Backpacking

Alternatives to Mountain House Freeze Dried Backpacking Food

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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Backpacking Breakfast Meals – Freeze Dried Breakfast

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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Layering Basics For Winter Hiking

“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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Three Ways to Start a Fire Without a Lighter or a Match

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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Mountain Scrambling Guide

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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Luci Lantern Review – Solar LED Lantern Tested

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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What’s the Best Backpacking Backpack?

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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Best Trekking Poles for Backpacking

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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Thru Hiking

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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How to Treat a Snakebite

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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The Best Backpacking Rain Jacket

When you’re out there on the trail, you will inevitably encounter some not-so-optimal weather. Whether it’s wind, rain, snow, sleet, or hail, you need a rain jacket to protect you from the elements. If you haven’t splurged on your other gear, start here. A quality backpacking rain jacket can turn…

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How to Prevent Foot Blisters

You would be hard pressed to find a hiker who has never gotten a blister. I’ve taken off my Gore-Tex boot after a twelve-mile day to find several blisters all over my feet—everywhere from atop my pinkie toe to behind my heel.  They are painful, irritating, and can make the…

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What to do When You’re Hiking in a Thunderstorm

Back in 2009 I was privileged enough to be a part of my Boy Scout troop’s first trip to Philmont Scout Ranch outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Eleven days of hiking through the most beautiful scenery in North America with nothing but what we could carry on our backs taught…

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Bears and Food Storage Safety When Camping or Backpacking

If you’re going to be spending time outdoors in bear country, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself and your property or supplies from harm. Bear safety should not be scoffed at or taken lightly, as the consequences are not worth risking. Without fear mongering, backpacker.com…

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How to Choose a Backpacking Sleeping Pad

In this video by Sierra Trading Post, John gives a great review of the general different types of sleeping pads available for backpacking.  John mentions there are two main purposes for using a pad: To provide some cushioning from the hard ground to improve your nights’ sleep To provide some…

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Tips for Backpacking in the Rain

Bring the Right, Rain-Proof Gear If there’s any chance of rain, you’ll want to be properly equipped and you’ll be much more likely to have a great time! Otherwise, you’ll be miserable at the very least or worse, be at risk for hypothermia. Follow these tips for backpacking in the…

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How to Treat a Foot Blister

Outside of getting lost, there aren’t too many mundane things that can impact your hike as negatively as getting a blister. Depending on how many foot blisters you have, and their sizes, it may mean the end of your trek. In a previous article we talked about how to prevent…

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Best DIY Ultralight Backpacking Stove Options

If you’ve ever searched for ideas about making your own DIY backpacking stove, you may have discovered that are a ton of options – from alcohol stoves, rocket stoves, wood burning stoves the list goes on. We’ve quite a few examples over recent years, and below are some of the better…

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Best Backpacking Water Filter: 4 Water Purification Gadgets

So you’re planning a backpacking trip and need some new gear for water purification. Only one question remains – what’s the best backpacking water filter? There’s quite a few lightweight, effective water filters on the market these days.  Below are some different examples to to choose what best fits your needs: Sawyer Mini Water…

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Mindshift Gear Multi-Mount Camera Holster

Those of you whom both backpack and find photography as a passion know it can a real pain when your exhausted from hiking, yet run across an opportunity to capture an amazing shot with your DSLR camera, but it’s packed away in your backpack. Having to stop, unbuckle your backpack…

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How to Bandage a Wound in the Wild

Depending on where you’re hiking or camping, you may be miles from the nearest road, and even further from modern first aid facilities. To make things worse, you may not have cell phone service. These factors can turn an injury that could have been treated in civilization into a life-threatening…

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