Shoulder Season 2: (Supposed) Best Hikes in the U.S.
Let’s begin with the obvious: there is no such thing as a “best hike.” We have chocolate and vanilla for a reason, which is that people have different tastes. And capacities. What might excite or challenge one hiker could bore another. You get the point. That said, it is an interesting exercise to gather together...
Shoulder Season 1: It’s soon time to hike
Ski season isn’t over, but the end is nigh. (Seasonally, of course. Also, existentially. If the world gets another few bad winters, the ski resort economy in some countries will be in serious trouble. Doubt us? Check this collection of abandoned lifts and dirt slopes.) So it’s time to think ahead. To hiking. Or at...
Time to Upgrade?
If you’ve been going outdoors over the past few decades—whether once a season or once a week—there’s a good chance you’ve already got the gear you need. And some extra stuff you picked up at garage and clearance sales. Maybe, with the advance of years, you decided to upgrade your sleeping pad to something a...
Parks without the traffic
Here’s a stunning statistical head-to-head: the population of the United States is 327 million; the number of visitors to America’s National Parks in 2018 was 318 million. In other words, statistically speaking, every able-bodied American…and some on crutches…took in a national park last year. Blame the hordes of...
Backpacks!
Relaunching is hard, which is why the ocean floor is littered with the husks of Saturn rockets. So let’s begin with an easy link to a helpful article on backpacks…because ski season is over and it’s time to think of long hikes in high country. This is a great article for obvious reasons: it’s informed,...
High adventure at low altitude
There’s a difference between summer peaks and winter peaks. In winter, you summit quickly because the peaks you reach are typically found at the end of a chairlift. You start the day at sea level in San Francisco, let’s say, and with a little luck and a tailwind you are standing at the top...
Again: pack the essentials. And no more.
There are three dark emotions that can attend the end of any long hiking trip. The first is interpersonal: I swear I’ll never again set off into the woods with that whiner. The second is gear-related: how can someone in good conscience sell a tent/boots/shirt with seams that pop apart under my gentle/frantic/angry tugging? The...
Old habits vs. old knees: the gray backpacker’s dilemma
Change is hard, especially if what you’re doing works. And doubly so if it’s been working for 40 years or so. If you started backcountry hiking in the 70s or 80s, you have notions about what constitutes a robust and well-stocked pack. And you probably scoff at younger people who wander off for a week...
Gear videos are a mostly justifiable time-suck
When you’re outdoors, gear isn’t everything. It just enables everything. Good gear usually equals good performance: it lets you go farther, faster, with less exertion. It also, often, embodies admirable design. And it’s reliable, which matters always and especially in sports where an equipment failure can mean injury or death. Gear also gives you something...
Ultralight camping: Dropping 20 pounds of gear is like losing 20 years
Snow melts, summer seems like a possibility, and suddenly hiking and biking gear seems fascinating in a way it didn’t three weeks ago. The seed takes root; a few days later you invent a reason to swing by your local outfitter. You daydream about day hikes. Then something a little longer. And gear that...
When it comes to sweating the small stuff, Steve Green is our Yoda, our guru, our sensei
If you’re interested in laying down some of your backpacking burden, you can find plenty of advice in bookstores and online. (Type “ultralight backpacking” into the YouTube search box and you’ll get over 3,100 videos.) But no one synthesizes the opposite poles of obsessive-compulsive, shorten-and-drill-out-your-toothbrush hysteria and utterly...
Hiker meets hero
There’s a special charm in seeing someone honestly and appropriately awed by someone else. Like watching a kid walk up to the mall Santa, or a young football player shaking hands with Peyton Manning. We read a bit of that same enchantment in a recent story by Scott Williams in...
