Category: Bikes and biking
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New snow
We’re well on the way towards having a proper winter, but I can’t get excited about skiing yet. Until the snow in the valley fingers and forests is too deep for riding, I’ll be on my bike. Snow makes familiar trails new again. I snuck out of work this afternoon, hoping to fit a ride…
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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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The season of inverted water bottles
When it’s consistently below 25 F, hang your exterior water bottle (the one not wrapped in insulation in your pack) upside down; be it in a belt holster, your side pocket, or on a shoulder strap. This keeps the thermal mass down on the threads and helps them not freeze up. Even with this technique,…
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Cold December Lakes
McDonald, Tuesday. Bowman, Friday. Upper Quartz, Friday. Upper Quartz, this morning. Lower Quartz, this morning. Bowman, noon today.
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2012 Outdoor State of the Industry report and Holiday Gift Guide
Yesterday I discussed how 2012 has, in the cycling world, been the year of the fat bike. Below I’ll examine various other categories, in a non-definitive fashion, to highlight similarly industry-shifting developments. These are products which speak of a significant and promising trend, and which I know from personal experience or reliable reports to be…
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International Fatbike Day (and 2012 Holiday Gift guide/SOTI part one)
It’s designation was no more than a matter of chat-room consensus, but today is the first annual (?) International Fatbike Day. Let us celebrate. Yes, the appropriate word is fatbike, not fat bike (just like packraft). The scheduling is appropriate, considering that fatter-tired bikes are perhaps the most exciting innovation which happened in outdoor gear…
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All the hats again
It is that time again, when clothing choices are not mere subjects of fancy and fashion but tangible margins of safety. While the exact percentage is up for debate, thermoregulation on and of the head remains the easiest way to get a leg up here. Last winter I wrote about hats, and this summer wrote…
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Fat bike summit
The 2nd (1st open to the public) Fat Bike Summit is happening this coming January down near Yellowstone. You can look at the schedule, and all the other beta, here. I’m on the fence about attending, mainly because I have mixed feelings about riding on snowmachine trails around here. Without fail the sled guys were…
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One year later (backpacks for the woods, part 5)
One year ago I wrote a series of posts on packs for wilderness adventure. I discussed how packs work, why we owned the packs we did at the time, and details of several of my own packs. True to form, none of those larger packs are still in our possession. This post will discuss why.…
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Mike, bite me
To continue the theme of last week’s post; when you’re ~50 straight line miles south of Canada and it is raining at 6000′ on the last day of October, things like this are hard to bear. Well done gents. Everyone, go read/watch that whole thread on emptybeer. For today I must console myself with the…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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