Category: Packrafting
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Treated v. hybrid down; don’t believe the hype
For the problem with down jackets and sleeping bags has never been with external moisture (precip, or otherwise). Modern shell fabrics are good enough, and sticking things in drybags on under raingear or mitigating shelter condensation simple enough, that getting my insulation actually wet this way hardly ever happens. The only memorable instances involve me…
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47 miles for everything
When I die I would like to be sky-buried, cut into pieces and scattered in a propitious location for the consumption of scavengers. For over a decade my first choice location has been a particular piece of blackbrush-and-sand desert just where the BlueJohn drainage dips over into the Robbers Roost system. For about a half…
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Infant outdoor clothing
LB shown below in Patagonia Baggies jacket and pants, and Patagonia Micro D crew. If you’re going to do a bunch of outdoor stuff with your infant or toddler, it’s worth getting them some primo or near-premium outdoor clothing. Given how fast they grow it can seem absurd to spend serious money on something which…
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The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 and the Esee Candiru
This time last year I discussed the Candiru, a knife which does a remarkable job presenting a durable hard-use package in a tiny size. It does so at the expense of easy sharpening and precise cutting, two things which the similarly sized and shaped Spyderco Dragonfly 2 does very well. After a year of using…
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Summer 2016: done
A few outtakes and un-used clips from the past four months of backpacking, day hiking, and packrafting in the backyard. What started as perhaps another low-snow, fire-prone year was delightfully not hot, and quite rainy. Flowers, vegetation generally, and most especially the berries have been exceptional. We didn’t have the big, lingering snowpack and fat…
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MSR Windburner review
The executive summary is pretty basic on this one: the MSR Windburner replicates and exceeds the fuel efficiency, wind resistance, and convenience of the category-defining Jetboil while offering vastly improved build quality. Or, more crudely, it’s an actually wind resistant Jetboil that isn’t a janky piece of junk. I’ve been impressed with the fuel-sipping efficiency…
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How to backpack with an infant
Taking your infant backpacking is both not as hard and exactly as hard as you probably imagine it to be. The following is an aerial view of the major concerns we’ve encountered in the past year, hoping that others (especially new and expectant parents) may find it useful. Though plenty of sweat and suffering were…
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Single-parent packrafting
There hasn’t been much I just outright can’t do with Little Bear: singletrack mountain biking (trailer width), rifle shooting (he pulls his earmuffs off), and powder skiing (trailer bogs down) being the noteworthy ones. Packrafting has also been on the list, at list on the days I’m a solo parent, until yesterday. The one parent,…
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Outdoors and Lifestyle
Apgar permit office, 10 minutes after opening, July. Visiting Outdoor Retailer a few weeks ago brought it home to me just how huge a percentage of the outdoor industry is given over to what I’d call lifestyle gear and pursuits. As a dedicated elitist asshole since my teenage years I find it hard to say…
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Sierra Designs Tensegrity 2 Elite review
The Tensegrity 2 Elite is an exceptional tent, in many ways. Unfortunately the most significant of those ways is not easy to convey in either words or pictures, and because of this, the unusual design, and the high price I worry that an excellent tent may not be long on the market. We purchased (at…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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