Backpacking Skills

Picture this. You are forced to wear long pants on a backpacking trip because the black flies are biting, you hate wearing DEET or you are concerned about catching Lyme disease from ticks. The weather is hot and you start to sweat …

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 …

Do you see that red stain on the inside of my platypus hydration bladder  in the picture below? That’s mold, like the stuff that grows on our bathroom shower curtain. I only noticed it on my last backpacking trip, and since getting …

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 …

Zinc Oxide ointment is a must have item that every hiker needs in their first aid kit. This simple white ointment provides fast relief for chafed skin and diaper rash, also known as monkey butt amongst backpackers. It can be applied as …

Have you ever spent a cold night in your sleeping bag  wondering why you are cold when you’re sleeping in a bag that is properly rated for the temperature outside? A lot of backpackers and campers have this problem and blame their …

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 …

No one is immune to blisters. However, blisters are preventable if you understand the conditions that cause them and they will heal faster if you know how to treat them properly. In the following article I begin by explaining what blisters are …

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 …

Most of the water filters carried by backpackers and long distance hikers cannot remove organisms smaller than 3 microns in size. While protozoa such as Giardia (shown below) and Cryptosporidium are about 5 microns in size, water filters miss bacteria such as …

  Hydration pockets are good for day hikers because they hold your Camelback or platypus hydration bladder in place. If you’re a day hiker, you don’t have a lot of gear in the pack to keep your bladder from shifting around. However …