Great Outdoor Blog

By Suzanne M. Wood

As my husband, Scott, scurried around the staging area, yellow legal pad in hand, grouping provisions and inspecting gear, it occurred to me that some hikers spent less time preparing to travel the 2,100 miles of the Appalachian Trail than we were devoting to taking our kids on a 2.5 day camping trip.
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Great Outdoor Provision Co. will be offering small, informal canoe and kayak demonstrations at Lake Crabtree County Park. This is a great opportunity to try before you buy, that boat you saw in our shop in an environment that is instructional, informational, and informal. Our Thursday Afternoon Demos are geared towards customers who have already narrowed down their choices after visiting one of our shops. Though we usually bring an assortment of boats, we generally focus on bringing models that have been specifically requested by customers. If you would like to sample the widest variety of available boats, consider attending our Paddlesports Bonanza instead. Please let us know in advance if there is a particular boat you would like to try and we will do our best to get it to the lake.If you plan to come to one of our Thursday Afternoon Demos, please let us know in advance so we can do our best to meet your expectations at the event. Call (919) 833-1741 (Raleigh), (919) 847-2722 (N. Raleigh), (919) 933-6148 (Chapel Hill) or (919) 286-9201 (Durham) for more info. Be sure to leave your name and number so we can verify your request after checking our inventory.

WHERE: Lake Crabtree County Park MAP IT

WHEN: 4-7pm
March 15, April 26, May 24, August 9

» MORE PADDLE EVENTS

Without a world worth exploring, our footwear couldn’t be put to its best use. That’s why Mi?n is committed to making our shoes in the most environmentally friendly way possible. We realize that we still have a long way to go toward reaching a mode of production that is completely respectful toward the earth. But our dedication is genuine and we are devoted to implanting our environmental philosophy into every aspect of our business.
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Brand new styles from Patagonia are in the shop!

	W’s Swell Slide $80 Pretty slides that conform to your feet and help the planet.
	W’s Patrol $85 A casual, cool-wearing shoe with a leather-and-hemp upper.
	M’s Cedar $110 An extraordinarily comfortable walkabout shoe in soft, supple leather that meets high ISO-14001 environmental standards.
	M’s Huckleberry $110 A supportive hiking and approach shoe that has a Vibram® Ecostep™ outsole with edging and smearing zones.

» Our Locations

PVC or Polyvinyl Chloride is a thermoplastic polymer that is second only to Polyethylene in terms of industrial and commercial use. While PVC has some good industrial applications (for example, as a building material), the production, use and disposal of PVC has been linked to some significant health and environmental concerns by credible sources. While nearly every known substance can be considered toxic in the right dose, PVC does seem to be getting a lot of press lately and perhaps rightly so.

For example, PVC production utilizes plasticizers and other additives to make PVC easier to work with. Many of these additives have known health risks and they leach out of the PVC over time in a process called outgassing. Also, PVC is based on a vinyl chloride monomer that has been known to be carcinogenic since the 1960s. PVC disposal can also release Dioxins into the environment in sufficient concentrations to be a health concern.

For some good information on PVC that isn’t anti-industry, look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride

While there will always be debate over heath risks and environmental concerns related to PVC, we at Great Outdoor Provision Co feel it is prudent to be conservative with our own health and backyards. In the paddlesports industry, PVC is most frequently used as a buoyancy aid in PFDs (lifevests) and as a material used in the production of drybags. If a viable alternative to PVC is available for a comparable price, why not use it? If the alternative actually performs better than PVC for its intended use, everyone wins.

Here are some manufacturers who offer not only viable alternatives to PVC but in many cases better alternatives to PVC:
www.astralbuoyancy.com
www.drybags.com/
www.patagonia.com

» Featured PFDs in the Shop

The FMST will start trail construction from NC-50 towards Durham on March 3, 2007. This will be an extension of the Falls Lake Trail. Come be a part of history as FMST volunteers kick off this work and head towards Penny’s Bend in Durham. Great Outdoor Provision Co. was proud to provide breakfast for the trail crew

You can sign up for the future volunteer opportunities here:
http://www.ncmst.org/fallsworkday.htm

Alan here from Team “Rise and Fall of Western Civilization” (Team RAF for short) with an update on the teams progress of late. We are in the final stages of completion of our Wa’apa sailing canoes that we will be using in the Watertribe Everglades Challenge and if all goes to plan we will be sailing this weekend on Jordan Lake. We are documenting all of our progress on our blog that is updated daily at sailnaway.blogspot.com. We are a 4 man team of college students from NC State and have begged and borrowed our way this far on a college budget. It can be done!!! With just days until the start of the race we will be kicking into high gear to prepare the boats and ourselves.

The Everglades Challenge is a 300 mile unsupported small boat endurance race from Tampa Bay to Key Largo Florida hosted by the watertribe. The course is very challenging and requires boats to navigate under low bridges and into and out of extremely shallow inlets and flats. Any small boat is welcome and is placed into a class 1 through 4 depending on its method of propulsion and design. Larger sail powered boats in class4 while small single person kayaks are in class 1. The race really encourages new designs and promises to be a most exiting adventure.

Last weekend we were able to do some stability testing on Lake Wheeler and try out out different hull configurations. Since then we have almost completed the sails, masts, booms, rudders and leeboards and we cannot wait to do some sailing.

A big thanks to Great Outdoor Provision Co. for their support and help in obtaining gear and knowledge to help us get where we are now. Keep a lookout for us in the Raleigh shop as we are sure to be there in the next week stocking up.

Somewhere in all of our minds there is a dream to do something or go somewhere out of this world. Mine has always been Africa. I could see myself in my dreams on a safari, watching the giraffe walk across the African Plains, or the lions sleeping on the warm rocks. I’d take a walk in the crystal ocean waters and admire the people in their daily life. It’s funny how those dreams seem so far off and then in the blink of an eye they are there, taking place as you had imagined and in a moment’s time you’re spending your days remembering how amazing it was.
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Lighter, stronger and easier to cast for anglers of all skill levels. Entirely new level of fishability!

Sage Rods are now available in ALL of our Fishing Shops!
Greenville | Chapel Hill | Raleigh | Greensboro | Wilmington | Winston-Salem | Charlotte

What a great value! You can now get the traditional Prospector design in a rotomolded polyethylene hull. The 15′8″ canoe is a perfect all-purpose boat. It can handle swift rivers as well as flat water. This is a great boat for $795.

» More Canoes @ GOPC