Poler and Foster

Foster Huntington of The Burning House (whose book, which features a Cold Splinters section, comes out soon) teamed up with the almighty Poler for a surfing trip down to Nicaragua. The pictures are wonderful and you can see more here.Benji, who I was lucky enough to have a beer with while in Portland a few weeks back, and the Poler team have just released a whole mess of new "stuff," so head on over to Poler's website to check it all out.

Portland, Oregon

A couple weeks back, I went out to Portland, OR to see the folks from Danner (a client of Cold Splinters). I was lucky enough to be able to invite Well Spent, Wend, Best Made, Secret Forts and The Gear Junkie along for the ride, and we all had one hell of a time touring the factory (above is a photo of a 20D last!), seeing the Recrafting process and getting out on some hiking adventures in and around Hood River.Everyone else was way more responsible and took lots of photos throughout the trip, so for a much better recap than I could ever do, head here, here, here and here.

Sleeping Pads

A few people have written in and asked about sleeping pads over the last couple of weeks, so I thought I'd ask everyone else out in the cosmos what y'all sleep on when under the stars. For many years I used a blow up version of a pad and would always hate getting the air out while groggy in the morning. It wasn't comfortable enough for all that trouble. So for the past couple of years, I trade off between a Ridge Rest and a Z-Lite (both of which are Made In The USA if you care about that kind of thang), depending on which one is the last to be snagged out of my trunk while friends put their packs together. Comfortable, light, easy. Perfect for spring and summer. And sometimes beyond.

**So, what do you use for a sleeping pad?**

MP3: The dB's - Moving in Your Sleep

Danner Crater Rim

I spent the last couple of days in Portland, OR with the wonderful folks at Danner (Danner is a client of Cold Splinters) and a few of the best writers on this side of the Internet (more on that to come later in the week). Danner's MADE IN THE USA hiking boot, The Crater Rim, was recently awarded Outside Magazine's Gear Of The Year award and I'd like to take this opportunity to say a little congratulations. Danner makes The Crater Rim in their Portland factory, and over the past couple of months, I've had the pleasure of walking around the Appalachian Trail with the boots tied to my feet. Read a bit more here and go try on a pair for yourself when you have the time.

Custom Chacos

For better or worse, springtime is the start of Chaco season, which inevitably means having that wicked 13 year old summer camp "Chaco Tan." After a day of walking around in these behemoths, it almost feels like an accomplishment when you pull them off to reveal those hideous/amazing white lines.For a little flair on your spring/summer jaunts to the river, Chaco is now offering custom Made in The USA pairs that you can design yourself on their website. No, you can't submit your own patterns for the webbing, but there are lots of options to impress even the most stubborn of camp counselors. Nice work, Chacos. Hats off.Design your own at MyChacos.comMP3: Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Who Invented Himself

Boot Care

Thank you to the folks at Best Made and for Eli Romer, who works in the quality department at Danner (who, yes, is a client of mine), for putting together a little list of of boot care tips. It's mighty helpful as spring approaches. (Above are some views of the hikers I used around my last couple of weeks in Texas. The Danner Light IIs with Real Tree Cordura - called the Cabela Light II Camo Hikers - are exclusively sold here.)

CAMPING MUGS

I know how people are with their mugs at home. I'm the same way. Your mug is your mug and cross contamination is unnecessary and unacceptable. For most of us, that sentiment also translates to camping, and for me, that means always bringing along the old L.L. Bean mug I've had for way too long. That thing has been all over the country, holding some insanely bad cups of instant coffee, tea, whiskey (notice the Coke bottle full of bourbon?), noodles, and often enough, all of these things at the same time.Y'all got something special that's always along for the ride?

Toyota Trekker

I could try and rearrange all this info to make it look like I knew a lot about the Toyota Trekker, but since I was first introduced to these beauties from this post on Jalopnik, I'll just repost it here. One day, I will be a subscriber to this magazine, but for now, the Subaru is doing just fine. Unreal:

Several years before the 4runner was introduced to the world an odd collaboration between Toyota and Winnebago produced a little known compact SUV conversion called the Trekker.Production numbers vary depending on who you ask, but its generally agreed upon that somewhere between 1000 and 1500 Trekkers were produced between 1981 and 1983. 30 years later Trekkers are even rarer than when they were new which is why we were so intrigued to find a pristine example listed for sale on Ebay.Trekkers were originally sold and marketed as Winnebagos. The motor home company received partially built Toyota trucks and sub-contracted out construction of the fiberglass body before completing final assembly. After final assembly they were available for order to Toyota dealers.Exact Trekker history is sketchy at best and there are several different versions of the exact story of these trucks. Some point to Toyota dealers talking Winnebago into producing the trucks, while others suggest the company won the right to build the trucks directly from Toyota's Japanese HQ.Regardless of how it came about it's clear from examining this very original 1981 example that conceptually the Trekker was an early version of what would become the wildly popular first generation 4runner. Because they were specialty vehicles when new Trekkers came equipped with pretty much any option you can imagine on a 1981 Toyota truck, but underneath the hood of the notoriously bullet proof 4 cylinder 22R engine remained.It's nearly impossible to find any Trekker considering how few were made when new, especially an example as original as this one. It's understandable then that the price of obscure old Toyota SUV ownership isn't exactly cheap. This well kept example has a listed buy it now price of $16,500.

MP3: Black Flag - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie