Years in This Expertise: 8 yrs in outdoor media, 4 years as GearJunkie’s Hunt Fish Editor (2018-2022)
Number Of Products & Number Of Hours Expert Has Tested: 500+ products, 8,300+ hours testing
Education & Certifications
Education: Bachelor’s of Sociology, Colorado State University
Years of Writing: 14+
Club or Association Memberships: Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Board Director of Orion the Hunters Institute
Previous Publications: USA Today, MeatEater, Modern Huntsman, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Backcountry Journal, Mens Journal, Outside Bozeman, TripThirty
A Word from Nicole
When I started writing for GearJunkie in 2018, it opened up a whole new universe of curiosities. A thrifty minimalist, gear was a means to an end rather than an obsession. To be frank, I was more of a gear skeptic than a gear junkie.
But as the site’s Hunt Fish Editor, testing brand after brand and item after item forced me to pare down to the gear that made the cut. And that’s really what I love to write about. When it comes to a review, a suggestion, a collection of gear, or simply the experience of using gear to get the job done, it better be damned useful and worth its weight in financial commitment.
I value gear differently than I did when I first began writing about it. Us gearheads get so wrapped in the idea of stuff, but it can also weigh us down.
Ultimately, I’m still a thrifty minimalist, but the gear I write about and the brands I talk about have a place in my gear closet because of that these days, rather than in spite of it. And I hope you hear that theme echo across this collection of many years of writing.
President-Elect Joe Biden named Rep. Deb Haaland to pilot the Department of the Interior. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland will become the first Indigenous…
As part of the recently passed Veterans COMPACT Act, the Accelerating Veterans Recovery Outdoors Act makes therapy via outdoor recreation more readily available to military…
If dreams of puppies mix regularly with dreams of your full-grown dog retrieving birds to hand, then these books focused on hunting dog training should…
After a 3-year review process, the Trump administration has all but killed a proposed copper-molybdenum-gold mine near Alaska’s famed Bristol Bay watershed.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer terminates public easement for Enbridge’s Line 5, which holds two 67-year-old oil pipelines rife with potential for disaster.
A film from Orvis, Captains for Clean Waters, Trout Unlimited, the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and others tackles two huge conservation crises of our time.
September was Public Lands Month, and the nonprofit Backcountry Hunters & Anglers crushed their goal of removing 1,000 bags of trash from public lands.
With big-game seasons going strong across the country, hunters must be aware of chronic wasting disease precautions whether they’re hunting in or out of state.
Fences often delineate the lines between what’s huntable and what’s not, but that’s not always the case. Filmmaker Jason Matzinger explores what these boundary lines…
