Recent Articles

Every item I’ve ever bought from Vollebak has exceeded my expectations for it, and these Off Grid Pants in the Lightweight edition are no exception. They are built for living off the land — whatever that means to you. They are a jogger which has been over built, over thought, over priced, and generally are absurd.

They are also one of my favorite pair of pants to wear. And if we are being honest with ourselves, when it’s just us living off the land, a pair of joggers with a lot of silly pockets and athliesure adjacent design is probably what we want.

(more…)

One of the gems of my summer hiking in Colorado has been the Vollebak Off Grid Shirt, which is a very odd shirt that excels at keeping you cool. It is my go to warm weather hiking shirt, and something I’ve come to really love.

Your great-great grandfather lived off grid. Your children’s children will live off grid. So the question is, could you? If you had to start from scratch, build a house, generate your own energy, plant crops, find your own water, and raise a chicken or two? (Vollebak.com)

Probably not the chicken or crops part, but I could build a house for sure. Is this the shirt I would do that in? Possibly.

(more…)

When I last wrote about my Tahoe, my mindset was that this was one of the best SUVs I’ve owned — it was simple where it needed to be, and capable all around, while having a good balance of tech. There are some odd things, and some things you should know. I picked up the car in January of 2022, and have shy of 60,000 miles on it as of this writing.

So I want to run down some things I would have liked to know going into it. All of this is for the 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe with the Z71 package and the 6.2L V8.

(more…)

Note: Triple Aught Design sent this shirt for review.

Truth be told, I’ve been eyeing this Overland shirt for a very long time now. I love shirts that have modern touches in classic fabrics for rather niche uses. This is exactly that, a 100% Twill shirt, made for overlanding adventures — sign me up.

Since getting this shirt, I’ve been wearing it the moment the weather cools enough for it not to overheat me, and a few times when it was a touch too warm, and I’ve found that it’s a very easy wearing and comfortable shirt, which sits nicely between firm workwear, and something a little more put together. Is this like smart workwear? I am not sure. I am sure I like this shirt.

(more…)

For me this review has been a long time coming. I’ve always loved the Hyperlite Mountain Gear (HMG) aesthetic. There’s something so excellently balanced about the visual designs of their packs. But at the same time I am largely not their target customer — I don’t subscribe to the necessary ultralight mindset for backpacking. I have a touch more flare for the luxury of many things, all over built — regular readers are not surprised, of that I am certain.

But the Daybreak 17 is a different backpack all together. It takes the HMG styling, and applies it to what is essentially a daypack for day hiking. That’s one area where I do tend to fall on the lighter half of the scales when I head out. I grabbed this bag second hand, which I note because despite it looking new, it certainly has been used a bunch.

I’ve found this to be very smartly designed, but I question why you need an ultralight daypack.

(more…)

I was not in the market for a new daypack when I came across the Dagger from Granite Gear, but when I saw it was immediately wanting it. Then I saw the price, at $119.95 MSRP, but on sale for under $75 — done. I didn’t know what to expect, but what I got was a daypack that I cannot believe is as inexpensive as this is.

It’s quite good.

(more…)

Note: this product was sent to me by Triple Aught Design for review purposes.

Along with the Atlas Hoodie, Triple Aught Design sent me the Alchemy Half-Zip to check out. This is a base layer half-zip, which utilizes Polartec’s Power Wool to achieve its performance. I’ve been testing and wearing this, and I’ve found it to be a really nice base layer, with impressive warmth for the weight.

(more…)

I finally picked up an Evade 1.5 in Olive Drab 500D, this is a bag I’ve been wanting to test (and told I need to test) for quite some time now. Alpha One Niner has a bit of a cult following, and because of how closely people follow the brand, the naming of their bags makes absolutely no sense to anyone else.

There have been Evade, Evade Full, Evade 1.0X, Evade 1.5 — and if that’s not hard enough to figure out, the current version (what I am reviewing here) is marked in big-ass letters on the product page “OUR NEXT GEN (2024) EVADE 1.5 BACKPACK”. I am confident that outside of the community of backpack nerds, no one will be able to figure this shit out — I barely understand it.

(more…)

Note: this item was provided for review purposes at no cost.

In my continued search to find the best hiking clothing, I took Triple Aught Design up on their offer to send over an Atlas Hoodie. I was not sure what to expect, and I wasn’t even certain how good it would be — but a quarter mile into my first hike with this hoodie, and I knew this had the potential to be fantastic.

A few hikes later, and I can confidently say this is the most performant hiking top I own.

(more…)