Author: DaveC
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We need mountains
For mountains winter is the rule, and summer the exception; a dragon’s luxuriant yawn and the resultant 60-day lapse of attention. Soon enough the snow comes back and mountains are once again a place we humans, and the larger mammals with whom we most easily identify, find hostile. Those rare creatures like wolverines who thrive…
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Hill People Gear Runner’s Kit bag review
I’d love to see a historical accounting of when outdoor recreation became, in the first world, bifurcated as it is today. My research indicates that by the mid 70s the effete world of hiking/backpacking/skiing/etc was well separated (in, among other places, ads) from that of hook and bullet. Cultural distinctions between these two have only…
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Neither living nor dead
Last year, wolverines. This year, fishers. As in the bigger of the tree weasels. There’s never been a confirmed sighting in Glacier since the park came into being in 1910. Plenty of crusty folks in the park, young and old, have seen them, but anecdote however experienced is not science. I’ll be part of a…
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Load carry
Good video from HPG about their new pack. I particularly agree with the importance of lumbar padding, which is equally valid, if different in application, with a frameless pack (i.e. one without stays of any kind). The idea of attaching the back-side compression straps to a wave of fabric sewn into the seam will be…
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Back there
Over a decade on from high school, Ohio is no longer home, but I’ve still lived there longer than any other single place, and thus it looms large in my mind. Landscapes like the above shaped my understanding of the world. 15 years ago I sat eating lunch where the above photo was taken when…
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New snow
We’re well on the way towards having a proper winter, but I can’t get excited about skiing yet. Until the snow in the valley fingers and forests is too deep for riding, I’ll be on my bike. Snow makes familiar trails new again. I snuck out of work this afternoon, hoping to fit a ride…
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Beyond bear spray
When writing with broad strokes, problematic human-bear encounters can be divided into three types. Daylight visual encounters, where human and bear see each other before impact. Daylight surprise encounters, which lack more than instantaneous forewarning; and night encounters which for these purposes will mean a bear swatting at or invading a tent with either curious…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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