Bear River Outfitters

2011-10-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

The new Tilley "Ivy"...from Bear River Outfitters

A new Tilley for the winter!

VERY comfortable and very warm. Even water resistant, when rain or snow is falling.

Keron 3 GT by Hilleberg the Tentmaker

2011-10-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

My favorite tent. Strong with 10 mm poles, beefed up zippers. Heavier duty floor. bomber shelter for any condition, witha ton of storage space!

Valandre Bloody Mary

2011-08-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention, I also used my Valandre Bloody Mary and my Exped Down Mat on our fly fishing trip to the Winds last weekend. The Bloody Mary is a very versatile sleeping bag, perfect for temps in the 10 to 50 degree range. The interchangeable neck baffles make it so that you can use the bag comfortably in a wide variety of conditions. We woke up to frost on our panniers, so it did get a little chilly in the night, but I was warm and cosy in my Bloody Mary.

We are now selling the Valandre Bloody Mary and the Exped Down mat at www.bearriveroutfitters.com , they are easy to get in stock as Liberty Mtn in SLC is now our distributor for them . YAY!!!!!!

Hilleberg tents

2011-08-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went fly fishing up near the Wind River Range, just off of the Union Pass Road. We took our Keron 3GT and our Allak. Awesome tents! The Keron 3GT is a palace inside for two people and sets up quickly. It is one of my favorite tents when there is enough room to set it up.

Hilleberg tents will soon be listed on my www.bearriveroutfitters.com website.

Winds Trip 2010

2010-09-03T21:14:00.001-07:00

Our campsite for a few days.

We went in to the Winds for six days and had a wonderful time. Got the privilege

of meeting John Mionczynski, the father of goatpacking, at the trailhead shortly after we had arrived. What a kind fellow!

Hilleberg Tents

2010-01-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

If you live and backpack in the Rocky Mountains, Hilleberg tents are the best option, in my opinion.

I like to spend summers in the Wind River Range in Wyoming above timberline, and a three season tent just doesn't cut it.

I will be posting more about the advantages of Hilleberg tents in the next couple of days.

Grandson

2009-09-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

My oldest son and his wife gave birth to a baby boy yesterday! 8 lbs 14 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. It is SO cool to have a grandbaby! I never realized that it would be this exciting! Gives me the motivation to stay in top physical shape for the next thirty years! So we can go hiking and fishing together!

Winds Trip 2009, Part 2

2009-09-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

This picture is on the trail towards Edmund Lake. We had leveled out at 10,000 ft elevation and were working ourselves out of the burn area. Amazing how destructive these forest fires are.

Festus and Buford were taking a well deserved break!

Here's the lake with lots of nice brookies. North of Edmund and off trail a ways up there.

East end of the lake

Snow on the mountain tops higher up towards the Continental Divide

Nice Brookies that I caught one afternoon

Here's a video clip of the brookies in this lake

Clay frying up some of the brookies that we caught

A close up look of another batch

My raft which weighs about 20 oz.

Picture of me, age 52 yrs old

Buford in the morning

Outside view of my Nallo 2, Festus was always there when I was inside the tent

Same view when I camped under the tarp

75 lbs worth of gear, glad that I didn't have to carry it all!

Tarp camping, no bugs in site

Buford when we were at Lake Ethel

Comical video of Clay and Cooper his goat!

Josh with his evening catch

Lake Ethel in the morning, prior to taking off for the Trailhead

Boulder Creek, the trail went right by it

Winds Trip 2009

2009-09-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

We decided to head up to the Wind River Range in the middle of August and stay for 7 days. We originally were headed for the Dickinson Park TH on the East side of the Winds, but after looking at the weather report for the 15th, they were predicting a 90% chance of snow, we decided that we'd go in on the west side and have milder weather.

We left Deweyville at 4:30 am, picked up Clay at 6:00 am, and headed for the Boulder Creek TH. I think that I only got about 3 hours of sleep due to packing and also due to the anxiety of the trip. Anyway, we arrived at the TH about 11:30am, and loaded up the goats and hit the trail. The skies were overcast - I was wondering what we were in for as far as weather, but we were very fortunate as the temps stayed in the 40's, and we only had a skiff of sleet every now ad then.

Photo above is of Boulder Lake. Clay is in the photo. We were around 1000' higher than the TH at this point.

Here is a picture of the two goats that I took

along, Buford and Festus, my 2 1/2 year old

wethers. They carried 65 lbs of gear between

the 2 of them, which I thought was really cool. They were both real troopers on this trip. they stayed right behind me on the trail and never gave up. It made it so I only had to carry 10 to 15 lbs on MY back. Stuff like rain gear, insulating layer, water, etc.

Darn't if we didn't see a rock chuck along the way, prior to hitting Blueberry Lake. Thoughts crossed my mind to blow him off of the rock, but I resisted. I know what they do to backpacks and food containers, that explains why I wanted to get rid of him.

You don't see horses doing this! This was a close up of my 2 1/2 year old wether named Buford. He is going to be a BIG boy, he is already 216 lbs. He carried 40 lbs on this trip. This was by out campsite between Cross and Coyote lakes. Nice campsite by the way.

Here is a shot of the mountain peaks East of Lake Victor, with the snow on them. The storm moved through a day or two before this...I am glad that we waited and came in later! Pays to get on the NOAA site before heading out!

Chillin' just below Washakie Pass, Winds

2008-09-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

We spent 7 days in the Winds, this photo was at 11,000 feet, just below Washakie Pass on the East Side. We had a terrific time over in the Popo Agie Wilderness area!

Blowin' in the wind....

2008-06-18T20:48:00.001-07:00

Don't try this!

It did not seem THAT windy, and I thought I'd clean the dirt out of the tent, plus un-do the velcro straps that held the poles.

Due to the I.D. MK1XL's superb ability to handle wind (on the ground), I had grossly underestimated how strong the winds were actually blowing!

Next time I'll shake out the tent AT HOME!!!!

2008-06-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

For Alpine style backpacking, where the ground is really rocky, I really like either the Integral Designs MK1 XL with two doors, or the Hilleberg Allak. Both are free standing, and both really withstand some fierce winds.

Here's a photo of me and my packgoat, Rufus, on the summit of Chocolate Peak in the Wellsville Mountain Range in Northern Utah.

The new Hilleberg Allak

2008-04-12T20:12:00.001-07:00

The Hilleberg Allak

I really like tents with two doors - because they have plenty of ventilation. The Allak is a true, honest-to-goodness all season shelter.

I don't care if you live in the humid Southeast, the rainy Northwest, the hot and dry Southwest, or the Rockies, this tent will handle it!

It can open up as shown to get an incredible amount of ventilation, or it can be zipped closed tight when Mother Nature is unleashing her wrath...

It will handle snow loading as well as high winds mixed with rain and snow.

What a great all-round tent!

Hilleberg's inner tent material

2008-04-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

I have seen postings recently where backpackers are complaining about Hilleberg's inner tent material, that it isn't breathable enough, that it should be made of screen mesh throughout.

Listen, folks, Hilleberg knows what they are doing and they have a VERY valid reason for how their inner tents are designed. Bear in mind-------- these are four season tents....they are made to withstand driving snow and rain. If the inner tent was pure mesh or mosquito netting, rest assured that the occupants would be getting wet, because there would bound to be seepage through the bottom of the outer tent. So they know that this happens, and while the inner tent fabric is very breathable, it inhibits water from penetrating the fabric. BUT, the doors of the inner tent DO have a screen as well as a zip up piece of fabric to protect the occupants when all heck breaks loose.

Hilleberg tests all of their models and I have found that time and again there is a good reason why they do what they do.

Goat packing

2008-04-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here is my son Jason, with my Packgoat Rufus, a 2 year old wether.

Packgoats have been used since the 1970's, and they are a wonderful pack animal that can be used to haul gear and food, pretty much anywhere that we humans can go!

Since packgoats can haul up to 40-50 lbs, why not buy 4 or 5 of them and let them haul my gear where horses can't go?

Heck, then I can stay in the remote regions of the Fitzpatrick Wilderness for 2-3 weeks at a time and only carry a daypack!

Training with a McHale

2008-04-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am posting these two photos for several reasons - (1). One is never too old to get in shape. (2). McHale Packs are wonderful. I remember hearing my older brother tell me that "when ya hit 50 years old, the wheels fall off". I really got to thinking about that remark, and the more I more about it, the more I felt that health decay was more a matter of choice than fate. I could be wrong, but my point is, that statement made me do everything in my power to stay healthy. My goal is to backpack in the WindRivers until I am 85 years old. It was only 5 years ago that I was a fat 268 lbs and was using a CPAP machine because I had sleep apnea. I had a 44 inch waist and I felt lousy ALL of the time. To make a long story short, I lost 60 lbs and 11 inches off of my waist! No tricks, just healthy eating and aerobic exercise with sweating taking place. I first got on the treadmill and could barely do a pathetic 5 minutes of walking, level incline with no pack. I remember looking at the timer and had only gone 3 minutes and I was ready to quit! Nowadays, I strap on my 60 lb McHale custom pack and hike for 30 minutes at about a 20% incline, and 3.5 mph. I am sure that I am not setting any records, but for a 50 year old, I think that I am doing pretty good. I was told that nobody gets off a CPAP machine...well I did 2 years ago and have not needed it since.

Hilleberg Nallo 3GT

2008-04-06T18:55:00.001-07:00

Here's a photo of the Nallo 3GT by Hilleberg. They are fantastic tents. I always keep coming back to them. I like the double wall exo-skeleton design concept where I can erect both the inner and outer pieces simultaneously. I could go on and on, but it would be better for consumers to just get their catalog and study it. Bottom line, I think that they are the finest built tents out there.

Welcome!

2008-04-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! I am kinda new at this, but this blog is intended primarily to be an area where I can post test results of new gear that I receive and test for my retail customers. My new site will be www.bearriveroutfitters.com, and will list all of the brands that we are currently an authorized dealer for.

I will also most likely post trip reports and photos in the coming months. This first photo is of me and my new McHale SCMII pack which I dearly love. We snowshoed in to an area this January and this photo was on the way out, about 200 yards from the parking lot. I am wearing a Rab Latok jacket in this photo. It is quite the winter shell, heavyweight, with eVENT membrane. We used a Hilleberg Nallo 3GT and I used a Valandre' Thor sleeping bag. Way overkill, as the bag is rated to -58F, but in the area where we spent the night (Peter Sinks), you never know how cold it is going to get. It only got down to around +18F at night, but the year before, it hit -21F when we were up there in that region!