I remember an Alaska fishing trip where my group was flown into the headwaters of a remote river and floated for 10 days. We were totally self-sustained and had planned for every contingency; extra patch kits for the rafts, a robust first aid kit, satellite phone and MRE’s (Meals Ready…
Read More
Living and hiking in bear country is a blessing, not a curse. Bears, especially the American Grizzly is a symbol of the wild and untamed wilderness and isn’t that the reason we hike and camp? Our passion for the outdoors is deeply rooted in our innate need to connect with…
Read More
Glacier National Park is located in northwest Montana and was established in 1910. The park shares a border with Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park. There are many trails to choose from in Glacier National Park, but I want to tell you about one in particular that epitomizes the magic of…
Read More
“Our public lands- whether a national park or monument, wildlife refuge, forest or prairie- make each one of us land-rich. It is our inheritance as citizens of a country called America.” – Terry Tempest Williams. Whether it is the Izembek Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Monomoy Refuge in Massachusetts, Bears Ears…
Read More
Fishing may be your reason for hiking into the high country or it may be just an added bonus. If trout are in your crosshairs, chances are you have a packable rod, reel and a few favorite essential flies or lures that always accompany you while backpacking. But, if catching…
Read More
The Beaten Path is a trail in south Montana connecting the Wilderness around the town of Cooke City with the East Rosebud, a drainage on the eastern slope of the Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooths are some of the most biologically diverse mountains on earth and the Beaten Path crosses over…
Read More
In recent years, Yellowstone National Park has broken annual attendance records and 2016 was no exception with the park receiving 4.2 million visitors. Most of them only experience the grandeur of our nation’s oldest national park through a windshield. A few visitors take to some of the 900 miles of…
Read More
A good, serviceable backpacking first aid kit and the basic knowledge of how to use it are essential gear and preparation for any outdoor activity. Minor cuts and scrapes, blisters, sore muscles, chafing from poorly fitting clothing, these are all common occurrences on any camping tips or even a day…
Read More
From time-to-time Savage Camper likes to “go technical” and investigate the actual materials that go into the gear we use and recommend. What, for example, is Cuben Fiber (now known as Dyneema®). What is ripstop nylon and what makes it better than regular nylon? A big development gaining momentum is…
Read More
Hammocks for camping provide a lightweight, inexpensive alternative to tents. The nice thing about hammocks is, if there are places to tie off, the ground does not have to be level. Rocks and tree roots do not present obstacles. You can string up a hammock between trees or rocks. A…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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,…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
“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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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….
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More