Spring has long been celebrated as the season of rebirth and renewal, a time when the earth shakes off winter’s threadbare mantle and cloaks itself afresh in new life. But even the diehard romantics among us probably don’t imagine that this annual renaissance extends to the world of consumer products. I certainly don’t. Of course, I’m not what you’d call a material girl. I buy things because they work for me, and then I hang on to them till they wear out. My pack canoe, ash paddle, and “getaway” rucksack have all been with me for a quarter of a century, or near enough, and I don’t see any reason to replace them.

I feel the same way about my little Silva Huntsman compass, which has been keeping me company for almost as long as my pack canoe and paddle. And that explains why, when I went looking for a second Huntsman, I was bitterly disappointed to learn it was no longer available. The fact that its name had now been bestowed on a zombie product — inferior in every way to the original Huntsman, at least in my eyes — only served to add insult to injury. But I couldn’t afford to waste time being sentimental. I needed a small compass that I could slip into the transparent map pocket on my “amphibious” bicycle‘s handlebar bag whenever I felt like heading down the road, folding boat in tow. That compass had to be… Read more…

Questions? Comments? Just click here!