Best wishes to anyone whose homes or work are affected by the fires.

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

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.

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.

Tags: Amazon.com, Amazon, customer, service, toll-free, tollfree, 800, 1-800, phone, number

< ?php the_subscribe_links(); ?>

Tags: HikerDeals, hiker, deals, camping, hiking, backpacking, winter, ski, snow, sale, bargain, gear, equipment, coupon

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.

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.

Tags: survival, tip, guide, fire, firestarter, emergency, chocolate, bar, soda, cola, coke, can, starter

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

Tags: National, Park, ranger, cost, cutting, technology, cell, tower, funding, Tom+Mangan, two-heel+drive

Here’s the interview of the climbing couple from the folks at the Backcountry.com gear shop.

Tags: Beth+Rodden, Tommy+Caldwell, interview, article, professional, climbing, camping, backpacking, backcountry, backcountry.com, gear, equipment, shop

Tags: Ben, Jerry's, Jerry, Ben+Jerrys, free, scoop, ice, cream, sorbet, frozen, yogurt, sundae, cone, day, 2006, April+25th

• 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)

Tags: Road+Runner+Sports, running, shoes, clothes, shorts, wicking, top, shirt, trail, hiking, Powerbar, Power+Bar, coupon, sale

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.

Tags: eBay, coupon, code, coupons, sale, camping, hiking, backpacking, gear, equipment, discount, %+off, tent, sleeping+bag, backpack, fashion, technology

• Several models of CamelBak hydration packs, are 50% off
• Giro ski helmets inclucing the Bad Lieutenant, Mad Max, & Fuse, are half-of and still in-stock in most sizes
• Mountainsmith’s sweet MountainLight series of packs are 50% off and in-stock in sizes from 2,000 to 5,000 cubic inches

Tags: SnowLeopard, mountain, sports, hiking, camping, backpacking, gear, equipment, sale, clearance, deals, Giro, ski, helmet, MountainSmith, backpack, CamelBak, hydration, pack

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.

Personally I always like fugly trail running shoes (all trail running shoes are pretty ugly, so you may as well make a statment if you’re trying to wear them to work or elsewhere). So I’m trying to decide between the Nike Air Steens II trail shoes, at $31.97, and the Adidas Jasten trail runners, at $32.97. Either way, at about $32/pair they’ve got to be better than the beat-up, stinky running shoes I’m wearing now. Maybe I can buy both and use the excuse that I was trying to get a $45+ order together – since shipping is free then.

Tags: Altrec, REI, camping, hiking, backpacking, gear, equipment, sale, clearance, boots, shoes, trail, Nike, Steens, Adidas, Jasten, running, sleeping+bag, GoreTex+shell, GoreTex+jacket, backpack, fugly

• Winter Sale at Altrec.com : Good discounts and Free shipping on $45+ (expires 2/28/2006). The best stuff looks like a decent selection of North Face and Patagonia jackets (no a lot of sizes though), plenty of skis and snowboards (mixed bag on sizes), and plenty of women’s outdoor clothing and activewear.
• Backcountry.com Sale: Free shipping on $50+ (expires 2/26/2006)



• MooseJaw Mountaineering: 10% Off (coupon codes required), 20% back in rewards credits, and Free shipping on $99+ (expires 2/20/2006). Use coupon code MOOSE for 10% off non-sale items and SUPERSALE for 10% off sale items.



• REI.com Winter Clearance: has 25-25% off stacks of winter gear. Looks like plenty of Men’s and Women’s clothing and jackets, plus a ton of snow shoes and cross-country ski equipment, limited sizes on sale snowboards and skis.

One thing worth noting is that these big review sites are often just a waste of time when you’re trying to find a one-off product or looking for the BIGGEST deals. The smaller, human-edited sites do a better job of staying updated with the one-day sales and other limited coupons. My favorites include:

• Ben’s Bargains for electronics, stereo, and camera deals
• Deal Coupon for the latest coupons
• Anandtech Hot Deals forum for electronics and outright free stuff

I’ll add a few of my own favorite shopping sites:

• Google’s own Froogle price search has one of the biggest selections of tech and non-tech equipment (and it seems to be biased toward paying advertisers).
• One camping or outdoor gear Deal-a-Day at Steep and Cheap.
• Looking for a new toaster oven or anything else non-techie? General purpose price-search sites like Shopzilla and Shopper.com work OK.
• And, of course Hiker Deals – for camping bargains, but you’re already here.

My favorite bargain-finder sites from Pete’s list are Ben’s Bargains, Anandtech’s Deal forum, and Woot’s one-deal-per-day.

• $5 off $50 purchase code C22-GIFTGUIDE
• $15 off $100 purchase code C23-GIFTGUIDE
• 10% off, $25 maximum savings code C1-HOLIDAY2005 (only works for 50% of users …? Try to find out.)
• $5 off $50 purchase code C2-HOLIDAY2005 (only works for 50% of users …? Try to find out.)
• $15 off $100 purchase code C3-HOLIDAY2005 (only works for 50% of users …? Try to find out.)

There’s plenty of new gear on eBay for those of you who (like me) wouldn’t ever buy a pair of used boots. Several camping equipment stores sell their new and overstock gear at reduced prices.

Thanks to RyeBlog for finding this deal.

To get an extra 10% off (items not already marked as “Geek Specials”) enter the coupon code FREEDOM into the red coupon box at checkout (good July 1st-5th, 2005).

The only tent on sale is a half-fly, Sierra Designs Sirius 3. Don’t bother with it unless you’re in a near-tropical climate. The half-fly is meant to save weight, but it sacrifices a lot in rain and wind protection without saving any weight compared to better designed tents from Marmot, REI and even Sierra Designs themselves. The only reason to spring for the tent would be if you do a lot of camping in near-tropical conditions. Because the half fly allows tons of airflow and covers a completely mesh tent-half, heat probably never builds up inside.

An item worth checking out from the sale list is the Osprey Crescent 90 Pack (search for item 699377, no direct links with REI). Billing it as “unisex” may have given it a bad reputation – which is all wrong. Osprey uses separate hipbelts, so the part of the pack that matters is male/female-specific, plus their hipbelts come in wide size ranges and can be switched between pack bodies. This 90 liter pack is a great size for week-long winter trips, month-long summer trips, or trad climbers on a weekend trip with a long hike-in.

For those not familiar with Restaurant.com, they make their money by selling promotional gift certificates at a discount to face value. Restaurants tend to be newer or smaller places that may not be well known. In my area they include a brewery restaurant, several local pizza places, some date-worthy places, and even a Mrs. Fields cookie shop. I can get a $25 gift certificate for $10, only $4 with the coupon above (a total of 84% off), or a 50% off coupon for $3, only $1.20 with coupon.

It stinks that Restaurant.com charges you full price even if you enter the coupon code, unless you click “recalculate total” before hitting the buy button. Still, for that little bit of effort a full meal is only $4 + tip (and remember to tip on the pre-coupon bill amount).

Unfortunately the busy season for camping isn’t seeing too many bargains or deals posted. I’ll keep digging for everyone out there and see what I can find in the next few days.

-Mike

A quick turn uphill onto the stop-and-go surface streets put me home faster than 8mph would, and once home a quick Google turned up some interesting information about the new limits. This April, 2005, a woman was struck by a cyclist while crossing the bike path in Manhattan Beach and subsequently died in the hospital.

I would like to side with IndependentSources.com that $350 bike speeding tickets are unreasonable. Nonetheless, even as a “sport” cyclist who regularly pushes 20+mph on the path, I’ll pass on the path altogether to avoid that type of misery.

The beach path may be a great great place for beach cruiser bikes, joggers (who are also being ticketed for being on the bike path now), and people-watching, but it requires a lot of attention and quick reactions to avoid children, large groups, and unexpected “lane changes” of others. Four years of cycling in LA and neither myself nor any of the racers I know have hit anyone on the bike path, but we’re still aware that it’s risky and even complain about other cyclists who don’t slow down enough. I don’t agree that 8mph is reasonable, but after a fatality on the path I’ll just pass on the path and watch out for myself on the road.

Any comments? Please edit out the space & anti-spam words and email me at: mike [anti-spam] @ [anti-spam] hikerdeals.com.

-Mike

Also, a $10 off $80 coupon at Overstock.com Auctions.

A quick tip: If you’re an REI member use the coupon code MEM25 in the online checkout for an extra 20% off one item. If you’re not a member of REI, then spend the $15 for a lifetime membership.

• 25% off Sun Care Products
• Free Shipping on Orders Over $55. (4/15/05-7/13/05)
• 25% off Entire Order!

A new section has also been added. Given the number of online stores that you don’t know about, we would like to point you our own list of dependable Gear Stores. We have made at least one purchase from every store on this list and the items arrived as described, plus we haven’t seen any bogus charges showing up on our credit cards.

My goal is to feature the best deals on gear, and maybe hype a few products that I really love, so that my readers can spend less time online and more time outside. Yes readers, I do get paid for my time by using referral programs for many of the shops and programs I feature. Basically, most of the gear I link to will earn me about 4% of the purchase price if you buy it. This percentage doesn’t affect the price readers pay – it just helps me to spend less time at work and more time finding deals (and eventually I hope it can help me to get away from a two-week-a-year vacation schedule too).

Hope I can find enough bargains to keep everyone coming back. Drop me a line if you have suggestions or deals to mention.