Are you looking to make delicious, lightweight, and nutritious backpacking meals for your next hike? Creating your own backpacking food can make all the difference since you can control the portion size, ingredients, spice level, and sodium. Dehydrate or freeze-dry your meals to make them lightweight and shelf-stable. No drying equipment? Making your backpacking meals at home doesn’t necessarily mean having to cook and dehydrate/freeze-dry all your food. Buying pre-cooked and dried bulk ingredients can save time and money on long hikes – simply portion the pre-dried ingredients and mix them into satisfying meals. Here’s a selection of instant bulk […]
Camp Tips
Several factors can cause the hands to swell when hiking, but the most common causes are gravity and how the body distributes heat during exercise. Gravity plays a significant role in this process, as it pulls the fluid in our bodies towards the lower extremities, including our fingers, hands, and feet. As the core muscles heat up when hiking, the vascular system cools the body by releasing more fluid to these areas. When blood reaches the skin to dissipate the heat, fluids leak out of the vessels, causing swelling of the limbs. Medically known as exercise-induced peripheral edema, the problem […]
Most outdoor activities can be done year-round with the proper choice of clothing. Here we’ll discuss the best clothing to wear when backpacking or cycling, fabrics that wick away moisture, dry quickly, and are breathable.
34% of the world’s population lives within 330 vertical feet (100 meters) of sea level Chances are, you live in a part of the country that is lower in elevation and pay no attention to cooking instructions intended for high altitudes. But one day, you may find yourself hiking more than 8,000 feet above sea level in the Sierras or Rockies and wonder why your rehydrated pasta meal came out crunchy or rice curry watery. Backpacking foods will require cooking adjustments at higher altitudes. High altitudes affect backpacking food preparation in two ways: Water and other liquids evaporate faster. Water […]
Reducing pack weight starts with minimizing gear and replacing heavier gear with lighter materials. Ultralight backpackers know all the different methods to reduce excess weight to achieve a lighter pack. But backpackers often narrow their focus to reducing only carrying weight, and what you carry on your torso is not the only thing that matters. The weight of your feet, particularly your shoes, significantly impacts your energy expenditure and sense of load. The U.S. Army has research to support this fact: The weight on the feet is disproportionately more exhausting than the weight carried on the torso.[1] The rule of thumb […]