This morning I’m heading out to the dirt/mud at the park down the road in new Montrail trail-runners I picked up on sale at Backcountryoutlet.com. Somebody recommended them for snowshoeing because they come with ankle-high rubber gaiters and are sewn…
Gear
Bagging rights: Synthetic vs. down
by tmangan • February 3, 2006 • 3 Comments
You get a sense of Mac-vs-PC, Pepsi-vs-Coke, Israelis-vs-Palestinians in the great debate about whether the best sleeping bag should have down or synthetic fill. This thread at Whiteblaze.net covers the controversy in pretty good detail. If you listened to the…
Thanks for thinking of me, but…
by tmangan • January 31, 2006 • 3 Comments
GoBlog sends another kindly link our way, this time in a post about wristwatch/gps/altimeter/computer that does everything but the breakfast dishes. Of course my gear lust is stoked till I catch the price: $498.59. Such watches operate under a complex…
One man’s innovation….
by tmangan • January 31, 2006 • 1 Comment
… is another guy’s nice try. So says Ryan Jordan of BackpackingLight.com in a piece he calls “State of the Market for Backpacking Gear: Innovation, Broken Promises, and Hope.” Ryan’s trying to be a call-’em-like-he-sees-’em guy in deflating just about…
Sole provisions
by tmangan • January 20, 2006 • 0 Comments
Occurs to me I haven’t talked about shoes too much, which is a fairly striking omission for a blog about hiking. Well, now I have an excuse: Rebecca of Calipidder.com fame has just finished a torture test on a pair…
Drippy bladders
by tmangan • January 19, 2006 • 3 Comments
No cracks about bodily functions this time. I’m talking about water bladders for hiking/biking/canoeing, etc. I’ve been hiking about 18 months and have had to pitch two heavy-duty 100-ounce Nalgene bladders that became worthless after springing leaks. I bring this…
Go not so Lite
by tmangan • January 12, 2006 • 3 Comments
GoLite seems to have had a big role in popularizing lightweight backpacking. Its frameless packs weigh next to nothing (pound and a half, max), which is inviting to all those who sleep under tarps and trim their sleeping pads to…
Finding the cheap stuff
by tmangan • January 11, 2006 • 1 Comment
I’ve been tracking HikerDeals.com for the past couple weeks. I wanted to see if it was legit or some kind of automated spamblog. Seems to be on the level — the discounts are pretty good and the site commentary looks…
Gear up for your next trek
by tmangan • December 30, 2005 • 1 Comment
Treknologies is a blog about nifty gadgets for outdoor travel. The author has an interesting post about MREs, those packaged meals made for the U.S. military. Each meal typically contains around 1,200 calories in a 13 to 18oz package. An…