GearFlogger

ECOlunchbox

Lunch is the best meal of the day, we don't care what the breakfast Nazis say. No one makes a breakfast box, or a dinner box. They make lunchboxes, dammit. And the ECOlunchbox is one of the best.

When you're ready to take your lunch on the road, you want a lunchbox that's easy to pack, easy to tote and easy to clean. The ECOlunchbox scores on all three. The modular design gives you three containers. Use the small one for fruit, nuts, etc., the medium one for larger sides like veggies, and the big one for a sandwich as our creator intended for us to lunch upon.

The standard ECOlunchbox is just the right size for a small to medium appetite, but if you're HONGRY don't fear, there is a bigger one available for you. When it's time to tote your grub, nest them together and click the roller clips on and you're good to go. Note that the ensemble is not leakproof, so you'll want to keep it upright in your pack or bag. Alternatively ECOlunchbox does make a leakproof bento box called the Splash Box, as well as round leakproof containers, all with silicone lids. We've tested the latter and they're great.

Clean up is a breeze, thanks to the stainless steel construction, which also ensures that your bento boxes will last as long as you need them to. The bottom line: ECOlunchbox makes well thought out products that are worth every penny, so don't hesitate to give them a try.

$29.95 at Amazon

SwimWays Outdoor Games

With one three-day weekend behind us and another fast approaching, it's the season of backyard barbecues and beer drinking. With fun comes responsibility: the responsibility to thoroughly trounce your friends and families in the standards of summer outdoor games. SwimWays and its associated brands have everything you need to practice up before your guests arrive.

First up is the bean bag toss, the game formerly known as cornhole until Urban Dictionary pretty much ruined that (NSFW obvs). And if you're looking for the best bean bag toss, you have to go with Star Wars. Kelsyus has you covered here, with a awesome Millenium Falcon versus Imperial Star Destroyer game, where the bean bags are either red TIE fighters or blue X-Wings.

The construction of this game is super high quality, a fact which is apparent just by the weight, which is substantial. The boards are glossy and have just the perfect degree of slickness to land those sliders. Even better, the game board legs fold up and the two halves can velcro together. Throw the bean bags inside and use the attached carry handle webbing to move it around. We suggest taping the included instruction sheet to the inside, if you're prone to forgetting the regulation distance as we seem to be.

Perhaps you're looking for something a little more aggressive, to keep the attention of the more competitive in your group. Seven-year-olds, we're looking at you, and Coop Sports has something for ya: Scatter Dodgeball is a clever take on the original. Each player puts on two of the same color wristband, and takes turns rolling a big colored die. Whichever color comes up, the player wearing it grabs the ball and proceeds to fire away. If they hit someone, they get one of their wristbands. If the target catches the ball, the catcher takes one from the thrower. Collect and win, simple and fun. The ball is soft enough for the young 'uns not to hurt each other, and it's a great way to get them to burn off some energy.

Want something a little more cooperative? You can't do better than flying discs, and Aerobie makes the best. Their Guinness World Record-winning Pro Ring has been thrown 1,333 feet, so you can't blame the technology with this one. The Pro Ring is great for the younger set too, with a soft rubber edge for the inevitable grill shot, and a generous hole in the middle to make for an easier catch.

Star Wars Bean Bag Toss $100.04 at Amazon
Scatter Dodgeball $17.14 at Amazon
Pro Ring $9.99 at Amazon

 

OmiCam Action Camera

Here at Gearflogger we've traditionally had a ho-hum attitude towards action cams like the eponymous GoPro. We don't generally feel the need to revisit or share our outdoor experiences, but clearly there are plenty of people who do. Lately we've been wondering if we're missing something, so when we saw there was a new kid on the block in the form of the OmiCam we decided to give it a try.

We'll give you the tl;dr up front: the OmiCam has some exciting new technology and captures beautiful video with good image stabilization at a reasonable price point, but the learning curve is steep and the support could use some support. The good news is that the OmiCam records 4K video at 30fps, has good battery life and decent image stabilization, achieved with clever software rather than external gimbal hardware. It also has a wide-angle 240 degree lens that performs some neat tricks, like allowing you to rotate the camera while maintaining a level field of view, while still being smart enough to switch the orientation when you flip the camera from vertical to horizontal.

Another plus is that the OmiCam comes with a belt/webbing clip for vertical use, a stand for VR-style applications, and a GoPro compatible quick-release mount as well. The OmiCam is water-resistant with a rubber door over the micro SD card and micro USB slots, and it has a standard camera screw mount on the bottom. Recording options include stills and a LifeLog mode where it records a 5sec video clip every 3 minutes. Video takes up about 100MB/minute, and you can connect via wifi to download the Omi Studio app to view, edit and change quite a few of the camera settings. You can then choose to process and download in various resolutions. Audio capture is adequate if not great.

The hardware could use some tweaking. Specifically, inserting a micro SD card can be done the wrong way, resulting in a stuck card that takes some doing to unstick. The card is a little difficult to insert or remove if you have normal size fingers. If you unwittingly insert an incompatible card, e.g. too slow as in a class 2 card like we did, you get two blinking green lights that aren't in the Quick Instruction booklet that's included with the camera. When you visit the support page, it's not well-organized and mixes Chinese and English language. After a bit of digital spelunking we eventually were able to sort things out.

All in all the OmiCam is some really interesting technology, and the end result is captivating video of your adventures that will show well at the highest 4K resolution of today's consumer screens. If you're willing to put up with some quirks in the hardware and invest some time - and patience - in navigating the software and support section of the website, you'll get quite a bit for your money.

$249.99 at OmiCam

Staying Safe in Bear Country

It's that time of the year again, the bears are awake and sharing trails with us humanoids. And it's not just bears: the past few days have seen moose and mountain lions as well. Just days after we published this article last year there were two more bear attacks near Anchorage. Each was a brown bear sow with cub, and there were no fatalities thankfully. In one case bear spray almost certainly saved a pair of cyclists. One lesson from that encounter that we neglected to mention below: at least two people per party - and preferably every adult - should have bear spray, and know how to use it. In this case only one did, and luckily he was not the one initially attacked so he was able to deploy the spray effectively, driving off the bear so he could rescue his friend who was badly wounded.

Where we live we take animals on trails for granted. Gearflogger is based in Anchorage, Alaska, a city with the motto "Big Wild Life". The wildlife part of that is a big attraction, and it can also be a source of big danger. Tragically this was the case this past week when two Alaskans were killed by bears in separate incidents just a day apart.

Bears live in a good chunk of North America, primarily - although definitely not exclusively - in the Northwestern parts. A few years ago I was at an outdoor wedding rehearsal dinner at a hotel in South Lake Tahoe and a very large black bear came ambling around the corner, no doubt following the scent of the buffet. I did what all good Alaskans do, made myself tall and shouted and waved my arms, assuming I would be joined by other guests. The bear continued to advance, and I looked around to find that everyone else had exited the area. Luckily a few brave souls came back to stand with me and the bear thought better of it, zipping right over a six-foot fence to leave.

The National Park Service has good info on staying safe around bears, as does National Geographic. The basics are to travel in groups, make noise by carrying a bear bell or talking or singing a bear song, don't run and carry bear spray. If camping, secure your food in a bear-resistant container, preferably hung from a tree. If attacked, don't run: play dead for a brown bear and fight a black bear. It's also smart to carry a noisy signaling device: it probably won't deter a curious or aggressive bear, but it will let people know where you are and it's a great idea to make sure all children have one attached to their person so you can quickly locate them if they become separated from the group.

Here in Alaska there is endless debate about bear spray versus guns. One study indicated that bear spray is generally more effective, but there are simply too many variables to make a blanket statement. My personal opinion: if you are not shooting hundreds of rounds a year through your gun - and preferably thousands - you probably shouldn't own one at all, much less rely solely on a gun for defense against bears or anything else. Bear spray requires minimal training (although definitely practice), comes out in a cloud, you can carry it in your hand if you're nervous, and in the event of a negligent discharge the consequences are much less severe.

Bears are magnificent animals, smart, curious and often unpredictable. Your best defense, as always, is to be smart yourself and avoid dangerous encounters in the first place. Educate yourself, equip yourself and unlike a bear strive for boring predictability in your safety routines.

Bear safety products on Amazon

Outdoor Research Interstellar Jacket

Some days are just great gear days, and the day we put on the Interstellar jacket from Outdoor Research was one of those days. The Interstellar looks on the outside like just another hard shell, and yeah it's that but also so much more. It's no exaggeration to say the Interstellar can be your only shell jacket, a true quiver of one.

First, the tick list: the Interstellar is light. As in ultralight, weighing just 11.6 ounces. Features include a zipped chest pocket and two zipped hand pockets, full-length draft flap with chin protector, velcro cuffs, and drawcords on the hem and helmet-compatible hood. Sounds vanilla, right? But the magic is in the details...

Let's talk perfect pockets. The chest pocket has a second stretchy mesh pocket inside for a phone or wallet. It holds our oversized iPhone 6 Plus just above the bottom of the main pocket, which is really appreciated if you're moving around a lot; also you don't have to worry about it falling out when you're grabbing something else. But that's not all, and we're still talking about the chest pocket! It has a corded key clip, so when you're a hundred feet off the deck no worries about losing your car keys.

The hand pockets are also great. They're mesh-backed so if you need venting you can leave them open. Also, wet gloves or hats will dry against your body without need for an extra dump pocket inside. The pockets also pass our critical test: if you leave the zipper open, there's enough of a lip so a phone or keys won't slide out during casual use. Final point of coolness: turn the left hand pocket inside-out and stuff the jacket inside, then zip it up. Beautiful. All zippers have just-right-sized pulls, and the main zipper has a second critical feature: when all the way up it forms a perfect cup around the chin, whether the hood is up or down. It's funny how many jackets get these two critical features wrong, but you'll appreciate both in daily use almost more than anything else.

Fit and finish are fantastic. The cut overall is trim without being at all restrictive, with perfect articulation for making the big moves. The hem is just long enough to fit a harness over, and the pockets are just high enough to access over the harness. The hood can be pulled over a bare head without unzipping, and - critical feature #3 - the brim can be tucked in if you're not wearing a helmet so it doesn't flop over your head. The shell material is stretchy and quiet while still being waterproof and breathable. Literally the only thing we would add to this jacket is a second chest pocket, but that's just our thing. The Outdoor Research Interstellar jacket is the cream of the crop, and the only shell jacket you need.

$299.00 at Moosejaw

Emmy's Organics Macaroon Cookies

For the love of god, just when we were getting a handle on our end-of-winter sugar and fat cravings along comes Emmy's Organics with their damn macaroons. We're not really sure what macaroons technically are or are not (ask the Wikipedia), but apparently it's the liberal use of coconut that makes it so.

These cookies are the bomb. The fat bomb, that is, with 100 calories per pill. If you follow their advice to stack a chocolate one on top of a peanut butter one you just chugged 210 calories and 16 grams of fat. If you make a peanut butter sandwich - not that we know anyone who did this, no, not at all, certainly not us - with a peanut butter between not one but TWO chocolates that's basically a hamburger equivalent in terms of calories.

But the taste, holy cow, the chocolate - or cacao, in Emmy's language - is just crazy good. We have a fondness for coconut combined with chocolate anyway, and this cookie nails it. It's not really a cookie, it's so moist, it's just a little choco-coco slice of happiness. We also like the peanut butter, and even the vanilla and lemon - not normally our thing - are pretty damn good.

So if you're looking for a little something-something to power up when all seems lost, talk to Dr. Emmy. She will hook you up with her USDA organic, grain- and gluten-free, vegan, paleo, non-GMO goodness. Just enjoy in moderation, because the whole bag goes down real easy, or so we hear, and that just might stop your heart and kill the love.

$34.25 for a five-pack at Amazon

Seirus Floppy Hat

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who divide people into two kinds and the others. Also, people who want a leash on their hat and people who don't. If you're the latter, we have found your floppy hat.

Seirus may be better know for their cold weather gear, but they are no slouches when it comes to sun protection. They make a range of sun hats, some with neck gaiters and leashes even, but we like their basic - and basically named - Floppy Hat.

The Floppy is what we called in the US Army an Australian bush hat. It's a wide brim boonie hat with the ability to snap up one side (dashing jaunty Australian look) or both sides (manly American cowboy look). But if you're buying a sun hat, you'll be leaving both sides down as God and Mr. Seirus intended. In this configuration the Floppy Hat (still love that name!) provides generous sun protection, and sheds light rain thanks to its Supplex construction.

You could always jerry-rig a leash if you need it for windy conditions, but the Floppy Hat works beautifully as is. The only other feature is a mesh lining, which you could probably cut out if you wanted to although it does seem to keep the hat from becoming plastered to your head. The Floppy Hat is, as the description strongly implies, very floppy but not excessively so. The copious stitching on the brim keeps it just rigid enough, and in the end it's just a great sun hat. To paraphrase Mr. Henry Ford, the Floppy Hat comes in any color you want as long as it's beige.

$29.99 at Amazon

Tapplock Bluetooth Padlock

Everything is bluetooth.Yes, everything. My iPhone was having trouble this week connecting to the hands-free system in my jeep, and when I looked at the bluetooth list it had over thirty devices on it. Deleting most of those solved the immediate connection problem, but the incident reminded me just how pervasive this technology has become. And now we have a bluetooth biometric padlock, the Tapplock.

The problem that Tapplock is trying to solve is the lost key or forgotten combination. The promise of fingerprint readers is freedom from these troubles, and in that regard it succeeds. Use the nicely designed magnetic USB charging cable to power up the lock (about 2 hours, good for a year), install the app (and reboot the app like we had to if bluetooth won't connect), create an account (fairly painless), register your fingerprint and hey-whaddaya-know it just works.

The Tapplock is a heavy little unit, with a very polished look and feel. When you press the power button at the bottom and place your finger over the sensor it unlocks in less than a second with a very satisfying whirring sound. The unlocking event is logged to the app, a simple to use list that updates when you're in bluetooth range, and you can add and delete users at will as long as they're standing there to register their fingerprint (over 500 possible) on your phone.

The Tapplock even provides the capability to use a morse code backup in the event the fingerprint doesn't work, or you need to provide access to someone who you haven't been able to register with a fingerprint in person. Set up a code of short and long button pushes, and it works. You can also use the app on the phone to unlock it, if for some reason the fingerprint reader and the morse code method fail. The Tapplock is water resistant but not waterproof, so it's not designed for long-term outdoor use but for locking a bike up in normal rain for a few hours it should be fine. One caveat is to not let water get in the unit through the hole where the shackle goes into, or you may end up kaput.

We found the Tapplock simple to set up, easy to use and reliable. It's expensive only when compared to a good-quality dumb padlock, and if you want or need the additional flexibility provided by the Tapplock it's really a good deal. Basically if you want a padlock without a key or combination (anyone have kids or older forgetful parents?), if you need to log access to whatever you have locked, or if you need to provide access to multiple people, the Tapplock is a slick solution.

$99.00 at Tapplock