How much popcorn does it take to pay for a "rent boy?"

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New Wenger store opens: It's not about the knives anymore

Wenger, one of the two producers of the venerable Swiss Amy Knife,  opened its first United States store on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder yesterday.  Here follows a review from a committed knife nut and hopeless gear head.

Helicoptering by satellite

I've always rolled my eyes at "helicopter parents," the ones who hover over their offspring and thus prevent them from making mistakes or, in the worse cases, just  being kids.  This weekend I am such a parent.  Electronics such as cell phones enable this kind of behavior, as does one I'm using right now to follow my son:  the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger. 

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Eight--Saturday

The young guys slept through the arrival of the Paria crews, so they awake to some familiar faces. Our crew packs up ahead of the older guys--a first--then everyone eats a breakfast of orange juice and doughnuts.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Seven--Friday

We woke up for our last day in the wilderness.  Only two meals to carry, and everyone is eager to get back to civilization.  First, we fill up the water bottles.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Six--Thursday

When we went to bed, it was relatively warm.  I usually sleep with top and bottom polypro long johns, yet on this night I slept in a T-shirt and placed the long john top on the pack beside me.  I got cold in the night, however, and reached over to find heavy frost on my long john top.  I put in on nonetheless, and quickly warmed up and went back to sleep.

The front must have come in that night.  We woke up to our coldest morning so far.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Five--Wednesday

This is a big day for us.  We will do no more backpacking down the canyon; today we will conceal our camp, don daypacks, and strike out for the Escalante River.  We're not entirely sure where it is.  I didn't plan for us to hike Harris Wash, so I didn't bring a map.  One of the dependable things about a slot canyon, however, is that is almost impossible to get lost.  You are either going up-canyon or down-canyon.

Two passing up-canyon hikers estimate that it will take us two hours to get to the  Escalante.  We load up and take off.  Without the heavy backpacks and with two days of canyon experience under our belts, we fly down Harris Wash.