Ryan Jordan

Lake Chain Packrafting

Slow paddling through mountain lake chains offers a unique type of solitude and an entirely different way of seeing “routes”. In recent years, it’s become one of my favorite ways to travel through the mountains. The Martin Lake Chain in the Beartooth Range is a case in point. A traverse of this basin by foot, […]

Simplifying Water Management in the Mountains

Parable of the Pot There once was a pot. It could be dipped in a stream while stopped at a rest stop, and because the pot was big enough, it could be passed around, filled to the brim, amongst its cooperative of masters, and they could drink their fill with one scoop. The pot was […]

Tenkara Bums and More

Little bits of random goodness about Tenkara fly fishing gear, technique, and people. Tenkara Bums I do possess totally nerdy roots as a computer programmer and can remember even as a kid my obsession with what eventually became known as “program bumming” – the removal of code that results in no loss of efficiency (and […]

Scout Leader Training: Ultralight Backpacking

In May 2010 I had the privilege of teaching one of the most exciting courses ever to Scout Leaders from across North America. They came from Alberta, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Washington, and other faraway lands to little old DuPuyer, Montana at the foothills of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Their […]

Wilderness Simplicity, Flexibility, and Power

I love Brent Simmon’s recent post about flexibility and power in the context of iOS Apps, and especially, his brilliant observation that …flexibility is just a tool to use exceedingly sparingly, only when it substantially increases power. There’s a lot of meat in this statement, with direct relevance to trekking, and trekking gear. Now, it […]