Holiday Shopping Guide, Upper Camp

This time of year, parents often contact me for suggestions for gift ideas. So I thought I'd spend a couple of posts sharing some thoughts on great gift ideas for Chippewa campers. Needless to say, I like camping gear and sports equipment, so I'm going to limit my suggestions to three items per post. Plus, I'll try not to dwell on the obvious sleeping bag, tents, headlamps or similar items (though I'm happy to pass along suggestions for those as well.) Instead, I'll suggest some rather obscure, but cool items that are functional and long-lived.

In this post, I'm going to focus on the guys in upper camp (in high school). Since these guys spend a lot of time on the trail, it seems to me that the best gift ideas are in the camping gear realm. So here it goes:

1. Exped Drypack Pro 15 - This is a slick day pack that is waterproof and lightweight. It fits nicely in the canoe and has plenty of room for rain gear and other daytime stuff. If your camper is headed on a canoe trip of 16 days or more, I like this and it costs about $45.

2. Joby Gorillapod - More and more guys are bringing cameras on their canoe trips. This handy little guy will help them take great shots and doesn't really take up much room. It's normally about $25, but I often see it on sale.

3. Expedition Canoeing by Cliff Jacobson - This book is written by one of the great northern canoe explorers and guides. While all of his camping concepts aren't necessarily what we adopt at Chippewa, this book is a great resource for the canoe trip dreamer.

Finally, don't forget to order your copy of Mary's cookbook (see previous post). More soon for the guys in middle camp.