
How to Prepare for an Overnight Hike
Beyond the backpacking gear list, an overnight hike requires many considerations to be properly planned and effectively executed for maximum return on investment to the...

The Best Vegetarian Backpacking Meals
Backpacking takes a lot of energy but the usual suspects for backpacking meals are often palate-numbing, repetitive, and full of processed ingredients to make them...

What to Bring on a Hike
Even hikers who have cut their teeth on many backcountry day hikes have trouble selecting what backpacking gear they want to include in their rucksacks...

What is a Thru-Hike?
The classification of hikers may confuse those new to backpacking or unfamiliar with navigating hiking trails through the backcountry. Enthusiasts often speak of day hikes,...

How to Use a Compass
Maybe you’ve been to a national park or traversed backcountry hiking trails plenty of times and haven’t yet found any reason to add a compass...

How to Use a Bear Canister
Across large swathes of the United States, the backcountry is also bear country. Backpackers and hikers who frequent such well-renowned campsite-rich national parks as Sequoia...

Is Hiking Good Exercise for Weight Loss?
People hike for any number of reasons, it’s an excellent form of exercise to keep your body healthy. Hiking is also a popular way to...

How to Waterproof a Backpack
No matter what kind of outdoor adventurer you are, a waterproof backpack is an important requirement. Whether you’re flying down white water rapids, on a...

How to Train for Hiking
It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the hike. Any amount of time spent backpacking down a hiking trail will invigorate hikers...

How to Use Hiking Poles
Hiking poles are a common sight on the trails, they’re used by many hikers to improve their backcountry experience. Trekking poles can come across as...

How to Tie Hiking Boots
Even if you were very selective when you bought your last pair of hiking boots or hiking shoes, there may come a time when you...

How to Prevent Blisters When Hiking and Keep Your Feet Healthy
Blisters are the Achilles’ heel of backcountry hikers, sometimes literally depending on where they form. The best hiking is done on winding, changing trails and...

How to Pack a Backpack for Camping Like a Pro
The best campsites are cached away in mountains and valleys, often at the terminus of long hiking trails that course and wind through the most...

How to Clean Hiking Boots
Now that you’ve taken your boots across some prairies, pastures, streams, and steep ravines, it’s time to give them a wash. All that grime, dirt...

Hiking with Cats
Taking your pet along for a trek in the backcountry is very popular, as on almost every trail you’ll see someone hiking with dogs. However,...

How to Camp Without a Tent
Camping without a tent probably strikes you as making about as much sense as deep-sea fishing without a boat. In fact, many campers who enjoy...

How to Camp on the Beach
Sand dunes, tidepools, and the rolling waves right at the shoreline await campers who enjoy partaking in beach vacations and camping trips and want to...

How to Camp in the Winter
Calculating campers and backpackers may reason that the secret to winter camping trips is to simply head south and camp in warmer climates. Fleeing cold...

How to Break in Hiking Boots
So you’ve decided it’s time to upgrade from a part-time to a full-time hiker. No longer satisfied with something like a hi-top sneaker with ankle...

How to Go Camping on a Budget
When it comes to budget vacations, camping is an excellent choice. Hiking and exploring the great outdoors has always been a favorite budget pass time,...

How to Become a Park Ranger
To be a Park Ranger is one of the most envied jobs within the American outdoors community. You get to wear the iconic Smokey the...

Camping for Beginners: How to Get into Camping
So you want to try camping for the first time, but you’re now sure how? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. In 2016, 4.7 million Americans...

How to Charge Your Phone While Camping
Out in the wilderness, it can feel nice to disconnect from the outside world and forget about your mobile phone for a while. On the...

Camping Cots and Air Mattresses: What’s Best for You?
Camping trips are always a whole lot of fun during the day time when campers are out on the trails backpacking, playing guitar at their...

How to Attach Sleeping Bag to Backpack
We all know that backpacks can end up a bit overstuffed before setting off for a trip, there’s so much to remember to bring with...

How to Adjust a Trekking Pole
Hikers and trekkers who frequently tackle different terrain or regularly traverse difficult types of terrain know about the knee and back pain that can develop...

How Should Hiking Boots Fit?
Backpackers and hikers often penetrate deep into the backcountry, probing and exploring, recording what they find or simply taking in the regality of nature’s beauty....

9 Camping Recipes for the Great Outdoors
After a long day spent hiking and exploring the great outdoors, campers often gather around the campfire for stories, songs, hot food, and some well-earned...

The Best Time to Buy Camping Gear
Just as there are advantages and disadvantages to camping in different seasons, so are their strategic times to buy all the outdoor equipment campers will...

Best Places to Camp in California
California, the Golden State, is the third-largest in the United States in terms of land area and home to 110 state parks and nine different...

The 9 Best Places to Camp in Texas
Camping in the lone star state offers more opportunities than the avid camper could possibly wish for. In this state you’ll find an incredible range...

The 9 Best Places to Camp in Arkansas
Arkansas’ motto is “The Natural State,” and anyone who visits one of the many campsites will soon see why. Often featuring such natural features as...

The 10 Best Places to Camp in Oklahoma
If diversity of landscape is what you’re after, then Oklahoma will have you covered for your next camping trip. From the Great Plains to hills,...

Best Places to Camp in Minnesota
Not only the home of Bob Dylan, Minnesota also contains over 10,000 lakes and has some of the best camping spots in America. Minnesota, in...

6 Best Places to Camp in Maryland
Although comparatively, it’s quite a small state, Maryland offers the modern camper a diverse range of habitats and ecosystems to explore, from the rocky mountains...

The 11 Best Hiking Vacation Locations
The world is full of natural wonders so beautifully unreal that it’s likely the bucket list of hikers in the United States line up pretty...

The 13 Best Hiking Trails in Texas
Vast and filled with an impressive diversity of landscapes, the erstwhile republic and current second-largest state in the United States by area, Texas is prairie...

Best Hiking Trails in New York
“Take a hike” is a New York City pejorative greeting you’re bound to hear if you spend any time at all wandering the streets of...

Hiking Shoes vs Boots: Which is Better for You?
Yes, we backpackers and outdoors enthusiasts will go and fling ourselves into wild long-distance mountaineering no matter what, and whatever should cover our feet seems...

The 6 Best Hiking Trails in New Jersey
Ahh, New Jersey. Sometimes overlooked as just the distant cousin away from New York City, or maybe even the afterthought on the way to Philadelphia....

9 Best Hiking Trails in Florida
Although the Sunshine State is famous for its hundreds of miles of beaches and coastline, people don't often mention the incredible variety of habitats and...

The 8 Best Hiking Trails in North Carolina
When people think of North Carolina, there are a few immediate images that come to mind: Michael Jordan, Dean Smith and the intense legacy that...

The 9 Best Hiking Trails in Colorado
Colorado is a state of dramatic and varied landscape, with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains encompassing almost the entire area. It’s a hiker’s paradise, with arid...

The 8 Best Hiking Trails in Minnesota
Minnesota is one of the most beautiful states for hiking and offers fantastic views and outdoor experiences for any range of voyageurs and outdoorsmen. As...

Hiking with Dogs: Everything You Need to Know
Hiking with your furry companion is an excellent pastime, it gives you valuable pet-owner bonding time, and it’s good fun and great exercise for dog...

Can You Pitch a Tent Anywhere? Everything You Need to Know About Wild Camping
Camping is the ultimate salvation from the long working week and allows you to be at one with nature. You can feel liberated out in...

Best Hiking Trails in California
California is an excellent state for hiking. From camping in Southern California to the Redwood Forest, there are countless miles of hiking trails winding throughout...

The 13 Best Hiking Trails in America
To say the hiking trail system in the USA is gargantuan would be an understatement; there are hundreds of thousands of stunning routes all over...