Category: Fly Fishing
-
Shit that works week: Werner Shuna
A lot of gear upgrading is malarkey, born of boredom or fashion or envy or lust or some other vaguely protestant shortcoming. Buying new stuff is fun, usually harmless in that postmodern capitalist headinthesand way, and sometimes even justified, but most often little substantive reward is gained. That jacket was probably not quite as warm…
-
Shit that works week: a Flat Tarp
There is no substitute for a simple, flat (no curve in the center seam), rectangular tarp. It is the most versatile and pleasing of backcountry shelters. But I’ll get ants in my pants! Don’t camp on an anthill, genius. If the skeeters are bad camp on high ridges, gravel bars in wide valleys, and little…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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…
-
How to make Cowboy coffee
I grin a little everything some new gadget comes out for making good coffee in the backcountry. As with many things, the original method is still the best, and in this particular case has the added benefit of requiring no equipment at all, aside from the pot, stove or fire, and ground coffee you already…
-
The 2014 shoe report
Disclaimer: Several of the shoes discussed below were given to me, free and under the expectation of a published review, by the manufacturer. Others were purchased at an industry discount, while one was bought at full retail. Clockwise from upper left: LaSportiva Vertical K, Altra Lone Peak 1.5, LaSportiva Boulder X Mid, LaSportiva Anakonda, Patagonia…
-
One of those places
If you get out and about and live in the American west for long enough, odds are you’ve collected a few categories of favorite places. There are the most spectacular and most memorable places, and the places worth an annual visit because they make such pleasing routes. There can be remarkably little overlap between these…
Bedrock & Paradox 
You must be logged in to post a comment.