The Silly Stix are back!

No more sales after I go to bed tonight. Starting tomorrow, I'll be knee deep in truck packing and last minute food and REI misc. purchases. So if you want to buy something from me, act quickly, people. I'll be back in action here at the end of August. Thanks to all that purchased my Zia products, as I can now afford to buy my YNP ranger pals a beer and maybe pick up some extra DEET and bear spray.

Got the mini grill a few weeks back. Fits on both my Sp 700 cone and my MLD Kettle Cone. Will get some pics soon. I've mostly just used it for pots in wood burning mode, but I expect to be putting fish and or a fry pan on it before too long. Happy trails, big adventures, and thanks again.

Thanks for your post, Brian. I hope the kit works for you. Feedback is always welcome, even if I'll be out of touch after Thursday. Be well!

OK folks, I'm back home. I can once again fill your orders for Zia grills, Stix, etc.

The month I spent in Yellowstone was seriously cool–7 short backpack trips, with 14 bag nights in some of the greatest campsites in the Park, and 5-6 day hikes during my zero "rest" days in motels. Slough Creek, Rescue Creek, Cache Creek/Lamar, Hellroaring Creek, Lone Star Geyser, Shoshone Lake, Cascade and Grebe Lake, and the grunt up to Mammoth geyser basin–all were wonderful places to hike and check out. I was lucky with the timing of a couple of my trips, as Cascade and Grebe Lakes were under closure a few days after I'd been there, due to intense bear activity in the area (there was a carcass discovered, and griz will be quick to kill anyone coming near its food source).

I saw lots of wildlife, including 2 griz (one with three puppies), 3 black bears, my first pair of pine martens, a lone wolf, several coyotes, numerous deer, elk, and antelope, birds of all shapes and sizes, big fish jumping in the lakes, and enough bison to last me a lifetime. There were none that tried to mess with me, other than the horrific biting black flies. Well, there was that lone bison that parked in the meadow 20 feet from my tent that was drying in the sun. He delayed my packing up for over an hour. But then he suddenly got a wild hair and charged across the 2-foot deep Cache Creek and sprinted up a 45-degree slope out of sight. Man, can bison run!

After YNP, I drove up to Glacier, to visit family and see if I could scheme some bag nights at campsites in the Park that I haven't yet been to. The weather turned rainy, and I decided that I'd been on the road long enough. So I went back down to YNP to say good-bye to my head backcountry ranger pal, went out the NE exit, camped at Island Lake, then drove over the Beartooth Highway to Cody, then on back to Boulder. It was sweet to sleep in my own bed again.

I wanted to emphasize how well these work as stakes.

I often carry a mix of various size and type of stakes and found that these hold better than any 6" stakes in loose to packed rocky soil.
I've compared with Eastons, GroundHogs and others.

The extra length just seams to be the ticket and I'd say they hold 4 times better than 6" shepherd hooks in the loose soil.

The unique head design makes for easy insertion and removal. No hammering required, so they should be more reliable. No spares needed.

They make life easier when you have to re-pitch in the middle of the night. I have had to re-stake a couple times to lower or raise my tarp because of weather changes and these make it easier than the thicker heavier stakes, especially in hard ground.

The Silly Stix, like other titanium shepherd stakes, can be bent to fit into cracks/gaps in rocky terrain. The extra length of the Silly Stix significantly reduces the chance of the stakes wiggling out of the cracks in strong winds when camped on rock slabs.

The extra hook on the head makes for better contact when you have to put a rock on top for added holding power. It also allows the rock to rest on the head without coming into contact with the line. Protects the line from the wear from abrasive rocks.

I am beginning to think I no longer need the heavier fatter stakes any more and on my last few trips(mostly solo car camping) only carried a mix of shepherd hooks.
I was using the Silly Six for the ridge and corners and Lawson 8" and various 6" for everything else.

Note, I have no connection with Gary(Zia Grill Guy), just a fan of these stakes.

Is there a deal on the stix for Gary to still be posting under the gear deals forum?