Frequently Asked Questions

You don’t absolutely need trekking poles for hiking or backpacking although many people find them helpful. The most oft-cited advantage of trekking poles is that they take some of the pressure off your legs when descending steep slopes or mountains, thereby decreasing or eliminating pain in your knees and the …

Bushwhacking is a form of off-trail hiking that usually involves hiking through forests and densely vegetated areas. It’s called bushwhacking because the bushes whack back, often tearing up your clothing and drawing blood from exposed portions of your hands, arms, legs, or face. The purpose of bushwhacking, other than self-flagellation, …

Selecting a comfortable tent site is a useful skill for all backpackers, regardless of whether you set up camp in a designated camping area or if you stealth camp in a natural, unprepared site. Here are some of the things that I look for when I’m evaluating different campsite locations: …

A breakaway backpack is a fairly recent innovation for external frame backpacks that lets you overload your pack by inserting gear in between the frame and the pack bag. While originally developed for hunters to haul meat, it is useful for anyone who has to carry a heavy or awkwardly …

The timing of when a child is ready for a tent of their own is going to be different for every family and every child. Children mature at very different rates so its important to be realistic about where your child is in terms of independence and self-directness and how …

If you have a hiking or backpacking emergency and lose consciousness before you can signal for help with a satellite communicator or personal locator beacon, you’re out of luck unless you’re with a partner who can activate it on your behalf. The same holds if you carry a satellite communicator …

After hiking hundreds of miles in New Mexico, Arizona, and California, I have a good understanding of how to take care of feet in desert conditions. My main goal is to keep my feet dry, cool, and debris free. I accomplish this with a good pair of trail runners, gaiters, …

Most ultralight backpacking tents are made with one of the following coated fabrics: siliconized nylon, siliconized polyester, and dyneema composite fabrics, also called, silnylon, silpoly, and DCF respectively. Some ultralight tents are also made with nylon or polyester that’s coated on one side with silicone and the other with polyurethane …

Siliconized nylon, more commonly called silnylon, is a waterproof fabric used to make tents by many smaller manufacturers including Six Moon Designs, Tarptent, Mountain Laurel Designs, and Hilleberg which specialize in making ultralight backpacking gear or expedition-grade tents. It’s also sold in bulk for DIY-ers by Ripstop-by-the Roll, for people …

A hammock underquilt keeps your underside warm at night, much like a sleeping pad, if you sleep on the ground instead of in the air. Most underquilt manufacturers like Hammock Gear and UGQ Outdoors give you the option to purchase full-length hammock underquilts or 3/4 length ones that only insulate …

Many state parks, national forests, and national parks have campsites with wooden tent platforms. If you’ve ever tried to set up a tent on one of these, you know what a challenge can be if you have a tent that’s not freestanding and requires tent stakes to erect. While these …

Most backpackers who buy Jetboil stoves, buy the Jetboil Flash or Jetboil Zip models without realizing that they’re designed for boiling water to rehydrate freeze-dried or dehydrated backpacking meals and not simmering food slowly on a low flame, which is what people think of when it comes to “cooking” food. …

Have you ever gotten really cold while wearing a rain jacket and hiking in the rain? It can be really unpleasant and even lead to hypothermia if you let it get out of hand. The best way to stay warm when hiking in the rain is to wear a wicking …

Have you ever heard the expression, “maps lie?” It’s due to the fact that all maps, including topographic hiking maps, leave out information deemed irrelevant for their intended use. This is even true of the maps published by the US Geological Survey (USGS) which are considered the gold standard for …