Category: MYOG
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The dad pack
Over the years I’ve made, and used, many very large backpacks; and while being a firm believer in having huge capacity and moderating packing choices rather than enforcing discipline with a crammed pack, have still occasionally found the fleet coming up short. Our family Isle Royale trip two years ago was the best example; with…
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The DY Special: on the water

It is an easy cliche that gear matters less than will when it comes to executing a given outdoor activity, one whose heart is in the right, but ignores many practical details. We now have eight boats on the premises, but neither the four packrafts nor the whitewater canoe nor the freightor canoe nor the…
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Fashion and the delams
Challenge’s Ultraweave fabrics have seen impressively broad acceptance this winter, with companies as diverse as Pa’lante and Stone Glacier using it, and companies like MLD and Seek Outside moving to make it a core part of their pack line ups. As I found out this past summer, the specs are impressive, and the marketing equally…
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The DY Special, prelude

In early September last year I was cruising Craigslist for random boats, as one does, and saw something scary. I kept coming back over the next week, and eventually told myself that were the thing still for sale when I came back from a hunting trip, I would call about it. There was little doubt…
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Bark River Micro Canadian re-scale

For the past four years my Micro Canadian has always been one of my very favorite objects. It blends practicality and elegance in a way which few other categories of things can. Restlessness, and extreme specialization (river rescue), are the only real reasons I’ve used anything else. To address the former I bought a Bark…
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A daypack

After being so impressed with Ultraweave I naturally wanted to make several/a number of bags out of it. My affinity for burlier pack fabrics goes back to the very beginning, both because I know that many of my favored activities shred lighter pack fabrics, and (more relevantly) because I have an aesthetic preference for things,…
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Essential Skills: Garment zipper replacement

Replacing a zipper, generally in a full zip jacket, is one of the most common and thus, most essential serious gear repairs you’ll do. Serious in this case being roughly defined as requiring more than tape or glue to manage. The zipper on my 4 year old Haglofs Pile hoody recently died, providing a good…
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Seek Outside Flight One trouble shooting

The Seek Outside Flight One is a ~50 liter, reasonably featured ~2.5 pound backpack designed to carry loads over 30 pounds well. Better load carriage and more coherent features than a Windrider 3400, and a burlier build than a Gossamer Gear Gorilla. In short, a modern lightweight backpack; an increasingly busy class, with the relevant…

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