What tools, products, or companies do you recommend? #2
Quality goods.
Here’s my previous post on the subject.
Molly and I, along with our friend Emily, just got back from a quick trip into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Truck camping at an alpine lake up a rowdy enough 4x4 road to weed out most of the weekend warriors (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the mountains so busy on our drive up.)
From there we fished, swam, and hiked around to other lakes and peaks. Lovely weekend that’s still on my mind, so I thought I’d talk about some of the gear that helped make the trip what it was.
Our truck has a GFC camper shell and on this trip, we all slept in the truck, bunk bed style, with Molly and I up in the tent of the camper and Emily down below in the bed on a single trifold mattress.
GFC produces produces camper shells (and rooftop tents, along with some accessories) in Belgrade, Montana, but beyond that their business is creating systems and tech to empower other small businesses.
I’m paraphrasing the quote below. Read their whole manifesto, which opens with a poem and hits both patriotic and Marxist notes.
“GFC develops industry tools for small businesses and manufactures consumer products that empower people…
…By using automation, we’re able to create a better, more empowering work environment for our employees; and because we strive to create a flat company structure, profits are distributed more evenly too, meaning that no one who works for GFC gets left behind...
…Instead of developing those complex, complicated automated systems and hoarding them all for ourselves like the corporate bullies do, we sell those means of production to other small businesses so that they can make cool stuff too. The more that we democratize production, the more decentralized power becomes. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
My experience with the camper, and with the company and their customer service, has been phenomenal.
I/we desire (and use very frequently) a comfortable camping solution. But I can’t do a full camper, or a van, or whatever, because I need my truck for, well, truck stuff. I use the rack to haul lumber, the bed to haul tools and firewood and rock, and we drive to campsites and job sites that a Sprinter couldn’t.
I won’t tout all of their camper’s selling points. You can watch a video for that.
My testimonial is that their product has proven to be exactly what they promise—a lightweight and effective tool that does all the things we need it to, that’s supported by a company with refreshing ethos and a passion for making good products.
Vintage Cast Iron
Not everything older is better. The misconception that “They don’t make them like they used to” is often the result of survivorship bias. But there is something to be said for (some) vintage cast iron.
Older cast iron’s value is that, for a time, more care was paid to the manufacturing, so casts were more precise and the pebbled surfaces from the sand casting were ground flat. The result is a lighter pan that’s non-stick.
Modern cast iron (for the most part— there are a few companies that machine their surfaces such as Smithey and Finex) cuts corners to keep costs down and profits high, leaving the surface pitted and less usable.
The pan in our truck is a 1910’s Griswold #7 skillet that I picked up last summer from an antiques dealer in the region where we camped. We used it to fry up some brook trout and greens on this trip, which got us talking about cast iron, so on the drive home we stopped at the same shop and Emily grabbed a 1920’s Lodge skillet.
Side note: there’s a lot of mystique around cast iron. Namely, that soap, or even water, is poison to it. It’s not. You’re fine. Yes, old soaps were made with lye and could strip the seasoning (polymerized oils) from cast iron, but modern detergents are much milder.
Avoid the dishwasher, but go ahead and soap and scrub your pans. Dry it well (putting it on the stove for a bit will do this) and if it ever needs it, wipe a very light coat of oil on it. Crisco, veggie oil, grapeseed, flax, are all fine.
Benchmark Atlas
Molly and I are big fans of adventuring around the west and prefer dispersed camping in National Forest or BLM property. There’s a lot of satisfaction in the hunt for good spots and reward in dropping a pin for next time.
Digital tools get used for this—Gaia and OnX and Google Earth—especially when focusing on a very specific area and using satellite imagery, but there’s obviously some risk to relying solely on those when off the grid.
Even with offline maps and backup batteries, paper is still a smart move, and I’ve found our atlas to be more useful than a phone screen for the broader strokes of navigation—finding a promising region of public lands, or an off-the-beaten-path route that Google would never dare to suggest.
Don’t go thinking any atlas will do though. Benchmark is where it’s at.
Their atlases cover all the public and private land boundaries, locked gates, campgrounds, and points of interest to the explorin’ type. They also identify which roads are paved, dirt, 4x4, or ultra-high clearance gnar 4x4. The latter distinctions are imperfect, as there are so many unmaintained dirt roads and conditions change seasonally. But it’s pretty good.
A note on all this: 80% of the fun we’ve had out there in a vehicle, finding cool spots and camping without a soul in site, you could do with only a Subaru, a Benchmark atlas, and a willingness to explore. Too many people think they need all the truck and all the gear to find a bit of adventure in the woods and it’s simply not true.
More on seeking a little adventure another time—the approachability and the value— such as building skills and confidence, capability, and the bonding that comes from a little hardship with friends.
I didn’t know this about cast iron, but it explains why my one ancient pan is my favorite! Thank you.