Outdoors

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Travel with Your Camera and Digital Devices with Voltaic Solar Backpacks

Voltaic Solar Backpacks are rugged and meant to last and be easy to use, but what happens if you have a problem? If your solar charger isn’t working perfectly, it is frustrating to you and a waste of resources. We’re committed to getting your system to run smoothly and will work with you to resolve the problem no matter where you are in the world. Our customers are often as likely to be in Malawi as Manhattan so we’re used to working globally.

1029-s_sm_1Stop in today and ask one of our experts about one or more of these great options:

OffGrid 6W Solar Backpack will provide some serious power to your smartphone, tablet, and other USB devices with all the same great storage features of our old model. A padded laptop sleeve, dual side pockets, and specially lined sunglasses slot will make sure all your gear is in order before you head out the door. Better yet, the front solar pocket is still removable letting you take this 6 Watt system anywhere.

REVIEWS:

“It has adapters for almost everything! nice sturdy panels, plenty pockets and lots of space. Works awesomely under the scorching Panamanian sun, finally getting something back out of all that sweating. This backpack is light, carrying the battery and all of the extras it has. You can separate the panels from the bag and put the panels where they can get more sunlight.”

“Very happy with my purchase! Great quality pack, excellent construction and the solar panels and battery are top quality. my only complaint is it needs more internal space a 15″ macbook in neoprene skin only just fits into the rear laptop compartment, and I regularly carry 2 plus other items.”

 

 

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The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem

Every year, scores of Into the Wild fans tackle a dangerous river crossing to visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty. Why are so many people willing to risk injury, and even death, to pay homage to a controversial ascetic who perished so young?

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EXCERPT from an article by:
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Ackermann, who was from Switzerland, and Gros, a Frenchman, had been hiking the Stampede Trail, a route made famous by Christopher McCandless, who walked it in April 1992. Many people now know about McCandless and how the 24-year-old idealist bailed out of his middle-class suburban life, donated his $24,000 in savings to charity, and embarked on a two-year hitchhiking odyssey that led him to Alaska and the deserted Fairbanks City Transit bus number 142, which still sits, busted and rusting, 20 miles down the Stampede Trail. For 67 days, he ate mostly squirrel, ptarmigan, and porcupine, then he shaved his beard, packed his bag, and started walking back toward the highway. But a raging Teklanika prevented him from crossing, so he returned to the bus and hunkered down. More than a month later, a moose hunter found McCandless’s decomposed body in a sleeping bag inside the bus, where he had starved to death.

Read the original story, “Death of an Innocent,” from Outside‘s Jan 1993 issue.
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This tragic story was told by Jon Krakauer in the January 1993 issue of Outside and later in his bestselling 1997 book, Into the Wild. The book, and a 2007 film directed by Sean Penn, helped elevate the McCandless saga to the status of modern myth. And that, in turn, has given rise to a unique and curious phenomenon in Alaska: McCandless pilgrims, inspired by his story, who are determined to see the bus for themselves. Each year, scores of trekkers journey down the Stampede Trail to visit it. They camp at the bus for days, sometimes weeks, write essays in the various logbooks stowed inside, and ponder the impact that McCandless’s antimaterialist ethic, free-spirited travels, and time in the Alaskan wild has had on how they perceive the world.

Read more.

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Ponds: Good ol’ backyard fishing holes

By ROGER PHILLIPS

Ponds are an overlooked treasure for local anglers and a quick, convenient getaway for fishing trips close to home.

There are 35 of them in the Treasure Valley and nearby communities. Ponds are easily accessible, user friendly, stocked with fish and offer up a few surprises.

“These are places where kids can get started fishing, but they are much more than that,” said Joe Kozfkay, Idaho Fish and Game’s southwest region fisheries manager. “Some of these ponds are people’s primary places to go fishing.

Read more here.