Sorry if I’ve seemed distant and a bit inactive lately, folks. There are two upcoming excursions I’ve been planning for, hot and heavy. When I get into this mode, my brain gets completely absorbed in all the many details of how I hope things will play out and how to make the most of my time out there.

I play around with a thousand different ideas and slowly whittle these ideas down to just a few that I then actually make happen once I’m on the outing. But this whittling process takes gobs of time and attention.

I like to show off different shelters, cooking techniques, meal types, bedding, and these sorts of things, rather than just show off the exact same gear and approaches every time. For one thing, I like trying new ideas and seeing how they compare to my preferred ways of doing things that I’ve already settled on. This keeps things challenging and interesting for me, and I think this makes things more interesting for people watching later, too. But it does mean that instead of just loading up my gear and food that I already know works, I have to get creative and really think things through.

Then of course there are the usual difficulties of trying to predict weather, terrain, obstacles, and so forth. I really analyze any area I’m going into upside down and inside out for weeks, and even months, before I venture in. I lie in bed and try to imagine every hill and holler and what the experience is going to be like so that I can be completely prepared. It’s impossible to predict everything, but part of the excitement for me is trying, anyway.

There’s an episode of PW that went mildly viral these past two weeks. If I were to upload a new PW episode while that video is getting so much attention, it would kill the other video’s momentum. That’s just the way YouTube’s algorithm seems to work - uploading a new video draws the algorithm’s attention away from whatever other video people are watching. So I have been letting that run its course and purposely not uploading any new, long-form content for now.

But just so’s y’all know: Good fresh content outdoors coming real soon. I’m looking forward to experiencing it, and looking forward to sharing it.