American Adventures : Page 27 of 38 : American Adventurist

I feel confident in saying that there is more to see at Outdoor Retailer (OR) Summer Market than one can see in the few short days allotted to the show. Summer Market completely fills the Salt Palace Convention Center, two massive ‘pavilion’ tents, and the parking lots and lawns within walking distance. From the big names in the outdoor industry with their massive booths that take up more space than my house to the start-up companies with the ink still drying on their business cards, many, many brands are at the show to show off their latest and greatest—and there isn’t enough time to see it all.

Adventure Travel is continuing to make an impact in the outdoor industry, and more and more brands are starting to offer gear that you would expect to see at Overland Expo. Big names like Thule are starting to offer gear like awnings, and more and more folks are quick to nod in understanding at the mention of ‘overlanding’ or ‘adventure travel.’ There was a ton of awesome gear on display, so I won’t put any more words in your way. Here’s a taste of Summer Market.

Knives & Tools

SureFire was at the show showing off their new DBR Guardian along with many of their other proven lighting products. The DBR Guardian is a dual-diode rechargeable light that can intelligently scale its light output depending on close the lens is to an object.

Benchmade had their new 535 Bugout knife at the show, which weighs in at all of 1.85 ounces. The knife has a S30V blade and Benchmade’s AXIS opening system.

Benzomatic had a number of new torches on hand for show attendees to ‘test’ at the show. According to Benzomatic, no less than four cameras had been accidentally melted by their new lighters and torches by folks who under estimated their heat output.

Leatherman has expanded their Tread line of wearable multi-tools with some great new options. There are two watch options and a smaller Tread LT version now available in a stainless or Diamond Like Coating (DLC) finish. Look for an in-depth review here on American Adventurist in coming months.

Gerber had a number of new products on display at the show. The Freescape Camp Saw packs a 12-inch blade and folds up smaller than a paper towel roll. The Vital Big Game Folder is Gerber’s answer to the Havalon Prianta knife which is notorious for breaking blades. And the Center Drive multi tool focuses on the things you use most in a multi tool, and accepts standard screw driver bits.

Camp Kitchen

Camp Chef was showing off their new Stryker Stove in addition to updates to many other products in their line. The Stryker works off of propane or iso-butane fuel making it a flexible option for anyone who needs one stove for backpack and vehicle based camping.

MSR is expanding the Windburner ecosystem with new pots and burner options. A revised throttle allows for even more simmer control on a stove we’re already impressed with.

OMeals use three to five ounces of liquid to heat up a food pouch that is ready to eat in about five minutes. They weigh a few ounces more than freeze-dried or dehydrated meals, but do not require you to pack around a stove. The company claims that ANY liquid is all you need to enjoy a hot meal anywhere.

Jetboil has updated their popular Flash cooking system with a redesigned burner and new insulating wraps. They also introduced the digital gauge that will take the guesswork out of how much fuel is in a canister.

Coolers, Bottles, Cups, and more

Hydroflask continues to offer more options to build your perfect bottle; a new straw lid and bottle boots were just some of the options available to compliment their ever expanding line of well-loved bottles. Hydroflask is also stepping into the soft cooler game.

Pelican’s booth was comprised of almost entirely new product: Soft-sided coolers, hard sided coolers, bottles, cups, new AIR case sizes and colors (AIR cases are up to 40% lighter than original Pelican cases while still meeting all of the standards of the original cases) as well as Pelican’s new backpacks and duffels.

Mountainsmith is expanding their line of soft-sided coolers with the Cooloir series of coolers, which will be available in the three sizes.

Camp Furniture

Nemo had a new line of chairs on display that allow you to sit up straight (great for eating) and recline to take in the world above you. These chairs pack down to a smaller size, than many other ‘full size’ chairs and look to be very well made.

Helinox had a line of hard-topped packable tables on display at the show to complement their extensive and popular line of packable chairs.

Shelter

Thule is getting into the awning market with this great looking unit that was the center point of their booth. Quality, fit and finish all looked great, and we’re excited to see how this unit performs in the field.

Rooftents. OR is also the place where brands meet with their textile and material suppliers. I happened to run into an employee from a certain three-letter brand while I was poking around the RTT manufacturer’s booths.

James Baroud had a booth and a vehicle display at the show. These folks from Portugal do some serious product testing, like the 70 mph wind tunnel test that each design has to pass before it can become a James Baroud product.

Tepui had a large presence at the show and has some cool new things in the works we can’t talk about just yet… stay tuned!

Yakima. Yakima has also entered the “overlandosphere” in a big way lately, and the center point of Yakima’s booth was their Tacoma sporting their roof top tent and awning.

Electronics

Goal Zero had a number of new products on display, including a redesigned Fuel gas generator, new revisions of the Lithium-Yetis that will work with a new App, and a system where you can hardwire your Yeti into your home’s panel to use your home’s wiring to power appliances and lights when the power goes out. (No more having to pull the fridge out to plug it in.)

Powervision is a breaking into the scene with a remote control submarine that uses VR goggles to deliver a first person view, and a couple of multirotor (drone) models that feature some unique designs.

RAM Mounts had a new GoPro clip to Ram Ball adapter as well as a number of new track systems that provide even more options for mounting things to other things.

Bags & Packs

Big Agnes had a ton of new products at the show, like their comprehensive line of bags. With waterproof zippers, magnetic handles, and durable construction, these bags are well appointed and well made to handle the abuse of adventure travel.

Sea to Summit had a number of new product lines on display at the show. Their new gaiters, ultra-sil daypack line, and cookwear line all looked great.

Western Mountaineering had a couple of new down bags designed for folks who count grams and every last cubic centimeter of space. These two new bags use your pad and a wraparound design to create and ultra-packable ultralight sleeping bag that still performs like you would expect a western bag to.

Summer Market was the last Outdoor Retailer show that will be held in Utah for the forseeable future. As a result of the Utah government’s handling of public lands, the show is moving to Denver, Colorado. (I’ll let you use Google to understand the details.) American Adventurist will be at OR Winter Market, so please let us know what you want us to keep an eye out for at the next show in the comments!

I never knew that motorcycle trail advocacy could be so much fun. For me, trail advocacy has always meant being the boots on the ground and swinging a hand tool playing in the dirt to build or maintain trails. Working dirt is good fun, but we all know that it’s more fun to ride a trail than build it. Yet, the folks at Klim have figured out how to make riding trails something that directly benefits trail advocacy: Enter Klim’s Cow Tag event. Now in its third year, the Cow Tag event brings in riders from all over North America to ride in Klim’s backyard trail system, win great prizes, and most importantly to raise money that goes to trail advocacy groups like The Blue Ribbon Coalition and the Idaho Trail Machine.

THE EVENT

If you’re wondering how Klim, whose gear has awesome names like ‘Drifter’, ‘Badlands’, and ‘Oculus’, decided on ‘Cow Tag’ for an event name, let me explain. The event works like this: At registration, you’re given a map of the entire trail system that has the locations of a bunch of cow tags (literally the things you see fixed to a cow’s ear) sprinkled all over it. During the event, your objective is to ride to as many tags as you can and record the number written on the back of the tag. Each tag is worth a certain number of points, and the end of the day the number of points you collect determines how many raffle tickets you get. You’re then free to put your raffle tickets in a drawing to win gear from a number of awesome brands who all support trail advocacy.

THE TRAILS

The Big Hole Mountain trail system is something you can’t truly appreciate until you sampled some of this world class single track in the Caribou Targhee National Forest. Ribbons of single track are laced over this awesome country by folks who clearly see the world through a dirt biker’s pair of goggles. Hundreds of miles of trails climb to rocky ridge lines with stunning views and then drop into winding canyons that look like they came straight out of Middle Earth. Trails thread their way through tunnels in the forest and along the sides of mountains. There are no fall zones and snowfields, log and creek (read: river) crossings and technical moves innumerable – in short it’s a singletrack paradise.

This trail system has something for everyone. From fast and flowy to hard-enduro technical, your dream trail is out there. The folks at Klim have graded all of the trails for the event from green to double black on a difficulty scale (think ski area trail ratings). Greens are typically two-track trails that are open to ATV’s too. Don’t let that fact discourage you – ATVs tend to carve out perfectly-bermed turns that are an absolute hoot on a dirtbike. Blue trails range from fast and flowy to easier technical moves and some exposure thrown in for good flavor. My riding buddies and I spent most of our time on blues, and we were blown away by just how many miles of awesome trail are in this system. Single blacks are where things start to get fun, as these trails have mandatory technical moves, and depending on which way you’re going on a trail some rather fun ledges and other obstacles to climb. Double blacks are where you’re going to find the exposure and technical moves that can mean bad things if you blow a line. One of the double blacks we sampled was a goat track across a very steep slide slope, and it took everything four guys had to recover a bike that slipped off the trail.

THE BIG PICTURE

Klim’s Cow Tag event is the best trail advocacy experience I’ve had in my life – and I’m fortunate enough to live in a community where we get to build new dirtbike trails with the forest service every year. Roughly 300 riders participated in this year’s event, and judging by the dusty, smiling faces I saw everywhere at the end of the day – I know everyone had a great time. And, all of the riders that participated in the Cow Tag can feel good about the fact that not only did they have a great day of riding, but they’ve helped to make sure that places like the Big Hole Mountain trail system stay open to dirtbikes.

Trail advocacy is something that everyone who recreates outdoors needs to be involved in. Whether you’re on two wheels or four, if you value the trails that you utilize, then you need to support or, better yet, get involved with an organization that’s working to ensure your access to our nation’s trails. If we don’t get involved, we will only loose access to the trails and trail systems that we all love riding. Klim has created something brilliant in the Cow Tag event – they made trail advocacy something that is a ton of fun to participate in. They’ve found great companies and organizations to partner up with to help make this event possible, and it’s my sincere hope that other companies, clubs, and organizations will follow suit to host events like the Cow Tag all over the place. The more folks that get involved in trail advocacy, the better the odds are that world-class trail systems like the Big Hole Mountain trail system will be open for years to come. Do yourself a favor – if you can travel to one place to ride next year, go to the Cow Tag event.

Thanks to Adam, Kenny, Stephen, and Christian for letting me continually stop the ride to take photos. Thanks to all of the awesome folks at Klim and all of the other organizations that put on an outstanding event for a great cause.

Category: American Adventures

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2017