The Education of Axel Heyst

[7Wannabe5]

I suspect a common downside of providing any free service is that some (fortunately a small percentage) will take such services for granted. There seems to be some kind of inverse rule between entitlement and cover charge, ha!

Yup. This is covered in Chapter 1 of every dating manual for females ever written.

[theanimal]

I think if someone was going to cater to cyclists they would need to have significantly more infrastructure and less rustic accommodations. Thru-hikers and backpackers are used to sleeping on the ground and going without access to services for multiple days in a row. Cyclists are always passing through towns and also have the advantage of being able to travel farther and faster than hikers. An area where there are not services for hikers may not be an issue for cyclists because of the difference in daily miles travelled. There is a campground near Quail Haven but it does not provide any services besides pit toilets. But it is free. If I was biking through the area, I might just stay there and plan on heading into one of the towns the next day rather than paying to stay with @AH (if I was Joe Thru-Hiker).

There are multiple stops along the PCT that are cash only for things like picking up boxes, and even resupply. In my experience, thru hikers have more cash than the average person due to being in areas like the above or occasionally having to make donations. Some trail angels also have Venmo accounts. So I don't think there'd be an issue collecting payments if there were to be a cover charge.

[AxelHeyst]

No need for DMs, I'm happy for any and all ideas to be posted here or in a dedicated thru-hiker/Adventure Cycler thread if someone starts it. I appreciate all of the ideas and feedback so far, this is great.

A couple notes:

1) Water isn't an issue, we've got plenty and can get it to the place I have in mind for the campsite without much trouble.
2) I can also get strong/fast wifi to the campsite easily for about $100 (just need one more WAP to bounce wifi down to the site).
3) That means I can also accept card/touchless payments.
4) Ertyu nailed it: everything I built for a hiker spot would fulfill other goals as well. If the hiker spot business turns out to be a bust, meh, snip that node but there'd be no capx/PPE losses from a WoG-telos perspective. Other node clusters will use those resources.
5) According to @theanimal I could create a listing for my spot on the main app that everyone uses for nav and resupply info, and after a review or two gets posted to prove I'm not a psycho I wouldn't have to do anything else in terms of marketing.
6) I do think I could get an MVP up by next season if I decide to prioritize it. I haven't decided yet.
7) My 'BIFL or bodge?' dilemma has less to do with the hiker spot (I feel consciously competent to get after the work necessary for my MVP without much handwringing about capx and maintenence cost/time) and more to do with the rest of my infrastructure. But I'm post-anxiety about it. It's a learning process that I'm now enjoying, even when I don't nail it.

--

@riggerjack hi! Thanks for the insightful questions. Response coming later.

[sodatrain]

I am playing with the balance between 'do it right the first time/*Build* It For Life' and 'you don't know what you're doing, so you don't *know* how to do it right, so just make something to get out of analysis paralysis, generate experience, and later you can do it right'. Unfortunately 'temporary' builds and bodges have a tendency to be good enough for 5, 10, plus years.

In tech we talk about MVPs... Minimally Viable Products. Get *some* minimal core functionality delivered - so it can at least be used. Iterate after that as needed. Perhaps that might feel like a decent compromise between slap something together and nail the perfect design the first swing.

*Edit: Derp, see the multiple MVP comments now.

[dizzy]

I actually think that the more remote your nearby trail etc is the more likely people will give the proper thanks.
With these sort of things I think it's best to come with the intent of community rather than a strict profit, then one is less likely to feel disappointed and the energy exchange/gratitude will feel a lot better.

Anacortes is actually a resupply stop on a hiking trail- the Pacfic Northwest Trail! A less often hiked one (also on my nearer than further term radar to hike)

[AxelHeyst]

Multiplayer ERE is Fun
On August 27th Quadalupe came to live with me for just under a month. During that time EREfest went off, Sept 10th. People began showing up the Tuesday before, and stayed through the following week. Quadalupe left on September 23rd.

On September 25th I messaged @theanimal and let him know that they were getting within range (<4hrs drive) and if they needed any support to hit me up.

On September 26th I got a message from him that began "Funny timing..." The next day I went and picked up Mrs and Baby Animal, and then a few days later I picked up Mr Animal from the bus stop. Context. They've been here since, and will be leaving on the 25th.

Since the end of August, then, I've had fewer than five days solo here on my compound at Quail Haven.

The main takeaway of these past couple months for me is that multiplayer ERE is fun. I'm having great conversations, learning new recipes, exploring the desert, working on projects, and navigating relational dynamics. I'm learning and growing as a person, both in directed ways and in serendipitous ways. It feels like my perspective on what is and isn't important is maturing and becoming more moored in reality than when I'm left to rattle around the inside of my own head for long periods of time.

I like being around other ERE folk in meatspace. A lot.

I'm not *surprised* that I like being around such interesting, diverse, and competent people, but I didn't know it'd be such a rich experience. I didn't expect it to be an experience that grew roots into and through my WoG so quickly.

@theanimals and I broke ground on The Burrow yesterday, an earthsheltered 12'dia roundhouse. It'll allow 2-4 people to stay here any month of the year. @theanimals are sleeping in my canvas bell tent and it's all right, but September/August is one of the very narrow weather windows here where tent life is tolerable. Otherwise it's too hot, too cold, too sunny, and/or too windy. (A windstorm two nights ago meant no one slept much except for babyanimal who snoozed through the whole thing for some reason.)



Building the capacity for people to stay here without it being a sufferfest is one of the most important projects in my WoG now because of how much I discovered that I value being able to share this space with other people.

[AxelHeyst]

I'm going to Japan in a couple weeks.

When I got back from my bike trip in June the first thing my parents said to me was "we're going on a family trip to Japan this Fall."

I said "Cool, have fun."

They said "We want you to come."

I said "That's not really how my life works. You don't need me there to have a good time. I'll hold down the fort here at home."

Over the next several weeks they made it clear that it would mean a lot to them if I came. Eventually I agreed. My plan is:

2 weeks with the family, mostly Tokyo and Kyoto and nearby things to see. My brother and his husband have visited a lot and are playing tour guide.
2.5 weeks on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, aiming to time it so I walk to my last
2.5 weeks at a workaway in Ehime, a very EREadjacent guy obsessed with DC microgrids, decoupling from the Matrix, and self-sufficiency.

I'll be there end of October through mid December.

[jacob]

I'll just note that you can likely take the (first!) bus from Tokyo to the 5th station on Mt Fuji and hike to the top and down and take the bus back again for a day trip. It might be seasonally [too] late? Also might be too touristy. Expect to stand in line going up.

[Salathor]

I'm going to Japan in a couple weeks.

When I got back from my bike trip in June the first thing my parents said to me was "we're going on a family trip to Japan this Fall."

I said "Cool, have fun."

They said "We want you to come."

I said "That's not really how my life works. You don't need me there to have a good time. I'll hold down the fort here at home."

Over the next several weeks they made it clear that it would mean a lot to them if I came. Eventually I agreed. My plan is:

2 weeks with the family, mostly Tokyo and Kyoto and nearby things to see. My brother and his husband have visited a lot and are playing tour guide.
2.5 weeks on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, aiming to time it so I walk to my last
2.5 weeks at a workaway in Ehime, a very EREadjacent guy obsessed with DC microgrids, decoupling from the Matrix, and self-sufficiency.

I'll be there end of October through mid December.

If you're going to be anywhere near Fukuoka, you'll be there during sumo season. That would be really fun to attend in person. It's a great sport with a ton of personality. Root for my boys Takayasu and Hokutofuji!

[sodatrain]

Omg. That sounds amazing - especially the pilgrimage and workaway. And I love the idea of occasional travel (especially if it can be slow travel) of combining a walk and a workaway. I've added this pilgrimage to my list of goals - thank you for making me aware of it! Japan has been on my list if places to spend a couple of months for a while - and now I know how I want to do it. Stoked for you!!

[delay]

I'm going to Japan in a couple weeks.

Congratulations, Japan is great! My first experience in Japan was walking out of the Tokyo subway onto a busy street. I didn't know they drive on the left, and I tend to ignore red lights if I don't see cars, so I walked straight into the path of a car. It turns out traffic in Tokyo is so relaxed that the driver noticed me and slowed down! No hint of honks or anger. It's so harmonious, totally different from Europe.

Everything is well maintained and there are no places that sell bad food. One thing to watch out for is giving and taking. Japanese people seem to be embarrassed by debt, and accepting a gift is seen as taking on debt towards you. I remember visiting a hotel of sorts, and although I arrived too late for dinner, I thought I should pay for it. This made the host quite upset.

Then I started to think of myself as an unkempt foreign barbarian and things made more sense.

[ebast]

Please bring back some wabi-sabi. I'm not sure if they'll let you take it on the plane but maybe if it's in a sealed container.

(Also: chisels.)

[AxelHeyst]

@ebast I'll see what I can do.
--

I'm looking to swap out the Long Haul Trucker for a rigid touring-capable fatbike. If anyone has one they're interested in swapping for or spots a deal on one, please hit me up.

I'd prefer to keep the LHT in the ERE fam, so also if someone is interested in exchanging something other than a bike or, as a last resort, $$$, for it, that's also on the table.


Comes with rear and front rack, panniers (legit ones, not the DIY saddlebags in the pic), handlebar bag, and an extra set of road tires.

[shaz]

@AH I'm not sure exactly what is considered acceptable in the skillathon thread, so I'm dropping a suggestion here.

If you plan to ask for help editing your book it can be useful if you think through and then clearly express what type and/or level of edit you seek. Different people can have ideas about what constitutes an edit that range from proofreading to rewriting the whole thing. Here's a guide that lays out a conceptual framework: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19800011701

Edited to fix the autocorrect butchery of "skillathon."

[AxelHeyst]

@shaz thank you that looks very useful.

--

Are you open to becoming a public figure? I know you maintain a personal brand, but this sort of thing [posting about my skillathon year] could go viral.

Open, yes. It's not a goal in and of itself, but it might be an inevitable or necessary effect of the superordinate telos I'm trying to follow.

...the way I think of it is that I'm trying to build/work on/experiment in the direction of the successor cultures that will follow this one in a cascading looped flow over the next several centuries.

My premises are something like:
1. The global arrangement is self-terminating (unsustainable, literally).
2. Humans won't totally die out within the next few hundred years.
3. The actions we take now will or can have some effect on what comes later, in the same way that the stuff people did 200, 500, etc years ago had some effect on our current arrangement.

The self-terminating nature of the current arrangement means that lots of disruption/disturbance is coming. Going with the analogy of succession from ecology, that means that various pioneer species will play an important role in shaping successor cultures, for good and bad. I do think a lot of what I consider bad will shake out (ecofascism, authoritarianism, etc). But I see the next fistful of decades as formative for those next-couple-hundred-years successor cultures.

Long story short I think post-consumer praxis is meaningful 'work' to engage in because I assume the future will be largely post-consumer, having exhausted the biophysical limits that have so far allowed a consumer society to exist. The sooner we get good at it the better. Not only will we have less destructive impact and increase the chances that we individuals will muddle through to old age, but we'll have a greater chance of building new seeds of arrangements relevant to the future we're actually likely to get.

And then part of a conversation I was having with RF offline:

I want to help more people get further with post-consumer lifestyles, which I think are objectively better for the individual as well as everything else.

part of this is storytelling about my lifestyle and the lifestyle of other postconsumers, to expand the overton window of more people.

The other part is creating more IRL spaces, events, meetups, residencies, experiences, expeditions, adventures, etc for people to 'do' postconsumer shit with each other. To begin to normalize it and SHOW diverse freedom to's.

In the long-term abstract framing I see myself as part of the early wave of people seeding future successor cultures, the ones that are post industrial consumer capitalism. My brain uses this vision/dharma as both a filter and a focusing device.

For instance, I see this skillathon thing as an immediate opportunity to
1) storytell about postconsumer praxis, because "this guy is learning 27 new skills this year and documenting it on youtube" is something anyone can understand in a second, and the curious will find clues leading back to the deeper lifestyle stuff as far as they want to go,
2) increase my own resilience and interestingness, which
3) increases my chances of meeting new interesting people, which
4) increases my capacity to connect different people and contribute to there being a community with momentum to it, which
5) contributes to the creation/cultivation/nurturance of multiple diverse decentralized groups of people who will be the seedchildren of the successor cultures of 2314.

There is a 'the more eyeballs on me the better' aspect to this as long as I don't screw the pooch at any point.

[Scott 2]

That's a strong commitment. I envy your clarity of purpose.

[AxelHeyst]

What did you like about New Alchemy? They always seemed hollow to me, "all show, no go". So I'd really like to know what spoke to you.

They always seemed all go, low show to me. They *did* stuff. Built two Arks, developed aquaculture, took data, recorded experiments, published their work, integrated the public and storytelling into their projects... They seemed to do what they set out to do, and their work inspired many others who also went on to do things. They seemed to balance science, idealism, experimentation, building stuff, social and spiritual dynamics, etc.

I also really liked John Todd's shtick, remediation. Go to bad places and do good things, etc. I appreciated Nancy Todd's work on storytelling what they were up to.

I know you have more wanderlust than I do. So how does your desire for the road stack up with your desire to alter your local space?

Wanderlust and my drive to build/develop used to be antagonists but now they are my dance partners.

And +1 to what ebast said. It's easy to envision systems to solve the issue you are looking at, but the system maintenance is the real confining factor to watch.

Yes: and to watch out for positive secondary effects. With the water example, I'm physically a long ways off from "I have to do a ten gallon 200m farmer carry every other day" being a negative second order effect. Having to stay on top of fifty gallons a day at 400m with laying customer satisfaction on the line would trigger a different solution. Either way, due to my values and style, I'm going to have a good hard think before I go buy any amount of PVC pipe.

[shaz]

@AxelHeyst if you are on a well, and if your well is on a permit, you should go read the allowable uses part of the permit to make sure you are allowed to do what you envision before you buy any supplies. For instance, my well permit does not allow me to use the water for any commercial venture but it does allow me to water livestock that are for personal use. If there is a well permit, your parents as the landowners probably have a copy on hand.

[AxelHeyst]

Thanks, I think we can use our well for whatever we like. We're in a remarkably regulation free area.

[chenda]

How are your construction method experiments coming along Rigger ?