Category: Backpacking
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Little places

Either as an endorsement for my unhesitance in telling my supervisors when they do things which are dumb, or as punishment for the same, I was recently nominated to be on a committee to make recommendations for improving employee recruitment and retention. It’s been an enlightening experience, in that many of the obvious issues are…
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Panic in the Elkhorns

A few days ago I went for a bike ride, on many of the same trails featured in this video from last year. I didn’t bring a camera, and snapped only a few vague photos with my phone along the way, having no intention of discussing specifics. As I wrote last June But what I…
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Why Mike Lee is not full of it

A week ago the junior Senator* from Utah caused a good stir with a speech that all you readers ought to peruse, as it is both better and worse than the typical outpourings of press releases and 250 word “articles” have made it to be. I’ll pick some nits in conclusion, but it’s worth hopping…
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Slough Creek packraft and bison scout

There are bison in Slough Creek. This did not surprise, the whole premise of my coveted tag this year is mostly older bulls who spend the summer and early fall up on the verge of the subalpine. The bison in Slough Creek are very large, also not a surprise, but a pleasure and something of…
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Now that’s a pack
Last year I wrote this, a rather grumpy paean on a favorite per peeve, backpack capacity. In the 15 months since the world has taken no visible notice, with perhaps one exception, and continued to undervalue the worth of a big ole pack bag, and overstated the capacity of said bag, often radically. The one…
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I need a posse

One of the more awesome, and frustrating, things about hunting is that on a random day you might just get one of your most dearly held ambitions, via email. And prior to that day you’ll likely have little clue if this year or next decade or ever will be your time. I knew I’d get…
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New eyes

The line of my paddling “career” has been an idiosyncratic one, such that it has only been recently and occasionally that I’ve had cause to see it as such. Late in 2011 I sat down with a pile of maps and a laptop and made a spreadsheet of all the waterways in Glacier and the…
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Somewhere else in Montana

I rode my bike up the hill, slowly, and down the hill, not as fast as expected. The 3/4 mile of creek upstream of where we put in last year contained a surprisingly sustained gorge. With respect to challenge and beauty it recalled lower Youngs, and the larger drop towards the end was walled in…
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2018 Bob Open unofficially official report

The 2018 Open took place on a long course, and during extraordinary conditions. A record winter saw the entire Bob complex at over 150% of normal snowfall, with certain areas in the Scapegoat exceeding 200%. At 2.5 weeks until the start the road to the scheduled start at the Indian Meadows TH was still snowed…
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Bob Open 2018; what is the point

This is how all those other people experience backpacking. A thought that echoed through my skull with each step, achilles and calves and quads miles beyond tender and enduring the powdery downhills, sprinked with edged loose running rocks only because of the trailhead and car and beer and fast way out waiting, 3 miles further.…
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