Did anyone notice this article in the NY Times the other day?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09kristof.html?bl&ex=1249963200&en=ce185b35dda494d2&ei=5087%0A

Not a bad intro to UL backpacking.

Mention of some cottage opperations and sound techniques.

GJ guy!

My aunt mentioned this to me and I was pretty surprised. Had to read it twice to see if I wasn't imagining things. He mentioned 10-pound packs as the way any non-novice backpacker should pack, Gossamer Gear and Western Mountaineering as good brands to check out, and the reasons for people being afraid of bears. Pretty sweet to see that UL is making it to the bigger world... NY Times is definitely mainstream, although I don't know if they're usually purveyors of backpacking technique.

Here's his blog with some more info: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/how-to-get-out-in-the-woods/

It's great to see that Nick Kristof is a UL backpacker. Given his bio, it makes a lot of sense.

What a great guy. Just met him the other week in Ashland before he went with his sons to hike the Timberline Trail around Hood (a la UL). His "Recharge Your Soul" column remains one of the most read on the NYTimes site. What a great plug for Gossamer Gear.
Off for my own UL excursion with my son.
Cheers.

And the times, they are a-changin... maybe.

I seem to remember some sort of statistics that people aren't doing the outdoor thing as much as they used to. That, along with kids getting too much tube-and-keyboard time.

I took a physical geology class years ago and many in the class couldn't grasp the concepts of stream morphology. It dawned on me that they had never played on a stream bank or gone rock-hopping, which I had done since I could walk. The ramifications of that are broad, not least of which is that people who don't experience nature won't protect it.

It is good to see a major media outlet cover hiking and UL to boot.

"people who don't experience nature won't protect it"

Dale - well said.

Nice to have Kevin rear his mythical head again!

Edited by rosierabbit on 08/24/2009 14:00:35 MDT.

Ah, heck!

Now we are going to have hordes of people invading and over-populating the back county. :)

But GG could benefit... if they had any inventory left to sell.