How to Smell Like the Wilderness

We found this post at Esquire Magazine (the issue with Scarlett Johansson on the cover). We are not going to say that she isn’t sexy…but sexiest woman alive is a bold statement and a title worth deserving. Does she? We digress. The article caught our attention with the title “How to Smell like the Wilderness.” Sounds manly! It sure is. You can follow the whole process of how the scents are crafted, complete with images, at esquire.com

How to Smell Like a Man

When you get down to it, most of our soaps and colognes are made in places that look scarily like labratories. Even the ones that proudly exclaim that they’re all-natural. Not so with Juniper Ridge. The company makes soaps, colognes, and sprays that smell great, but they do it in a decidedly non-laboratorial manner. In fact, they concoct many of their fragrances using a vintage whiskey still, though sometimes they go moonshine style, over a campfire. These people are, as we found out firsthand, a bunch of bourbon-loving, beer-swigging, meat-grilling Californians who just happen to have a thing for tracking down and capturing the scent of the woods.

They’ve got a gold miner’s mission, a sommelier’s nose, and a distinct appreciation for the wilderness of the American West, all of which were on display when we hitched a ride with Juniper Ridge this past July on the trail in the Tahoe National Forest. We were there to concoct a new scent, or an “aromatic snapshot,” as they like to call it. You see, the ingredients the company works so hard to find aren’t just specific to their locations but also to the season — some flowers they use bloom for only a few weeks each year.

Oh, and yes: Juniper Ridge is all-natural. Doggedly so. Bark, sap, leaves, twigs, grass, flower petals, stems — these ingredients come courtesy of the wilderness. And there are no synthetics in the mix, either; it’s either pure sugarcane alcohol or organic duck fat (the company is definitely not vegetarian). Because of this, each batch of products is entirely unique, a reflection of the season’s bounty that captures a moment in time in much the same way a good bottle of wine does.

Read more: Juniper Ridge – All Natural Grooming Products Juniper Ridge – Esquire

DIY Workout: Make Your Own Medicine Ball

Looking for a good workout but don’t have a medicine ball?  You could be in luck.  The March issue of Men’s Health (with Matt Damon on the cover) provides a cost-effective way to turn an old basketball into an awesome piece of workout gear.

Step 1: Use a pair of needle-nose pliers to remove the rubber plug from the basketball. Set the plug aside.

Step 2: Insert a funnel with a tip small enough to fit into the ir hole. Fill the ball entirely with a fine-grain play sand. A 50-pound bag will make three medicine balls.

Step 3: Brush rubber cement in and around the rim of the air hole. Immediately plug the hole with the rubber stopper, using the nedle-nose pliers to push the stopper in if needed.

Step 4: Brush more rubber cement over the stopper. Allow it to dry.

Man Skills: Start a Fire with Your Car Battery

The latest issue of Men’s Journal Magazine (the one with a sick green Triumph Scrambler motorcycle on the cover) has a segment called “Survival Skills with Bear Grylls” in which they ask him a series of questions about adventuring, survival, manliness and his active life.  One of the questions they asked?  What is one skill that every man should have? Bear’s answer?  The ability to start a fire with your car battery. “I’ve had to do this a lot while camping with my family when I didn’t have matches or a lighter.”

 

Step 1: run your fingers through the grass.  The dead stuff will come off in your hands.

Step 2: Create a little bird’s nest with this dry grass.  Then run your jumper cables to it and ignite it.

Step 3: Add the ignited grass to a big pile of kindling, and you’ll have your fire.

BOOM.

Perfect Weekend: Scuba Diving Middle America

Having recently completed a scuba diving class only to take on a completely underwhelming dive on my honeymoon, I completely understand wanting to take more exciting and breathtaking dives.  Believe me.  This is why I am thankful for Men’s Journal.  In the June/July 2010 issue (Lance Armstrong’s 8th cover appearance), they highlight the perfect weekend: scuba diving middle america in an abandoned mine which has turned into an underwater ghost town.

Six hundred miles from the nearest ocean, eastern Missouri isn’t an obvious choice for scuba diving.  But the rural hamlet of Bonne Terre offers world-class diving just the same – in a former lead mine 60 miles due south of St. Louis.  From the 1860’s until 1961, the Bonne Terre Mine became the largest lead mine in the world, yielding millions of tons of lead ore.  After it shuttered, a billion gallons of groundwater flooded the 80-square-mile labyrinth, creating the world’s largest man-made underground lake and turning the former mine into the ultimate underwater playground – a cross between cavern and wreck diving, with eerie tunnels crusty with antiquated equipment hidden in the shadows.

More than 50 chartered trails are in the mine, threading narrow tunnels littered with old magazines, rock drills, and half-filled ore carts that still sit where miners dropped them 50 years ago, like the last vestiges of a working man’s Atlantis.  The most popular paths are overhung with stadium lighting, which illuminates the water’s 150 feet of visibility.  Wetsuits are highly recommended – the water stays a brisk 60 degrees year-round.  To avoid getting lost in the industrial-sized ant farm, certified divers must go in the water with guides from the on-site dive center, which is open on weekends and provides gear and scuba classes, as well as accommodations in a historic railroad depot restored as a bed-and-breakfast (packages from $210; 2dive.com).

Buy This Car, Break a Land-Speed Record

Guys like things that are fast.  Cars not only fit into this mold, but they define it.  In the December 2009-January 2010 issue of Men’s Journal Magazine, the one with Alec Baldwin on the cover, there is an article about the fastest car money can buy.  “When Steve Fosset disappeared in 2007, he had more than 100 land, air, and water records to his name.  But he left a big project unfinished: a jet-car just weeks away from testing.  Its driver deceased, the project was mothballed – a potential speed record sealed in time.  Now it’s up for sale.”

“Granted, the car has been around the block.  In 1996 it ran 675 mph under the stewardship of Craig Breedlove but went up on two wheels and veered off course.  In 1997 its engine ingested a rock just before Richard Noble’s team leaped ahead of the sound barrier.  But the car is no lemon.  Fosset and chief engineer Eric Ahlstrom spent a year rebuilding it from the ground up.  With a GE J-79 turbojet engine and a thrust to weight ratio of 2:1, the car may be capable of reaching speeds of 800, 900, or even 1,000 mph (asking price is about $4 million; project100.com).”

Going Green is Fad-tastic…

…but considering the fad never really seems to go away, why not post about it?  In the September 2009 issue of Men’s Journal magazine, their “green life” (lower-cased because upper-case letters take more ink?) section, the magazine calls attention to a breathable and waterproof Zegna Sport Ecotech Solar jacket, pictured below. The Ecotech line of jackets is made of completely recycled polyester yarns (from other garments – think re-usable plastic bottles).  The solar version includes detachable solar panels for each arm to charge your personal gadgets – iPod, phone…whatever else that is chargeable and fits in an over-sized jacket pocket) using just the power of the Sun.  Let’s hope your time outside is a sunny one…