Anatomy of a load. 200-250lbs of gear and food, bear boxes to keep that food un-eaten by bears, ropes, tarps, elaborate and specific knots. A load can ride 25 miles on rough trail if packed properly. There was a full sweet potato pie, a $200 bottle of scotch, and 2 personal-sized watermelons in this load.

Backcountry Cook. Writer. Wilderness Guide.

This goes so hard. My New York City brain can barely comprehend.

Reporter and writer. I cover energy, climate change and geopolitics. Contact me via my website www.alexanderckaufman.com and subscribe to kaufman.substack.com.

When I lived in Brooklyn the "what do you do for work" conversation was always a doozy.

lmao it took me so long to understand why that question bugs people. the grind is our ~culture~

Doesn't bug me tbh, my job is my life, a lot of folks find meaning and purpose in their work! But I do feel like a bit of a zoo animal prattling on about lakes and mules whilst talking to a software developer in a Brooklyn bar. It's a novelty, and a bit unrelateable, and that can be isolating.