u/Coffee81379

I was packing for a trip and wanted to see if I could fit all my gear on the boat. The kids had other ideas and decided the packraft makes a fantastic entrance to their blanket fort.

I spend a lot of time outdoors. My brother is the complete opposite. He’s not particularly outdoorsy and doesn’t usually enjoy unfamiliar situations, but I managed to convince him to go camping with me because I had a feeling that once he was there, he would love it.

It was only a couple of days of car camping, but I planned the full Outdoor Boys experience.

We started a fire with flint and steel, made bread from scratch and ate it with honey butter, while watching Outdoor Boys in front of the tent that evening. I also brought my packraft and even got him out on the water.

The biggest compliment for all that effort came when he asked, ‘Is there an Outdoor Boys episode with packrafting?’
There certainly is- so we already had our movie for the following evening.

It turned into a genuinely wonderful camping trip, and I’m hopeful I can get him out again.

You’ve probably come across some of the running streak stuff lately too. Hellah Sidibe, who is now more than eight years into his streak, was on Rich Roll, Casey Neistat made a video about running every day, and I found an old CBS piece about Jon Sutherland, who has been running every single day since 1969.

I find that pretty impressive. And as someone who has basically always run, but has always struggled to do it consistently, I wanted to try it myself.

I also get migraines fairly regularly, especially after days where I sit a lot, and running often seems to help me. So I thought, if I just run every day, maybe that helps too. At least for me.

The starting point is pretty simple. I’m a fairly typical guy in his midlife crisis with three kids, the youngest just turned one. My wife and I both work. Could I really not find half an hour every day to run at least 5K?

Today is run number 60. So apparently I can.

A few things I’ve learned so far:

1. Running every day is easier for me than running three times a week.

This is probably the biggest one.

My old rule was to run three times a week. Which meant I would postpone the first run, postpone the second one, get to the weekend and realize I still had two runs to do. Quite often I would end up running twice instead of three times.

Now there is no decision. I run every day. The only question is when.

That works extremely well for me.

2. It hasn’t become boring.

I thought running every day would mean doing the same loop around my house over and over again.

The opposite happened. Because I have to fit a run into every day, I run in all kinds of places. I run to work, to the cinema, back from events, while travelling, while waiting for something, on trails, in the mountains. I pack running shoes more often and make the run part of whatever I’m already doing.

I explore more now than I did when I was running less.

3. The individual run matters much less.

If today’s run is slow or not particularly good, it doesn’t really matter. I’m running again tomorrow anyway.

That takes a lot of pressure off. I stop more. I explore side trails. I watch animals. I went running in the Alps and picked up trash along the way. Not every run needs to be a training session.

I’m basically collecting runs instead of trying to make every run count.

4. So far, it doesn’t feel like too much.

This was one of my bigger concerns. With three small kids I get enough opportunities to be tired or catch something.

But because the streak itself is the goal, I think I actually run more sensibly. I don’t have to squeeze some big run into Sunday because I didn’t do enough during the week. Most days it’s just 5 or 6K at an easy pace.

I have had a bad back during the streak and one pretty miserable stomach bug. I still ran, and in both cases it felt okay, but it did make me wonder where the sensible cutoff is.

If I actually do this for a year, sooner or later I’ll be properly sick or injured. At what point does consistency just become stupidity?

5. My fitness has definitely gone up.

I don’t really have a traditional fitness goal. I don’t care much about pace or race times. My goal, as I’ve started calling it, is just to be adventure-ready.

If I’m somewhere with my family and wake up wanting to quickly run up a mountain before breakfast, I want my body to be able to do that.

A year ago I couldn’t really do that anymore. Three kids, a baby, work and normal life had taken a bit of a toll on my fitness. Now I feel like I’m getting that ability back.

6. It fits into family life surprisingly well.

I actually asked my wife what she had noticed about the whole thing.

Her answer was that I seem more relaxed, I haven’t had a migraine during the streak, and overall she thinks it’s been good for us. She’s also often the one asking me, “Have you run yet?”

That was important to me because I didn’t want this to become another hobby that takes time away from the family.

Half an hour is pretty manageable. I’m not a good early riser, so I often run late after the kids are in bed. Or I use some gap during the day. Or I run somewhere I needed to go anyway.

Most days I’m not really taking half an hour away from anything. I’m finding half an hour somewhere in the day.

7. I haven’t had a migraine in 60 days.

I normally get them fairly regularly. Since starting this, I haven’t had one.

Obviously this is just my personal experience. I’m not saying running every day prevents migraines. A lot of mine seem connected to tension from sitting too much, and for me, running seems to help with that.

It was one of the reasons I started the experiment, so 60 days without one is pretty interesting to me.

I also don’t wear a running watch and barely track anything beyond manually putting my runs on Strava. I’ve never really liked running watches. Although I’m starting to wonder whether it would be interesting to have some actual metrics, especially to see what happens to something like VO2 max over a year.

For now, the plan is to keep going for a full year. No race, no pace goal, no transformation goal. Just at least 5K every day and see what happens.

For those of you who have kept a running streak going much longer: Where do you draw the line with illness or injury?

I actually first learned that trash picking could be a thing through Beau Miles. Before that, I only knew it from some very alternative friends of my parents.

Well, you get older, and eventually you start doing it yourself.

I’ve come to really like it. It’s almost always an excuse for a good little adventure. This time I took this slightly questionable Kraxe contraption into the Austrian Alps and went looking for trash.

Didn’t find much, so good on you, Austria. But some of what I did find was proper vintage trash from the 60s and 70s.

I actually found an old hiking guide from around that time which basically suggested hiding your rubbish in cracks between rocks as the Leave No Trace standard of the day. And sure enough, that stuff is still there. I regularly find old cans and packaging tucked deep into rock crevices when picking up trash in the mountains.

Anyways, if anyone here is into trail running or running in general. I made a little video out of the whole thing:
https://youtu.be/4N86hHhMUlk

If not, never mind. Have a nice evening!

I need a USCG-approved PFD for an upcoming trip to the US. I’m planning to paddle in both Chicago and New York, and I’d ideally like to bring the PFD with me from Germany since I want to pretty much get off the plane and start paddling.

I definitely don’t want to bring the glorious orange monstrosity in the photo. 😅

The problem seems to be certification. There are plenty of nice lightweight CE-certified paddling PFDs available here, but as far as I understand, that won’t make the Coast Guard happy. The same models sometimes seem to have different certifications depending on whether they’re sold in Europe or the US.

I could order a US version through eBay, but then I’m looking at roughly €50 just for international shipping, potentially plus taxes/import fees.
I’ve already gone through the German used market without much luck.

Has anyone in Europe dealt with this before? Is there a reasonably lightweight USCG-approved paddling PFD that’s actually available in Germany or elsewhere in the EU?
Any tips appreciated!

Curious what everyone’s go-to workhorse trail cam setup is. Looking through this sub it seems like Spypoint, Moultrie, Stealth Cam and Reveal are probably the most common ones?

I’m in Germany, so I’ve mostly been using Zeiss cams over the years. I really like being able to remotely check where there’s actually something going on, but I also live in constant fear of one getting stolen eventually.

Just picked up a Voopeak TC37 to try something different. No remote access, but the whole setup including the solar panel is so much cheaper than the big Zeiss setup. I have high hopes this might be a nice small, reliable workhorse.
Already a fan of the auto-extend video length. I mostly use video and always get annoyed when a clip ends just when something interesting is happening.

Also funny what you get used to. One thing that always annoyed me about the Zeiss is that I can’t just look at the screen while setting it up and see exactly what the camera sees. This one does that much better.

First impression is that the trigger might be a little slower though. Haven’t really had it out long enough to tell yet.

So what’s your reliable workhorse? I’ll report back once this one has been out there for a while.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a carbon steel version of the rounded kids’ Opinel, so I modified one myself.

I’m a big fan of carbon steel anyway, and I actually think it’s a nice choice for a kid. It’s a good way to learn to take care of your tools, and at some point she can learn to sharpen it herself too, which is nice and easy with carbon steel.

For now I just sanded and oiled the handle. If anyone has a cool idea for naturally staining or coloring the wood, let me know!

- Marathon Field Watch

- Slim card holder (random South Korean brand)

- House keys with a carabiner for attaching my car, bike or office keys, plus a mini sharpening stone a friend made for me

- Leatherman Surge

- AB Pen – probably my favorite piece of my EDC

- iPhone 13 mini (currently no case because I broke it.)

I hope this fits. It’s a bit more of an experiment than an actual paddle boat, although it does paddle.

I love the whole idea of being the master of my own stuff, and I’d wanted to build a boat for years. Originally I had a dugout canoe in mind, but then I came across a discarded tarp during a cleanup and decided to turn it into a makeshift boat instead.

To make it a bit more of an adventure, I paddled out to a small island in the Mediterranean, cleaned up the trash there, and paddled back.

It took a bit of trial and error to get the stability right, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and still has some life left in it. I have a feeling I’ll end up buying a real boat at some point though. This project definitely got me hooked.

Until then, this one will probably get a third or fourth life as a cover for my solar thermal panels.

You step in dog shit with your aggressive tread, and there's no stream anywhere close to wash it out.
On the bright side, I had plenty of space at the coffee shop. Everyone left when I arrived.

I just found it funny that my daughter’s backpack uses the same Velcro morale patch system. It’s basically the kid version.

Don’t worry, her hamster patch is already back on before I get myself into trouble