A thread at BackpackingLight on boxers vs. briefs. Something else I learned the hard hard way: regular old briefs ain’t made for walking long distances. They get all knotted up down there and end up chafing the hell out of…
Gear
Mud season looms
by tmangan • November 4, 2005 • 0 Comments
The Bay Area of California gets six months of dry weather, and six months of rainy weather. It’s nothing like Seattle — I think our average rainfall at peak is about half of what it is up there. But still:…
How’s this for a neighbor
by tmangan • October 31, 2005 • 0 Comments
Sandro in Seattle lives with walking distance of an REI. If that were me I’d just have my paycheck direct-deposited into an REI account.
Product denunciation of the day
by tmangan • October 31, 2005 • 0 Comments
The Get Outdoors blog has some sassy posters who get especially exercised about overpriced, overhyped gear. Here’s a remark about a new North Face coat with a rock-star sticker price: It’s also a shining example of product design in a…
Need a daypack?
by tmangan • October 28, 2005 • 0 Comments
Check out this thread at backpacking.net. My daypack is the Dana Design Tatoosh 15, which is absurdly overpriced but built tough as achor rope. Actually, I’d encourage buying cheap stuff that wears out quickly so you don’t have to wait…
Call me a galley slave
by tmangan • June 12, 2005 • 0 Comments
No hikes or camp-outs of note this weekend. For the past month or so I’ve been doing a couple training hikes a week with 40 pounds in the backpack and I keep thinking there’ll be some time when it doesn’t…
Das Boot, a war story
by tmangan • March 20, 2005 • 2 Comments
Nothing but one rainy day after another lately, which has washed away my urge to spend hours on the trail finding pretty pictures to post here. But I have scored one private victory of late that seems worth gabbing about.…
Decisions, decisions
by tmangan • February 7, 2005 • 0 Comments
Settling on a piece of gear is an untrivial decision. Dozens of manufacturers of shoes, tents, clothing, sleeping bags, backpacks, etc. sell a mind-numbing array of stuff. In the grand scheme of things it’s pretty cool to know that the…
Where I get this stuff
by tmangan • February 7, 2005 • 1 Comment
Now that I’ve listed my gear, I may as well tell where I found it. Just about everything worth having is available online, but it helps to see stuff in the store. Anything requiring an exact fit — shoes and…