Vintage Hiking Depot.

10/06/2017

06/03/2017

Assembling the pieces After a recent fishing trip I found myself furnished with a rather fine rainbow trout; it didn't feel like a whole-cooked fish kind of night so I thought it was the perfect time to have a crack at smoking. I managed to cobble together a smoker from things I had lying a

10/09/2016

Sportsman's Camping Guide Some gold from Leonard Miracle, this comes from "The Sportsman's Camping Guide" which is part of "Outdoor Life Magazine's" Skill Book series. This is his deceptively simple firewood rating system of common trees. I love the cover photography too – plaid and a packboard. Tip...

15/03/2016

A very trusted comrade A skill I have always wanted to hone (pun intended) is sharpening knives. Recently, I decided to take the leap, buy myself a good stone and get to it. Little did I realize what a complicated job selecting the right stone would be. Literature on the subject was vast and varied…

27/10/2015

So great.

REI is closing for Black Friday. Instead, we’re going outside and we want you to join us. Learn more and find ways to .

24/09/2015

Three Men in a Boat One of my favorite Victorian novels would have to be "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome. Jerome was a great comedic writer, his prose are still laugh out loud funny. The book follows Jerome and his two friends, to say nothing of the dog, as they take a boat trip out of Lon…

30/07/2015

My daughter got some nice high-speed camera captures of lightning while I drove. We chased a small storm system from Rapid City to Wall SD on the evening of 12…

22/07/2015

I am a freak for the American road trip. And I'm not alone, as some of this country's best writers have taken a shot at describing that quintessentially...

18/07/2015

It’s heartwarming, striding into a small, high street bookshop anywhere in the UK and finding whole shelves devoted to nature writing; even my home town’s WHSmith’s carries a selection of Robert Macfarlane’s titles....

05/05/2015

Do you know what a meol or a zawn is? A gryke or a glyder? Dominick Tyler, author of Uncommon Ground, takes us on a topographical tour of Britain, revealing lesser-known landforms and the right words to describe them

05/05/2015

Wonderful video.

An imaginary journey round Scotland, linking together wild bothies and landscapes. Apart from one day, when I was joined by a friend, I made this trip by myself,…

18/04/2015

Field guides, cookbooks, gardeners manuals, forager's friends, sustainability source-books, fisherman's companions and ethical way markers – the River Cottage Handbooks form an ever expanding reference...

14/04/2015

LAPL Map Librarian Glen Creason tells the tale of an amazing hidden map collection that doubled the library's archive in a single day. http://lareviewofbooks...

12/03/2015

There is no other character in British hiking quite as celebrated as Alfred Wainwright; although he is little known outside of the UK, for many he is the...

22/02/2015

A homely touch for our Bay of Fundy campground, wild flowers in a traditional Molsen vase.

21/02/2015

Raspberry leaves drying to make some hedgerow tea

30/10/2014

A photographer's notebook left behind a century ago at Captain Scott's last expedition base has been discovered and conserved by New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust.

28/10/2014

In the past few weeks the last of the striped bass have left my local waters and continued on their annual journey South. Just like the retirees and holiday makers, they are heading for warmer climates after a summer gorging on Maine's...

16/09/2014

I first saw this recipe on an episode of River Cottage, it looked amazing but I think that Brandt Berglund and Clare E. Bolsby have trumped Mr. Fearnley-Wittingsall with this recipe from their 1976 publication - "Wilderness Cookbook."…

15/09/2014

Kyle Johnson's wonderful fire lookout project.

Kyle Johnson Editorial/Commercial Photographer

04/09/2014

A quick tip by Robert J. Kelsey from his wonderful book "Walking in the Wild - The Complete Guide to Hiking and Backpacking". This might be controversial to some, in fact many ultralight hikers argue to the nth degree about the finer points of Esbit and Hexamin vs alcohol to…

26/08/2014

Everyone please form an orderly queue and proceed immediately to the Scottish Heritage Collection website. Since 2006 The Scottish Heritage Collection has been archiving and cataloguing an ever growing collection of vintage mountaineering gear and memorabilia. The charity was created by The Nevis Pa…

12/08/2014

It was on one of Roger Deakin's daily swims, in his moat at Walnut Tree Farm, that the master plan behind 'Waterlog' was hatched - to explore the ancient tradition of wild swimming on an aquatic peregrination through the bays, beach…

03/08/2014

And ... we're back, it took a little longer than I had expected but the VHD is back to full strength with a new design, a new web host and a new blogging engine. I have gone through most of the back catalogue, edited lots of the pictures and a lot of the copy. I have bought a new tripod…

06/07/2014

Stew is one of my staple outdoor dishes; it's very hard to mess up and the results can be spectacular. This time however, I wanted to up the stew ante and nudge my culinary comfort zone a little fu...