Author: DaveC
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Boycott Colorado?
Boaters, fisherfolks, and anyone interested in the subtleties of US public land law will know that stream access laws in the western US vary enormously from state to state. It is worth considering, especially in the age when the “non-consumptive” side of the outdoor industry is finally flexing political muscle, why the issue of stream…
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Holy snow
Central-western Montana has had an extraordinary winter, which is necessarily leading to an extraordinary spring. Massive amounts of snow means massive amounts of water, and in the last month temps have yet to get too warm (which is nice, as upper 60s feels stifling at the moment), and have been punctuated with big storms which…
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Recoating silnylon shelters
I remain a fan of silnylon shelters. Cuben remains excessively expensive, for me, and aside from higher levels of waterproofing it is hard to get excited about PU coatings, due to longevity issues. Silnylon stretches and can be made waterproof for a very long time, with the former being a still underestimated benefit in severe…
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My best time of year
At work we have three recesses a day. The kindergartners would not mind another, and from a no-window office my sense of the how the day evolves is generally driven by these three openings, which together add up to just short of 90 minutes. Some days I hardly make it out of my cave, and…
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The permit wall
Late in 2016, as I was packing my gear room, I can across a pile of backcountry permits stuffed toward the back of a low shelf. It was the sort of place which only gets organized during a big move, and is easy to put off. So I assembled them all and stuffed them in…
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Bar of Montana: Metals
Montana is not entirely a culinary wasteland. I can name three truly exceptional bakeries west of Bozeman Pass, and our effete little slice of Heaven here in the Queen City has two outstanding locations for real pizza. However, you can count the number of good Mexican restaurants in FWP regions 1 through 4 combined on…
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Great Nature
There are occasions, weekly, when the weight of my professional life demands of me nothing other than escapism. This, least I forget who I am entirely. Beer is instrumental here, just like coffee, each morning, noon, and night. The world without can be horrid and in proportion to how I would alter it but cannot,…
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No map
Over the past few years I’ve occasionally experimented with two solutions to backpacking and hiking malaise. The first is to go where there are no trails, and use animal corridors and decayed paths to make your way. This approach has resulted in a few of my most memorable hikes. The other approach is to go…
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When bow hunting isn’t anymore
Bow hunting has been on a slow march towards it own obsolescence. The Garmin Xero bow sight is the best example yet of this trend, both in archery hunting and hunting generally. The debate over this product has been heated, though not vociferous, and like any particular item the particulars are less important than their…
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Pushing the next button
On a few occasions last year I mentioned that, over the past decade, my happiness had generally correlated with the volume of activity, which had in turn tended to spawn more frequent and especially longer writings here. More interest has almost always meant more words. Thankfully, this is has ceased to be the case, as…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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