Category: Packrafting
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Isle Royale fall planning
I’ve been wanting to do something like this for ages, and a weeks ago circumstances aligned such that I’d be close (if a 12 hour detour is close) to Isle Royale in late September, making the temptation unavoidable. Therefore, next week I’ll have 3 whole days and 2 half days, the time between when the…
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Properly hiding ones paddle
A few days ago I read Dan’s account of a trip in the Caribou Mountains of BC. Highly recommended, and guaranteed to fire the imagination. What astonishes me is that both Dan and Will completed the trip, with hours of monstrous, worst-case bushwacking, with their paddles strapped to the outsides of their packs. Dan lost…
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The veneration of lameness
This spring I found myself delivering the quintessential adventure parent explanation, caveat, or excuse: that it is possible to have kids without becoming lame. That I was at the time struggling to both carry a conversation and hike decently fast up a short hill would seem to suggest lameness, at least insofar as my parental…
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Introducing North Fork Packraft straps
The astute will have noticed months ago that I’m in the process of launching a pack company, North Fork. I’m pleased to report that it is going very well indeed, in spite of no overt public evidence of progress. Two years ago I sketched out a detailed idea of the two packs I wanted to…
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Comment now
The Forks of the Flathead and their tributaries are currently the most important places for packrafting in the United States. This is because the Flathead National Forest is, for the first time since 1980, revising their management plan, and it seems certain that backcountry floating on the Forks of the Flathead (especially the South Fork)…
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Favorite spots in the Bob
In no special order. The North Fork of the Sun. Especially now that I’ve shot an elk near here and traversed the ridge in the background. The mouth of Lodgepole Creek. I’ve started a number of great floats here, in all seasons. Those prime 6 miles of the lower White River. (And the top of…
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Astral Brewer 2.0; the hiking review
Shoe weight matters. Read all this stuff if you haven’t recently, the most singular point being that the guy with the lightest shoes was the only one who made it all 1000k. When I was just getting into serious backpacking, about a decade ago, I got the idea that one ought to have a footwear…
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Small, too small
The last year of college Andy and I lived in a four room apartment carved out of the second story of an old house a few blocks from campus. The staircase to our carpeted kitchen was steep and creaked, tacked on to the back, an afterthought for money. I first took the second, and slightly…
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Low water Dearborn
I was reminded recently that packrafts frame boating differently than just about any craft. Little Bear has recently kindled an interest in fishing, as well as a tolerance for all day endeavors, so I seized the last vestiges of spring which rush out of the southeastern Bob and charge through the northern remnants of the…
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Counter-less
Shoes of the Crosslite family have been my point of reference for rugged backpacking and hiking for a decade now. The Crosslite, Crossleather, X Country, Anakonda, and Bushido have shared basic tread patterns, excellent rubber, close fit and low stack height, making them the best choice, for my foot, for technical hiking. Most of these…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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