In case you’re at work today wondering, or if you already know and want to reinforce your “outdoor knowledge,” here’s a quick tutorial about bear spray from Charles W. “Chuck” Bryant of SYSK fame.

What is it?

Bear spray isn’t unlike pepper spray that humans use to protect themselves from other humans. The main difference is that bear spray can shoot farther and casts a wider effective area. There are three main ingredients in bear spray:

• Oleoresin Capsicum (OC): oily residue from hot cayenne peppers. Capsicum is a naturally occurring ingredient that causes a burning sensation when sprayed in the face of an attacker. Food-grade OC is used to give heat to edibles like salsa.
• Base fluid: mixed with the OC to dilute it. It’s typically oil-based to prevent separation from the oily OC.
• Aerosol propellant: used to eject the ingredients from the can to the threat.

Is it Effective?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated human and bear encounters from 1992 to 2005 and found that people who defended themselves with firearms were injured about 50 percent of the time by the bear. People who used the bear spray escaped injury 98 percent of the time, and the few injuries they suffered were far less severe than those in the gun-toting realm. Why? Because it’s difficult to stop a bear with a gun and wounded bears are more likely to become even more aggressive.

Read the rest of article right here:

Another interesting article from good ol’ High Country News, this time about Richard West Sellars, a former NPS employee whose 1997 book, Preserving Nature in the Natural Parks, showed the “gaps” in the National Park Service belief that it was a preservation agency. The book is widely credited for inspiring the Natural Resource Challenge, a 1999 initiative that made resource management and preservation the agency’s top priority. Read the article in full here.

MP3: Citay – Little Kingdom

Whether you’re a vegetarian or just looking for an alternative to tuna/salmon/sardines/freeze dried beef stroganoff, you may (or may not?) want to try Textured Vegetable Protein the next time you’re on the trail. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) is made from defatted soy flour that’s been cooked under pressure and then dried. It’s high in protein (12 grams per 1/4 cup serving) and, because it’s soy-based, takes on the tofu-like characteristics of tasting like whatever your season it with. But unlike tofu, it’s got the texture of ground meat and doesn’t need to be drained. All you have to do is quickly rehydrate it, making it a perfect camping companion. And the kicker? It’s wildly inexpensive. If you can’t find it at your local grocery store, you can buy it here for around $2.50 a bag.

*Recipe for Curried Sloppy Joes after the jump…

Ingredients (Makes 2 sandwiches):
-1 cup of TVP
-A little less than a cup of boiling water
-2 pitas
-Chopped cilantro
-Chopped onion
-Small can of tomato sauce
-1 or so tbsp of good curry powder

1) Boil the water
2) Pour the water into a bowl filled with TVP. Cover the bowl and wait 5 minutes.
3) While the TVP is rehydrating, dice the onion and chop the cilantro.
4) When the TVP is ready to go, pour in the tomato sauce and curry powder. Mix.
5) At this point, you can either put the sloppy joe mixture back in the pot/pan with the onions, but, if you’re like me and enjoy raw onions, throw the goods into the pita, top with onions and cilantro and eat dinner.

Via Boston, MA and Portland, ME, this week’s Trail Mix comes from my personal King Of The Mixtape, Mr. Creepy Powers (aka Sean Turley). Sean and I’s relationship goes all the way back to our younger years when he was a promising Eagle Scout with a rattail. These days, he’s a gracious host and a wonderful tour guide whenever I’m hungry and traveling north and east of New York City. I’ve driven up the coast of Maine with Ali Farke Toure while Sean was living on the shores of Harpswell. He took me to my first Common Grounds, paddled our canoe down the Delaware Water Gap while I drank copious amounts of warm Coors Light, and over the years, as he’s become bigger and I’ve become smaller, has proved a wonderful partner for a disgusting amount of thrift store shopping. And though Sean usually drives me bat-shit crazy, at the end of the day, after all the Nepalese lunches, late night music, and camping adventures, dude makes a damn good mix tape. And this one, Full Of Smoke, is among his best. Enjoy it and stay warm and dry this weekend.

Download: Trail Mix Volume VI: Full Of Smoke

“This is a scan of a slide that I took while on an outdoor survival camp in February of 1978 up north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. It was -30°C on our camp out night…We slept in quinzhees.” *

I guess at that temperature (-22°F), all you can do is think warm thoughts…

MP3: Delorean – Stay close

Leonard Peltier is an activist and member of AIM, who, in 1977, was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the shooting of two FBI agents during Pine Ridge. Peltier’s supporters (who include Willie, Joni and Kristofferson) present him as a political prisoner due to concern over the fairness of his proceedings. His conviction is the subject of the 1992 documentary directed by Michael Apted and narrated by Robert Redford, Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story, which you can watch in full right here. If you find yourself with 90 minutes to spare, watch it. It’s a humdinger.

(There’s also They Buried The Heart of Leonard Peltier, which, oh lord, you should watch too. Redford’s narration is substituted for the whitest sing-song narration you ever heard…)

Another Outdoor Retailer show, another long weekend of puffy coats and new friends. And another long flight home with music blaring on the iPhone as I curse the heavens for my inability to sleep on airplanes.

It’s been a while since there was any Grateful Dead in these parts. Mostly because it creeps up in the sunshine, but after a few straight days of 3.2% beer consumption that lasted from 4pm – midnight-ish, summer needed to come early. And Harpur College? May 2nd? 1970? Dick’s Picks Volume 8? Whatever you want to call it, just listen.

MP3: Grateful Dead – We Bid You Goodnight

Cold Splinters has a column on the New York Times style blog, The Moment. It’s called The Campster, and this week, sandwiched between stories about women’s handbags and a Japanese Muji store, lies a new article about a weekend excursion down in the Everglades. Fires on the beach, euchre as the sun goes down, and steel cut oats soaked overnight in water. Enjoy it.

Cold Splinters is off to another winter version of Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City. Holler if you’re around and we’ll see you there.

Thank you to the Appalachian Trail Museum for posting another Appalachian Trail log from 1983. This time it’s from Spring Mountain Shelter, located in Tennessee on the North Carolina border, just north of Hot Springs. The shelter is at 3,300 feet, 282.2 miles from Springer and 1898.2 from Katahdin.

MP3: Henri Tixier – Les Là-Bas