September, 2008

As part of our Urban Outdoors initiative, we've highlight outdoor gear that's suited for an urban lifestyle. The selected products are useful for outdoor excursions, yet don't compromise style.

I was surprised to find out that there are affordable, earth friendly kids sleeping bags still made in the America by Exxel Outdoors. These sleeping bags are made from 75% recycled polyester. The Haleyville, Alabama manufacturing facility recycles over 95% of their industrial waste which saves 30 Millions pounds of waste from entering the landfill each year. These bags retail for under $20 and are sold in Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart-Sears, Big 5 Sporting Goods, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

New for 2009. The Seattle Sports Active Trax is an eco-friendly portable speaker. The Active Trax is powered by a hand crank and/or a solar panel. The speaker is compatible with most music players, and also can tune in FM, AM and Weather Band Stations. The Active Trax comes with a protective case for the speaker and music player. You can find the frequency of the weather station in your area by visiting the NOAA website.

The Seattle Sports Audio Micro Dry Bag provides splash-proof water protection for your portable music player. A watertight audio jack allows you to plug your headphones into the outside of the bag, while keeping your music player(and other items) dry on the inside. The Audio Micro Dry Bag is made of an eco-friendly urethane-coated 70 denier ripstop Nylon. The bag protects your electronics from the elements and from abrasive forces you'll face in traveling.

Testing on the Snake River

Polar Pak’s MOFLOW provides you with a pressurized water bladder.  We tested the MOFLOW while mountain biking in the Tetons, and were impressed by how well the bladder rode in our packs, and how quickly and easily the water was discharged.  As you can see from the picture, once you inflate or pressurize the MOFLOW, it becomes very rigid and slides into a pack with ease.

Hand Cut, Nick Waggoner's first full length ski film, will premier this September at selected locations around Colorado. Nick gave me a peek at the film at the OR show... and I've since watched a few more clips on Sweetgrass's Website.

A typical visit to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is about 1.5 - 2 hours. We recommend that all visitors begin their visit at the visitor center.

At the visitor center, you will receive orientation information and you can see geologic exhibits and fossil displays. The bookstore and bathrooms are also located here.

Behind the visitor center is an outdoor exhibit area where you can see petrified redwood tree stumps and associated exhibits. In the summer, rangers give hourly talks in the amphitheater which is also in the outdoor exhibit area.