Happy Earth Day!

In an ideal world, you've bought indestructible stuff that's never going to die and stay with you until you're 80. But, if you're like me, you tend to trip on things in a spectacular faceplant that sends you wrapping around trees after a few stumbles, tumbles, and flips. When you get lucky you take others down with you in a pile of laughter without actually breaking anything. Others may call it clumsiness, I call it Skill.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, instead of buying replacement stuff get yourself some useful skills: get crafty and fix what you've mucked up in the fall:

Fix your bike:
Repair bicycles
Mountain Bike repair
Bicycle Tutor

Fix your torn clothing:
How to mend clothes
10 Clothing Fixes Everyone Should Know

Repair your damaged tent (Because it happens, and it usually involves a setup disaster or some middle-of-the-night bathroom break half-awake haze.)

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11:48am
Timely update: Treehugger just posted a link about Fixing things too. Great minds think alike!

when the water just isn't fresh enough

If you've ever been on a multi-day trek, you know that after a few days things start to get a little...ripe. Whether you're backpacking, or canoeing, or even just camping, you will eventually find that you and your cohorts just don't smell as good as the first day you set out on your adventure. And sometimes, you get there and the riverside campsite just doesn't smell fresh enough. The water smells too plain, too subtle.

Enter one of my favourite backpacking and kayaking buddies: Air Wick, Fresh Waters scent. I like to throw a bottle of this stuff in my pack, as well as a couple of Stick Ups in my tent to ward off the evil nasty that is often found with outdoor adventure. I've even been known to surprise fellow travelers who just aren't keeping up with smelling clean by giving them a good spray or two.

The Fresh Waters scent captures the freshness of a cool, sparkling stream mixed with the light scent of a summer evening breeze. Talk about camping by the Chattooga neatly packaged in a convenient spray! Seriously, you can't pick a better scent to enhance your experience. And if that one doesn't do it for you, there are so many others: Mountain Breeze, Crisp Breeze, Island Paradise...the possibilities are endless!

fanny packs are cool again. (ok, maybe just functional.)

I come from a generation that openly mocks fanny packs. Truly, not a whole lot could be dorkier or funnier, which is why I chose an NPR fanny pack as my donation "prize" a few years ago. I rocked the fanny pack long enough for a picture in the office, then eventually lost the dust-collected awesomeness in a few rounds of spring cleaning.

However, now that I'm running a lot I kind of regret the loss of my NPR pack. Sometimes on those long runs you just need the ability to carry more "stuff"....cell phone, keys, Gu (and transit card in case everything goes wrong...). If I could just get past the hardwired reaction I have to that Style thing.

Still, my man picked up a nifty piece of gear at a running expo in FL and I'm here to say I've seen the light.

The SPIBelt is pretty darned handy, and quite the upgrade from my public radio prize. It's stretchy, so it's always going to be at its smallest form around your waist. And, it's stretchy so when you want to overpack for your run it can accommodate most requests. I think at max we've gotten a full-sized iPod, a Blackberry (pearl), keys, transit cards, random spare change, and a couple of Gu shots in there. We could have pushed it but you know, that whole packing light to run a half marathon thing got in the way.

So far, it's also quite durable. And, it comes in many colors and varieties. And it's reasonably priced. They have several options on the website, and the one J got has a great system for attaching race numbers.

Embrace your inner dork. You already did with convertible pants, may as well go for the whole ensemble, right?

Needs more juice

I know we're on the tail end of winter, so this is more something to log in your memory for next season than anything else. Or, if you end up traveling somewhere that requires winter gear, this will certainly help you.

I fiddled with a few combinations of glove options this year, and will admit I haven't totally solved it. I really do hate giving bad reviews, but after this pair of gloves was so strongly recommended by someone I feel that I should warn the world. Or something.

I bought the Mountain Hardwear Power Stretch gloves a few months ago, with the idea that they'd be perfect for hiking and backpacking. As advised, I bought them with a simple mitten shell to layer over them once at camp. Sounded like a good idea at the time, and it really is a pretty solid piece of advice. Minus the detail of these gloves.

My hands were never warm. I couldn't feel my fingers after awhile. I was warmer with a much thinner, non-warmth-promising shell by itself than I was with these things. I tested them in wind, not-wind, mist, not-mist... but always cold (duh).

When I went to return them, I was told "but you have to be *active* for them to work properly. [ie. not just sitting around]" Ok.......busting my butt up the side of a mountain with full pack and actively moving trekking poles.... not active enough to activate the power of the Power Stretch? *Rolls Eyes* Whatever. Something's wrong when all of you is sweating, save for your fingers which you can't actually feel.

Search elsewhere, these gloves are not it. They weren't for me, anyway.

awesome + awesome = awesomer

 

I actually stole that title from a Superbowl commercial and wanted an excuse to use it, yet again, somewhere. But seriously...

I snagged this jacket, the Marmot Essence, from a sale rack in Colorado, and have worn it several times in town and in the field. It won't seem to stop raining in the Southeast, so I've certainly had ample opportunity to test it. Quick internet searching tells me it's only available as a closeout on several sites, as it's officially "last season" (I hate it when they do that) and I can't find one for women in 2010. So, lesson learned, snag it fast! I am curious to see if/when 2010's model for women will come out (so far, a only men's version is showing. LAME.)

Things I love:

• It weighs 7 ounces, so I don't have to think twice about packing it for any of my trips. Even the salesdude in CO was a little blown away by that detail.
• It does what it says it will.... repels the rain and keeps me dry, and so far doesn't have me sweating profusely on the inside making that icky, mucky, yucky moist feeling.
• It has a pocket *perfectly* situated for backpacking. I've read some reviews where folks say it doesn't have pockets; it DOES have a pocket, just not on the sides where one might casually place hands on a city stroll. Pockets at the bottom on the sides would be inaccessible with a pack on, but the chest pocket on the front of this jacket is perfectly accessible when I'm on the trail and loaded down/belted in.
• It has "wing vents" (under my arms) for days I might be particularly...working hard :-)
• It nicely layers over my clothing. I've layered it over a thin down jacket (liner from my 3-in-1), and I've layered it over 2 base layers and my Marmot windstopper fleece (also thin, but still) and not felt the least bit claustrophobic or restricted. 

Things I don't love:

• You're going to have to do a little searching to find it, now that it's considered out of season.
• When I wear it in the city, I don't have a handy place for my hands (get it? har har).

I'll admit, it's the most expensive rain jacket I've ever owned. But so far I'm quite pleased and feel it was worth the investment for a quality piece of gear.

I. Give. Up.

My art teacher in high school had a rule for all critiques that sometimes proved more difficult than others: However much you struggle, find something nice to say about the piece in front of you before you start in on the negative. Often this helped to soften the blow, and make you think about what you were going to say in as constructive a way as possible.

So, here's my nice thing to say: Camelbak bladders are a pretty blue color. And they're lighter than some other hydration options on the market right now. And it sure is convenient to have a tube with water right by your mouth when you're in the middle of a long day on the trail and you don't want to lose momentum. See, 3 nice things.

And.........I'm done. No, really, I'M DONE. I believe that even might be part of what I screamed as I chucked one of my Camelbak bladders into my back yard Saturday morning with the hopes that I would hit something sharp and metallic.

I've been trying to use their products on backpacking trips and hikes for about 1.5 years now, so i think it's safe to say I speak with experience. We're way beyond the classic "3 strikes, you're out" game. I've had not-readily-evident puncture wounds in a BRAND NEW bladder, I've had to cut a hole in a brand new bite valve so I could use it, I've had slow leaks in the back of the car or down my legs as I hike, I've had gushing waterfalls...the only thing I've yet to experience is a frozen valve, but I'm sure that was coming soon as I've talked to many people who have. Add that to stories of broken bite valves, other varieties of slow leaks, and freezing issues *with* their cold weather accessories, and you'll find I'm not the only displeased consumer. I've talked to many folks who share my distaste, in fact.

I'm sorry, but there's nothing funny about an unreliable water reservoir on a multi-day (or even single day) trek. It is downright dangerous. This doesn't even touch the difficulty in keeping them clean; good times, coming back to find you've got a new science experiment even after you think you've done a great job of drying and hanging it for the next trip.


Grade: F for FAIL.

The curse is broken... Thank you, safety gear!

I am not a snowboarder. I am uncoordinated, and I generally hate snow, winter and the feeling of my feet dangling in the air as I hang from a cable. I grew up 45 minutes from two or more ski resorts, and I never set foot on a slope until last weekend.

Couple this with the knowledge that I know more people who have broken bones on the slopes than engaging in all of the other dangerous hobbies I know combined. In the last two seasons, two of my good friends obtained wrist fractures (including a fellow Adventure Woman). I knew when I decided to try snowboarding for the first time that extra precautions would be necessary...

While discussing the probability that I would be spending the majority of my day on my rear, a friend suggested wrist guards. Obtaining these was not unlike searching for the Holy Grail. I drove around Atlanta for two days hitting every outdoor and sporting goods store on the map, before finally caving and heading to the edge of the city to a specialty ski shop, Rocky Mountain Ski and Patio, where I picked up a $20.00 pair of Dakine wrist guards.

My ultra-cautious two-day quest for safety gear paid off in more ways than one. While I fell a total of somewhere between fifty and a thousand times, my wrists are completely intact, and were not even sore when I hit the climbing gym on Monday. My friends and I watched person after person (all with far greater skill than me - hell, they probably even left the bunny slope!) leave the mountain limping or otherwise damaged, but I was not one of them. The second benefit was unexpected but very welcome - they kept my hands warm! My borrowed gloves were completely saturated from about an hour into the day from all the falling, to the point that they dyed my hands blue, but my hands remained warm. My hands are never warm. This is a big thing.

Cons: They make it slightly harder to put your gloves on. Also, you're that dork among your friends that would rather wear extra safety gear than end up in a cast for 6 weeks. (Wait, that's not a con...)

Overall rating: A.

(Note: While Rocky Mountain did have the item I was looking for, at a price that was not outrageous, I have to point out the lack of knowledge of the staff. The saleswoman who assisted me, when I asked how the wrist guards worked, instructed me to put them on backwards, despite all common sense notions to the contrary. Please be advised, should you choose to wear wrist guards, which I suggest highly, that the plastic piece should be on the underside of your wrist...)