Frequently Asked Questions

Hoodless ultralight sleeping bags, also called rectangular sleeping bags, share some of the same advantages as backpacking quilts and are a great alternative if you want to switch from a mummy bag to something less confining, but you’re not that enthused about …

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 …

Hot spots and hiking blisters occur when increased friction from your footwear causes the outer layers of your skin to separate from the inner layers, a process called “shear.” When the layers of skin separate, the resulting void is filled with fluid …

If you camp in a tent, it’s much easier to get a good night’s rest on a level campsite than one that’s on a slope. There’s nothing worse than sliding off your sleeping pad all night long because you picked a crappy …

How does knee replacement surgery affect your ability to hike? How painful is the recovery? When can you resume hiking after surgery? What advice would you give to hikers with arthritis of the knee? As a frequent hiker, I’ll share my first-hand …

How many pairs of underwear do you take when backpacking? While some people (like myself) only bring one pair, no matter the length of the trip, most SectionHiker readers bring two pairs on multi-day trips, one to wear, and one to wash …

Road walking is often an unavoidable part of long-distance hikes, section hikes, weekend backpacking trips, and even day hikes. Maybe the trail you’re hiking is still under development and you need to hike a stretch of roads, maybe a bridge has been …

Nobody gets just one chigger bite. You get a whole mess of them, more often than not, and they itch like hell. But chigger bites are preventable and the itching they cause goes away in a few days. Unlike ticks, chiggers do …

I’ve always had problems with trekking poles that have an internal locking mechanism because I could never figure out how to fix them when they started to slip. It got so bad, that I gave up on them for many years and …

Purifying water in the desert can be a unique challenge. Often, it’s hard to even find any water to begin with, and when you finally do, it’s opaque with silt or full of swaying algae or tiny worms. Much of it is …

  Should you carry a separate pair of sleeping clothes on backpacking trips? Is it worth the added weight? What about when it’s really hot or humid at night and you’re having trouble staying cool? I carry a separate set of clothes …

A lot of SectionHiker readers contact me asking for advice about which ultralight tent or shelter they should buy. These purchases are almost always driven by weight reduction desires, but often in the absence of any considerations about the environmental conditions they …

Water is heavy and at 2.2 lbs per liter, it’s probably the heaviest thing you carry in your backpack. Despite this, many hikers and backpackers still carry much more water than they need when hiking or backpacking. That’s wasted effort if you …

If you own a lot of hiking and backpacking gear, it pays to keep it well-maintained and organized so you can find what you need when packing up for a hike or a trip. Here are some tips and tricks that I …