Team Dirtbag

This submission came to us from Topher Browne, a Patagonia Ambassador and recovering dirtbag.

I have not really been a dirtbag for several years now. I recently traded in the last in a long line of Toyota trucks for an efficient but less than capacious Honda Civic. If I tried to spend the night in my new ride I would require an on-site osteopath to remove the kinks from my middle-aged body.  I confess that I don’t mind a warm cabin and a hot meal after standing in a forty-five-degree river all day long. If this makes me less of a person, so be it.

I knew the truck was not long for this world when I noticed that it was beginning to spend more nights in front of motels than in parking lots next to good salmon pools. I still get up pretty early, at least when I fish, but I’m seldom the first one through the pool anymore. It was not always this way. I never bought into that “last shall be first” nonsense (I still don’t) and I could usually count on my boots getting wet before any others. Lately, though, I find myself second, third or even fourth through a pool. It doesn’t happen all the time—I still have my moments in the sun—but when it does, it bothers me less than it once did.

[Photo: Topher Browne Collection]

I wish that I could unequivocally state that once a dirtbag always a dirtbag. I am quite sure that I cannot defend that statement at least as it applies to me. As far as the term “dirtbag” is concerned, I am equally certain that I could not define the word without devolving into cliché. We could certainly go round and round attempting to define such an elusive concept until some pointy-headed arbiter of judicious word use made us move our collective bowels or get off the pot. I’m a big fan of anything that passes for mental Metamucil, so I prefer to get on with it.
   
I once had time but no money. I was, by dint of economic necessity, a dirtbag. I now have money but no time. I am no longer a dirtbag for reasons that are not wholly clear to me.  When I figure out how to offset this time/money continuum, I will let you know.  I have learned that a hot shower will work wonders on your low back but can do mean things to your soul. It is an easy skip from a hot shower to a prepared meal, an hour or two of HBO, or an electronic connection with a world that you would just as soon forget. If you’re dirtbagging it down by the river in the back of the pick-up truck, your chief concern will be the death of the last mosquito that threatens the tranquility of your sleep. As an added bonus to the spiritual purity of your accommodations and the head net that you store in the back of your camper, you will be first through the pool.
    
I remember my dirtbag days with great fondness. My personal record without a shower is five weeks. I know that record pales in comparison to the dirtbags who hang out at altitude in the Himalayas. My record, however, was set before the advent of breathable waders. If you fail to shower and your waders are coated with polyurethane, I do not recommend a wading belt. You may die an early death, but drowning is certainly preferable to death by toxic shock when you remove your wading belt at the end of the day. I think about this every time I take off my fancy breathable waders. It sure would be hard to go back to those old sweat bags.

Bio: Topher Browne is no longer a member of Team Dirtbag, but don’t count him out just yet.

Comments

[Jay Jurkowitsch]

Hang in there Topher - it isn't that hard to go BACK to being a "Real Dirtbag"!! In the mean time, find that balance between time and money.

[CM]

I was just talking to a friend about how we use to hustle lift tickets to snowboard and how we would just show up to mountains with no place to stay and no money but would always end up sleeping on a floor and hooking up some free food through a barter system and of course scoring free tickets. Now when I head to the snow covered mountains I rent a cabin and buy a 2-3 day pass for hundred-plus bucks. Some times I miss the adventure of the unexpected but I do love the hot tub that came with the rental cabin. I think hustling or living like a "dirtbag" allows you to appreciate the moments where you can afford the cabins, showers and of course the after-shredding hot-tub.

[Greg in Vt]

Maybe "Dirtbag" is more of a philosophy than a specific type of person. I logged many years as a Dirtbag, fitting close to the image that Topher described above. Though I'm now married with children and a house and all that, I feel the Dirtbag soul is still with me.
I believe one can apply aspects of the Dirtbag philosophy to the more mundane parts of their life. Say, for example trying to keep a 25 year-old John Deere lawn tractor running. Isn't spending hours with a rusty cast-iron engine, learning the inner workings, salvaging or buying inexpensive parts and keeping the old dog running more Dirtbag than buying a new one? Or buying a 160 year-old house to restore, maintain and make more efficient better than buying a new one? Or sweating over a large organic veggie garden to supplement my family's food supply better than all store-bought produce? I mean these things make me really dirty.
So, I may not be living in the back of my truck anymore or on other people's floors, but I still feel the Dirtbag in me everyday. Life may not be as wild and risky as my younger days, but it's still every bit an adventure. Like gritty grease under your finger nails, Dirtbagdom is hard to get rid of. Hell, I'd say, why would you want to get rid of it anyways?

[mjohnburns]

I join in and praise your observation that it's too easy of a slide from one material item to another, only to find yourself in an unappealing world necessitating an immediate escape. One of my biggest challenges as an "adult" is to shed these items and return to the basics, which make me truly happy.

[steve stracqualursi]

On a product level, notice that Topher is wearing:

M's Watermaster II waders
Riverwalkers - sticky rubber
M's Flannel Shirt
Trim Brim
Guidewater Vest - Spring 2008

[patagoniacommunity.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the posting. Your reasons for going 5 weeks without a shower were, I'm sure, much more noble than the spans of time I went without showering in college (basic laziness). Best wishes to you.

[Topher Browne]

Greg in Vt nails it. The "dirtbag" concept is a state of mind, un 'esprit de coeur.' As such, it is available in many forms and diverse expressions, and is therefore hard to describe.

I am poking fun at myself in the essay, but also trying hard to avoid a definition of that elusive, wide-eyed approach to sport that we had when we were discovering something new. That approach can be hard to maintain, but it's worth stripping away some of the layers of accrued living in order to recover it.