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 'News' Category
Free Month of Storage at U-Haul for SoCal Fire Evacuees
U-Haul is offering a free month of storage for anyone in Southern California affected by evacuations due to the many wildfires. Contact the locations listed in the press release directly to arrange for the free month.
Best wishes to anyone whose homes or work are affected by the fires.
20 Tips: Backpacking, Hiking, and Outdoors with Children
Tahoe World posted a great review of the book “Monsters in the Woods: Backpacking with Children” (this link to Amazon.com) by Tim Hauserman. Though the book focuses on taking children backpacking and outdoors, it has even greater value when you consider that it’s really about getting children away from the TV and getting to spend time with their parents. The reviewer says the book is “an absolute delight” and will “inspire you to think about planning a hike or a short day trip sharing the surroundings with a child.”
I never actually went backpacking with my parents, but they did take me hiking and spent plenty of time with my brother, sister, some friends, and I on fishing trips and cabin-in-the-woods vacations. Those trips helped me be ready to take the next step to camping and backpacking on my own. What I learned on those trips and when backpacking also helped prepare me to survive life once I moved away more comfortably - when I arrived at college I was one of few students who could cook (on a stove or a hotplate) and knew what I didn’t need well enough to not burn through the credit cards buying “home living” accessories for my dorm room.
Invaluable whether you buy the book or not, the Tahoe World review includes the book’s list of “Twenty Quick Tips for Backpacking with Kids”. Whether you’re camping with children or friends remember tips #1, #6, and #11:
1. Don’t go too far, take it slow, enjoy the journey.
2. Explore, play, have fun —how far and where you go are secondary.
3. Sometimes it is the little things that can mess up a trip, so be sure everyone puts on sunscreen and reapplies it on a regular basis. Then keep children fed and hydrated.
4. Keep talking or play games while hiking to distract children from their potential misery.
5. Bring cards and a good lightweight paperback for a rainy day in the tent.
6. Quit the lesson while it is still fun.
7. Take a layover day at a nice lake.
8. Bring a friend. Our children love you but might have more fun with a friend.
9. Learn enough about backpacking and hiking to feel comfortable in the woods.
10. Don’t be discouraged after a tough sleepless night or when you cannot get things to work. Focus on joy.
11. Love the ones you are with, or at least learn from them. Watch experienced backpackers—copy them, as ideas are free.
12. Always leave an itinerary with a responsible party, and follow it.
13. Go on the Internet and find a star/satellite chart for the area you are visiting.
14. Be a parent, not a wimp. Be positive and supportive of your child. Deal with the situation and move on. Kids look to you for strength and fortitude, so fake it.
15. Tell bad puns and scary stories.
16. Understand that dirt is o.k. and it is part of the fun.
17. Do your part to protect the areas you backpack in.
18. When you put your bear canister away for the night, make sure to put it a good distance from your tent.
19. If you venture into high-altitude terrain and you live at low elevation, try to spend a day or two acclimating to the altitude before starting you trip. Take it easy the first day.
20. Laugh, giggle, guffaw, whoop, titter, and chuckle as much as possible.
via Two Heel Drive
Ski Season is Over, Not In These Desktop Wallpapers
The snow is gone and the slopes are closed for the season but you can still remember the blue-sky days until nest season starts. Grab one or all of these backcountry ski & board wallpapers for your work or home computer.
The wallpapers are all free from Backcountry.com. They’ve got summer camping gear for upcoming trips or check out their Outlet section for big discounts on last years snowboard and ski gear.
Amazon.com Customer Service Phone Number
The toll-free phone number for Amazon’s customer service phone number
1-800-201-7575
My experience with their customer service rep’s has been good. They can’t pull miracles out of thin air, like making packages with “guaranteed delivery” that are four weeks late appear on my doorstep, but they are friendly and don’t seem to be reading from a script like at most other customer service centers.
Welcome to Hiker Deals! RSS Feed Links
Hiker Deals has been linked by the WSJ today. Welcome new readers and sorry to any regular readers who are finding the site a bit slow. If you’re familiar with feeds and/or what RSS is, here are some easy links to subscribe to the site with:
Moosejaw Lowdown = Daily Camping Gear Deal
The Moosejaw Lowdown is a new daily-deal site from the guys at the Moosejaw Mountaineering shop. It works a lot like Woot - which is that each day, around midnight, they post one item for sale at a major discount. It’s available at that price until it sells out, or until around midnight the next day when the item changes.
Right now the Lowdown deal is a pair of Garmont Men’s Syncro midweight hiking boots on sale for $63.98, that’s 60% off.
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.
I Vote for Less Technology at National Parks
In “Too much technology at the national parks?” Tom Mangan wonders about how more cell phone coverage and automated recordings of National Park tours will impact the Parks’ experience. He figures that it can’t hurt too much, “though I’d insist that any savings in ranger salaries go toward essentials like habitat preservation and trail maintenance.”
This isn’t the opinion I had expected from Tom, who somehow hikes almost every weekend and blogs about it all with great trail reviews and pics. Not that I had expected him to be against technology, like he says, “I find it odd to see rants against technology on a blog,” but I would have expected he’d know how the political process treats Parks and their funding. After all, the cost of all the ranger staff in all National Parks is probably lower than the cost of DoHS luggage screeners and x-ray equipment at a single LAX- or JFK-class airport - but those parks staffing costs are still frequent targets of budget cuts proposed in D.C.
Whether it’s cost savings from cutting Parks staff or earnings from leasing land to wireless tower operators, the money saved or made on National Parks operations just goes back into the general budget fund. Once that money is in the general budget fund the National Parks don’t stand much of a chance of seeing much of come back when they’re competing with legitimate national issues like anti-terrorism or social security (… note, I said they’re legitimate issues - but don’t want to get into what side of those issues I or any readers may fall on).
Regardless of where the funding goes, if technology replaces park rangers the National Parks will be drastically changed. Go ahead and add some cell towers, but a much bigger part of the National Parks experience than a view free of camouflaged cell towers is the people who work there and know the area and can tell stories about the backcountry and the legends that grew out of it; all far beyond what’s just on the placards or in the guided tour pamphlet. I think automating those jobs is as good as building roads and driving trams throughout all areas of the National Parks - a sure way to kill the spirit that may turn 1 of 10,000 children into a hiker, backpacker, or even a park ranger.
Since our government doesn’t get compromises very well, especially when money is remotely involved, maybe keeping the cell towers out is the only way to ensure that park rangers don’t go downhill the same way that tech support on the phone, now outsourced to India and China, has.
Photo credit: Jay Galvin on Flickr
Cool Interview with Beth Rodden & Tommy Caldwell at Backcountry.com
Professional climbers aren’t quite the same as backpackers or recreational campers, but I’m still jealous about all the time they get to spend outside and all the cool places they get to visit (and get paid to visit too). Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell both hold a lot of climbing records, but they seem to be pretty cool people too - plus they’re married and manage to spend weeks together in the close quarters of tents and climbing porta-ledges. …we can all probably take some lessons on that.
Here’s the interview of the climbing couple from the folks at the Backcountry.com gear shop.
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.
Road Runner Sports Coupons: 15% off Powerbar and 10% off Shoes
Road Runner Sports has two coupons for any shoes & training clothing in the store and another for any PowerBar products:
- Shoe and training clothing coupon: 10% off all running and cross training shoes (click thorough and the coupon is automatically applied to your cart)
- PowerBar coupon: 15% off coupon code RMM-06004 for any PowerBar energy food at Road Runner Sports (expires 12/31/2006)
eBay Coupons: 10% Off, $10 Off $50+, and $20 off $100+
eBay coupons are back! It’s a great place to get just about anything below retail prices.
Here are the coupons, three of them that don’t overlap:
- 10% off (max $25 off), coupon code: MARCH2006CAT (Valid now-March 31st)
- $10 off $50+ (fashion department only), coupon code: C-APR2006FASHION (Valid April 1 - 15)
- $20 off $100+ (technology department only), coupon code: C-APR2006TECH (Valid April 16 - 30)
If you’re new to eBay make sure to buy from sellers with a few feedback points and little to no negative feedback in the past month. Also aim for buying goods from sellers in your home country, because international shipping costs a ton.
Clearance Sale at Snowleopard Mountain Sports Gear-shop
It looks like the camping gear market is pretty tough after all. Snow Leopard Mountain Sports looks to be throwing in the towel with a “Liquidation Sale” on everything still in-stock. Everything looks to be 50% off and it’s worth checking the sale out now while there’s still anything left (no more tents, sleeping bags, or skis to be seen). Note that this is a “no returns allowed” sale, so make sure you’re getting the right size/model. What is there…?
- Several models of CamelBak hydration packs,
are 50% off
- Giro ski helmets inclucing the Bad Lieutenant, Mad Max, & Fuse,
- Mountainsmith’s sweet MountainLight series of packs are 50% off
and in-stock in sizes from 2,000 to 5,000 cubic inches
10% Off $75 Orders Coupon for Sierra Trading Post
A great coupon for Sierra Trading Post gets 10% off any orders of $75 and up. Just click through the link and the coupon is automatically applied to you cart when the order gets to $75 or more (expires April 6, 2006).
Worth checking out: Sierra Trading Post’s newest items seem to include a ton of boots & trail hiking shoes, women’s shells and jackets, daypacks, and trekking poles (…and thankfully little to no more year-end ski and snowboard gear). And, don’t forget about the 20% off coupon for REI.com.