6th
Jul
Photo credit: Lou Toni for the feature image above I’ve been using Fujifilm for just over a year now. About three months ago, after gathering dust, I finally sold my beloved Canon 6D an lenses. (I did keep my nifty fifty and Canon Elan 7NE. I couldn’t entirely give up Canon, and that is my […]
29th
Jun
This week I’ve decided to write about a different kind of outdoor activity: building fences. When Amy and I bought our house, we knew beforehand that all three fences and our deck would soon need replacing. Well, three and a half years later, and we are finally fixing fences that are literally falling down, and […]
22nd
Jun
One of the early enhancements we made to our Cricket was a cell signal booster. We went on 26 trips in the first year of our Cricket. That’s every other weekend plus a few longer trips (4–16 days), and we continued going out throughout the cold winter months, so having a good cell signal allowed […]
15th
Jun
When I taught backpacking to University students, the majority of the content came down to decision-making. How we go about making decisions in the backcountry can be the difference between a safe experience and a harrowing one. Values Decisions in the backcountry balance risk and reward. Underlying that balance are the values we hold. So […]
8th
Jun
It’s been a few weeks now since we installed solar on our Mantis, and so far we are loving it. Instead of plugging our Mantis in when we get home, we just turn off all the power draws (including the fridge), and let the solar panels bring the power back up and keep the batteries […]
1st
Jun
I made my first attempt to summit Rainier in 2006 and made it to our 11,000-foot base camp. However, my conditioning was lacking, and hearing stories of groups coming back down after 15-hour summit attempts, I realized I could not continue with my team. Since then, Rainier has always been in the back of my mind, […]
25th
May
Now that we’ve had a few weekends to take out our Mantis camper from TAXA Outdoors, we’re finally ready for the grand tour of our new home away from home. We love how open it is. There are so many windows already. Add to that the pop top with over 90% covered in mesh windows […]
18th
May
I tend more towards backpacking than car camping, yet the ability to bring a basecamp—a home—with me on trips has always been appealing to me. I am lucky enough to be married to a wife who has shared that appeal, and so a little over a year ago, after watching the progression of small camping […]
10th
May
If you’ve followed our journey on the TAXA Trailer Owner’s Facebook group, you’ll probably know we’ve struggled a bit with our tow vehicle. What you probably don’t know is how painful this decision process has been. We started the search in February, well before our Mantis was delivered, so we had plenty of time. We […]
20th
Apr
We just got back from our first trip with our new Mantis, and we have learned quite a few lessons already. There were some warranty issues that we discovered, and TAXA has already jumped on acknowledging those and let us and our dealer know what the planned fixes are (some were able to be fixed […]