Bedrock & Paradox

I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a non-human world and yet somehow survives still intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock.

We need mountains

For mountains winter is the rule, and summer the exception; a dragon’s luxuriant yawn and the resultant 60-day lapse of attention. Soon enough the snow comes back and mountains are once again a place we humans, and the larger mammals with whom we most easily identify, find hostile. Those rare creatures like wolverines who thrive…

DaveC

January.21.2013

Backpacking, Cultural critique, Skiing
Hill People Gear Runner’s Kit bag review

I’d love to see a historical accounting of when outdoor recreation became, in the first world, bifurcated as it is today. My research indicates that by the mid 70s the effete world of hiking/backpacking/skiing/etc was well separated (in, among other places, ads) from that of hook and bullet. Cultural distinctions between these two have only…

DaveC

January.17.2013

Backpacking, Bikes and biking, Cultural critique, Fly Fishing, Hunting, MYOG, Packrafting, Racing, Skiing, Tech
Neither living nor dead

Last year, wolverines. This year, fishers. As in the bigger of the tree weasels. There’s never been a confirmed sighting in Glacier since the park came into being in 1910. Plenty of crusty folks in the park, young and old, have seen them, but anecdote however experienced is not science. I’ll be part of a…

DaveC

January.14.2013

Backpacking, N.O.S., Skiing
Load carry

Good video from HPG about their new pack. I particularly agree with the importance of lumbar padding, which is equally valid, if different in application, with a frameless pack (i.e. one without stays of any kind). The idea of attaching the back-side compression straps to a wave of fabric sewn into the seam will be…

DaveC

January.11.2013

Backpacking, Tech
’13 Prescriptions

In my recent post on the Sandy Hook shooting I wrote that “Real progress is not a movie-friendly month of intervention and epiphany, but a slow grinding of years and small moments whose efficacy is not seen for years, or decades.” Since it’s easier to throw stones than pick them up and build a wall…

DaveC

January.7.2013

Cultural critique, Social Justice Work
Back there

Over a decade on from high school, Ohio is no longer home, but I’ve still lived there longer than any other single place, and thus it looms large in my mind. Landscapes like the above shaped my understanding of the world. 15 years ago I sat eating lunch where the above photo was taken when…

DaveC

January.5.2013

N.O.S.
2012; the most beautiful year

This has been a difficult year. To use one easy example, the progression of my wilderness skills was orderly and logical in years past. In 2008 Chris Plesko and I went to Yellowstone. In 2009 Kevin Sawchuk and I traversed the Bob in October. In 2010 I traversed the Thorofare alone in May, and learned…

DaveC

December.23.2012

Backpacking, Bikes and biking, Climbing, Cultural critique, Fly Fishing, Hunting, MYOG, N.O.S., Packrafting, Racing, Skiing, Social Justice Work, Tech, Videos
New snow

We’re well on the way towards having a proper winter, but I can’t get excited about skiing yet. Until the snow in the valley fingers and forests is too deep for riding, I’ll be on my bike. Snow makes familiar trails new again. I snuck out of work this afternoon, hoping to fit a ride…

DaveC

December.19.2012

Bikes and biking
Newtown for a new century

What’s in your closet? Gun control is not the answer. Yes guns make it easier, and perhaps therefore more probable, for the Lanza’s of the world to kill many people. But let us remember something which most have forgotten in the past four days: the second amendment has nothing to do with hunting, or with…

DaveC

December.19.2012

Cultural critique, Social Justice Work
Beyond bear spray

When writing with broad strokes, problematic human-bear encounters can be divided into three types. Daylight visual encounters, where human and bear see each other before impact. Daylight surprise encounters, which lack more than instantaneous forewarning; and night encounters which for these purposes will mean a bear swatting at or invading a tent with either curious…

DaveC

December.17.2012

Backpacking, Bikes and biking, Fly Fishing, Hunting, Packrafting