Category: Backpacking
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Packing for the 2015 Bob Open
The weather forecast is good, even a little excessively warm. The rivers aren’t high. The snow will be minimal. Attendance at the start promises to be the highest ever, possibly by a lot. The Bob Open should be a good time. I’m taking a more relaxed approach this year, with a bit of extra time…
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My rifle, the Kimber Montana
Back on my first real elk hunt in Montana Dick and I got to talking about a lighter rifle for the backcountry. Many ideas were thrown around, but after some consideration it was decided that a new Kimber Montana in .308 would be the best, most versatile option. Shortly after he headed back to Ohio…
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Trophy Country: the Thesis
“For all the grace and delight of hunting are rooted in this fact: that man, projected by his inevitable progress away from his ancestral proximity to animals, vegetable, and minerals -in sum, to nature- takes pleasure in the artificial return to it, the only occupation that permits him something like a vacation from the his…
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Those inscrutable bears
Griz postholing, Bob Marshall complex. A few weeks ago on Philip’s blog a comment-er admonished Mr. Werner for leaving food in his car while it was parked in the mountains of New England, contending that by doing so he was tempting the area black bears into becoming habituated to breaking into cars for food. I…
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Interval training for hiking and backpacking
When preparing for something like the Bob Open, I know for experience that two things will slow me down: my aerobic limits and sore feet. This is in contrast to most folks, for whom muscular fatigue or connective tissue issues almost always form their distance and duration ceiling while backpacking. I have enough base fitness…
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My origin of hunting
Origins are important because they give context to our passions. I wish I could remember exactly where I first read about the Wilderness Classic, or first heard of Alpacka rafts, but I cannot. Both of those things happened in the last fifteen years, and both have shaped my life. As readers will know, hunting has…
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Zamberlan SH Crosser Plus boot review
Last fall I needed some boots, and now. My LaSportiva Boulder X Mids are a little small and were harsh on my feet after this packout, and rather than wait for a larger pair to arrive in the mail I paid full retail for the lightest waterproof things I could find that fit properly. Waterproof…
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1 bear and many, many elk
That one bear came late on the second day, when my feet were tired and it was hard to see for all the snow. At first it was a distinctly not-elk shaped lump swimming the river, and when it emerged on the bank it instantly became a griz. No mistaking the leading shoulder hump and…
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Spring postholing, in style
In the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, if you wait for the snow to melt before hiking you will be waiting a long time. Better to deploy some of the following tips, get out early, and enjoy the solitude and occasional excessive challenge which come with postholing through spring snow. The first, or Sun Tzu,…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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