adventure | The Filson Journal

Mississippi Solo: Eddy Harris

In 1988, Eddy Harris published his first book, Mississippi Solo, an account of his canoe trip down the entire length of the river. Thirty years later Harris canoed the Mississippi for a second time, to see what changes had come to the river that “symbolizes who we are as a nation and as a people.”

“When people learn that I’ve canoed the length of the Mississippi River twice, they immediately want to know why,” Harris writes. “Why would I want to canoe the river in the first place? And then, why in the world would I do it again?”

Filson in the Field: Packrafting the Remote Waters of Alaska

The state of Alaska tends to breed ideas larger than life. There is just something about the sheer amount of untrammeled wilderness there that seems to spark a fire in folks. So, when we decided we wanted to put some of our newest gear to the test, we reached out to some of our favorite guides for outing ideas. Eschewing more traditional adventures, we decided to spend five days exploring the rivers surrounding remote Chelatna lake just outside of Denali national park and preserve. This is the story of that trip.

The Utah Traverse

It’s often easy to get lost in the severe beauty of southern Utah in the high desert lands of the Colorado Plateau. The parched and arid red sandstone landscape is unforgiving, mountains and ridges appear everywhere shimmering in the distance, and plunging canyons seem to materialize out of thin air. While it can take your breath away it also demands respect from anyone journeying through it.

So, when four friends decided to take their off-road motorcycles on an epic weeklong trip across this region, they knew that things could and would probably go crooked quickly. But that is the beauty of doing the Utah Traverse.