Camping Season

​Camping season is officially here, and I for one couldn’t be happier. Camping is one of my favorite seasons. Grilling burgers and brats, macaroni salad, chips, and of course an ice-cold beer. The crackling of an open fire while family and friends sit around exchanging stories. Talking about how beautiful the weather is and how much they do not miss work. Making plans of horseback riding, razor riding, cornhole, hiking, fishing, and whatever other adventures that come up. Laughter long into the night before turning in for a few hours of sleep before sunrise.

The 36" Dandy is Flexible enough to bend over the top of the pack and still rigid enough to last.

​These thoughts all bring back some fond memories for me personally. If you are as thrilled about camping as I am then you are sure to be out next weekend enjoying the crisp mountain air. There is not much that can ruin a great camping trip, but there are a few major things that can. Let’s start with the most obvious thing to me that will ruin a great camping trip, that is no firewood, brr! How do you stock up your firewood? Do you bring it all with you? What happens if you run out? Are you just left out in the cold? At Grizzly Fabrication we don’t want you to be left out in the cold. We want you to be able to enjoy your camping trip not just the first or second day, but for the entire week or two weeks that you’re there. How can we help? Well, that is the easy part! Just check out our Dandy Saws! They are an excellent pack saw that is lightweight and easy to carry. The Dandy Saw is manufactured out of a band saw steel that is guaranteed to hold an edge for years to com and IF it does dull on you send it back to us and we will sharpen it free of charge. The Dandy saw comes in a variety of sizes, 12”, 18”, 28”, and 36”. The 36” Full Dandy is a double handled saw that will make quick work of any downed log on the trail you might come across. While it is usable by two people at one time, it is not required. The 36” Full Dandy can be operated by a single person, but it is recommended that two people operate it. The steel blade is flexible enough to bend around the top of your pack, but rigid enough to hold its shape. Speaking of handles, the handles are a Baltic birch plywood that is finished with a very masculine yet attractive dark oak stain. The plywood is durable and long lasting, and we are so confident that it will last the life of the blade that if the handle chips or breaks we will send you a new one, again free of charge! The 12, 18, and 28 inch saws are all single handle and are versatile, lightweight, and easy to operate. The 15-degree angle is steep enough to cut through wood quickly and the opposing edge on the teeth enable the user to cut both on the forward and backward stroke. This hand saw will keep the firewood stockpile full and allow the crowd to enjoy the fire long into the night! 

The 18" Half Dandy is a lightweight and durable saw

Dandy's Saws are versatile and designed to cut through both bone and wood

​The second thing that can ruin a camping trip in a hurry is a grumpy cook. How do you keep the cook happy you ask? Well for starters, appreciation of their hard work is a great place to start. Another great place to start is to have equipment that will make the cook’s job as easy as possible. Our Mountaineer Kitchen Panniers set up into a nice little cooking area that your cook is sure to enjoy. Manufactured from aircraft grade aluminum, these panniers are both lightweight and durable. Certified by the IGBC (Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee,) these panniers are guaranteed to keep bears out of your food stockpile, but we will get to that in a minute. First, we need to keep that cook happy. Okay, so now we have established being courteous to the cook and to make the cook’s job easy as possible. Another way that the Kitchen Panniers make the cook’s life easier is that they set up in multiple ways, either side by side which will save as much space as possible in camp, or back-to-back which give the biggest cooking surface. Every set of Kitchen Panniers come with the legs, table leaves, and spanner bars necessary for setting them up in either fashion. If you add a second set of panniers, you will expand the possibilities of how you can set them up. These panniers have D-rings on the back of them to easily pack them on your horse, or if you want to sling them, there are Decker bars on both sides of each box. Of course, how you pack the equipment in won’t make your cook’s life easier, so how else can Grizzly Fabrication help make the cook’s life easier? With the Partner Steel 22” Stove, that’s how! The Partner Steel Stove fits perfectly in these panniers. Specifically, in between the two shelves in the double shelf pannier. We have intentionally designed our panniers to fit the stove for easy packing and to provide ample storage in other parts of the panniers. These are amazing tools to add to your pack equipment and keep your camp cook happy. However, there is one more item I would like to discuss, and that is the Dandy Camp Kitchen! The Dandy Camp Kitchen is a similar box to Mountaineer Kitchen Panniers, in fact that is where we started when designing the Dandy Camp Kitchen. We added a few things, some heavy-duty handles, outside legs sockets and adjustable legs, and a utility rack, for starters. We also added a HUGE list of plates, silverware, cups, bowls, pots and pans, Rada Knives, cooking utensils, and of course the 22” Partner Stove! The Dandy Camp Kitchen can be purchased either “fully Loaded,” which comes with that huge list, or it can be purchased empty, which is just the set of boxes and the utility rack. I could continue to go on about these great products that will keep your camp cook happy, or you can click one of the buttons below to check out the specific product.

The Mountaineer Camp Kitchen is crafted from aircraft grade aluminum. As such it is lightweight, durable, and most importantly certified bear proof.

The Dandy Camp Kitchen is made from aircraft grade aluminum too! Again lightweight, durable and bear proof!

​The third and probably the most terrifying thing that can ruin a camping trip. A visit from a bear in your camp. How can Grizzly Fabrication help? Well we can’t keep the bear totally out of your camp, but what we can do is help ensure that your food and valuables are safe in case of a curious bear. There are some obvious do’s and don’ts in bear country, so let’s talk about those first and then we will talk about how Grizzly Fabrication can help in the case of a bear visit. Things you can do to avoid drawing in a bear are use bear resistant products when in bear country, put away food in a bear resistant storage container when not being used, pick up any trash, and generally be aware of your surroundings. The don’ts to avoid contact with a bear are don’t leave out trash or food where they can smell it. Of course, we recommend carrying a firearm and bear spray in case of an accidental bear encounter. How can Grizzly Fabrication help you avoid bear contact and help keep your food and valuable safe in case of a bear encounter? For starters the Mountaineer Kitchen Panniers and Dandy Camp Kitchen are both certified by the IGBC. These boxes have been tested against some of the meanest, nastiest, and toughest bears in Yellowstone. They are guaranteed bear proof and will keep your food and valuable safe. Obviously, the best way to keep your food, valuables, friends, and family safe from bears is to avoid contact with them altogether. However, that is not 100% doable all the time. These boxes are safety measures to help keep your stuff safe and to help avoid contact. They won’t guarantee contact won’t happen, so again we recommend that you carry a firearm and bear spray. 

Our bear proof products are certified bear proof by the IGBC

​Grizzly Fabrication is in the business of bear proofing to help protect the people that use our products. We would love to be able to totally avoid bear to human contact. By avoiding bear to human contact we protect both humans and bears. The truth of the matter is that a bear is an apex predator that won’t think twice about tearing you apart. That is where the danger for humans is, but what about the bear, how does bear proofing help protect the bears? Bears are very intelligent and rummage through garbage or human food for an “easy meal.” This is not a natural trait for bears, while they are very curious, they don’t know what they are getting into until they actually get into it. It is a learned trait to rummage through garbage and human camps looking for food. Once the trait has been learned it can’t be unlearned. As a result, bears who are caught rummaging through garbage or human camps are usually euthanized. Along with protecting human life bear proofing can protect bears lives. It can also protect the overall environment and ecosystem. The natural ecosystem has bears out in the wild foraging for berries and fishing for salmon. If they are busy rummaging through garbage and filling up on human food and trash, they won’t have time to forage or fish. This will obviously throw off the natural ecosystem and put other animals and forestry at risk. By bear proofing and following some simple step while out camping we can help limit human to bear contact, and that will make for a more peaceful life for us humans, the bears, and other animals. It is our duty to keep the ecosystem in balance, so that the animals, bears and all, are around for our kids, grandkids, and great grandkids to enjoy. With that we just ask that you camp safe and responsibly to keep the ecosystem balanced and peaceful, well as peaceful as the wild can be. 

Cooking in 10 Minutes or Less!!! Really, 10 minutes or less!