Orsden Women’s Lift Jacket ($330, Orsden) Orsden’s website mentions a mythical bear. Cool. What really gets me, though, is that this mythical bear is supposedly playful and tough. That’s my kind of bear. It’s also my kind of girl. Playful and tough is a pretty good description of my wife Annika. Also organized, hard-working, patient and beautiful. Maybe Orsden’s bear is those things too. I don’t know. Naturally, I thought my playful, tough bear wife would be the perfect person to take the Orsden Lift Jacket for a test drive. Most of what follows are her impressions, though I’ve thrown in…
Author: Aaron Lovell
Aaron Lovell
Aaron Lovell lives in Tooele, Utah, and studied journalism at the University of Oklahoma. He hates fishing, loves ballet, and spends his free time helping his wife coax their four children along on hikes they're not old enough for. Twitter: @aarontlovell
Seattle Sports Glostick Multi-Clip USB ($20, Seattle Sports) What does Spaceballs, the 1980’s sci-fi spoof, have to do with the Glostick? I’m glad you asked. Let’s just say, not much. Still, Dark Helmet would be impressed. Or maybe not, actually. (Ahem! If you’re under 30, click here.) Now, wait a minute. The Glostick was never intended to save the universe, so I’m not holding it to that standard. What the Glostick does, though, it does very well: provide a lightweight, water resistant, AND rechargeable light source for emergencies or just about any outdoor activity where you need to see and/or be seen. I can’t…
Bushman Riley Mens pants ($110, Bushman) Imagine that I’m wearing pants. There’s no way for you to prove it, but imagine for a moment that it’s true. Lucky for my laptop, it actually is true. It’s also true that lying next to me on the couch is another pair of pants. These are the Riley Mens Cotton Cut Loose Pants, by Bushman. (Camel color, though I haven’t held them up next to a camel to verify.) Bushman has been around for about 20 years, but this was my first encounter with their product. I’m pretty pleased with the pants. They’re…
Relief Bed ($99-$149, ReliefBed.com) Cause marketing. It’s been around since the 1970’s, but in the last decade or so, it’s picked up steam. The surge in cause marketing seems especially notable in the outdoor industry, where companies often look for ways to offset environmental impacts or help underserved populations. Relief Bed, in partnership with camping juggernaut Therm-a-Rest, is part of this trend. Service before sales Founded in 2015, Relief Bed is a company that seems genuinely interested in its goal of “Changing lives around the world, one bed at at time!” This is a marked contrast to some companies preaching cause marketing. I’m…
Fenix PD32 Flashlight ($62, Fenix Lighting US) Second to last day of summer vacation. We’re heading to Subway Cave, just outside Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. Subway Cave is a classic lava tube, about 1/3-mile long, and a quick stop off the highway. Perfect for the end of a 12-day road trip. Other than just near the entrance and exit, the cave lies in total darkness. We had equipped our kids with LED headlamps. Their flood beams on the soft grey and black volcanic stone lit the way for about 30 feet, enough to navigate by. But I…
The Scrubba Wash Bag ( $50, eartheasy.com) When camping or traveling, convenient laundry options can be limited. Sure, I’ve washed my share of clothes by jumping in a river or cold mountain lake. And I’ve stepped fully-clothed into plenty of hotel showers or AirBnB bathtubs. But neither of those methods are very effective if your clothes are really dirty. The Scrubba Wash Bag, ordered from EarthEasy, is the better solution. It’s like carrying a tiny washing machine in your luggage. Made with lightweight materials, the Scrubba is essentially a smallish rolltop stuff sack/dry bag with a flexible, waterproof liner. To use it, you…
Death and taxes get all the credit. What about laundry? WIN Detergent ( $11, windetergent.com) If you wear clothes–and I hope you do–then laundry is a part of your life. Laundromats, laundry rooms, washtubs and clotheslines in the backyard; somehow, you’ve got to do the wash. Wait a minute… A laundry review in an outdoor/travel magazine? Bear with me, it’s relevant. WIN bills itself as “High Performance Sports Detergent.” It’s specially made to clean technical fabrics. By technical, I mean extra smelly. But seriously you know what technical fabrics are. They’re the synthetic materials from which your workout clothes and probably most…
Exos Gear Bravo For the last 5 years or so, a growing trend of so-called “tactical” gear has cropped up in the outdoor sports market, and I don’t mean just among the hunting and fishing segment. I’m talking about everyday people who identify with loving the outdoors in the myriad ways one can love the outdoors. It’s all out there now: super high-end cutting tools, flashlights bright enough to blind a Sasquatch, combat-style hiking boots and clothing (especially pants), and packs with enough external webbing to fashion an emergency fishing net. I’m not going to make a judgement on tactical gear’s popularity in outdoor spaces.…
Highlights in Utah National Parks for Adventurers & Families By Aaron Lovell Happy Birthday, National Park Service! The United States’ first national parks are older than 100 years, but the Park Service itself began in August 1916. And there’s no better place than the Mountain West, especially Utah, for national park access. Most Utahns live within a 12-hour drive of 24 national parks—that doesn’t include monuments—making it tough to decide which to visit first. Luckily, Utah is also home to five national park gems, and this weeklong road trip itinerary is an easy way to them this summer while commemorating the…
Perhaps the bright toes of barely unboxed running shoes peep from your closet or sit stationed at the ready next to the front door. Winter’s toxic air inversions and slick patches of blacktop that have keep runners sequestered on treadmills have all but disappeared. Cool morning air, mountain sunrises, and the reemergence of nature’s paint palette call us from our winter dens. Racing season is nearly upon us. Whether you’re a newbie looking to run your first 5K, a weekend warrior with sights set on progressive PRs, or a seasoned pro gunning for podium finishes, the right training is what…