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Tips for winter
The essential guidelines I put down four years ago are still a good foundation, but with the snow beginning to pile up it’s a good time to mention some specifics which have proven constant from then to now. The most useful tip for being outside in the cold is to HTFU (harden the fuck up). …
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Packrafting in December
As best as I can recall, I’ve never gone packrafting in December (or January, or February). It’s not the cold, it’s that the cold locks away all the water, and what few rivers are ice free (usually only the Middle and Main Forks of the Flathead) are at levels which don’t tug very hard. We’ve…
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The woods are small enough
It seems to me that hunting is close to turning a corner in the popular imagination. Sicmanta (watch if you haven’t), the hipster hunting movement, and the reach of hunting clothing all point a finger. Right now I’m less interested in whether this is in fact the case, or in how the space for such…
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2015 hunting in review
The three does were headed up the slope away from us, in full and easy view amongst the scattering of dead trees. I motioned M and Little Bear to stay put and worked to close the distance, bent double and walking a little farther than perpendicular to the animals. They certainly knew I was there,…
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Grand Canyon backcountry management plan: Comment Now
Last week Grand Canyon National Park released a draft of their next backcountry management plan. These plans are enormously important; they’re detailed and comprehensive, and set in place policies which are not easily changed and for a variety of reasons are generally not altered for decades. Which options the park service decides to adopt will…
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Wild Turkey stew
Sorry mom, but growing up I never liked turkey. Never eaten save on two holidays, it was always overcooked and underflavored. Thankfully wild turkey solves both problems handily if done right. Roasting a whole turkey is probably a fools errand. It looks cool, but the different parts respond best, by far, to different treatments. I…
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4 months
At the second snack stop Little Bear had a fit; screaming as often as breath would permit. Was he hungry? Cold? Sick of being bounced over potholes and rocks in the bike trailer? Four month olds can’t answer these questions, not because they can’t talk but because they can’t parse concepts from emotions, so I…
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2 hours with elk
The tracks passed through the fence and continued on the other side, a large wad of dark hairs stuck in the top wire the definitive sign that the obvious was real; the elk had jumped on to private land and my time with it was done. The sense of loss was only indirectly related to…
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The 2015 pack fleet
I’ve been doing the pack thing for a while now. After owning and especially building so many none of them can retain nostalgia for long, with any and every little detail subject to scrutiny, revision, and destruction. That said, the novelty of cutting and sewing has also waned significantly in the last year, and it’s…
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Little Bear goes deer hunting
I’d been running this outlandish idea through my head since before LB was born, and practicing for months. How to hunt deer with an infant in tow? Two options were obvious, each with advantages and disadvantages. Carrying the baby in a sling, with a pack and rifle, was possible, but taking a shot would require…
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Bedrock & Paradox 
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