There's a cool brand out of Jackson Hole Wyoming called Cloudveil that we have recently added to our fall product mix at Pack & Paddle. They call their clothing "Inspired Mountain Apparel". Hmm... We think it translates extremely well to the South Louisiana bayou as well. Their designs are innovative, functional, aesthetically clean and great fitting. Some of the Cloudveil is ski-oriented, but most of our selection crosses over very well to Acadiana's fall and winter weather. Here are just a couple of the styles in stock now at Pack & Paddle: The men's 16 Penny Barn Coat is an ...

There's a cool brand out of Jackson Hole Wyoming called Cloudveil that we have recently added to our fall product mix at Pack & Paddle. They call their clothing "Inspired Mountain Apparel". Hmm... We think it translates extremely well to the South Louisiana bayou as well. Their designs are innovative, functional, aesthetically clean and great fitting. Some of the Cloudveil is ski-oriented, but most of our selection crosses over very well to Acadiana's fall and winter weather. Here are just a couple of the styles in stock now at Pack & Paddle: The men's 16 Penny Barn Coat is an ...

Ahnu is a new company specializing in lightweight, functional shoes and sandals. We had an interest in Ahnu because of their interesting styles that lend themselves towards casual use and travel. For anyone that's on their feet a lot and does a lot of walking, Ahnu is worth a test drive. Their unique midsole and outsole construction combine to make an amazingly comfortable walking shoe. Add on quick release lacing systems and you may have the perfect shoe! The mens Tamalpais (shown in Carafe) features the QuiteLite Webbing Lace system into a comfortable and supportive shoe for walking, travel and ...

We had a really fun seminar last night. Karla Coriel came over from Baton Rouge to lead a workshop on food dehydrating. She showed everyone how to prepare their own dried foods at home. These foods are great not only for camping trips but also for hurricane foods.Karla started off showing basic things like a 1 lb bag of broccoli dried into a small ziploc weighing less than 4 ounces. She did the same for spinach and several other vegetables. Karla then rehydrated a couple of types of cole slaw. She then moved into fruits, passing around dried apples, fruit ...

Update on entry one year later: Here's an update on my little piece of nature in Lafayette. As the song goes: "Pave paradise, put up a parkin lot". I took this photo to show you what's become of this little piece of green in Lafayette. Obviously progress is important, and everyone has the right to do what they want with their property. I don't know any solutions, other than to look for opportunities to preserve greenspace for future generations when they appear. Things like the Horsefarm park and the Atakapas Ishak trail must be supported to keep greenspace a vital ...

I've had friends asking about the event we have coming up on the 29th with Nate "Tha Wookie" Olive. I thought it might be a good idea to give you some background and tell you a little about the event and what we are hoping for.Early in the summer, we were looking for a speaker that we could bring in that could embody what we envision for our new room. Becky sometimes looks through online journals of thru-hikers to read their experiences. She was looking through Trail Journals (www.trailjournals.com) when she came across Tha Wookies journal. A side note: Tha ...

I can remember being a 11 year old boy scout at Camp Thistlewaite. A counselor took a red external frame Kelty pack out of his tent and showed it to us. Then he described hiking in the mountains. We were HOOKED! A year or 2 later, my experiences in hiking New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana with my scout leaders Dr. John Meriwether, Ken Roy and John Sullivan helped to shape much of the rest of my life. This week, I gave presentations at two groups outside the shop. One was a group of local scout leaders and the other was a ...

Our intrepid band of 9 hikers headed to Arkansas to hike on the Eagle Rock Loop. Known as the most beautiful loop trail in the state, we were treated to tall mountains, beautiful creeks and nice trail. We hiked in around midnight on Friday, and set up camp. The night was cooler than I expected. I had brought a thin sleeping bag liner and woke up freezing! I put on my raingear and then later had to wrap up in my bug net to try to keep warm. Definitely not what I expected. Ironically the next day one of our ...

The fall clothing is just starting to arrive at Pack and Paddle, and there's a pair of pants that's getting rave reviews from all the women on the staff. Patagonia's Vitaliti pants hit that perfect mix of "not too loose - but not too body hugging". They are amazingly comfortable, stretchy and just nice to put on. They are equally at home in your morning yoga class as they are for a night on the town ...

Everyone loves a Titanium spork. The coolness factor is always way up there. What the My-Ti brings to the table is that they've solved the problem of storing it inside your cookset by making it with a folding handle ...

These amazing stuff sacks are super compact and ultra lightweight. They feature a watertight hypalon roll top closure to keep moisture out. The soft and flexible material has a slippery finish - making it easy to pack. These sacks are perfect for everything from your sleeping bag to food sacks that you can hang in a tree and will have a good level of waterproofness. We've found this to be a favorite accessory for hikers, paddlers and travelers ...

Becky and I just returned home from the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City. For us, this is a 4 day blur where we decide on our product lineup for Spring '08. This year, one of the over-riding themes that we saw everywhere we looked was the "greening" of our industry.Only a couple of years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find more than a handful of companies talking about green technology utilized in their operations or their products. Now, it seems to be pervading everything. Forgive me for being the eternal cynic, but I wonder ...