Med Kit 3.0 from NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). We get a first aid and cpr refresher every year from a wilderness first responder who gives everyone a kit. I always add some hydroseal blister bandages and a couple edibles for pain killing
Here's a kit from a sort of local fly shop in Rapid, if you're not into spending money at the Walmart of sporting goods. Buy local!
https://shop.flyfishsd.com/products/royal-coachman-tool-kit
Thank goodness for scientific organizations like Sierra Club, WildEarth, and Humane Society to protect these majestic beasts from you bloodthirsty brutes
For the loop to loop, I got tired of salvaging the cracked and broken garbage loops Rio allowed off the manufacturing floor for at least two years, possibly more. Switched back to Scientific Angler fly lines and started making my own loops for saltwater and carpwater applications. It's easy, and...
Calling the people leading the bait ban charge in WY and ID "scientists" is erroneous. Center for Biological Diversity. Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Western Watersheds Project. I can say, as a wildlife biologist in the private sector that often has to respond to the outlandish claims of these...
Diaper Bay. That name makes me laugh every time.
Rod - $100-$1200. 6-8 weight. Sky's the limit. Casts are short if you're doing it right, no need to spend big money on a super lightweight fast action rod. I've switched to an 8 weight custom glass rod for carping. It's a blast.
Reel - $75-$450...
Randomly casting gets you nowhere. Need to hunt down actively feeding fish, put a stalk on them, and cast the fly close enough that they see it but not so close that it spooks them. And holy crap buffalo are spooky.
Fish drum like you would smallies. Minnow and crayfish patterns. Buffalo are a very cool, very long lived native fish, and harder than a carp to get to eat a fly. If carp are freshwater bonefish, smallmouth buffalo are freshwater permit as far as difficulty to coerce into eating a fly.
You know what they say, you can wish in one hand and crap in the other, and see which one fills up first. Dry as a bone out here. A little snow in the mountains, but not much. The headwater basins are 15-20% below average for snowpack so far
Pack in? I really want to see the pack that sleeping bag fits in. Not saying that doesn't look like a kickass sleep system for anything a mountain can throw at you besides torrential rain, but it does seem a little bulky.
Another vote for Western Mountaineering down bags. Made in USA! I have the Alpinlite 6'6" bag. Love it. Rated to 20 degrees, but if you're wearing your base layers and a fresh pair of socks it is comfortable down to single digits. Add a self inflating sleeping pad with an R value of 3 or higher...
Bear spray. Brain shot is the only way you're going to stop a bear with a pistol. Unless you're going to practice a lot and get good enough to put a brain shot on that furry tractor that's going 35mph, go with bear spray