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Drones in Wilderness
You can’t fly drones in federal Wilderness. Not much debate on that, either from the legal side, or I would contend the philosophical one. If the essential spirit of the Wilderness Act is the tightrope of permitting/encouraging human access on the landscape while using restrictions on technology to reduce impact, aircraft restrictions are fitting. Though…
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Distance learning
There has been a lot of discussion lately concerning the new, or newly rediscovered, hikers and bikers and outdoorspeople the pandemic has brought out of rooms amongst the trees. It is logical, and I see it as an extension of the last decades trend of increased outdoor participation in profile, if not as a percentage…
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Packrafting the Crown of the Continent, revised
When it comes to packrafting the next three months have excellent potential. A pretty good winter in the Glacier and the Bob has turned into a darn good spring, with plenty of water yet to be released. Not necessarily exceptional, but if May doesn’t prove too warm, good flows could persist into August. It seems…
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Picking
In the Bob spring comes first to the junctions, where flat grass melts on the south and ten steps north snow lingers, hollowing into unwalkable with a crust on top nothingness. Deer and elk pack into the sweet spots, and feed into the 3 percent of that 3 percent of valley, cliffs to cobbles, picking…
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Islands of moisture revisited
“…under duress the most important characteristic of your clothing system is not the ability to keep external moisture off you, but the ability to allow internal moisture to escape efficiently without chilling you excessively.” –Me In the ~five years since I wrote the above post, and since Sitka popularized the concept of the rewarming drill. …
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Evolution of the Tamarisk: features
Or; as few things as possible. Backpack features don’t make up the majority of a packs weight, but they do make up the overwhelming majority of the weight which is easily negotiable. There is only so much weight to be shed with material (before you sacrifice durability), only so much with suspension or frame elements…
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The Bob bag
Lets get this out of the way: I won’t make you one of these. Working with these fabrics and with stretchy Climashield is not something I find fun. This design is straightforward and quick to make, so create your own ugly. Ever since my first Wilderness Classic nearly a decade ago I’ve been turning this…
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What hasn’t changed
In short, a great deal. Friday March 13th ended up being the last day of school here in Montana, very possibly for the school year. I recall it being a busy day, I got to my office around 950 after the usual Friday morning therapist meeting, and had a session each hour until school got…
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Do it now
In the past week I’ve seen a noteworthy uptick in orders for Packrafting the Crown of the Continent, which is cool, because it would seem to mean that folks are planning for a future which allows for bigger dreams. Escapism, and as I mentioned the other day, familiarity are powerful attractants in the face of…
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The perfect winter
April had a good trick for us here in Montana, 4 inches of snow in our yard, and twice that in the mountains, with a nice wind chill well below zero. The skiing was fantastic, the snow sifted light enough that the air of skinning moves waves before you, the air cold enough for visible…
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Bedrock & Paradox 
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