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The big one
The weekend started out in an ignominious fashion, when I got our car stuck Friday afternoon out at my favorite backwoods target range. Front wheel drive doesn’t do you much good on ice if you back into a downhill pullout. I spent an hour in the dark chipping at the ice with a entrenching tool…
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2013 B&P Holiday Gift guide: A big ridge
Give someone you love a walk along a big, rugged ridge this year. Seeing things is important. If backpacking is too your liking, the recently proposed Wind River High Route looks like a good option. With Alan Dixon and Don Wilson’s extensive beta, including waypoints, the hike seems like a felicitous introduction to off-trail backpacking…
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Fruits
Friday night we ate some fresh deer. The loin had been sitting in the fridge for 48 hours, covered in a dry rub of black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Sear all sides in a smoking hot cast iron skillet, then finish under the broiler with a dash of dark lager and white vinegar in…
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Green grass for the future
The grass is always greener, right? In northwest Montana, it’s now dark by 5pm, mid-elevations are starting to fill in with snow, and roads are closing. For me, the antithesis is four months ago, when temps were kind, there was more daylight for hiking than my feet could take, the country was as open as…
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The only thing worse than missing
I’ve developed a case of hunter’s elbow. The lateral tendons in my left arm are swollen and bitchy from carrying a 6 pound shotgun in cradle for many hours over the last few weeks. When we returned from Utah two weeks ago general season was open, putting an effectively endless selection of areas at my…
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Introducing the Gossamer Gear Tamarisk
I’m pleased to make the world premier of the new Gossamer Gear Tamarisk pack here on Bedrock & Paradox. I’d like to thank Gossamer Gear for allowing me to do so, and for integrating my feedback into the design, which is a very new direction for them. Named after the tenacious, ubiquitous invasive plant found…
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Valhalla: the continued immolation of the spectacular
Ski movies are killing ski movies. Ski movies are killing skiing, and perhaps outdoor recreation writ large. Valhalla, from Sweetgrass Productions, is a leading example. We saw it last night. I wrote last year about the spectacular being commodified and its impact lessened by cliched use in outdoor films. Nowhere is that more true than…
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Hunt small
I am tired. It’s been a long, good year full of trips and with little respite between projects. My legs are still willing, most of the time, but my mind needs a solid month of nothing in particular: no goals hanging over me. That will not come until December 2nd, the day the big game…
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There is something about the desert
Examining my photos brings contempt. Clear dawn air shining through snow-dusted larches has been this past week filtered through a shadow of indifference. I keep looking back, in books, old things I wrote long ago, most of all in memory. I want to find it. Whatever it is. Abbey was right. There is something about…
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