Calipidder

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the OR show this year, so I’m enviously following along with the conversation on Twitter and various blogs. At least I have an excuse to go to the Summer show now (I usually miss it because I’m on the trail in August). I thought I’d throw up [...]

By Day 3 everyone has hit their stride, but everyone is also exhausted. I turn into a loopy zombie under these conditions, so it’s a good thing that I didn’t have to take as many appointments the last two days. 
We started off day 3 with a visit to one of my favorite outerwear manufacturers, Loki. [...]

The Outdoor Retailer show involves a lot of walking around - scurrying between appointments on opposite sides of the hall, checking out that one booth you wanted to get to way back in the corner, running back to that other booth that had munchies for lunch, etc. This is all on the concrete floor of [...]

This was my fifth time attending the Outdoor Retailer Winter show, and it was no less daunting. It always takes a while to get over the sheer size and craziness and get to business, but I had to focus, starting off Day 1 with appointments right away.
As I wandered the show floor in between appointments, [...]

As I’ve gained experience as a backpacker, one thing I’ve learned is that it isn’t always the big ticket items that make a trip - it is often the smaller, inexpensive pieces of gear that shine and become indespensible. A good example is my Buff, which is a $20 item that fulfills 4-5 needs while [...]