Recent Articles

Note: Laek provided these towels for review.

A little talked about fact in my house: I don’t use your standard bath towel when I shower, instead (since 2017) I’ve been using various towels from hiking/camping offerings to Outlier’s Grid Linen towels. I keep a single thought about this stuff in my head: if certain items are so good for travel/adventure/camping, then why are we not using them at home?

It never made sense to me, so I often try out these products at home, as a way of benchmarking how good they actually are. Laek’s Adventure Towels are no exception — I’ve been using them as my primary towels here at home for weeks now.

They are like a chamois for your body, and they are as weird to use after a shower as that statement makes them sound, and yet highly effective towels. I’m not sure I can go back to my other towels…

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Note: this bag was provided for review by Bleu de Chauffe.

Bleu de Chauffe is a relatively new brand, having started 2009, but they are doing something rather unique. They are hand making heritage-level bags in France with a focus on sustainability and quality. They sent over their ‘Business Woody’ bag for me to check out, and I’ve fallen in love this bag. It’s unlike anything else I’ve used before, and yet it fills so many roles — I’m shocked this isn’t a more common layout.

You’re going to want this.

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The way this works is simple: use a notebook and a pen when you need to work through a problem of any kind.

Not a tablet with a stylus. Not a notetaking app. Not a pencil. Paper and pen.

Give me a blank page of my notebook and my pen — I shall fill that page in no time.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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