calendar of events

This is part of the letter I will send to my sponsors. It is rough, but a good look at the summer in general.
Let me know if I forgot anyone or anything of importance.

Calendar of events

February

Assemble sponsorships

Purchase the bike and accessories

March

Assemble the bike

Trial run Bike around the big Island 5-7 days 260 miles

Bike from the top of Mauna Kea to Wailea bay. 1 day. 55-70 miles according to Google maps 13,803 ft decent.

April

Bike from Hawi to the top of Mauna Kea. 1-2 day 75 miles 17,000 elevation gain.

Bike to the summit Hualalai, Kohala Mountain, and Mauna Loa. Multiple days

May

Bike around Maui. circumference unsure but somewhere around 200 miles 10 day total trip

Lots of beautiful waterfall Highline opportunities

Bike to the top of Haleakala. 1 day10,023’ elevation gain 35-40 miles

Kaupo gap. Not sure if this is allowed via bike.  Haleakala to kaupo 6,100 ft decent in 8.4 miles

June

1. Send off Party
2. Alaska air flight leaves KOA at 11 pm
3. Arrive in Chicago Ohare at 3. South shore train to South bend, IN. Pick up at airport from family to Middlebury, IN.

7. Jackson’s wedding

11. Leave Middlebury to Loudonville, OH. 230-300 miles 3-5 days

Work at tree frog canopy adventures for a month or so. Buy ticket from SLC to HI in early Dec.

Climbing, rafting and slackline opportunities

July

Jul. 14–18, 2014 ACRT basic arborist training 720$ Akron, OH
Ride to Haysville, NC. Loudonville-Haysville 600+ miles. 1-2 weeks

Ride through Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Visit my grandfather for a week

Waterfall highline opportunities

Gems and Minerals

Flyfishing

Navitat Zipline in Ashville: sight inspection

Possible week long SPRAT training in Chattanooga, TN

Possible Arborist Training near Ashville, NC

Seek out ride share to California 3000 miles. Hitchbike, Train? Bus? Fly?

August

Arrive in CA the beginning of the month

Employment opportunities for the entire month

Product review period after 100 days and 1000+miles

Visit permaculture farm in Escondido,CA

Visit my grandpa who just got a double knee replacement in Pasadena, CA

August 25- September1. First Burning Man. 

September

Possible SPRAT training in Reno, NV

Hot springs, red woods, Yosemite

Employment opportunities in CA

Possible Arborist Trainings in northern CA

Climbing, fishing, surfing, and Yosemite highlining opportunities

Visit Jerry at Balance Community slackline outfitters

October

Visit father who will be traveling around CA at the same time.

More opportunities to work and train

Mt. Herman Zipline in Santa Cruz, CA

Surf, highline, climbing opportunities

Seek out rideshare to CO

November

CA to CO 1500 miles

Arrive first week of Nov.

Meet with family

Meet with friends I haven’t seen in 3 years

Meet with Gandy in Blue River, CO. My best sponsor thus far next to my family

Hotsprings, Flyfishing, climbing, highlines, Paragliding?

Possible base jumping school in Moab, UT with Steph Davis dependant on funds

21-30 GGBY Highline festival at the Fruitbowl near Moab, UT

Moab to SLC. 275 miles

December

Fly back to HI

Move back into the Makahehi jungle garden?

Start the final edit of the documentary at the Maka Project Studio

Year end product reviews 200+days 2000+miles

Submit film, final product reviews, video, and photos to sources

sponsorship letter

Jeramiah Morgan                                              While on tour:

General Delivery                                               Jeramiah Morgan

Kapaau, HI 96755                                           P.O. Box 74

                                                                        Middlebury, IN 46540

Cell: 808-769-0598

Work: 808-896-3956

Fb: https://www.facebook.com/jeramiah.morgan

Blog: dajungleblog.blogspot.com

Cover photo: Patrick Orton. Crystal Mill Highline: Fall of 2010.

This spring I will embark on a journey that is unparallel to anything I have ever done. I have lived on the big island of Hawaii for the last three years, the most remote island chain in the world.  While traveling still makes up a large portion of my time, it has been in favor of covering a lot of ground at a time, a quick unsustainable fashion. This time, the plan is to do it a little different, while not sacrificing the sports I love. 

The reasons for this trip include a lot of people I haven’t seen in years, events that I have missed in the past, and also to shed the stagnant, lazy island lifestyle for higher education and certifications that are unobtainable this far in the middle of the ocean.

I currently am employed as the course technician at Kohala Zipline. This affords me enough to get by, but no where near enough to pay for the equipment that I would like to keep me comfortable and happy while I am touring. Rather than suffer the entire trip with worn out mildew covered equipment (that’s what happens when you live in a rainforest garden for a year) I am seeking the help of sponsors. In return for products that will be used for 200+ days this summer I will be writing a blog dajungleblog.blogspot.com; taking video and photos; writing product reviews; doing a documentary at the end of the trip and pushing my self and equipment to its fullest capacity.

With a great concern for the environment and sustainability I will strive to show others that a minimal lifestyle is a happy one.  I will minimize my fossil fuel consumption by riding a bicycle and for the longer flat stretches, seeking alternative transportation like hitchhiking, ridesharing, busses and trains. Minimize my food purchases by foraging, living off of leftovers such as expired goods and the not so glamorous dumpster diving. I have spent more than five years working in kitchens so I can make ugly food look good. I am also stockpiling dehydrated fruit from the land so that I won’t have to sacrifice the majority of my diet when I can’t pick coconut and bananas.

I am specifically asking for donations from companies that share my values. Whether it be recycled clothing, alternative transportation, commitment to the environment, or just making quality equipment that will stand up to some good abuse. There has been a lot of thought about the companies I am contacting, and I will not go to great lengths just to get some free swag; I honestly don’t need that crap weighing me down. Thank you for your time and consideration. 

 For anyone willing to make donations I will post a list of things I will be requiring for the trip.  Suggestions are much needed and appreciated for an undertaking of this sort. As always cash and food during the trip will be gladly accepted. Also Please let me know what I can do for you, your company, family, friends, communities, schools, youth groups, etc.

May the path be smooth and the wind push forward. 

Aloha nui loa.

The Bear Necessities

This is what my journey is all about.

Dreams of Flight

I had a dream this morning. Just before the roosters started calling the sun up, I was building a tent platform on a mountain with some new friends. After the sunset I rode my bike and loaded bob trailer down the hill. The platform was my own, nestled into a little nook in the hills with a spectacular view. I think this could be Loudonville, Ohio; where I will spend a couple months working as a zipline guide at Tree Frog Canopy Adventures. As I awoke I tried to crawl back into the colorful scenery, but could not reach the place I had just been. I came to consciousness as the sun was shining its first rays into the sky, with a future hunger for bananas and coconut. Never before had I been hungry in a dream, but I realized that while on my trek I will not have access to any of the things that compose most of my diet. What will I eat if I can't pick wild bananas, macadamia nuts, and coconuts. I decided immediately that I would need a food dehydrator to prepare myself for the upcoming months, so I purchased a refurbished Excalibur 9 tray. I now know what I will now do with the 30 lbs of overripe bananas in my kitchen and the pile of rotting coconut flesh in my yard, I'll send them to Mom. I hope you have room in your pantry for a whole summers supply of dehydrated fruit and nuts. I will probably send some to the other relatives whom I expect to visit as well, so that I can retrieve them when I arrive.Please let me know via email  if you would like to stock up on fruit and help me resupply along the way.  I will throw in an extra bag as a storage fee.
     Along with the dehydrator I made another important purchase. Even though I know it is not sustainable, it is one of absolute necessity to begin this journey. A plane ticket. I recently learned that a jet burns about a gallon a second, that is about 50,000 gallons on my first flight from Hawaii to Seattle. I hope to make up a little of that by burning bananas and coconuts as fuel for the majority of my time in America. I will be leaving the Big Island on June 2 at 10:40pm on Alaska Airlines flight 876 and arriving in Chicago on June 3 at 2:25 pm via Alaska Airlines flight 28. This should put me at the airport in South Bend, Indiana at six or seven on the South Shore train. I will have my bike in a box, and a backpack. I have the creeping sensation of excitement as a visualize the same scenario I have been in multiple times, getting off the train with someone waiting to scoop me up and begin another epic adventure. Only this time the feeling is much greater; there is more to this trip than I have ever previously undertaken, more options, more open ends, more miles, more uncertainty and more alone time. Even with all the planning and ideas in this head right now the unknowns are what I live for.

The first of many

Here it is. The first of many. I will use this platform to share my adventures and exploits with the world, to ignite the adventure spirit in others, and for those that cannot, allow them to live vicariously through my words, pictures and video. My upcoming adventure is like a seed germinating in my head. It is all there, ready to sprout into a tree, but no one but myself knows how or when it will pop out and reveal itself. Over the course of the next few weeks I will divulge information about "Mowgli's Escape from the Jungle" as it becomes more concrete. Soon there will be a schedule or calendar so everyone can see the plan and can help to add to it. For now I will share current stories, pictures and video as well as from the past month. I promise that: If I get support and sponsorship that this blog will be kept current to detail this entire year. Please help me make this dream a reality.
Aloha Nui Loa
Mowgli