Category: Backpacking
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Shit that works week: Suunto Observer
Over eight years ago I paid 300 dollars for this watch, which seemed like the height of self-indulgence. M and I had just moved to Arizona for my first truly adult job, and were living in a spacious duplex which was almost empty. We had moved out with a full Xterra and 3 bikes on…
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Shit that works week: the Thermarest Prolite
The gift guides this time of year become too much very quickly. While your loved ones no doubt deserve plenty, and there is little more fun than a good gift given, most of the talk here too baldly feeds consumerism and is often just an amalgamation of press releases in disguise. To honor this bullshit,…
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Banff 2014: Turning the Corner
It’s been plain for a while now that the Banff Film festival is in a perilous position. The relative accessibility of video equipment has made outdoor films more common than ever before, thus in theory increasing both the breadth and depth of the pool from which an official fest like Banff has to draw. At…
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Becoming a competent outdoorsperson
Discretion may be the purview of a gentleman but hyperbolic modesty is not something to be proud of. I am a competent outdoorsperson, having spent decades and lot of time and effort becoming one. Cast your net across the broad enough range of outdoor pursuits and do them all long enough to learn more than…
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Land of No Use
There are those who are worried that what wilderness we have is a dying commodity. Not in any literal fashion, climate change and invasive species put aside, but insofar as wilderness is a creation of the mind. When the modern information economy takes mystery out, wilderness is inevitably diminished, even if the legal Wilderness areas…
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Grand Canyon with mom, part 3
The evening of the second day we sat in camp and changed plans. The first two days had been harder on everyone than anticipated. Mom had come into the trip nursing an IT band problem aggravated back in early September. Having gone through something similar myself years ago, I could look at her gait through…
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Grand Canyon with mom, part 2
The oases within the Grand Canyon are formidable, vibrant and tenacious against vast backdrops. We woke up in the middle of a particularly bright one, right at the mouth of Timp Canyon. Water ran fast for a mile or so. Signs of wildlife were regular, including lots of ringtail tracks. There were a few puzzles…
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Grand Canyon with mom, part 1
I was not sleeping well the first night of our trip, an unusual thing. A number of years ago I weaned myself off the need to read before falling asleep, and since have normally slept like the dead in the backcountry. The next morning my mom mentioned that in the approximate quarter century between when…
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How to behave on the internet
The other day I read on of the lowest quality things I’ve seen online in quite some time, which is saying a great deal for several reasons. I spend a lot of time online; I have a smartphone, I work in an office at a job which often necessitates a lot of downtime, and I…
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The guts of freedom
Two years ago I did not know how to gut and butcher a dead mammal. I had helped gut and butcher (the sterile, slightly dishonest term would be process) deer before, and knew how to gut a fish, but those don’t come close to being the same. I wanted to be comfortable doing this before…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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