HikerDeals' Best-of-the-Best Outdoor Gear Deals:
- Sierra Trading Post: Extra 15% Off Fishing, hunting & Work Gear
- Moosejaw: 10% off with coupon code MOOSE, extra 10% off sale items with code SUPERSALE
- Sierra Trading Post: Extra 10% Off Boots, Shoes, Gear, and Workout Apparel + January Coupon 10% Off $100+ Orders
HikerDeals Bargain, Deal, and Sale Archive for 'Quick Tips' Category
Flying Anywhere? – Official TSA List of Permitted and Prohibited Items
I’ve been traveling a lot lately and it’s really nice to check the TSA’s official list of permitted and prohibited items before catching a flight.
Inevitably it helps to already have things packed right when I’m late for an early-morning flight and can’t afford to get pulled aside and delayed. But, it’s also helpful to print out a copy of the list and carry it with you, as I found out on a recent layover in a smaller city’s airport. … maybe that TSA screener was having a bad day, but they were giving me a hard time about carrying on items that were listed on that official list up there. One look at my printed copy though and they let me keep going.
Survial Tip: Coke Can Firestarter
Here’s a hot tip for an emergency firestarter that isn’t affected by rain. The bottom of an aluminum soda can is shaped so that it will reflect sunlight to a pinpoint spot and create enough heat to ignite tinder materials. The key is that the can bottom needs to be well-polished first. In this example chocoalte is used as the polishing material to get the soda can nice and shiny, although any good polishing material should work: jewelry polish, Brasso (probably a lot quicker), and even very fine sand.
In truth, the polished soda can bottom of this fire starter is probably a bit fragile to carry around in a pack and once the can bottom is bent or crushed it won’t focus sunlight enough to start lighting things. On very rainy days I can’t imagine you would catch enough sun to get things lit either. On top of all that, I don’t normally carry canned drinks on hiking or backpacking trips – something about hiking for hours shaking them up so much that they explode when opened. On the other hand, if you ever get stuck inside a post-apocalyptic, city-themed, sci-fi movie, you’ll know what to do now.
$59.99 – Adidas Waterra HT Trail Shoes on Sale
The Adidas Waterra HTis called a “water shoe”, even though it’s really just a trail running shoe with good drainage and a sticky sole. It’s a good thing too, because these things look far more normal than the slipper-like things that most water shoes are.
…so why suggest a pair of “water shoes” in the middle of some record-heat weeks? Because they’ve got more mesh than just about anything else you can get your hands on. Mesh keeps the feet dryer and that keep blisters away. Plus, when you do stop at a stream to try and get cool, you won’t have to worry about these shoes not drying out by the next morning.
The extra 36% off these and free shipping from Altrec is pretty cool too.
Quick tip: Another quick tip on stopping blisters when hiking in hot weather is to change your socks a lot. You don’t even need to carry any extra socks. Just wear two or three pairs of socks throughout the day and then use the same socks again the next day (or more depending on how long you’re out and how hardcore you are about not carrying extra clothes). If you’re only wearing them for 3-4 hours/pair the socks won’t have much chance to get soggy and start rubbing.
Choosing Good Hiking Boots
What’s more important for a backpacker, good hiking boots or a good sleeping bag?
It can be argued both ways (endlessly), but … Even if you’ve been watching Survivorman, notice that he’s always wearing at least a decent pair of boots or shoes. Good footwear is that important.
That’s why this boot-picking guide by the St. Louis Dispatch is a great piece for beginning and exerienced backpackers. One thing to remember is that the article gives great advice from professional boot-fitters – but doesn’t specifically recommend that you should do the same. In my experience, no matter how experienced you are with camping gear get a second opinion when your own feet are involved.
One other useful thing: Don’t trust the shoe sizes printed on the outside a box. Some European boot companies don’t accurately convert their own shoes sizes to American sizes, use a good shoe & boot size conversion table as a second opinion. Likewise, every brand’s sizing is different, so go based on feel and the advice of a boot-fitter with experience fitting that brand.
Link credit: Thanks to the Two-Heel Drive hiking blog for the original link
Campfire Cooking: Cinnamon Buns & S’Mores Nachos
I just watched a great outdoor cooking episode of the Ham on the Street cooking show. Two really tasty-looking recipies, “Phoenix (Orange) Cinnamon Buns” and “Nacho Mama’s S’mores“, can be cooked with the coals of an open fire. I’ve included some modifications below for each recipie. The modifications make the recipies hiking- and backpacking-friendly, especially since Southern California usually doesn’t allow open fires in many camp grounds during our dry summers.
Orange Cinnamon Buns:
The orange cinnamon bun recipie cooks cinnamon roll dough that’s stuffed inside scooped-out orange peels that are wrapped in foil and buried in hot coals. Scooping out the oranges probably takes a bit longer than most of you camp-cooks want to spend prepping, but the peels will stop any burning or drying of the dough and let you just leave the rolls deep in the embers instead of constantly turning and moving them out of the hotspots.
Unfortunately, the cinnamon dough recipie uses milk, so unless you’re lucky enough to be camping outside an RV with a powered ‘fridge replace both the 10 tablespoons of milk and 10 tablespoons of brown sugar with 2/3 cup (about 5 1/2 liquid ounces) of canned condensed milk and an extra half-teaspoon of cinnamon. Even farther in the backcountry or just don’t feel like carrying canned milk? If you’re backpacking, or somewhere hot enough that a tube of biscuit dough won’t even last inside a cooler, try the rewrite of the recipie below for backpacking-friendly orange cinnamon buns, no oranges required:
Backpacking-style Orange Cinnamon Buns Recipie
Mix the following dry ingredients in a gallon-size, zip-lock bag before leaving on the trip (hint, label the bag “Cinnamon Buns” and stick a print-out of the recipie instructions inside it):
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar, white or brown (Stick with white sugar if it’s going to be hot, because brown sugar can get stucky and clump things up.)
- 4 Tablesp. dry powdered milk
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/3 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)
Bring the following ingredients along, each packed separately:
- 2/3 cup warm water (cold water can keep the dough from rising completely, so this means air-temp water during hot summers and half-boiling/half-cold water when it’s getting cold at night)
- 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil (olive and corn oil can be too strong tasing)
- 1/2 tsp. dried orange peel (in the spice aisle)
Cooking Instructions: Mix the water and dried orange peel together first. If it’s colder than 80 degrees out or the water is cold heat it a bit in a pan – cold water keeps the baking soda and powder from working right and can cause the buns to be really dense. The first step also softens up the peel and keeps you from having hard bits in the buns. Feel free to add the peel directly to the dry ingredients bag and skip this step altogether if you’re rushed or happier with the faster, easier school of camp-cooking. Once the water is warm (about body temperature), or if you’ve skipped the earlier step, add all the ingredients together and mix well in the dry ingredient bag.
There are three ways to cooks the buns up, but one involves a “fancy” backpacking oven setup: Personally, I like to mix the dough in a plastic bag, put a twist-tie on loosely, and boil the dough in-bag until it’s done (Dough-in-bag Musts: Use the biggest pot you can find and enough water that the dough bag can almost float, plus use a heavy freezer bag & heat spreader under the pot. Plastic won’t melt in boiling water, but it will if it sits on a bottom-of-the-pan hotspot for several seconds.). The second method is to use of a “backpacking oven” system – you’ll know what I’m talking about if you have one – and bake the whole batch of dough as a single loaf. Finally, the classic backpacking method is to pour a portion of the dough into an oiled skillet and cook pancakes instead of buns or biscuits.
Makes enough for 2 very hungry hikers, or 4-5 campers if it’s not the only thing on the menu.
Nacho-style S’mores:
Cooking s’mores up nacho-style in ingenious. Cooking them in an open skillet cuts down on prep-time, mess, burnt fingers, and serving-size fights (you know: “How come he got the bigger piece?!?”). Plus, it’s a lot faster than roasting marshmallows when the only open flame allowed is from a backpacking stove.
Instead of carrying a cast iron skillet on hikes or backpacking trips you can use any matching skillet and lid from your cook kit and a backpacking stove instead of an open fire. When using one of these lighter steel or aluminum skillets, line the inside-bottom with foil – both to keep the graham crackers on the bottom from over-toasting and to save yourself from scraping off the sticky, gooey, sugary mess in the dark. Place the ingredients in the skillet as-described and top with the lid.
When cooking with a lighter skillet keep the backpacking stove on low, and/or use a heat spreader plate, and/or constantly move the skillet around just above the flames (so no one spot in the skillet heats up completely). Just a few minutes should get everything toasted and melted together.
Photo: lbeefus on Flickr
$25.32 – The North Face Pandora Daypack, 35% Off
At 35% off the Pandora backpack by The North Face is a big bargain on a small daypack. With 700 cubic-inches of space and weighing just 1-pound it’s smaller than even some Camelbak packs are now, but it has better comfort with contoured shoulder straps and more padding in the back panel. There’s just enough space here to slide in a hydration bladder, rain jacket, and a short day’s worth of food – perfect for car-to-car hiking days in better weather (and not many of us do short car-to-car hikes when it’s rainy and cold out anyway).
The small size of the Pandora pack also makes it great for steep, technical terrain and even climbing. That’s great for both male and female hikers, even if this pack is marketed toward women. Quick Tip: On technical terrain a smaller pack that doesn’t extend down below the small of your back will not interfere with your stride or hips and stays more stable & comfortable when you’re stretching and scrambling around.
Just $25.32 for the Pandora daypack at BackcountryOutlet.com, if you’re in the market for a few other camping or hiking essentials – any order of $50+ will get free shipping too.
Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day 2006 on April 25th
Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day 2006 is in just 1 day. Stop by a Ben & Jerry’s shop on April 25th for a free scoop of ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sorbet.
47% Off the Primus Micron Stove w/ Piezo Ignitor
Primus stoves are favorites of mine, I recently reviewed the burn (almost) anything Primus Varifuel model, and now the Primus Micron Stove with a piezo ignitor is on sale (one-day only, like all Steep and cheap deals) at Steep and Cheap. The $27.83 price is great, but the 3.3 ounce weight is even better. With laws against packing used liquid fuel bottles in airline luggage and butane cartridges cheap & available just about anywhere – you can’t beat cartridge stoves like this for convenience and weight on short trips.
Classic, Handmade Alico Summit All-Leather Backpacking Boots, Just $139.95
On sale at Sierra Trading Post are these classically-made backpacking boots from Alico, they’re available in both normal and wide widths too. The leather uppers are one-piece, full-grain leather and are not only beautiful, but are a lot thicker than the split leather and suede used in most “modern” hiking boots. This makes the boot a lot more supportive and allows the leather to have a “memory” of your foot’s shape. The liners of these Alico’s are also full leather – instead of a wicking, synthetic fabric. My mountaineering boots have a full leather liner, which cost me a lot of extra time and money to find, and it’s a lot less likely to pull and bunch on socks and cause rubbing than my synthetic-lined boots. The norwegian welt soles are incredibly supportive and great on rough trails. With a norwegian welt sole the boot and sole are hand-stitched together, instead of being bonded, so the result is a bit heavier (though still only 4-pounds a pair), but much more supportive and durable than bonded soles and can even be resoled once the lugs start to wear thin. With such heavy-duty construction, these boots will require longer than average break-in time, but will be incredibly comfortable once the leather uppers start to mold to your foot, plus they’ll outlast just about any other boot out there.
About resoling:
Good resolers are hard to find now, but I’ve hear good things about Rocky Mountain Resole for boots. I also had a good experience having climbing shoes resoled at Rock & Resole in Boulder, CO, but don’t know if they resole boots too.
A note on caring for traditional, all-leather boots:
Keep in mind though, boots made with full-grain leather and leather lining need a bit of care if they’re going to last for years. About once a year a quick soap (real soap, not liquid or deodorant soap) and water bath on the outside and inside will get rid of sap, salts, and anything else that can dry or crack the leather. Once they dry (no heating here) a coat of non-oil-based leather waterproofer needs to be applied thick enough to soak into the creases and seams of this thick leather. Traditionally boots like this were treaded with oil-based (including petroleum and/or animal-fat compounds) waterproofers because nothing else was available. Using wax (beeswax is one I’ve used myself) is OK, but the oil-based waterproofers can make the leather too soft and the threads stitching the boots together will cut into the softer leather – leading to weaker seams and the potential of seam blowouts. Since Nikwax and similar “new” treatments waterproof better anyway, there’s not a lot of reason to deal with those messy, stinky oils anyway.
$9.95 – Interactive Topographical Map CD’s of National Parks from National Geographic
Regularly $24.95, these National Geographic topo map CDs are just $9.95 and have seamless maps for a ton of popular National Parks and destinations. Instead of buying a handfull of USGS 7.5° quadrangle maps for $30+, the CDs have the same maps data in a seamless and zoomable format. They also let you search for landmarks and plot routes complete with distance, elevation, and grade profiles.
Available parks and destinations are currently:
- COLORADO FRONT RANGE
- DEATH VALLEY
- GRAND CANYON
- MAINE
- NORTH CAROLINA RECREATION AREA
- NORTH CASCADES
- NORTH GEORGIA
- SEQUOIA KINGS CANYON
- SHENANDOAH/WASHINGTON DC
$54.97 – Women’s Pearl Izumi Women’s Shift Top Running and Cycling Jacket, 50% Off at Altrec
Pearl Izumi brings together both AmFib and Ultrasensor fabrics in this jacket. The windproof, water-resistant AmFib panels in front and dense wind-resistant Ultrasensor panels keep it plenty warm but breathe really well in nasty weather. The 50% off deal, just $54.97, at Altrec.com make the Shift Top jacket an almost must-have. Also, the snug fit should be great for active-wear, if only Pearl Izumi would catch on and stop making their men’s jackets so baggy …I’d get one in a second if the men’s jackets had an athletic instead of post-workout fit.
$32.97 – Adidas Jasten Trail Running Shoes
The Adidas Jasten trail runners, are just $32.97 at Altrec.com. Not a great-looking shoe, but neither am I…, but for this price they’re worth it if you’re just giong to get them muddy and tear them up on the trail anyway.
Also, may want to check for anything else you need, because you can get free shipping from Altrec once the order gets to $45+.
Regional Vacation and Outdoors Guides from GORP.com
Any problems thinking up something to do over the weekend? I usually have more trouble thinking of things to do over 2-3 day weekends than I do with a full week of time off. A great place to start is the GORP.com Outdoor Weekender Guides.
The Guides can be searched by region, city, and state and have a huge variety of things to get you outside. From parks and trails to take the dog for a walk on – to cliff-top beach hikes – to hike-in hot springs with campgrounds just a mile or two from the road.
In my case the City Weekender guide for Los Angeles already found one trailhead I didn’t know about that’s just 4 miles from home and a network of dirt roads and paved trolley & railroad-repair roads for riding through the Angeles National Forest, and those are less than 90 minutes from home. There’s also a campground in the Santa Ynez Recreation area that’s in a perfect spot for an after work arrival, about 20 miles southwest of Santa Barbara (enough outside Santa Barbara to avoid weekend beach traffic). Found through the Weekender Guides it has several small, tents-only areas and sounds like a perfect alternative to the normally crowded, RV-filled campgrounds in SoCal. I won’t give a direct link to it or it may not be open when I want to go, but I will say that’s the area is about an hour up winding mountain roads and hosts two hotsprings and several trailheads.
Make Your Tent Last – Tent Care and Repair Tips
Here’s a great article on tent care and repair from GetOutdoors.com. They focus on things that a lot of people forget or just don’t know about, like preparring a new tent so it will last longer and repairing the tent in the field. I do have two things to add though:
- …after watching how easily and quickly tent fabric burns – I don’t like their idea of using a lighter to warm duct tape up so it will stick to the tent better. Since duct tape always leaves that sticky goo behind and just doesn’t stick well to wet fabric – it’s well worth the $6-8 price to pick up some tent repair “tape” from a gear shop. This stuff is usually ripstop nylon with adhesive on one side. To get the best seal, cut two matching pieces big enough to cover the hole and apply one to each side of the tent fabric.
- I’ll add to their point about airing out a tent after every trip. ALWAYS air it out – no matter how rushed or tired you are. Mold and mildew can ruin a tent (or make it so smelly that you can’t live in it). When tent fabric is wet long-term it weakens the waterproof coating on the fabric. You can end up scratching it or even peeling chunks of the coating off the fabric just by pulling the fly out of the stuff sack.