Snow, Gear, And Good People

Doors opened, snow started flying, and the Hamilton Outdoor Adventure Expo doubled down on scale and energy. We walked into two buildings packed with makers, guides, and paddlers, plus a winter courtyard alive with cooking demos, hot tents, dog sleds, and even knife forging. The growth wasn’t just bigger booths; it was deeper conversations and a stronger sense of community that’s hard to capture online.

We share how our weekend unfolded: a recording sprint with creators and speakers, a hard pivot when YouTube sabotaged our livestream audio, and the relief of clean Sunday captures on Riverside. You’ll hear the human side of content creation on a noisy floor—adapting on the fly, salvaging the best stories, and staying transparent about what we’ll re-release. Along the way, we shout out voices you know and love, from Marty Morissette and Joe Robinet to Tori Baird, Ben Beauchamp, Lure of the North, Paddling Adventures Radio, Kevin Callan, Organic Boat Shop, and Ripple Effects Paddles.

A big winter storm reshaped our plans, with Pamela staying safe at home and Tim and Thomas racing the weather to get back before the city got buried. That turn became a reminder of what unites this community: smart choices, mutual support, and a shared passion for the backcountry that beats algorithms and hype. We close with why shows like this matter for campers and canoe trippers—direct access to the people who build your gear, honest feedback from real users, and hands-on demos that teach skills you’ll actually use.

We’re rolling out the best interviews over the next few months, lining up deeper guest conversations, and planning routes for open water season. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs trail stoke, and leave a quick review so more campers can find us. Your notes and stories keep this community strong—what should we explore next?

www.hamiltonadventureexpo.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 0:12 Support Reminders And Coffee Gags
• 0:28 Expo Debrief And First Impressions
• 2:02 From One Day To Two Buildings
• 2:44 Outdoor Demos And Winter Courtyard
• 3:33 Recording Marathon And Tech Hurdles
• 4:49 YouTube Issues And Audio Fixes
• 5:12 Speakers And Community Shoutouts
• 6:30 Storm Changes Plans And Travel
• 8:08 Why These Shows Matter
• 10:39 What’s Coming Next And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Hello and good day. Hey, welcome to the Super Good Camping podcast. My name is Pamela.

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

I'm Tim.

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

And we are from Supergoodcamping.com. We're because we're on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family. Just a reminder at the beginning of the show, you can like, subscribe, share, and buy us a coffee. And if you forget when you get home, maybe tell Siri to set yourself a reminder to buy us a coffee when you get home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_01: 0:28

And so today we just wanted to do a little bit of a debrief after the Hamilton Outdoor Adventure Expo.

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Uh yeah, it was something else. Uh so this is year two. This this was year two for them. Uh 20, January 24th, 25th, something like that. Last weekend for nope. When does this air? I am so confused. It was such a different experience for us. The show itself was pretty awesome. That's my people, man. Uh, I don't, I don't, I don't have the right words to say it.

SPEAKER_01: 0:56

Like it's just We love you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

It's it is. It's so it's so awesome to see people. We I I part of a conversation I I've had uh is that because we all with uh content creators, uh I wouldn't wouldn't say we fall into the influencer categories, but certainly we do create your listening to it or you're watching it. We interact uh fairly fairly often. Uh we have a lot of of I would say good friends in in that community. Uh we but we interact at sort of at arm's length, right? We interact on social media.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28

Or in your ears.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29

Or in your ears or or however that plays. Uh it yeah, I it's very cool to get that in-person hug. I'm a big hugger. Uh most of the folks know that now. Uh, although Patriot didn't know it when I came up and gave her a big hug. And they went, oh crap, this is the first time we actually met.

SPEAKER_01: 1:47

Who is this weirdo?

SPEAKER_00: 1:48

Thanks. Thankfully, she's a very cool lady. Uh so she didn't take any uh or she she indicated that she didn't take any offense to that. Yeah, you gotta do it. So so this year's show, last year there was one building, one day. Well, it's two buildings because we went had to cut across the courtyard and and go to do the presentations. Um, there was outdoor stuff, food trucks, fire pits, that sort of jazz. This year, holy mackerel. Uh, there was literally, you know, I I don't have all the numbers, um, but but certainly by appearances and and and other conversations with the the the folks that put the show together, uh Jason and Bretton, they had double the number of, so two days, double the number of vendors, so over two uh in two two full buildings. They made a tunnel for us to get between the buildings, which was very nice. It's so much warmer to get there. Two days of presentations, double the number of present presenters. Uh, and they made sort of like an outdoor courtyard to do to do winter things. Um what did they did cooking demos, they did uh Escher tents. Uh I will say brands simply because that's what it was. Uh there's no we get nothing out of this. I'm not I'm not specifically promoting anybody, uh, although I will say I'm wearing a ripple effects, my spanky new ripple effects t-shirt, which Chris very uh very thoughtfully uh gave Thomas and I each one while this is rambling around in a circle. Uh the outside stuff, escortants, um dog sledding, dog sledding, they did cooking demos, they did oh, a dude uh forged a knife outside in the that that's I didn't get to see anything. We spent so much time recording things. I think we recorded oh something between live streams and just you know, sort of snapshotty um podcast stuff. I think we recorded 11 or 12 different folks uh over the course of the two days. And it was a bit of a if you're watching us, you know exactly where we are every time. This is our living room. If you're listening to us, that's also where we come from, is our living room. We're not a remote, we don't do remote stuff. Um so that was a bit of a learning curve. That's a nice way to put it. I was gonna say cluster something. It's a bit of a scramble to get set up and stuff. We did we did a bunch of live streaming on, I want to say we did four live streams on the Saturday, the I guess the first day of the actual show. And that all seemed to go tickety-boo until I listened to it when we got done the end of the day, and it was like, oh my god, it's terrible. I don't know what the deal was, it was it's something to do with YouTube. Um, because we we recorded with the same setup the next day, but we recorded it to Riverside, which is the the software that that we use, the platform that we use, and it was fine. It's uh I've only edited one, but I listened to about three of the seven or eight that we did, and they're fine. It's there's no problem. So I don't know. It's unfortunate the live streams. Uh we're I run through one pass of a couple hours per uh trying to get the sound better and re-release them as uh standalone videos on our YouTube channel. I'd say two of them sound better, and two of them I have mixed feelings about. So we'll see what happens. I'm gonna try it some more down the road, but whatever. Um, so the show was great. There's uh all the usual suspects for vendors, and then a bunch of ones I I hadn't heard of. Uh some really cool speakers. Uh boy off the top of my head, Marty Morissette, which I've never, I don't think I've ever seen him do a live speaking thing. So that was very cool uh to get him back out. He's been uh he's been he's been busy these days, not not putting out social media and the not not to the limit the level that he used to do. Um but we'll have him on. His his was one of the ones that I was kind of unhappy about the sound on even after I had been at it, uh with some additional software and all the tricks in my bag. So we he's gonna we're we're working on getting together at some point in uh in March to record a a proper podcast with him. Who else? Joe Robinet, uh Tori Baird, Ben Beauchamp, um Kylin. Kylan, uh Marone from uh Lure of the North. Yes, uh there's so many Norths. Who else? Evan Evan Lefave, Evan LaFive, to most of you in in social media worlds, uh Ray. Yeah, which is one I really really wanted to go see, but again, we were so busy. We just we record were recording with people. Uh and we finally got this sort of system figured out where I sat, recorded things, Thomas went out, wandered around, and just went, hey, what are you doing? Come on over. Uh he managed to run into uh oh, we talked to the boys from Paddling Adventure Radio Adventures Radio, uh, Kevin Callan. We got Marty in for a yak, uh Greg from Organic Boat Shop, Chris from uh Ripple Effects Paddles, Ben and Petra. Ben and Petra, which was a great conversation, and the sound in it is terrible. I really enjoyed that one. Um, so I I've reached out, but they're they're they're busy. I was gonna say kids. Well, I just turned 60, so they are kids. We'll we'll get them. We'll we'll we'll have a yak with them. Anyhow, a whole bunch of kid products. Man, I don't even I don't even know now. Uh it was great. It was super, super fun. And they're yeah, they're they I think that one of the nice things is they're very bite-sized. Like they're more so Pamela and I, when we do uh an episode, it's a it's a short episode. It's a snackable. Snackable. Uh these were sort of snackables. They were they were you know in the in the same realm of time limited.

SPEAKER_01: 7:36

Well, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everybody who came up and said, Where's Pamela? I I and I did so I did not make it. Uh Tim's talking mostly about his experience because uh I was supposed to be coming on Saturday evening with our dog. And Sunday they were calling for like a terrible amount of snow. And I thought I can get there just fine on Saturday, but I'm not gonna be able to drive home, or it's gonna be terrible trying to drive home Sunday or Monday. So I decided to stay home and stay safe. Yeah. Um, so we we did. Uh so Tim was there with Thomas, but uh Dolly and I did not make it to the show. And Brandon was supposed to be joining us as well, so it would have been great. It would have been the whole family there, but uh yeah, because of the weather, we didn't end up the two of us, didn't end up making it down.

SPEAKER_00: 8:24

Yeah, biggest, biggest dumping in southern Ontario, certainly in Toronto in in ages.

SPEAKER_01: 8:29

Well, we figured about two feet altogether was what we ended up getting. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:32

We uh Thomas and I and and his girlfriend stuff, we actually bailed out oh one o'clock, one thirty on Sunday afternoon just because the storm was coming. Like it was our had was already starting to hit and we were we needed to sort of stay ahead of it. Uh by the time we got home here in Toronto at 3 30, it was there was a a solid 18 inches of snow on the ground. Uh since not even since the morning, like just in in a few hours. So turned out to be the right call, which made for a lot of people saw the storm coming, uh looking at their weather apps. So they flipped their tickets from Sunday to Saturday. So Saturday was really busy, man.

SPEAKER_01: 9:11

And Sunday probably was especially short at the end of the day, I would imagine, was was probably quiet.

SPEAKER_00: 9:16

Um but a lot of the folks, like a lot of the vendors and community folks, uh stuck it out right through the to the end. Uh, some of them actually came home on Sunday night, some of them stayed over and went uh went back to their far-flung homes on uh on Sunday on Monday morning.

SPEAKER_01: 9:33

Some of them Christina drove down and drove back, and we were like, Yay, she got home safe.

SPEAKER_00: 9:39

And then got sick as a dog like an hour after she got home. So that didn't play out well. But you know, great. It it uh wonderful to see everybody. Uh I highly recommend. Like these are the if you want to go out and check out some some new gear, talk to the people who actually make the gear. Uh you'll often run into other people who have used their gear, and it's not just uh, you know, I get paid to say good things about their gear. They're it's a pretty genuine community. Um I mean, uh yes, they're there it's it's a business, but nobody's getting rich. I can assure you that. Uh they're doing it, they're doing it as much as anything because of their love of of the outdoors and of you know the passion for what they do, whether it is um you know, uh dog sledding or or guiding or making freeze-dried meals, like whatever it is. Paddle makers, check it out, man. Like seriously check it out. Uh on that note with the uh the mention of the live streams and stuff. We're going to put out sorry, we're gonna publish the uh uh remaining episodes that we recorded on the Sunday, the much better sound quality ones. We're gonna publish them over the coming months. I by I have a rough idea of a schedule, but we're still going to record, you know, Pam Pamela and I episodes or uh we have other guests that we're we're lining up at the moment. Um actually we have a couple of them already lined up. So yeah, look for some cool, cool conversations over the the coming months. I think it's gonna be an interesting, it'll be different for us. It'll be an interesting sort of I I know we're only only just into February, but I'm already looking at sort of the end of the season and and getting out on the the liquid water, the non-frozen water stuff. So I'm we're already I'm already planning trips.

SPEAKER_01: 11:26

So all right.

SPEAKER_00: 11:28

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01: 11:29

That's it for us for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please do tune in again next week. And uh if you'd like to reach out out to us, you know that we are always available on all the social media, and we you can email us anytime at hi at supergoodcamping.com. That's H I at supergoodcamping.com. We'd love to hear from you, and you can always buy us a coffee. We'll talk to you again soon.

unknown: 11:51

Bye.

SPEAKER_01: 11:51

Bye.