Overview: My faithful old tent died recently, and what a fine time to give up the ghost.   A fine time, indeed.   If you sense a hint of sarcasm in that statement, you’re not wrong. At the time, Allen and I were bivouacked on a remote island in northern Ontario, where we were fishing for pike and living feral for a short week.   Conditions had been comfortable, until one evening, the barometer plummeted and foul weather rolled in. Sheets of rain pounded our campsite, and we w

PART ONE: THE BEGINNING Michigan winters are tough for me. The glow of hunting season has fully faded into the rearview, and the humid, halcyon evenings that bring long-awaited hatches lie still far ahead; impossibly out of reach, like a shimmering mirage teasing a parched desert traveler. The days are short, the air is cold, and the sun seems like a long-forgotten friend who rarely calls. This season of hibernal inactivity always leaves me restless and out-of-sorts. To add s

Overview: While I spend a lot of time out-of-doors in inclement weather and sub-freezing temps, my tolerance for the cold just isn't what it used to be. Highly aerobic activities like winter hiking, upland hunting, or stalking big game aren't an issue, but less active pursuits like sitting in a duck blind, chasing whitetail from a tree stand during the late archery hunt, or winter fly fishing on the river can be a different story. And despite investing in some of the top gear