filson life

a middle aged bearded white man wearing a yellow flannel shirt, dark jeans and a green hat holding a block of wood and a chainsaw looking up at a tree to assess it
Profiles

Zach LaPerrière: The Sage

Living in a small cabin immersed in the virgin old-growth with his family for the last twenty-five years, LaPerrière is a part of the wilderness. There is no television or road into it. Visitors park off the nearby road and walk in. As a result, they spend as much time outdoors as indoors. He spends long hours in his woodshop under the cabin, and he will spend months working on the creations that come from a single tree, turning it on his lathe, peeling back layers, and discovering the story in the wood.

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4 Min
man holding oars while standing in boat
Profiles

Lael Johnson – Olympic Peninsula Fly Guide

Lael Johnson is a fly fisherman and guide on the Olympic Peninsula. His passion for the anadromous fish of Washington’s coastal rivers is contagious. He loves these fish, these rivers, and the people he is lucky enough to experience them with. Filson Contributor Ben Matthews spent a few days on the river with Lael to ask a few questions about guiding, steelhead, and life in general. If you’re interested in heading out on the river with Lael yourself, check out his website and book a trip. You won’t regret it.

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5 Min
team of vets and forestry service personnel inspect an animal on a towel on top of a table with a breathing apparatus attached to its face
Profiles

Conservation Northwest: Keeping the Northwest Wild

For the 7.5 million residents of Washington state, most, if not all, have used or will use I-90 at some point. This interstate connects the two largest cities in the state: Seattle to the west and Spokane to the east. It also runs right through the southern end of the North Cascade mountains, home to great populations of blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk, coyotes, and black bears, among other species. As you drive east from Seattle, you might notice a bridge with no roads connected to it that spans the interstate just before you get to the city of Easton. This bridge is a wildlife crossing that will help keep these animals safe from vehicles. The bridge is there thanks to a Seattle-based organization, Conservation Northwest, and is just one of many projects this organization has helped fund, design and implement in this region.

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2 Min
black and white image of people in antiquated clothes and hats standing behind a large stack of bound wooden boxes reading
Field Notes

You Take What You Can Get: Or Suffer the Consequences

The stampede for gold into the Klondike of the Yukon territory reached a peak in 1898. In that same year, 1,200 other miners set out for other regions of the far north, including to the Koyukuk and Chandalar river drainages in the remote Alaska Territory interior, in a desperate search for similar riches. This region is situated in the northwestern part of Alaska, with the Koyukuk River flowing through it from the borders of the Arctic Ocean to where it enters the Yukon at Nulato.

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3 Min
hammering steel
Profiles

PNW Workers: Meridian Forge

It’s not an easy process. “You have to beat it into submission…you have to tell it what to do,” he says, speaking of the metal being shaped by his hands. He grimaces and sweats as he brings the hammer down again and again on the hot steel against the anvil. Both the process and the end result are his art. Darryl’s signature pieces are animal heads: a bald eagle with piercing eyes and razor-sharp beak, a ram leaping forward in challenge. His skill in forging these creations is made possible through tools that are all handmade, including the hammer wielded with purpose to shape hundreds of animals. Such was the case when he hand-forged a tomahawk that sports the head of a wolf.

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3 Min