Category: Backpacking
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The packbike
This past weekend Jason, Casey and I talked about talking about a packbike, but never got around to actually talking about it. So now I’m writing (and drawing, badly) instead. A packbike is a bike purpose-built for trips which will involve carrying the bike for significant distances on a pack. Bikes like this one; trips…
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Bob Open update
Interested parties should note that I’ve updated the Bob Open page, both with a link in the comments to a discussion thread on BPL and with some speculative hints at the events future. My intentions are to, possibly as early as next year, move it beyond the Bob complex to other places in the Northern…
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Winter tech thus far
The winter feels like it has barely gotten started, what with the holidays, travel, and illness, but the snowpack is in good shape and the stack of memorable trips is already fat. Earlier this evening I threw together a list for Backpacking Light, and the memories evoked moved me to comment in greater detail. You…
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We need mountains
For mountains winter is the rule, and summer the exception; a dragon’s luxuriant yawn and the resultant 60-day lapse of attention. Soon enough the snow comes back and mountains are once again a place we humans, and the larger mammals with whom we most easily identify, find hostile. Those rare creatures like wolverines who thrive…
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Hill People Gear Runner’s Kit bag review
I’d love to see a historical accounting of when outdoor recreation became, in the first world, bifurcated as it is today. My research indicates that by the mid 70s the effete world of hiking/backpacking/skiing/etc was well separated (in, among other places, ads) from that of hook and bullet. Cultural distinctions between these two have only…
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Neither living nor dead
Last year, wolverines. This year, fishers. As in the bigger of the tree weasels. There’s never been a confirmed sighting in Glacier since the park came into being in 1910. Plenty of crusty folks in the park, young and old, have seen them, but anecdote however experienced is not science. I’ll be part of a…
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Load carry
Good video from HPG about their new pack. I particularly agree with the importance of lumbar padding, which is equally valid, if different in application, with a frameless pack (i.e. one without stays of any kind). The idea of attaching the back-side compression straps to a wave of fabric sewn into the seam will be…
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Beyond bear spray
When writing with broad strokes, problematic human-bear encounters can be divided into three types. Daylight visual encounters, where human and bear see each other before impact. Daylight surprise encounters, which lack more than instantaneous forewarning; and night encounters which for these purposes will mean a bear swatting at or invading a tent with either curious…
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Buck PakLite sheath mod, and Megalight update
The Buck PakLite series are good knives at a great price. I bought my regular sized Skinner for 19 dollars, and it holds a pretty good edge for a pretty long time. It’s thick enough (4mm) that you can beat on it while splitting wood with no regrets, but still filets a fish or guts…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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