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Patagonia Sun Stretch shirt review
As I mentioned last week, there are some, stifling hot, occasions when even the lightest knit baselayers aren’t up to the task. The latest light (100 grams/meter or less) poly baselayers dry fast, but there’s something about the wicking process upon which modern poly shirts depend that just doesn’t get the job done in serious…
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NAHBS 2017; bikes and components
It’s Sklar, not Skylar. According to Adam himself a common mistake. Thankfully his last name isn’t Smith, but rather the name of some Finnish metal band. So if you see any outlets with the above photo and the later name, talking about how he won best mountain bike, you know they didn’t go and are…
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NAHBS 2017; bikepacking bags
Towards the end of 2011, when I was putting this series together, there were only three established bike bag makers: Carousel Design Works, Revelate (then Epic) Designs, and Porcelain Rocket. (Bedrock, and likely a few others I overlooked, were getting off the ground.) Carousel, who invented the category as we know it, is no more. …
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NAHBS 2017; postscript and introduction
Last and first; it would be peculiar to attend the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and be anything less than awed by the passion and experience laid out in physical objects, under one roof. And it would be downright eerie to witness all that, all those beautiful yet (in most cases) equally pragmatic tools, and…
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The Blackfoot-Clearwater Question
The Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project, an organization founded to steer the future of public lands long the southwestern edge of the Bob Marshall Complex, has reached its goal. Senator Tester introduced the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act the other week, and for fans of the area or folks just interested in what public lands advocacy and law might…
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How my favorite gear will die
In the last six months I seem to be reaching a point where a bunch of my favorite gear, the stuff I love to use and have recommended without reservation, is wearing out. Given that this process is for most (myself included*) quite rare and usually gradual and therefore apt to avoid direct attention, it…
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A Place in Utah
The quintessence of the river was overwhelming. Calling it a river was at once myopic, comparing something 20 feet wide and barely ankle deep to much more immense and imperturbable bodies, and a deep acknowledgement of context. I was 36 hours into riding the very crack of a catchment that enveloped vast canyoned furls on…
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My backcountry clothing system
Last night I was as physically shattered as I’d been in almost a year. My eyes felt pushed from their sockets, due to dehydration, by hands were so dry they seemed to stick, with a combination of sandpaper and velcro, to everything I touched. My triceps ached, from paddling, my ribs stung, from jackknifing attempts…
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Osprey Poco AG; my final word
A quality kid carrying backpack is essential for infant and toddler parents who like to hike and backpack. They’re more stable, safer, more comfortable, and less sweaty than any front carrier, and if built on a good suspension open up the option of load hauling for multiday endeavors. About a year ago we bought an…
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Zion
Unlike so many places, it is well named, especially for the 21st century bourgeois dilletante “adventurer”. Namely, us. We did well last year to so thoroughly associate the backpack with fun. LB loves hiking, occasionally requests to get back in the pack, and for him the more exposure and wind, the better. Which made Angel’s…
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Bedrock & Paradox 
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