I’ve been an avid traveler since I was in high school. I’ve backpacked around Asia, Europe, and Southern Africa. And in this context, when I say “backpack” I mean the old school living off a shoestring budget, carrying a heavy Lonely Planet guidebook, and staying in dirt-cheap hostels kind of backpacking. To this day, even though I’ve been on countless trips, packing is always stressful for me. It is a jigsaw puzzle that requires selecting the right clothes, the right gear, and the right bag, without spending a fortune. Over the years, I’ve had some interesting setups, and most of them we ..read more

Southern California is a hiker’s paradise.  It’s the land of sun-kissed beaches, sprawling deserts, and majestic mountains which beckons adventurers from far and wide.  If you're looking to fully experience the natural beauty of Southern California, there's no better way to do it than by hitting the trails. But if you're new to hiking or just getting started, we'll walk you through everything you need to know to have a fun time on the trails in Southern California. As enticing as conquering some of Southern California 10,000 foot peaks may be, it's essential to start small, especial ..read more

The Kii Peninsula of Japan’s Wakayama Province contains some of the country’s most remote terrain, home to endless mountain ranges, deep cedar forests, wild bears, and some excellent trekking. It’s here that you’ll find the Kumano Kodo, a series of ancient long-distance walking routes that have been in use for over 1000 years. The area is considered so captivating that UNESCO awarded the entire region as a World Heritage Site for its Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes, and today the Kumano Kodo is linked as a sister pilgrimage to Spain’s famed Camino de Santiago, with certificates of dual pilg ..read more

This piece is my take on LNT. It’s mostly stuff I have picked up over more than thirty years of hiking, biking, and camping. Lately, I have started to refer to excellent sources such as NOLS, LNT, bikepacking.com, and the online courses from LNT Ireland   Planning and preparation Before heading out into the outdoors, it is important to glean as much knowledge as you can about the weather forecast, the prevailing trail conditions, and any other beta from fellow recreationists.  This should be an almost subconscious part of your planning and preparation for your safety and enjoyment ..read more

A story of a long-planned and waited adventure denied and the emotional struggle from disappointment to acceptance. As a person who works a full-time job I have always kept a kinda timetable of adventures and places I want to visit and when to visit them. I check the upcoming year how many extra public holiday days it has and how to combine them with the 6 days of winter vacation days or the 24 summer vacation days I get from my full-time job. Even tho my work week is from Monday-Friday my vacation days also count in the Saturdays of my vacation time. In Finland, where I work, a year can have ..read more

If you’re an avid backpacker or outdoors person, you know the importance of multi-use items. They make life easier, your pack lighter, and you happier. When you’re in the market for a new tent, it’s quite easy to get overwhelmed. With so many options out there, how does one even begin to choose? Well, let me introduce you to the Gatewood Cape. It’s a shelter and poncho all in one, weighing in at only 11 ounces! The Gatewood Cape is unlike anything else out there on the market. It has been with me on day hikes, quick overnights, and multiple months out on the Conti ..read more

Dear friend,  I can only imagine some of the feelings you must be feeling. And all those questions: Is my pack light enough? Boots or trail runners? Will it rain in Maine? Will I get sick of ramen?  Are two pairs of underwear too many? Will I make it?   I can offer you a story.  Maybe it will give those butterflies in your belly something to land on.  The first time I went for a big hike on the Appalachian trail, my gear wasn’t even an afterthought.  I didn’t yet know what I didn’t know.  Yet I knew the pull—that nameless one, the one that took me ..read more

Back in 2022, I spent a summer working at Rocky Mountain National Park as a Wilderness Ranger. The work was enjoyable, largely in part due to the group of people I worked alongside and the post-workday fishing sessions. As a self-proclaimed desert rat, I struggled a bit with the transition to the alpine region of Colorado. The snow lasted well into June, and the cold seemed to linger all summer; something I hoped to leave behind when I left the Midwest over a decade ago. And while I certainly enjoyed my summer in the mountains, I opted to return to my comfort zone in Southwest Utah once the sn ..read more

Reflections My personal opinion of his trip is that actually, it was a success in many ways, although we were not able to complete the run. I also believe that an objective analysis of both incidents can attribute those incidents to the water level being too high. There are two locations where we realistically should have called the trip off and turned around. One location was when Aaron and Ted decided they were not going on the trip on Sunday night. Two out of seven people bailing is a solid indicator of sketchy decision-making. We were sitting around in Aaron's living room discussing the me ..read more

Incident # 2 Escaped Raft This is where the final deciding accident of our trip occurred. Getting to shore felt like a must-make move since we could not see how much of the tree was in play in the class IV rapid below us. The raft instead of coming in to land where I was ready to grab them came in below me and both R2 partners reached for the branches on shore instead of continuing to paddle until they were against the land. Grabbing those branches caused the front of their raft to dip down and water to spill in, skyrocketing the raft out from under them, they decided in that split second to c ..read more