Frequently Asked Questions

Trail runners are all the rage in the hiking and backpacking community, but there are times when hiking boots really are better than trail runners. If you’re on the fence about whether to switch to trail runners or use them, take the time to figure out what works best for …

The leading causes of wetness inside your rain jacket are condensation and perspiration. Condensation occurs water vapor encounters a colder surface and changes from a gaseous form into a liquid one. When the air is humid it has a lot of water vapor in it. If the external surface of …

Winter backpacking requires the development of many new skills, particularly in the area of hydration and stove use. Chief amongst these is melting snow for drinking water since most of the streams you encounter will be frozen over and you can’t ingest enough liquid by eating snow. The most reliable …

When choosing between lightweight multi-day backpacks, which is better: a backpack with an internal frame or one with frame stays? It’s a question that confuses many backpackers who want to lighten their backpack weight but want to retain the comfort and load-carrying abilities that an internal frame backpack provides. In …

When should you switch from trail runners back to waterproof or insulated hiking boots when the temperatures drop in autumn? I get asked this question frequently and it’s something I wrestle with myself when the weather turns. The easy answer is when temperatures drop below freezing (32 degrees) during the …

One of the most important backpacking skills is learning how to take care of yourself if you have to hike in sustained rain. Foot care, campsite selection, thermoregulation, pacing, layering, cooking, hydration, packing, and gear selection are all factors in learning how to stay happy and healthy when you get …

What should you pack for a 3 day backpacking trip? The answer is that you need everything you’d bring on a 1 day backpacking trip, except for a little more food, fuel, toilet paper, to stay out an additional 2 days. It doesn’t matter if you go on a 24 hour …

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. …

Many people bring too many extra clothes on backpacking trips, including more shirts, pants, pairs of underwear, socks, and even shoes that they don’t need. Extra clothes add a lot of unnecessary weight to a backpack and take up a significant amount of extra volume. So much, that you might end up …

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, …