await visitors year-round.
Three of the islands are owned by the US Navy:
San Clemente, San Nicolas, and San Miguel. San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands are used for military training,
naval weapons development, and missile testing; thus access is restricted.
Five islands fall within the boundaries of Channel Islands National Park:
San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara Islands.
Close to the mainland and yet worlds apart, scenic day trips and primitive camping opportunities are available on all five park islands.
With neither stores nor modern conveniences, a trip to Channel Islands National Park is a step back in time.
Marla Daily
Adventurers all, step back in time with cultural anthropologist Marla Daily and find out about the fascinating history of
The San Jose, The lost ship of the Portola Expedition of 1769.
The Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles thanks Mr. Steve Lawson for recommending this speaker.
Chris Doering likes to say that some people spend their money on stuff that looks nice but they never use...
I spend my money on stuff I can abuse!!
Land Ops conducts training drills and exercises for members for the following adventure activities;
off road driving, vehicle recovery, navigation, radio communications, team work exercises.
They also support search and rescue teams.
Land Ops Club Motto;
Learn By Engagement
Achieve Through Teamwork
Learn by engagement means...
You don’t wait to take a classroom course to start learning something.
You get engaged, learn by doing.
Formal training and experience are necessary for certain dangerous aspects of our operations.
In these cases new operators engagement may be limited and may be asked to ride along (as to be embedded)
with experienced operators, follow guidance, or simply "go-around" an obstacle.
All experience levels are welcome.
Achieve through teamwork means...
Very few are masters of all three categories.
Some excel with orienteering and navigation,
others in radio communications and others are more experienced in off road driving and vehicle recovery.
This obviously implies that you work together within the teams you are assigned to, cross train each other,
and complete your tasks as a unit.
It also implies that your team works together with other Land Ops teams, navigating, communicating and maneuvering in a
synchronized fashion.
Join us for an evening of thrills and adventure and learn to do it like the pro’s.
Ladies Night - Open Thursday -
Fredrick Gary Hareland - Douglas Mawson’s Epic 700 Mile Antarctic Survival Journey
Geologist Douglas Mawson almost lost his life mapping unknown Antarctic regions in the Edwardian equivalent of space travel.
Fredrick Gary Hareland
Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott’s Terre Nova Expedition in 1910;
Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went with Scott instead. Mawson chose to lead his own expedition,
the Australasian Anrartic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land,
the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored.
The objectives were to carry out geographical exploration and scientific studies, including a visit to the South Magnetic Pole.
The expedition, using the ship SY Aurora commanded by Captain John King Davis, departed from Hobart on 2 December 1911,
landed at Cape Denison (named after Hugh Denison, a major backer of the expedition) on Commonwealth Bay on 8 January 1912,
and established the Main Base.
A second camp was located to the west on the ice shelf in Queen Mary Land.
Cape Denison proved to be unrelentingly windy; the average wind speed for the entire year was about 50 mph (80 km/h),
with some winds approaching 200 mph.
They built a hut on the rocky cape and wintered through nearly constant blizzards.
Mawson wanted to do aerial exploration and brought the first aeroplane to Antarctica.
The aircraft, a Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane, was to be flown by Francis Howard Bickerton.
When it was damaged in Australia shortly before the expedition departed, plans were changed so it was to be used only
as a tractor on skis.
However, the engine did not operate well in the cold, and it was removed and returned to Vickers in Englend.
The aircraft fuselage itself was abandoned.
On 1 January 2009, fragments of it were rediscovered by the Mawson’s Huts Foundation, which is restoring the original huts.
Douglas Mawson
Mawson’s exploration program was carried out by five parties from the Main Base and two from the Western Base.
Mawson himself was part of a three-man sledging team, the Far Eastern Party, with Xavier Mertz and Lt. Belgrave Ninnis,
who headed east on 10 November 1912, to survey King George V Land.
After five weeks of excellent progress mapping thecoastline and collecting geological samples,
the party was crossing the Ninnis Glacier 480 km east of the main base.
Mertz was skiing and Mawson was on his sled with his weight dispersed,
but Ninnis was jogging beside the second sled.
Ninnis fell through a snow-covered crevasse, and his body weight is likely to have breached the lid.
The six best dogs, most of the party’s rations, their tent, and other essential supplies disappeared into the
massive crevasse.
Mertz and Mawson spotted one dead and one injured dog on a ledge 165 ft below them, but Ninnis was never seen again.
After a brief service, Mawson and Mertz turned back immediately.
They had one week’s provisions for three men and no dog food but plenty of fuel and a primus.
They sledged for 27 hours continuously to obtain a spare tent cover they had left behind,
for which they improvised a frame from skis and a theodolite.
Their lack of provisions forced them to use their remaining sled dogs to feed the other dogs and themselves:
"Their meat was stringy, tough and without a vestige of fat.
For a change we sometimes chopped it up finely, mixed it with a little pemmican,
and brought all to the boil in a large pot of water.
We were exceedingly hungry, but there was nothing to satisfy our appetites.
Only a few ounces were used of the stock of ordinary food, to which was added a portion of dog’s meat, never large,
for each animal yielded so very little, and the major part was fed to the surviving dogs.
They crunched the bones and ate the skin, until nothing remained."
Mawson’s Ship the SY Aurora
There was a quick deterioration in the men’s physical condition during this journey.
Both men suffered dizziness; nausea; abdominal pain; irrationality; mucosal fissuring; skin, hair, and nail loss;
and the yellowing of eyes and skin.
Later Mawson noticed a dramatic change in his travelling companion.
Mertz seemed to lose the will to move and wished only to remain in his sleeping bag.
He began to deteriorate rapidly with diarrhea and madness.
On one occasion Mertz refused to believe he was suffering from frostbite and bit off the tip of his own little finger.
This was soon followed by violent raging - Mawson had to sit on his companion’s chest and hold down his arms
to prevent him from damaging their tent.
Mertz suffered further seizures before falling into a coma and dying on 8 January 1913.
Mawson et al raise the flag at the Magnetic South Pole on 16 January 1909
It was unknown at the time that Husky Liver contains extremely high levels of vitamine A.
It was also not known that such levels of vitamin A could cause liver damage to humans.
With six dogs between them (with a liver on average weighing 1 kg),
it is thought that the pair ingested enough liver to bring on a condition known as Hypervitaminosis A.
However, Mertz may have suffered more because he found the tough muscle tissue difficult to eat and therefore
ate more of the liver than Mawson.
It is of interest to note that in Inuit tradition the dog’s liver is never eaten.
While both men suffered, Mertz suffered chronically.
Another theory has suggested the reason he suffered worse was because he had been a vegetarian.
A 2005 article in The Medical Journal of Australia by Denise Carrington-Smith,
noting that Mertz was essentially a vegetarian, suggested that the sudden change to a predominantly meat diet
could have triggered Mertz’s illness.
Combined with "the psychological stresses related to the death of a close friend [Ninnis]
and the deaths of the dogs he had cared for, as well as the need to kill and eat his remaining dogs,"
this may have killed Mertz.
Douglas Mawson’s 1911-13 Antarctic Expedition Continued to Take Scientific Measurements in the Face of Tagic Losses and Horrendous Conditions
Mawson continued the final 100 miles alone.
During his return trip to the Main Base he fell through the lid of a crevasse,
and was saved only by his sledge wedging itself into the ice above him.
He was forced to climb out using the harness attaching him to the sled.
When Mawson finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurora had left only a few hours before.
It was recalled by wireless communication, only to have bad weather thwart the rescue effort.
Mawson and six men who had remained behind to look for him, wintered a second year until December 1913.
In Mawson’s book Home of the Blizzard, he describes his experiences.
His party, and those at the Western Base, had explored large areas of the Antarctic coast, describing its geology,
biology and meteorology, and more closely defining the location of the south magnetic pole.
In 1916, the American Geographical Society awarded Mawson the David Livingstone Centenary Medal.
Speaker: Fredrick Gary Hareland – Survival Bio
Fred is not new to the field of survival and rescue and has spent 10 years in the California Air National Guard working as an
"Aircrew Life Support Specialist."
In this capacity Fred was responsible for fitting, inspecting, and instructing C-130 aircrew members in the proper operation of
(1) personnel parachutes,
(2) oxygen masks,
(3) protective helmets,
(4) anti-exposure suits,
(5) chemical defense ensemble,
(6) survival radios,
(7) personal survival vests,
(8) aircraft survival kits.
Fred also provided continuation training to aircrews through the following briefings:
C-130 Egress, Arctic, Desert, Jungle, and Water Survival, Survival Vest Contents and Their Use, 25 Man Life Raft Deployment
& Use, 25 Man Life Raft Survival Kit Contents and Use, The Proper Use of the Chemical Defense Ensemble.
Fred’s Life Support Career was topped off by earning his AAS Degree from the Community College of the Air Force in
"Survival and Rescue Operations" as well as successfully completing USAF courses in Life Support, Aerospace Physiology,
Aircrew Egress Systems Mechanic, Aircrew Life Support Officer Course and Aircraft Mishap Investigation Course.
Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane
Fred has continued his interest in all aspects of survival and has built several commercial and personal survival kits and
has written several survival articles.
He enjoys reading books about real survival situations and talking to others that are like minded.
Fred is looking forward to talking to the Club about that great Australian geologist, explorer, Douglas Mawson’s
epic 700 mile Antarctic Survival Journey!
The Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles thanks our member, Gary Hareland, for volunteering this presentation.
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