Spring Hours

A link to a great camp table that can be rolled up similar in size and shape to a fold out camp chair.  It came into the store a little over a week ago and is for sale at OAR.

The link includes pictures of this great item, as well as table specs and reviews:

http://www.rei.com/product/378009/camp-time-roll-a-table?preferredSku=3780090001&cm_mmc=cse_froogle-_-pla-_-product-_-3780090001&mr%3AreferralID=c99e60c8-9262-11e2-9dea-001b2166becc

OAR moves to its Spring schedule beginning next week.

Effective April 2 we will be open

9am-5pn Tuesday through Saturday.

A picture of the Grand Tetons we took on a quick road trip a few weeks ago.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Live And Learn

Late last week three high school boys walked in the front door of the store and excitedly began rummaging through the shelves and racks of gear and clothing, eager to see what we had in stock.

One boy immediately zeroed in on the helmet above.

I was only half paying attention to the boy as he walked around the store with the helmet, and as he showed it off to his friends and then tried in on.

Eventually he walked over to me and asked me if he could bring the helmet back for a refund if he bought it and it didn't fit.

Shaking my head I pointed at the sign on the wall that told him to be really sure about what he bought, because OAR did not provide refunds.

The boy walked over to a mirror to look at himself wearing the helmet.  He walked over to his friends.  He walked back over to the mirror.

Still only half paying attention to him, I smiled at his excitement about the helmet.

By the third time he had done the "look in the mirror - go show his friends" routine, I looked up to see the boy pulling on the chin guard.  The helmet moved up and down freely on his head.  

Too freely.

OK.  He had my attention.  

I watched him closely, as I realized that this kid really REALLY wanted this helmet to fit him.  

I shook my head at the boys.  

"Uhhh.......no.  That's not gonna work.  That helmet is too big for you".

The boy walked over to a basket filled with wool hats, grabbed one out of the basket and asked me how much it cost.   

I watched him as he put the wool hat on his head and then put the helmet back on.  Grabbing at the chin guard again, he moved the helmet up and down.  It didn't move quite as freely.

He looked at me and said "That feels better".

I looked at him and said "Yeah that might work........until August when it'll be REALLY hot.  That helmet is too big for you."

He took off the helmet, reached for his wallet and headed towards the counter.

I looked at him and said "It's too big.  SHOW YOUR PARENTS THIS HELMET TONIGHT.  If they're OK with it, I'm OK with it.  If they're not OK with it, bring it back and I'll give you your money back, OK?"

He smiled at me and said OK.  

I reiterated "Show it to your parents tonight OK?"

"OK"

The next day his mother walked into the store to get a refund for the helmet.

I thought about that incident a good deal for a couple of days.

It raised issues that I hadn't considered when I first opened an outdoor gear consignment shop here in Cody.

About minors.  About minors purchasing safety-related gear.

I sold the bike helmet to a minor and told him to show it to his parents.  I told him that if the helmet was a no-go, I'd refund his money.

What I SHOULD have just said was "No, I'm not going to sell this helmet to you.  If you want it, bring your parents into the store.  They can decide."

And that is exactly what I will be doing from this point forward.

At OAR we want our youngest local adventurers to be safe when they head outdoors, and OAR's policy moving forward will be to insist on adult decision making when it comes to all outdoor safety gear.

We have a lot of hunting gear at OAR, and the selection is increasing every day. Camo pants, long and short sleeve t's, jackets, vests, neck warmers, fleece hats and baseball caps. Orange jackets and orange vests. A great tree stand and climbing straps. A compound bow and bow case. Boots. A variety of camping gear. Cabellas packs. A couple of old external frame packs suitable for carrying game out of the mountains. If you have hunting gear that you no longer use and want to consign it, consider bringing it into OAR. We get a LOT of guys looking to pick up hunting gear!

Facebook Hates Me

Facebook hates me.

I've been trying to post pictures and text on the OAR Facebook page for a couple of days now and it won't let me.

Maybe this tech-nerd changed a setting on the site without meaning to.

Or maybe Facebook really DOES hate me.

Either way, we'll get it figured out and post again as soon as we can.

At the store we have some great gear that needs to find a new home.

A lady brought this beautiful little Rossignol youth snowboard/ski helmet in a while back.

It's in brand new condition, has ample padding to protect a little athlete's head, and is filled with all the hearts and flowers and pinkness that a little girl would love.

Oxygen Element 580 snowboard (size 152) - without bindings, has a few scratches but no major dings, and the graphics on both sides are still in great shape. 

This little MSR Pocket Rocket (yes, that's the actual name of this baby) is a tiny camping stove.

It comes complete with plastic carrying case, and is sturdy but lightweight enough to throw down in the bottom of your pack when you head out to camp or go into the back country.

Quite a few people have looked at this thing, then looked at me bemused and said "What IS that?"

It's a wind resistance bike trainer.  Designed for those who want to ride their bike indoors when the weather outside is too nasty for outdoor riding.

It's in excellent condition, simple to install and use, and breaks down easily when you want to store it away.

Burton Ranger snowboard boots that are in very good shape and a pair of Vision youth snowboard boots that are in excellent (barely used) shape

This is a Graber trunk mount bike rack, designed to hold 3-4 bicycles.

If you need to transport bikes and don't have the room to haul them in your vehicle, this tight little bike rack will do the trick.

If you have any of the following and want to consign them, we would LOVE to have them to sell at OAR, because folks are beginning to head back outside again:

packs - headlamps - trekking poles - camp stoves - hiking boots - trail shoes - paddles and life jackets - wet suits - wind and rain proof jackets - gaitors - tents - camp chairs - anything to do with hunting

Cutest Little Cowboy

Mom gave me permission to post this picture.

The cutest little cowboy we've ever seen!

We had a blast at the Beast Feast the other day!

There were tons of outdoor related businesses and booths set up, and it was awesome to see what other local folks had to offer. 

It was also GREAT to meet with and chat with hundreds of residents who came out to support the event.

Thank you so much to the Cody Bible Church for putting on such a great event, and thanks for inviting OAR to be a part of it!

We had some x-country skis and boots come into the store today.

Yes.......the season is on the wane, but there is still a lot of cross country skiing to be done before the snow all melts out in the Northfork!

The boots (in excellent condition) - Salomon SR301 and Salomon SN Air

The skis (brand new) - Salomon Jarvinen Control 3 Base 318R

Drop by OAR soon to check them out, and remember that we have 30% off almost all our winter gear throughout the month of March.

We have skis, a great snowboard, winter jackets, snowboard boots, ski boots, hats, gloves, scarfs, goggles, poles, helmets, and more.

Gorillas And Other Hunting Gear

A couple of days ago someone came into the store toting some awesome hunting gear.

I already had the Gorilla replacement tree stand cushion (above).

The Gorilla tree stand below is brand new - as in never-been-used brand new.

I forgot to ask the history behind these tree stand climbing straps, but they are in brand new condition.

We couldn't find much information online about this Browning Coyote cx9a compound bow.

It's an older bow and when we couldn't figure out how much it was worth, we took it to one of the local archery stores for more information.

We got a price on its resale value.

While we were at it, we also got a quote on how much it would cost to get a string rewound, because this bow needs it done. 

It's a cheap fix.

A great and solid older bow, that comes with quiver and arrows.

We LOVE this Coleman Powerhouse Duel Fuel Lantern.

It has been used only once, comes with a hard plastic carry case, and is in excellent condition.

Link to information on this great piece of gear:

http://www.coleman.com/product/premium-powerhousereg-dual-fueltrade-lantern/3000000946

Great stuff keeps walking in the door, and we are grateful every day for the support we have received from the community. 

Let your next adventure begin at OAR!

REMINDER

OAR is closing at 1pm tomorrow (Saturday March 16).

We hope to run into many people at the Beast Feast tomorrow afternoon!

The Power Of Duct Tape

When I was adventure racing, one of the items that was always on the list of mandatory gear we were required to carry with us at all times, was duct tape.

Early on in my adventure racing career I resented having to carry six feet of duct with me.  It wasn't heavy to carry but it was only one of many pieces of mandatory gear they nailed us with, and the totality of all that stuff was a heavy pack.  Sometimes our packs were only fairly heavy, but for other races (depending on the length of the race, how many transition areas we had out on the course, the time of year we were racing) some of our packs were crazy heavy. 

I resented carrying it until the first time I needed it, and then I was sold.  There's an expression in adventure racing related to duct tape.  Pardon my French (and we spoke a lot of French out in the field) "If you can't duck it, f*ck it".  Meaning of course, that if you couldn't fix it with duct tape, it couldn't be fixed.  I saw a whole lot of McGyver-ing over the many years that I raced.  And I did some of my own.  Just a couple of examples:

1. 12 hour race in North Carolina - my team was up in the mountains outside of Asheville after dark.  I had a headlamp mounted on my bike helmet, but had foolishly not put new batteries into my handlebar mounted bike lights before heading out.  Yes........the batteries died only a couple of hours before the end of the race, I didn't have replacements and ended up duct taping my tiny back up headlamp to the handlebars, so we could book out of the mountains and complete the race.

2.  6 day race in West Virginia - leading up to the race we had been told that we could either use our own paddles or the race-provided paddles, but if we brought our own we would have to carry them with us for an unspecified amount of time during the race.  Stupidly we elected to use the race-provided paddles.  They were single blade, very heavy, we were the ONLY team who was not using kayak paddles and within the first couple of hours of the race we were already at the back of the pack.  We had to paddle in one direction to pick up a checkpoint.  We then had to paddle back the way we had come, pass by the race start and head further down first lake and then river.  As we passed by the race start we saw more canoe paddles laying in the sand.  My team-mate suggested that we duct tape canoe paddles together to make make-shift kayak paddles.  As I held paddles and as he taped the ends together, I doubted that they would hold for the duration of this first paddle section.  They did.  They lasted all 15 hours.

3.  Same race in West Virginia - during the first freezing cold bike leg, my rain pants got caught up in the chain ring and they got badly ripped.  Funny - when you're in the middle of a race it never even occurs to you to get upset that a $80 pair of rain pants are now trashed.  All you're thinking about at that point is that they're ripped and it's freezing cold and you need to keep all of your layers of clothing functioning.  I wore the same layer upon layer of clothing for almost six days straight, and my duct taped rain pants held together for the entire race.

4.  24 hour race in North Georgia - the sole of my trail shoe got caught on a rock and tore away from the rest of my shoe.  I looked down at my beloved Salomon shoes sadly knowing that they were gonna be trashed at the end of the race.  In the meantime I reached into my pack, grabbed the duct tape and wrapped layer after layer of the stuff around my entire foot so that the shoe would hold together for as long as I needed it.

I've seen duct tape used to cover blisters, used as a compression bandage, used to slow down leaks in canoes and rafts and bicycle tubes, to repair a ripped rain jacket, to repair a ripped pack, to repair a cracked water bottle and a leaking water bladder.  The uses are endless and that sticky stuff is priceless anytime you are away from civilization.  I would never head out into the woods or up into the mountains or out on the water without duct tape.

There is no need to carry an entire roll of the stuff (and most people don't need to carry around 100 feet of it anyway).  While I was racing it was second nature to wrap tape in one spot around trekking poles, to wrap it around the base of a water bottle (yes........the bottle will still fit down in a bike cage), to wrap it around a small piece of cardboard or a stick.  

So there you go.  The Power of Duct Tape.  Don't leave home without it.

One of the things we have really enjoyed about opening OAR is the people that we have met along the way and one of those people is a really nice guy who drops by the store about once a week just to chat.  This man is one of my favorite store visitors and the other day he brought this gun case into the store.  It is an older 4-handgun hard-shell carry case, and comes with one slide-out shelf and one static shelf.  Stop by OAR soon to check it out, and don't forget that we have a March Madness Winter Gear Sale going on now - most winter gear is 30% off!

Looks What's New

I was planning on writing an entry today on the Power of Duct Tape.

When I head out into the woods or into the mountains, I never leave home without duct tape, but you'll have to wait to find out why until next post 'cause I need to share some of the great stuff that came into the store recently.

I am including links to each of these pieces for more information.

To enlarge the images just click on any of the pictures.

All these pieces are of the highest quality and are in excellent condition.

Above is a picture of a pair of Dalbello ski boots.  These are an extraordinary pair of boots and a link to specs can be found here:

http://www.blue-tomato.com/en/Ski-Boots/Dalbello-IL-Moro-T-11-12/product.bto;jsessionid=0a1e042a1f49519e9ed260ed41ba8a788b0f574972ca.node2?product=300467243

We also have a pair of Therm-IC Battery Boot Heaters:

http://www.seisports.com/?,browse,25,198,121,044525

Oakley snowboard jacket and pants.

The pants have only been worn once, and the jacket has never been worn (still has its original tags).

I've been buying and using gear for many years but have never owned anything of the quality of these two pieces.

The jacket:  http://www.powdermag.com/buyers-guide-2011/2011-oakley-corked-simon-dumont-jacket/

These are not the exact pants, but they are very close:

http://www.oakley.com/women/products/gb-insulated-pants/521394W-82R

A beautiful North Face down jacket:

http://www.altrec.com/the-north-face/womens-nuptse-2-down-jacket/

This Head back protector and lined jacket (contains internal Velcro tabs to hold the spine protector in place) are being sold as one unit.

A link to the specs on the back protector:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Head-TH1-Unit-Back-Protector-Snowboarding-Skiing-Medium-/120972688609

OAR is currently open Wednesday through Saturday until April (when we begin our spring hours).  Drop by the store soon, if you are interested in checking out this great gear.

A Note To Those Who Live Out Of The Area

OAR would be pleased to ship any of our great gear to your address, anywhere in the United States. 

Please contact the store directly for more information.

All Kinds Of Gear

I guess I've been living under a rock somewhere but I had never seen a candle lantern before one walked in the door about a week ago.

It comes complete with brass candle lantern, replacement candles, instruction booklet and mesh carry case.

A link to some information about this very cool thing:

http://www.shopping.com/Rei-REI-Original-Candle-Lantern-Brass/info

Just a reminder that our March Madness Winter Gear Sale begins tomorrow.  All winter jackets, skis, ski boots, fleece vests, hats, gloves, ear and neck warmers etc. are 30% off our already low OAR-prices.

Included in our sale are these two great pairs of snowboard boots.  The larger pair are Burton Rangers and the other pair are youth Vision boots.

This very compact and lightweight MSR Pocket Rocket Stove is also for sale. 

More information here:

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/41374?productId=685075&subrnd=0&qs=3016887_pmd_google_pla

OK.........we admit that the Arctic Comet snow boots are not what we would call high fallutin' top name outdoor gear.  But I bought two pairs of them really cheap a while back, because I know that there are people out there who just want warm feet and don't have a whole lot of money to spend to get them.

These boots are in great shape and have liners, and if you just want to spend a little bit of money, we may have an option for you!

Two pairs of climbing gloves. 

We've got a climbing helmet, a couple of pairs of climbing gloves, some webbing, a few harnesses and a few pairs of climbing shoes for sale at OAR

One of the groups that we would like to be able to serve better at OAR are the children and youth of the community.

They outgrow their sports gear in the blink of an eye.

Which means kids are always needing new stuff and parents are always paying for new stuff.

It gets EXPENSIVE!

We have these youth Fox Racing Pants in the store right now and they are in great shape.

We also have a children's bike trailer, a couple of pairs of little (very little) roller blades, a couple of youth ski/snowboard helmets and a couple of pairs of youth skis, bike helmets and a random variety of winter clothing (jackets, vests, boots, gloves, hats, scarfs etc.).

All youth winter gear is also 30% off through the month of March.

If you have young-people gear and clothing that YOUR kids have outgrown, consider consigning it with OAR and giving them new life for another youngster in our community!

A cool postcard that a lady we know in Montana sent to us over the holidays.

She is an avid fisherman and hunter, and caught this on the Bitterroot River.

Great picture!

Lots Of News

A great Sierra Designs sleeping bag that was brought into the store a couple of days ago.  Good to 20 degrees, this bag also includes a stuff sack and canvas carry bag.  All three items are sold together and carry the Sierra Designs logo.

LOTS OF NEWS TO SHARE!

1.  SALE SALE SALE

We're having a March Madness Winter Gear Sale!

Take an additional 30% off OAR's already low prices all through the month of March

Winter Jackets (Excludes Hunting Jackets)

Fleece Vests

Skis / Ski boots / Snowboards

Snowboard Boots

Snowboard Helmets

Scarfs / Gloves / Winter hats / Ear Warmers / Neck Warmers

ALL ON SALE BEGINNING WEDNESDAY MARCH 6

2.  WE'RE ON FACEBOOK!

Sort of.

I think I'm the only person in the entire country who wasn't on Facebook.

Well.......we built a OAR FB page yesterday (see that - I'm already using the abbreviation just like a Facebooking pro!)

It's a work in progress but it's also another way for folks to stay in touch with us and follow what's going on at OAR.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Outdoor-Adventures-Revived-OAR/295312997264285?fref=ts

3.  CHANGES TO STORE HOURS

March 16

If you click on the picture above you'll see the flier we have posted on the store bulletin board about the upcoming Beast Feast.

OAR will be closing early on Saturday March 16, so that we can attend.  

We'll have a table set up there so come find us! 

Other outdoor/hunting/fishing/camping organizations and businesses will also have tables set up, and the Cody Bible Church is serving a great meal.

OAR store hours on the 16th will be 9am-1pm.  After that we'll be at the BF.

OAR Spring Hours

We are extending our operating hours.

Beginning Tuesday April 2 the store will be open:

Tuesday - Saturday (9am-5pm)

Collectibles

At OAR we have one room dedicated to rustic and outdoorsy decor stuff.

Things like outdoor pictures, metal candle holders, wooden signs, decorative plates, that sort of thing.

Somehow (and without really trying) we've managed to pick up a few things over the past few months that (it turns out) are classified as "collectible".

Collectible?  Who knew?  We didn't until a really fun guy came into the store yesterday and started playing around with the fishing reel below.

After he had played around with it for fifteen minutes, he spent another fifteen minutes surfing on my computer researching the thing.

Turns out this puppy is "collectible".

We still didn't think too much about it until a couple of "horse plates" came into the store.

After more research on the 'net it turns out that THEY'RE collectible as well.

A little more research and today we learned that OAR is the temporary home for quite a few interesting non-outdoor-gear stuff.

Above:  A "Perfectly Paisley Aunt Angel Holding A Bird" # 76208

Below:  Shakespeare Level Wind Spin Wonder Reel #1810

LA Huffman Westernware Chuck Wagon 7 3/4  Inch Salad/Dessert Plates.  Two of 'em.

These aren't classified as collectible but they ARE beautiful.

Large marble and granite plaque candle holders.  They've never been used, still include the screws, have the company name sticker and original price on the back.

They're pretty pricey new, but we've discounted them at OAR.

These are just a few of the decorative things we have in one dedicated space at the store.

I'd rather be messing around with head lamps and day packs, but for those who like rustic home decor, OAR has some cool and interesting stuff.