Editorials

When my father died eight years ago, we didn’t know the password for his laptop. It was a problem because he kept some of his and my mom’s financial information on his hard drive and we couldn’t retrieve it. It took months of phone calls and thousands of dollars of …

The past few weeks have been frightening. There’s the fear that we or our loved ones will get sick and require hospitalization or die. There’s the fear that everything we’ve worked for all of our lives is forever gone, that we will run out of money to pay for food …

Many backpackers think that “the trail” is probably the best place to avoid the coronavirus pandemic and they’re heading for the hills. But how much of this is wishful thinking, when many of the local services in rural communities that hikers take for granted may disappear? I’m not trying to …

Is the Outdoor Community on Drop.com (formerly MassDrop) dead? It’d be a shame because it is the ONLY PLACE to buy really high-quality lightweight backpacking gear at heavily discounted prices. For example, Dan Durston X-Mid-1 Tent for $200 Granite Gear X60 Backpack for $120 Fizan Trekking Poles for $60/pair But …

How do you know that the piece of backpacking gear or clothing you’re about to purchase is the latest updated model and not one from an earlier year that the retailer is trying to pass onto the consumer to get rid of old inventory. Or worse yet, that the retailer …

Trekking pole tents use hiking poles for setup instead of dedicated tent poles. While this saves weight, it also introduces an element of risk that is worth considering if one of your trekking poles were to break during a trip. Trekking poles are pretty easy to replace in the Continental …

Outdoor Retailer is a trade show held every summer where outdoor gear manufacturers come together and show off the gear they plan to bring to market in the upcoming year (2019). It’s a very social event where you get to catch up with old friends, drink a lot of beer, …

Most US National Forests allow people to harvest firewood for personal use, but you must have a Forest Service-issued permit and you must follow specific guidelines, which can vary from forest to forest (The BLM sells similar permits for the land they manage.) In my neck of the woods, you can harvest up to 5 cords of …

Arlette Laan or ‘Apple Pie’ as she’s known in New Hampshire’s close-knit White Mountain hiking community, is one of the region’s most accomplished hikers. A triple crown hiker who’s completed the AT, CDT, and PCT, among other long trails, she’s the first woman to complete a White Mountain Direttissima, a continuous unsupported …

Mountain guiding is a service industry, and a mountain guide is really no different from your taxi driver, your waitress, your hairstylist, or any other person or company catering to your wants and needs in the provision of a particular service. In the case of the mountain guide, their service …

I quit my corporate job six years ago today. Up till then I’d told myself that I could put up with all the bullshit “for the money,” but it was eroding my soul. I needed to hike my own hike and follow own my moral compass instead of killing myself to …

When I was a kid, my mom got me interested in making mobiles, you know, kinetic hanging art. To this day, that’s what I think about whenever I see mouse hangs, or whatever they’re called, in Appalachian Trail Shelters. First the basics: It’s spring and the mice are hungry. If …

I started writing Section Hiker in 2007 because blogging helps me learn and retain new skills and information. At the time, I was just getting back into hiking and backpacking after a long hiatus. Writing about Section Hiking the Long Trail and my preparation for it gave me a way …

I didn’t see it coming. My wife and I have been bitten by the car camping bug. It all started last winter when my wife wanted to camp out in the mountains so we could get a clear view of the Geminids meteor shower without any urban light pollution. We …