Frequently Asked Questions

Backpacking woods stoves are a great weight saving option for boiling water on backpacking trips because they eliminate the need to carry fuel and a fuel container, such as an isobutane canister or alcohol bottle. As long as you can find dry wood to burn, and it doesn’t take much, …

Bear bags are intended to protect your food on backpacking trips and to prevent bears from becoming accustomed to eating human food. “A fed bear is a dead bear”, as the saying goes, and no one wants to see a bear killed because someone was careless and didn’t hang their …

Have you ever wondered why people say, Cotton Kills? Do you understand exactly why? Here’s an in-depth explanation as well as a list of other fabrics that you should avoid when shopping for hiking clothes. Insulation Clothing keeps you warm by trapping warm air near your skin. When cotton gets …

What is the best camping tent or backpacking shelter for thru-hiking and backpacking all or some of the Appalachian Trail? Running over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, the Appalachian Trail travels across heavily forested and mountainous terrain, with widely varying temperatures, both hot and cold. Frequent rain, ferocious insect life, and …

Recommended Backpack Volumes How much volume should you get in a daypack, weekend backpack, multi-day backpack, or expedition backpack? Here are some volume guidelines and advice so you can start shopping for backpacks in the appropriate size range. Daypacks Most daypacks range from 20 liters to 35 liters on the high-end. …

There are three kinds of winter hiking boots: insulated winter hiking boots, mountaineering boots, and pac boots. Which kind of winter hiking boot is right for you? Here's a detailed guide that explains the differences between these so you can pick the right footwear for winter hiking, snowshoeing, winter backpacking, and winter mountaineering.

Rain pants. Now there’s a topic that I am sure many of us have different opinions about! I almost always wear my rain pants over my hiking pants, except when I am doing laundry in a trail town and rain pants are the only pants I am wearing! Joking aside, …

Day hiking is a great way to get some fresh air, exercise every muscle in your body, and spend quality time with friends or family. Wearing the right clothing for a hike will help keep you comfortable and safe, so you can focus on your surroundings and your hiking partners. …

I have torn holes in the side pockets of many backpacks, enough that I now ding manufacturers in product reviews that include them on backpacks because they’re not durable enough. External mesh pockets are nice to have, but the only “safe” place to put them so they don’t get ripped up …

There’s nothing worse than chafing on a hike or backpacking trip between your thighs or butt cheeks.  Often called monkey-butt or baboon ass, it is absolute agony and gets worse with every step you take. Here are some trail-tested ways to prevent chafing and cure it quickly if you have …

Many backpackers attach gear to the outside of their backpack because it’s too bulky, they need to carry extra supplies, they want to keep their gear easily accessible, or because it’s wet and they need to keep it separate from their dry clothing. While some techniques for attaching gear to …

A tarp tent is a single wall tent that has walls, bug netting, and a floor but is significantly lighter weight because it combines the rain fly and inner tent into a single wall instead of two different layers. As an example, the one person Tarptent Rainbow, shown here, only …

There’s a simple rule of thumb for figuring out how many days of food you can fit into a bear canister. Find out the capacity of your bear canister in cubic inches and divide by 100. That will give you a pretty good approximate of the number of days of …

If you’re standing on a mountain in a whiteout, in winter, in blowing wind, with a cliff behind you, the last thing you want are fogged up goggles. Here are a few tricks I’ve picked up over the years to keep seeing straight and clear, and away from the edge. …