Month: August 2015
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Six weeks
Six weeks ago today Little Bear was born. A procrastinator like his mother, he was almost a full week late, which was not entirely welcome during a summer which was unrelentingly hot, in a state where almost no one (us included) has air conditioning. So it was a relief Sunday afternoon when contractions became intense…
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Food planning for 4-10 day outings
This post is for Ali. Food (red sack, pringles can, orange drybag) for eight days on this trip. Food planning for backcountry endeavors often goes wrong for folks. I’ve lost track of the number of noob backpackers I’ve seen trying to rehydrate dried pinto beans in the backcountry, or hungry on day 3 of 5…
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The Omnibar
A while ago the folks from Omnibar in Missoula contacted me, both about packrafting beta for the Bob and about trying their product. I said yes, a box of bars showed up in the mail, and I’ve been eating them for the last six weeks. The following are my thoughts. When buying day food for…
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The masterful Coal Frena beanie
When I head out much beyond the front country I always have two hats along, in addition to the various hoods on windshirts, rain coats, and puffy jackets. The percentage of warmth hats impart may have been overstated back in my Boy Scout days, but a dry hat remains the simplest and lightest way to…
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Stone Glacier Solo bag, and homebuilt frame
The Stone Glacier Solo is a pack which had immediate aesthetic and ideological appeal. The reason is right up front in the product description: “A 3300 cubic inch bag fits all your ultralight 4-season gear and week of food.” 3300 cubes is plenty for a week backpacking in summer, even with a packraft, but the…
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Roasted vegetable venison meatballs
Note 1: this is a fantastically versatile recipe. I’ll discuss in detail the stereotypical italian version pictured above, as well as a few other variations. Note 2: the recipe below is adapted for ultra lean ground wild game meat. It works equally well with very lean beef (<7% fat). If you want to use fattier…
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Thompson Creek Fire: What’s burning in Glacier?
Looking down into the Nyack Valley from near Red Eagle Pass. Thompson Creek is the major drainage entering on the right. Yet another fire got started in Glacier NP over the weekend, and in the last few days of hot weather and strong winds has blow up exponentially. The Thompson Creek fire is already several…
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Alpacka Yukon Yak: 2010 v. 2015
Four weeks ago the kid was due the next day, and in the name of seeing our friends and keeping both of us together once we went out of cell range we drove 45 minutes north to Big Creek and the APA Packraft Roundup. Somewhat unusually I had 20 dollars in my pocket, which I…
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Those trophy hunters
Preamble regarding Cecil the lion; The saddest thing about the whole sordid affair is not a hunter with highly questionable ethics, who reportedly has been on the wrong side of game laws before. It is not an outfitter willing to bend and break the law, nor a method of hunting (baiting) which is in the…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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