Category: Backpacking
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The veneration of lameness
This spring I found myself delivering the quintessential adventure parent explanation, caveat, or excuse: that it is possible to have kids without becoming lame. That I was at the time struggling to both carry a conversation and hike decently fast up a short hill would seem to suggest lameness, at least insofar as my parental…
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Introducing North Fork Packraft straps
The astute will have noticed months ago that I’m in the process of launching a pack company, North Fork. I’m pleased to report that it is going very well indeed, in spite of no overt public evidence of progress. Two years ago I sketched out a detailed idea of the two packs I wanted to…
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The wall
There’s an elk in the photo below. Just left of center is a tiny sliver of snow, all but hidden by the slant of the ridge which travels out to the left. The elk is the dot just above the rightmost edge. In the photo it is watching Mike, John, and Kevin, who were 50…
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Comment now
The Forks of the Flathead and their tributaries are currently the most important places for packrafting in the United States. This is because the Flathead National Forest is, for the first time since 1980, revising their management plan, and it seems certain that backcountry floating on the Forks of the Flathead (especially the South Fork)…
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Favorite spots in the Bob
In no special order. The North Fork of the Sun. Especially now that I’ve shot an elk near here and traversed the ridge in the background. The mouth of Lodgepole Creek. I’ve started a number of great floats here, in all seasons. Those prime 6 miles of the lower White River. (And the top of…
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Astral Brewer 2.0; the hiking review
Shoe weight matters. Read all this stuff if you haven’t recently, the most singular point being that the guy with the lightest shoes was the only one who made it all 1000k. When I was just getting into serious backpacking, about a decade ago, I got the idea that one ought to have a footwear…
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Small, too small
The last year of college Andy and I lived in a four room apartment carved out of the second story of an old house a few blocks from campus. The staircase to our carpeted kitchen was steep and creaked, tacked on to the back, an afterthought for money. I first took the second, and slightly…
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Counter-less
Shoes of the Crosslite family have been my point of reference for rugged backpacking and hiking for a decade now. The Crosslite, Crossleather, X Country, Anakonda, and Bushido have shared basic tread patterns, excellent rubber, close fit and low stack height, making them the best choice, for my foot, for technical hiking. Most of these…
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An object lesson
A few days ago I came home, and having a long June evening ahead and a late start to work the next day, played with our kids and did a few things in the yard, enough to stop gap responsibility, before stuffing a sleeping bag and Neoair in a small backpack, along with a few…
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Hike your age
Things have been quiet here of late, and the simplest, least important reason for this is that by the standards set by the past 12 years we haven’t been doing much. But as will be explained later, that will slowly change. Getting out with two kids, one one and one nearly four, does not happen…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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