For Beginners

One of my regular readers contacted me recently about a car break-in they experienced at a trailhead parking lot in the White Mountains. Unfortunately, it happens, despite the efforts of the park service to patrol these lots. Your best protection to prevent …

If you stick with this backpacking thing long enough, there will come a time when everyone in your family and all of your friends refuse to hike with you because you hike too fast or too far in a given day. When …

If you backpack in bear country, you need to learn how to hang a bear bag  (unless a bear canister is required by the local authorities.) No one ever formally taught me how to do it so I developed my own techniques, …

There’s an expression used in the White Mountain Guide called book time. It refers to the suggested time cited in the Guide that it would take an inexperienced hiker to complete a trail segment. It’s based on the following metric: 30 minutes …

I had to laugh when I watched this video about hanging a bear bag and all of the things that can go wrong in the process. If you’ve tried this yourself, you’ll know exactly what I mean. How many times have you …

Last week, one of my regular section hiker readers asked me to write a post explaining how I got back into backpacking after a 20 year hiatus. My wife blames herself for this one. To preface, I had always been day hiker …

  The European Sleeping Bag Temperature Rating Standard (EN13537) was supposed to be a great thing for outdoor manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. Finally, we’d be able to compare sleeping bag temperature ratings in a reliable and objective manner. Ah, I have some …

 Backpacking gear is expensive and you need to take care of it to extend its lifetime. Here’s a checklist of gear maintenance tasks I try to do the morning after I get home from a backpacking trip: Air out my sleeping bag or quilt to make …

It doesn’t matter if you are a day hiker or a backpacker, it’s really important to go on a lot of practice hikes to test new gear and to understand how your body reacts to different trail conditions, before you get into …

This article is in response to Jason's Klass' post In defense of the knife. Jason believes that a knife is important to carry in the backcountry. His preference is a 2.6 oz. Spyderco Delica 4. A perfectly logical choice, except maybe the …

I hope you never have to deal with a life and death situation in the wilderness. But the odds are good that you will, sooner or later, if you spend significant time in the backcountry by yourself or with groups of backpackers, …

I keep lithium batteries in my backpacking gear repair kit.  I do this to reduce my ultralight pack weight since lithium batteries are 1/2 to 1/3 as light as alkaline batteries. However, lithium batteries also provide many more benefits besides lighter weight …

  Here is my slightly abridged, take no prisoners, version of the Leave No Trace Principles. Plan Ahead and Prepare. Know local regulations. Shelters may be full; bring a tent, tarp or hammock. Carefully map out your route before you arrive including …

I do a lot of solo backpacking because it can be difficult to find a good hiking partners and because dealing with their shuttle logistics can be extremely frustrating. However, even though I hike alone, I often camp with other backpackers who …