Backpacking At Ten Below Zero We were both thirteen years old and backpacking in Michigan without adults (times were different back then). Camping miles from the nearest road, in a single-wall pup tent, we tried not to move too much, because doing so resulted in a shower of icy crystals raining down on us - the frozen condensation from our own breath. When we got up that morning, the thermometer read ten or eleven degrees...... Similar Editorial : by Tanja Kelly. | Source : Teton Backpacking
Backpacking - Six Ways To Save Money As pack weights get lighter and going into the wilderness gets safer, backpacking also is getting more and more expensive. How do you save money without giving up the ultralight equipment and safety gear? Let's look at a few different ways.Backpacking? in the most remote places has become much safer now that there are personal locator beacons. One I recently saw advertised lets you call for help...... Similar Editorial : by Tanja Kelly. | Source : Teton Backpacking
Six Good Backpacking Habits When backpacking, habits matter. A better sleeping bag may keep you a bit warmer, and a cell phone or GPS unit definitely makes a trip safer, but the things you regularly do while on the trail are just as important. Here are six habits you should develop for wilderness travel.1. Foot CareBlisters and other foot problems are not always just painful inconveniences. If they happen far enough into a...... Similar Editorial : by Tanja Kelly. | Source : Teton Backpacking
Less Extreme Adventures Extreme adventures and travel adventures are becoming more popular all the time. Some of us, however, want to have the excitement, without so much risk of injury, without getting shot at or kidnapped like Robert Pelton, and without spending a fortune. With that in mind, here are some ideas for less extreme adventure travel.- Summit the highest peak in your state. It might be less-than-adventurous...... Similar Editorial : by Stephen Currier. | Source : Transit Visa
Chimborazo: Climbing Glaciers Near The Equator Climbing the glaciers to the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador isn't highly technical. It is mountaineering, but how hard can it be, considering I went to 20,600 feet the first time I used crampons and an ice axe? Okay, I used them once for practice, on a sledding hill near my house. I climbed forty feet while people walked by with their sleds, telling their kids to stay away from me.It's also...... Similar Editorial : by Steve Gillman. | Source : Adventure Travel
Arrowhead Hunting And Rock Collecting We weren't planning to go rock and arrowhead hunting in Arizona. My wife and I just liked that hotspring in the desert. It was agood place to escape the Michigan winter for a while. Then we met Felix, an old Mayan Indian living in an old RV. After sharing meals and campfires for a week, he took us into the desert to show us ancient metates (grain-grinding stones) and arrowheads. We also found...... Similar Editorial : by News Canada. | Source : Travel Agent Hong Kong
Strange But True Story My strange but true story starts twenty-five years ago, when I was sixteen. I had just hitched a ride back out to Interstate 90 as the sun was setting. The previous night I had been caught alone in the back country on the northern edge of Yellowstone National Park, in a freak May blizzard. A grizzly bear pawed the ground outside my tent in the middle of the night, scaring me half to death. That,...... Similar Editorial : by Jesse S. Somer. | Source : Travel Agent Hong Kong
Finding Secret Swimming Holes Swimming holes have a certain nostalgic feel about them. Long before swimming pools were common and in areas where there weren't many beaches, kids had to go to a wide spot in a stream, or to an old rock quarry to swim. Perhaps you did this as a child. Well, these spots are still out there, and they are not just for the kids.Searching For A Swimming HoleWhen we recently moved from Arizona to Canon...... Similar Editorial : by peterhutch. | Source : Travel Agent Hong Kong
39 Miles In The Smoky Mountains The Smoky Mountains can be hard on the ankles, and it rains a lot. I learned this on the first day of my hike, both through experience and from the stories of the other hikers. This was good, though, because hiking this stretch of the Appalachian Trail would be a good test for my new lightweight backpacking gear.I was hiking in light running shoes, with a frameless fourteen-ounce backpack. My down...... Similar Editorial : by Vivek Kuriyal. | Source : Adventure Travel
Ghost Towns - Two Examples When you think of ghost towns, you may have the image of a town that is completely empty of people. On the other hand, definitions vary. When I read a book on Michigan ghost towns I remember thinking "Hey, didn't I stop in a convenience store there once?" This author's definition was any town that had lost 30% of its population. I think Detroit might qualify.Then one day, I discovered that there...... Source : Association Of Travel Agents
Bivy Sacks - Make Them For A Dollar If you have ever looked at bivy sacks in catalogs or online, you know they can be claustrophobic and expensive. I can't help you much with the first, except to say that you'll get used to it. The expensive part, though, I have a solution for. I didn't want to spend $200 for a nice bivy, so I bought an "emergency bivy" for $20. It was basically a large plastic bag. I tested it on a rainy night,...... Source : Association Of Travel Agents
Trekking Poles And Walking Sticks Are walking sticks longer than trekking poles? What about hiking staffs and hiking sticks? Whatever you call them, and whatever their differences, they are supposed to help your knees more than anything. This they do very well, at least when you're going downhill.What else are they good for? They help you keep your balance. You can use them as defense against wild animals as well. I use a walking...... Similar Editorial : by Daniel Eggertsen. | Source : Adventure Travel
Tom Sawyer Day - Floating Down The River There were four of us on that first Tom Sawyer Day. I promised my friends an adventure-disaster, sure to get them wet and cold. Three of them took the bait. In a small daypack, we took snacks, water, a hatchet, a small saw, and whatever scraps of rope we could find.We parked and hiked up the Manistee river a few miles. The plan was to build a raft, using dead trees and scraps of rope. Then...... Source : Association Of Travel Agents
My Five-Ounce Sleeping Bag Okay, it wasn't quite a sleeping bag. However, it was only five ounces, and it kept me warm as the temperature dropped to the low forties on the bank of the Manistee River in Michigan. The secret was the fifteen minutes we spent gathering dead, dry bracken ferns to build a two-foot thick mattress. We set the tent on that. Then, with all my clothes on, I was fine.In fact, I've rarely slept as well...... Source : Association Of Travel Agents
Ultralight Sleeping Bags - How Light Are They? Why ultralight sleeping bags? Because ultralight backpacking is only made possible by cutting the weight of the "big three;" the backpack, shelter and sleeping bag. The days of five-pound summer bags are gone - at least for those of us who prefer to go light.One Pound Ultralight Sleeping BagsThere are several one-pound ultralight sleeping bags on the market now. My own is 17 ounces. It actually...... Similar Editorial : by Morgan Hamilton. | Source : Association Of Travel Agents
