pnw | The Filson Journal

The Iron Man of the Hoh: John Huelsdonk

The west coast’s Paul Bunyan, an American folklore’s lumberjack strongman. John Huelsdonk was a Famed woodsman of the Pacific Northwest. He fought bears with his bare hands, carried 200 pound loads such as a wood stove on his back 25 miles over a mountain pass, and could shoot a bird half mile out with iron sights. This is his story.

5 Min

Filson x Birdwell x Blackfern Surfboards_Featured

Profiles

Michael Hall: Portland’s Backyard Surfboard Shaper

In 2008, Michael Hall moved to Portland, Oregon, and was promptly laid off. A geologist by training, the 28-year-old Washington native had spent the past five years zipping around the Alaskan tundra and other equally remote locales in a helicopter, looking for mineral deposits. But the Great Recession clobbered the mining industry and left Hall out of work, in a new town, with substantial free time to burn. He enrolled in graduate school, at Lewis & Clark College, hoping to pivot into education. But he still had ample opportunities to surf, a hobby he’d taken up two years earlier. The problem was that “at the time,” Hall says, “surfboard designs were not very well geared for our waves, which tend to be flatter than, like, big barreling Hawaiian-reef waves.”

5 Min

black and white image of person with pick and large mountaineering pack standing on a rocky peak with large snowy mountains in background

Profiles

Inspiring Women of the Pacific Northwest & Alaska

We’ve all heard the stories of historic women like Amelia Earhart and Nellie Bly. Here we’re focusing our scope to our backyard in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, shining a light on a few groundbreaking women that never (potentially) made it into your history books.

5 Min

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.

5 Min