Camp Cooking of Small Game (Written in 1998)
This discussion will focus on general principles to ensure toothsome meat, especially small game, collected and prepared in the backcountry. #1–try for center of mass hits. This will usually place the bullet through the animals thorax (chest), not the gut....
Getting Further Back (Written in 1997)
Good afternoon. Thanks for coming. I’ll set the tone for this talk by giving you a subtitle: “Making Meat on Your Own Two Feet”. I’m going to talk mostly about backpacking up and in to where the game is. We’ll...
Meditations on Hunting Backpacks (Written in 1998)
As the founder, chief designer and former owner of Mountainsmith, one of the world’s best known manufacturers of technical backpacks, I spend about 200 days a year camped out testing designs. On almost every one of those trips, I carry...
The Possibles Pouch (written in 1997)
Over several decades of wandering the backcountry I’ve developed a kit of “possibles”–items that can save my bacon, or just ensure comfort, wherever I roam. The term “possibles” comes from the intrepid Mountain Men of the Rocky Mountain West, who...
Arizona Outdoors Interview with Jim Solomon (September 2001)
Patrick:I’ve been backpacking and backpack hunting for about 45 years.I owned a wilderness survival school (Colorado School of Outdoor Living) from 1972 to 1980.I was a Certified Cross Country Ski Guide from 1974 to 1982.I founded Mountainsmith Inc. in 1979,...
The reader who has perused a bit among my other “essays” knows that I am pretty much a solitary hunter/rambler. I do it by myself. Perhaps some probing of the ramifications of this style of wandering would serve the reader-...
Staying Young in the Field (Written in 2000)
No, the subject is not the aging of meat- though that might be a good topic for a future essay. Rather, I’m talking about the aging of us hunters. When I was a young buck I could put up with...
The short answer to your question about which packs and tipis I use is that I use, or have used extensively, all of them. If you’re trying to narrow the field of options with a mind to make selections that...
Answers To Posimag (Written in 2000)
The following is in response to a pregnant paragraph from good pal and customer “Posimag”, as posted on our message board 6-1-00. My response grew so large it warrants putting it here on the Forum instead of on the message...