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Mike Dean

Mike Dean is, among many other things, a retired Registered Alaska Hunting Guide. Mike has spent almost all of his 60 years hitting it hard in the outdoors. These last 20 years or so, Mike has returned to his roots in Northern Maine.

We first got to know Mike in early 2017 and he gave our All-Around Jac the most serious field-test report we have ever gotten from anyone. I found out later that Mike has done formal testing for some of the major outdoor-clothing brands. He has huge knowledge of Nature and her extremes and the gear that will enable people to survive and thrive in whatever Nature dishes out. You can read Mike's field evaluation of our All-Around Jac here. Mike also gave us some input on our ShirtJac and some great feedback on the things he's done in WeatherWool and the types of activities and weather he's been experiencing. Mike's Northern Maine adventures are coming in too quickly for us to keep up with. He recently told us about a family on vacation who got caught in a sudden storm while on a lake ... they were quickly soaked and cold and disoriented and unable to reach shore. With two inexperienced adults and two small children, what had been a light-hearted, pleasant family outing could have turned into a very very bad situation if a professional guide hadn't just happened to be nearby. Mike always has some of our wool available, and it helped solve problems. Things happen in the North Country and for that reason Mike always has wool ... and WeatherWool has become Mike's favorite clothing ... and he is the first WeatherWool Advisor.

Mike spends a lot of time alone, off-grid in far Northern Maine. He has also lived for years in very remote Alaska. And for quite a while he brought groups out into Maine's North Woods to experience that vast wilderness. Just after graduation from high school, Mike headed South to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and walked the entire Appalachian Trail. I guess you could say he basically walked home from Georgia, which is a pretty cool thing to do!

Mike mentioned that he likes the All-Around Jac for fishing ... people usually don't think of wool on the water, but in fact it is excellent because cold and wet situations is where wool really shines ... and spring fishing on the big lakes of North Maine is cold and windy and wet ... and as that vacationing family has learned, even summer fishing on those cold waters is not something to be undertaken without real preparation. Here is a picture of Mike with a nice rainbow trout.

 

Read Mike's Tester Comments;. He put WeatherWool thru some insane trials!