Cooking for a hungry family in the great outdoors feels impossible when you’re stuck with a single burner. I learned this the hard way on a rainy weekend in Yosemite, watching cold pasta sit while sauce slowly warmed on the only burner I had. A two-burner camp stove for family trips fixes that problem completely. … Read more
I still remember mile 412 on the Pacific Crest Trail. My Sawyer Squeeze was flowing like syrup after a week of silty stream water, and I spent 20 minutes backflushing in a snowmelt creek while my hiking partner waited. That is the thru-hiking water filter problem in a nutshell. You need something light, fast, and … Read more
Filtering water for a group of campers used to mean a long line at the pump. Then I spent a week at a six-person base camp in the Sierra Nevada and watched a single hanging gravity water filter keep every water bottle filled while the rest of us set up tents, cooked dinner, and argued … Read more
After our team spent 90 days testing 23 hard-sided coolers in 95°F Texas heat, sub-freezing Colorado mountain conditions, and everything in between, we have a clear picture of which models actually keep ice frozen on multi-day trips. We packed each cooler with 10 lbs of ice, left them in direct sun, opened them 4 times … Read more
Three hours before kickoff, you’re hauling a 50-pound ice chest across a gravel parking lot while balancing a bag of burgers in the other hand. I’ve been there, and the right rolling cooler changes everything. After testing dozens of models across multiple football seasons, our team put together this guide to the best wheeled coolers … Read more
I lived out of a converted Sprinter for 14 months across the deserts of the Southwest and the rainy forests of the Pacific Northwest, and I burned through two cheap thermoelectric coolers before I learned my lesson. The best electric coolers for van life are not glorified ice chests; they are real compressor refrigerators that … Read more
When my wife and I took our first extended boondocking trip through the Arizona desert, we quickly learned that our old contractor-grade generator was a liability. It rattled windows at the next campsite, burned through a gallon of gas every 90 minutes, and struggled to keep our 13,500 BTU air conditioner running. That trip pushed … Read more
If you have ever finished a long day of backpacking with throbbing knees and sore shoulders, you already know why so many thru-hikers swear by poles. I started using trekking poles about eight years ago on a rainy section of the PCT, and within a week I could not imagine going back to two hands … Read more
I’m 6’4″ with a 22-inch torso, and I’ve spent the last decade figuring out which backpacking backpacks for tall hikers actually work. Most “one-size” packs I’ve tried left me with bruised shoulders and a hip belt that sat three inches below where it should. Our team tested 8 packs over four months of trail time, … Read more
After testing hydration packs on everything from quick neighborhood loops to eight-hour ridge scrambles, I can tell you that not all hydration packs for day hikers are built the same. I spent the last three months rotating 15 different packs through my rotation, weighing them empty and full, dragging them through brush, and timing how … Read more