Backpacking Skills

Weight Saving Tip: Tent Footprints

Tent Footprint

If you are serious about lowering your backpacking base weight, you need to weigh and examine each item on your gear list and ask yourself if you can substitute it with a lighter weight alternative. For example, if you have a tent …

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Good Trail Food: Olive Oil

Olive Oil

I'm traveling this week and just got back from a fantastic dinner at Carmines, and excellent Italian restaurant on Rush Street in Chicago. Incredible food. I had an appetizer tonight that I have been planning to bring on my next section hike …

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Probars – My Secret Vice

Munching on a Superfood Slam PROBAR while climbing Mt Madison, NH

I’ve become hooked on Probars. Those of you who read my post Powerbar Bakeoff will be amused because I now like them more than Amish powerbars. It was an accident, I swear! In order to do a fair evaluation of Probars, I …

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Powerbar Bake-off

Olympia Granola Bar Man

Backpacking food can be really expensive if you buy commercially packaged meals and snacks. Most freeze-dried meals cost $5-8 dollars and powerbars can cost as much as $3.50 each. Your best alternative is to prepare your own meals and snacks or to …

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Black Fly Season

Black fly season occurs from mid-March to mid-July in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, north through New York and New England, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and into Southern Canada. Some backpackers, campers, and fishermen avoid outdoor activities during black fly season, but …

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Stealth Camping

Stealth Camping

I like camping far away from established campsites. If I’m hiking solo on a managed trail, I usually avoid shelters and lean-tos unless I want company. If I’m bushwacking there is usually no other option. When I get tired or the light …

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