I bought some hiking socks from wigwam after doing some reading about the benefits of hiking with a sock designed for hiking.

What a difference it has made. I’ve been on a couple long hikes while wearing the “Cool-Lite Hiker Pro” and they keep my feet dry and blister free. The socks seem to be lightly padded and very well made.

Check out the Wigwam Amazon Store for more Wigwam products that are Made in the USA.

As always, Shop local.

Long time no see, huh? Ha! I’m back.

I was looking for a kayak for about a year. I’ve been researching and I found a couple companies, thanks to Americans Working, Jammer Canoe and Kayak and Old Town Canoe and Kayak.

On further research, I ran across Emotion kayaks, I must say, they make a beautiful kayak. They were, unfortunately, out of my price range.

I was looking around for a 12′ kayak that could hold some gear for overnight river adventures. I ran across the Loon 120, from Old Town,  at a Cabela’s… Though I don’t like buying from big chains, they had an unbeatable price on the kayak. Unfortunately… I did purchase a paddle and life jacket of unknown origin I feel kinda crappy about this.. I’ll try to make it up in the future.

Took the loon out last night for it’s maiden voyage. Kayaking is wonderful. It reminds me of fly fishing, it keeps the mind focused on one thing and the rest of the world is put on hold. So relaxing… I may have to try them together! Fly fishing from a kayak sure sounds fun.

I went kayaking with my dad a few weekends ago in his kayak, It seemed a lot of people were sporting old town kayaks.

Also, as a side note, I had been looking around for used kayaks for about 6 months. Nothing turned up on the craigslist that was what I wanted, in my price range. I prefer to buy used if possible. Saves me money and gives money to someone local.

I recently began geocaching. It’s a lot of fun, keeps me out of the house, and I’ve been places I’d never have seen without it.

To do geocaching, you just need a GPS device and a coordinate. The GPS device I started with was my cell phone but I wanted something durable that I didn’t need to worry about dropping. My phone wouldn’t survive a drop from 4 feet, The Apisphere Geomate.jr sure will.

Over 250,000 caches, 2 aaa batteries last 12-hours. The accuracy is as good (if not better than), my phone. The build quality of the Geomate Jr is impressive. Simple, shock resistant, and very smooth. Best of all, Made in the USA.

Happy Geocaching.

Finally!! I’ve been searching all summer, maybe longer, for a Maul Made in the USA.

Council tool, a 123 year old company manufacturing out of Lake Waccamaw North Carolina, makes a huge selection of axes.

Take a look at this beauty. General purpose, RC 45-55, Natural steel finish. I need one of these for my truck.

Not to mention the rest of the stuff they make:

• Brush Clearing Tools
• Clamping Products
• Forcible Entry Tools
• Forged Bars
• Municipal Firefighting Tools
• Picks/Mattocks/Gardening Tools
• Sledge Hammers
• Tradesmen Hammers
• Wildland Firefighting Tools

Get ready for splitting wood for your fireplace or stove. It’s going to be a cold one this year.

It seems there are always options out there. I was buying some fishing tackle this weekend at one of those giant outdoor shops. They had an amazing selection of everything. For example, fishing hooks primarily were made elsewhere.  I happened across some, for the same price, Made in the USA. Bobbers were another example. There were all kinds made in the US, and at very competitive prices (even cheaper than foreign made stuff in some cases).

I am a big stickler for quality. I generally will put Quality over Origin. But 9 out of 10 times I’ve found the USA made products wins in that category, anyway.

∞That’s your mission if you choose to accept it. Let us know what you bought instead of something else.

Costco had a package of Maglites the 2-AA LED, and a 3-D Cell LED. I have this weird thing for flashlights.. so I had to get them.

My hose nozzle cracked last winter so I needed a new one. Gilmour has a Zinc Pistol Grip Nozzle for a reasonable price at Lowes.  Be sure to check the label, Most of Gilmour’s products are made overseas. They do all seem to be of reasonably good quality.

Starting today I’ll be providing you with missions for the upcoming week. Click here for your Mission.

I checked out a Pelican case at a local Outdoors store (Alpine Shop).  The Pelican cases are very well built and have some great features. For example The Pelican i1010 Waterproof Case for an iPod has the usual crushproof and water resistant case with a headphone jack built in. So you may listen to your tunes while in a kayak or hiking, without worry.
They also carry a full line of cases for anything you could imagine (within reason). I have a DSLR Camera I’d like to take with me on a trip to Japan. The Pelican 1300-000-110 Small DSLR Camera Case ought to work perfect.

Another great selling point, everything is backed by Pelican’s Legendary Lifetime Guarantee of Excellence, “You break it, we replace it…forever.”™

Pelican Products are made in Torrance, California.

Buy Pelican on Amazon

∞Pelican

I had a race this weekend and I came in dead middle. My class was running only 3 cars, I came in second. Everyone running consisted of roughly 100 people, I came in 50th. I hit no cones. It was pouring down rain half of my runs.

Luckily I had SilBlade. Even when the wipers weren’t on I had a relatively clear view in front of me. They seem to have some additive on the blades that bead up rain on the windshield.  I must say, I wasn’t too keen on this at first. However(and there is always a however in life) I fell in love with the beading rain, and the SilBlade, this week.

Normally when it rains, I have a thin layer of water streaming down my windshield. This is not good at high speeds when you need to see where you are actually going.  Even with a light mist, the ability to see out the windshield is greatly improved.

Now to the wiper. I say wiper because I purchased only one. What can I say, I’m cheap and I wanted to compare directly the difference. The SilBlade wiper glides smoothly over the windshield weather it’s wet or not. While my passenger side blade is chattering due to lack of lubrication, the SilBlade on the driver side is perfectly wiping the light mist away. That sold me on this blade instantly.

Get your SilBlade on Amazon

To give you an idea of what it was like sunday, here is a video of a fellow autocrosser…  And this was the dry part of the day.

I’ve been looking for a new sleeping bag for a few months. My current bag(eggplant) is from when I was like 10 and going to summer camp. Eggplant protects to temperatures down to 65 degrees. Enough about this, Let’s talk about Equinox.

So, I ran across Equinox on the PennPortal blog, Equinox makes Hiking/Day bags, cargo bags, Sleeping bags, many other outdoor living accessories. They are made in Williamsport Pennsylvania, for over 20 years.

I’m going to go with the Forest Green Koala camp bag. (I’ll skip the Eggplant this time)

Equinox Outdoor gear found via PennPortal

A lot of OfficeMax Paper products are Made in the USA. It seems Scotch Tape is Also.

Bill @ Bye, American ran across a few LawnMowers, the Jiffy Steamer, and John Ratzenberger’s (Cliff!!) Show.

I got to shoot my Henry Rifle on Saturday. It was awesome, Got a bulls-eye at 50 yards with NO SCOPE (Lucky Shot).  I was hitting the target most of the time, The trigger is great, Leaver Action perfect.  What a wonderful Firearm, I’m very proud to own it. Article coming Soon.