As adventure travelers, we place high demands on our luggage. Our bags have to be durable, convenient, and useful in rugged travel settings. Wheeled luggage is simply out. Good luck rolling your suitcase down the cobbled or muddy avenues of some remote village in South America. Duffels are a simple solution, but should you need to carry one more than a few yards at a time you’ll quickly wish you had something else. That something else could be a Deuter Transit 50, a pack designed from the ground up to facilitate the most adventuresome travels.

A Pearson 32 for sale in Port Townsend, WA

via West County Explorers Club: First off, if you’re a regular reader of Expo, my apologies for the lack of posts in the past couple of months. I've been making some life-changing plans and they’ve been taking some time. What sorts of plans, you ask? Well, my girlfriend and I moved in together, and we’re heading up to the Pacific Northwest for a few months and buying a sailboat.

via West County Explorers Club: We've been reading Finding Your Way Without a Map or Compass by Harold Gatty, first published in 1958. It's a fascinating collection of navigation skills gleaned from the world of pre-Western and native explorers, in which one's own five senses (and memory) are the guides, instead of compasses, maps, or GPS.

In the book, Gatty furthers the theory that early Polynesians first found their way across the Pacific by following the routes of migratory birds. Once the islands were known, they followed the stars. For example, if you hold a forked stick at arm's length, and position the North Star in the crook of the fork, then note it's height by marking the horizon along its length, you will travel along a constant latitude. If the North Star rises against the horizon, you're heading north. If it falls, you're heading south.

It's quite an interesting read. Hat's off to my girlfriend, Natalie, for finding this one.

For most people, the mere mention of fly fishing in the same sentence as Russia brings to mind images of massive trout nosing at mouse patterns and steelhead moving in from the Sea of Okhotsk in Kamchatka.

Kamchatka, while largely still a wilderness area, is becoming well known in the world of fly fishing travel and adventure.

Lesser known is the Kola Peninsula.  Located on the opposite end of Russia’s expanse, the Kola is the country’s furthest northwestern reach, and can be found on maps as a “thumb” sticking out of the eastern side of the Nordic countries.

See more of Jess’ work at www.FireGirlPhotography.com

Prince Harry is joining Walking with the Wounded as part of the 2013 South Pole Allied Challenge, an event aimed at raising funds and awareness to re-train and re-educate wounded servicemen and women. The teams of consist of armed forces personnel from Australia, Canada, The United Kingdom, and The United States who have each suffered physical and cognitive injuries on the battlefield. Each team will each travel nearly 350 kilometers over four weeks in November to the South Pole, with each member carrying a 70 kilogram sled in temperatures as low as -45C. At the recent press conference where he announced his intent to join the British team, Prince Harry was quoted as saying “As a member of the British team, I will have a brew (tea) on ready for you when you join us at the Pole.”

The sound of jungle insects reverberated through the dense, humid night air. A slow loris crept along an overhead electrical wire strung between a tall wooden pole and a cinderblock structure where a woman cooked rice and noodles for the few people who lived around these parts. The loris stopped midway across the wire to give us a wide-eyed stare, and then continued on his way, grabbed a low hanging branch, and disappeared into the jungle.

Brad and Sheena are driving around the world in "Nacho", their Volkswagen Vanagon.  Read their stories and follow their adventure at Drive Nacho Drive [link] 

Brace yourself. Some of the best outdoor gear in the industry just became better, and tacti-cool, at the same time. For most of the last decade, NEMO has been working with the U.S. Special Operations community and the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center to create Berry Compliant all-weather combat tents for the military. For those not familiar with the Berry Compliance, it means the products are 100% Made in America, including the materials and labor required to make the product. NEMO is working with Diamond Brand and W.L. Gore & Associates in the United States to make versatile systems for the military and now civilian users. 

Let me summarize: we're incredibly excited that NEMO now offers tents Made in America.