Cuben fiber fabric, now called Dyneema Composite Fabrics, was originally used for sails on the winner of the 1992 America’s Cup held May 9-16 in San Diego, California. Skippered by billionaire Bill Koch, the winning yacht was America3 or America “cubed.” hence the name “Cuben.” The fabric is now officially known…
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Most people prefer a pack that holds a little more gear than they actually need. An oversize pack allows you to go with the seven to nine pounds for three-season hiking but scale up to 13 pounds for winter. It also allows you to add more food and to accommodate…
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If you’re not familiar with hybrid campers, they appear almost identical to your standard, hard wall camping trailer in transit mode. When set up at your camping destination, the sides or ends can fold or pop out, with all-weather canvas sleeping spaces. Essentially an expandable travel trailer, these pop outs…
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There are some outdoor gear testers outfitters with a large following on YouTube who can be heard saying, “If you have the right hiking pants and the right hiking footgear, you really don’t need gaiters.” The comeback answer to those gaiter-doubters is that more than likely they have not been…
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If you are fortunate enough to be camping in winter you’re going to want to sleep in a tent that is up to the responsibility. Winter camping tents are known as “four season” tents to distinguish them from “three season” tents that tend to be lighter and cooler. Here are…
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When the discussion topic among outdoors people is backpacking freeze dried food, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is always Mountain House Foods. The company that sells 10 million food packages a year to outdoors people, preppers, and survivalists traces its roots back to the Vietnam War. Its parent company,…
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If you’re headed out on a backpacking adventure, you have two basic choices about how you’re going to cook your food other than the traditional campfire. You can cook on a canister stove like the JetBoil or the MSR Reactor. Both are excellent stoves. Those two backpacking stoves and other…
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A backpacking breakfast is an important part of your trip and tends to be my favorite meal of the day. With a little creative thinking you can come up with great ideas to avoid a bland, boring breakfast. Potato Patties Instant mashed potatoes come in all sorts of flavors, from…
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Backpacking is a trade-off between comfort and weight. The best backpacking chair may not be in the consciousness of the serious long distance backpacker who is cutting the handle off his toothbrush to save a few grams. He’s probably not going to be willing to add a pound or more…
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There is no shortage of camp kitchen checklists. The most comprehensive include everything from a stove, to salt and pepper, to “the kitchen sink”. By contrast, what we have here is the “Basic” camp kitchen – eight pieces of camp kitchen gear that everything else on the more comprehensive checklists…
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“Layering” is a strategy for dressing for all types of outdoor activity in all seasons of the year. The idea is to stay comfortable by keeping your body as close to a constant temperature as possible. If you understand layering basics for winter hiking, you’ll be able to apply the…
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Some of my fondest outdoor memories as a child were spent in a small truck camper. My parents had a 74 chevy stepside which was considered a full-size truck at that time, but due to the fat rear fender design, it’s bed was small. Still, the truck could accommodate a small camper,…
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Portable solar power, and backpacking gadgets that can be powered by solar, have come a long way in recent years. Being able to relieve the little voice in your head when on the trail that worries about battery consumption is well worth it. And so is eliminating the need to…
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If you’re not already familiar with Solo Stove, they became well known for the popular efficient, eco-wood burning, Solo Stove Campfire for backpacking. Riding on Campfire’s success, Solo Stove has launched a new Kickstarter Campaign for their new fire pit product, the Bonfire. The design is based on the same engineering principles of…
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If there’s one thing that’s essential to the atmosphere of camping, it’s a good, sustainable campfire. It keeps you warm, wards off nasty bugs, and cooks your food. If you want to kindle the flames but don’t have a fire-starting kit, don’t fret. Even if you don’t have the conventional…
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We’ve all been there – an uncomfortable sleep at night when camping in a tent. It’s not impossible, however to achieve tent sleeping utopia, but there’s often a trade-off. Bulky air mattresses susceptible to holes, too-thin camping pads that compromise padding (and comfort) for weight. What if there were a…
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A short backpacking excursion to Bear Lake in Emigrant Wilderness afforded my buddy Wade and I a chance to properly do a Sawyer water filter review, and give it a proper test outdoors. I’ve used a PUR (now Katadyn) Hiker for the last 15 years. After looking at all the best backpacking water filtration…
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The teardrop trailer design started sometime in the 1930’s and became popular shortly after World War 2. Families hit the road for adventure in their family vehicles, sometimes with a small teardrop trailer in tow. There’s been a big resurgence in this trailer design as fuel efficiency, downsizing and affordability have taken precedence…
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Not unlike other entrepreneurial success stories from humble beginnings, co-founders Robert Reeve (an electrical engineer) and Wesley Henry (a firefighter), started out as friends building traditional teardrops in their garages. Around 2010, Rob designed a “square teardrop” prototype of the Hiker Trailer, with the first build occurring in 2012. Not…
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If you’re like me, you’ve been sleeping in tents for years without so much as a thought to how comfortable you were. The drain of the day’s activities usually wears me out so that I just wriggle into my sleeping bag and pass out. It wasn’t until I was lent…
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For those who own a small truck, and a passion for camping, there are a few options out there for your favorite small truck when it comes to campers. Below, we list 3 Ford Ranger camper options, and suspension upgrades to better accomodate the extra weight, and improve safety. Ford Ranger…
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Maybe you’ve been on hiking trip and glanced up at a scree slope that leads to a mountain top and thought: “I’d like to climb up there! It looks pretty accessible.” If you’ve never scrambled a peak or do so infrequently, below are some suggestions for your next day out….
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Remember the days when providing enough light at night in the undeveloped outdoors meant using a fuel-based, mantle camping lantern? Sure, they provide enough light as if having a mini-sun the size of a ping-pong ball, but the downside can outweighs the benefits: expensive fuel, delicate mantles disintegrate easily, not…
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Aside from your boots, you probably won’t find a more important factor of your hiking experience than your backpack. Choosing the right pack can ensure that you grind out those miles as comfortably as possible while choosing the wrong pack can make your hike miserable. I’ve had the opportunity to…
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The Chevy Colorado, and it’s close cousin the GMC Canyon are handsome little trucks, with model years running 2003-Present. There are 2 generations, the first running from 2003-2012 and the 2nd from 2012-present day. Payload capacity ranges from 1,370 to 1,581 lbs. Maybe you’ve been looking for a Chevy Colorado camper or one for…
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When folded for transit, an A-Frame Camper trailer might be mistaken for a pop up tent trailer, as they look almost identical. However, when popped-up, the difference is visibly obvious, with hard side walls and a steeped roof, making for a completely enclosed living area. Compare that to the traditional, canvas…
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Here’s a handy new tool developed by Techknew, called the Crank Carabiner that’s been recently launched on Kickstarter. It’s essentially a keychain multi-tool with a ton of handy uses when camping/backpacking. Here’s the official press release below: Greeley, CO: Colorado start up, Techknew inc. launches its first kickstarter campaign in…
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If you’re a strong hiker who is just going out for a day hike, you may or may not choose to head outside with one or a pair of trusty hiking poles. If you’re joints are on the fritz or your hike includes several days, hiking poles are almost a…
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In 2005 I found myself lacing my boots, shouldering my pack, and heading out to Smoky Mountain National Park to hike a sixty-mile segment of the famous Appalachian Trail. Nestled in the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, the Smokies provide a very scenic, but very small segment of this…
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A seven-mile day hike in Northern California found myself and a fellow hiker casually meandering along a trail that wove through a dense patch of woods. Since I was hiking in the rear, I was the one to shout when a thin figure lunged from a nearby pile of brown leaves…
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