Category: Backpacking
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Packrafting, not boating
Casey and Erin came up this weekend to packraft the Middle Fork. Classic wilderness float, non-pushy flows, bluebird summer weather; what could go wrong? Nothing, but things would have been simpler had I remembered my Aristotle and made a distinction: Packrafting is not boating. It is similar to kayaking, rafting, and canoeing in that it…
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Hill People Gear Tarahumara review
Everyone needs a daypack. Something simple, tough, and in the ~1000 cubic inch range with the ability to both carry almost nothing comfortably, and load up on random technical stuff as needed. My go-to this summer has been the Hill People Gear Tarahumara. HPG claims the Tara holds 750 cubic inches, which is very conservative. …
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The best hike in Canada
So far as I can tell, Crypt Lake in Waterton was voted best hike in Canada via some magazine, back in the year I was born. Is it still, or was it ever, deserving of that title? I’d have to go to Canada a lot more often to find out, but I can tell you…
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Training for fun
Back in late April I sat down with a legal pad and wrote down every weekend from then until the end of August. Then I filled all but one of them with a trip of one kind or another. The year’s goals was to get out as much as possible, in as many local and…
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Fat Camp 2013: Gear notes
The usual 2-4 day trips my life choices permit are fairly easy to plan, even in harsher seasons. A week, even in good weather, has less margin for inattention. That said, no major errors were made by anyone, and as detailed in the previous days the trip went smoothly. It should be apparent that the…
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Fat Camp 2013: The serendipity tour, part 2
The air was thick when we woke up on day 4. The halfway point in a backpack is significant for all kinds of reasons, foremost the mental hurdle of being deep into the process and embracing all the inherent difficulties. This explained our collective foreboding; we had many miles to go, and reasons to think…
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Fat Camp 2013: The serendipity tour, part 1
It should by now be little secret that I am not the simplest backpacking partner available. For two reasons. My outdoor activity du l’annee has since adolescence been a centrally defining aspect of my personhood, and my still young mind finds it hard to cope with malleability in such matters. More significantly, it finds it…
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Minimalist shoes in technical terrain
Executive summary: minimalist shoes will help you move faster and safer in technical terrain, but have a substantial transition period and come with several significant and perhaps irrevocable downsides. M photo. Before preceding further we must define terms. Minimalist shoes can be broadly defined as those with well under 10mm of delta, and well under…
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The Two Essentials
This weekend I’m headed out on the biggest trip of the summer, a seven day traverse through the eastern and southern sections of Yellowstone National Park. Conditions look good; highs in the low 70s, lows in the high 30s, and the one problem ford down to an acceptable level (i.e. my shorter and lighter companions…
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Happy birthday
M turned __ this past Saturday. She got a pair of trekking poles and the best backpack in Glacier. The crux of the route, up a hidden gully through the cliffs, is worth worrying about this early in the summer. We needed the axes we carried. Offwidthing between ice and rock up the left side…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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