Rarely Guide
Hemingway Wished
For the person who writes things down outside where phones die, notebooks get rained on, and pens roll off rocks. Waterproof notebooks, a pen that lives in the Cooper Hewitt, a flashlight with 1300 lumens of “I can see everything,” and a sling bag to keep it all within reach. This is the field kit for people who still believe in writing things down by hand.
See the KitThe Field Kit
Four Tools. No Apps Required.
Why These Four
Built for Outside, Not Just About It
Waterproof Notes
Yupo synthetic paper doesn’t warp, bleed, or fall apart in the rain. Your ideas survive the weather. Dot-graph grid keeps things organized without making you feel like you’re filling out a form.
A Pen Worth Keeping
The Pen Type-A is machined in Vermont, lives in a museum collection, and creates a pneumatic seal with its cap. It’s the kind of pen you don’t lend to coworkers. Consistent ink flow, comfortable grip, built for the long haul.
Light and Carry, Sorted
The Baton 4 fits in a pocket and lights up entire hillsides. The Peak Design sling converts between cross-body and belt bag, holds exactly what you need, and is made from recycled nylon. Everything has a place.
The Tools Behind the Notes
Field Notes has been making pocket notebooks in Chicago since 2007, but the Expedition edition is something else entirely. Printed on Yupo synthetic paper — extruded from polypropylene, not wood pulp — these notebooks don’t care about rain, sweat, or the bottom of a canoe. The covers feature a topographic map of Antarctica rendered in the varnish, which is the kind of detail that makes you feel like your grocery list is somehow more important.
The Inventery Pen Type-A has been manufactured at a multi-generation machine shop in Vermont since 2012. It slides into a magnetic sleeve, and when you pull it out there’s a slight pop — the result of machining tolerances so tight they create a pneumatic seal, like a tiny piston. In 2023, it was added to the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s permanent collection. Not bad for a pen.
We added the Olight Baton 4 because writing outside sometimes means writing in the dark, and 1300 lumens is the difference between “I can see my notebook” and “I can see the next county.” The Peak Design sling holds all of it — notebooks, pen, flashlight, phone, keys — in 3 liters of 500D recycled nylon with a magnetic exterior pocket for quick access.
“In 2023, the Pen Type-A was added to the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s permanent collection. We’re still not over it.”
— Inventery
Questions
The Stuff You Want to Know
What’s in this guide?
Four field-ready products: a 3-pack of Field Notes Expedition waterproof notebooks, an Inventery Pen Type-A made in Vermont, an Olight Baton 4 flashlight with 1300 lumens, and a Peak Design Everyday 3L Sling. Everything you need to write things down outdoors without your gear giving up before you do.
Are the notebooks actually waterproof?
Completely. They’re printed on Yupo synthetic paper, which is made from polypropylene pellets, not wood pulp. Rain, spills, sweat — none of it matters. Your notes survive. The dot-graph grid works with both pen and pencil, and there’s an Antarctica topographic map in the cover varnish, because Field Notes can’t help themselves.
How much less is the guide?
Enough to cover a few extra replacement notebooks, which you’ll want once you remember how good it feels to write on paper that doesn’t disintegrate.
What’s special about the Inventery pen?
It’s machined at a multi-generation shop in Vermont, it makes a satisfying pneumatic pop when you uncap it, and it’s in the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt. It writes well, too, which you’d hope for from a pen, but it’s worth mentioning since some fancy pens seem to forget that part.
Is 1300 lumens a lot?
It’s “your campsite neighbors think the sun came back” levels of bright. The Baton 4 has multiple brightness settings, so you can dial it down to “reading a notebook” or turn it up to “search and rescue.” It fits in your pocket, which still doesn’t seem possible given the output.
Write It Down. Out There.
Four tools, zero apps required.
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