Category: Backpacking
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The tranquil and ridiculous
The Colorado Plateau specializes in blending the sublime and the ridiculous, the tranquil and the absurd. The rules one finds elsewhere in nature generally apply, but in the high desert are often bent, to the point of breaking. Canyons get narrower as they get bigger, seemingly dry sand eats your shoes and knees with no…
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Evaluating backpack capacity in the real world
…aka the most exciting topic ever. It’s important to get the right size pack. For evidence, I refer to the above photos. Having to strap stuff outside is occasionally necessary, but it’s almost always bad style, and often somewhat hazardous (lost water bottles, paddle blades, etc). Evaluating how big a pack will actually be once…
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Patagonia Sun Stretch shirt review
As I mentioned last week, there are some, stifling hot, occasions when even the lightest knit baselayers aren’t up to the task. The latest light (100 grams/meter or less) poly baselayers dry fast, but there’s something about the wicking process upon which modern poly shirts depend that just doesn’t get the job done in serious…
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NAHBS 2017; bikepacking bags
Towards the end of 2011, when I was putting this series together, there were only three established bike bag makers: Carousel Design Works, Revelate (then Epic) Designs, and Porcelain Rocket. (Bedrock, and likely a few others I overlooked, were getting off the ground.) Carousel, who invented the category as we know it, is no more. …
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NAHBS 2017; postscript and introduction
Last and first; it would be peculiar to attend the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and be anything less than awed by the passion and experience laid out in physical objects, under one roof. And it would be downright eerie to witness all that, all those beautiful yet (in most cases) equally pragmatic tools, and…
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The Blackfoot-Clearwater Question
The Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project, an organization founded to steer the future of public lands long the southwestern edge of the Bob Marshall Complex, has reached its goal. Senator Tester introduced the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act the other week, and for fans of the area or folks just interested in what public lands advocacy and law might…
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How my favorite gear will die
In the last six months I seem to be reaching a point where a bunch of my favorite gear, the stuff I love to use and have recommended without reservation, is wearing out. Given that this process is for most (myself included*) quite rare and usually gradual and therefore apt to avoid direct attention, it…
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A Place in Utah
The quintessence of the river was overwhelming. Calling it a river was at once myopic, comparing something 20 feet wide and barely ankle deep to much more immense and imperturbable bodies, and a deep acknowledgement of context. I was 36 hours into riding the very crack of a catchment that enveloped vast canyoned furls on…
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My backcountry clothing system
Last night I was as physically shattered as I’d been in almost a year. My eyes felt pushed from their sockets, due to dehydration, by hands were so dry they seemed to stick, with a combination of sandpaper and velcro, to everything I touched. My triceps ached, from paddling, my ribs stung, from jackknifing attempts…
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Osprey Poco AG; my final word
A quality kid carrying backpack is essential for infant and toddler parents who like to hike and backpack. They’re more stable, safer, more comfortable, and less sweaty than any front carrier, and if built on a good suspension open up the option of load hauling for multiday endeavors. About a year ago we bought an…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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