Wanted: The Perfect Day Pack. Must excel in casual, urban outings AND day long outdoor activities. Must be big enough to fit my laptop and a change of clothes for the former and a day hike’s worth of gear for the latter. It must be made of environmentally friendly materials. And it must have...

After our 2004 Northville-Placid thruhike, I decided it was time to upgrade our backpacking tent. My trusty Walrus ArchRival, the first real backpacking tent I ever owned, was really showing its age. The new generation of 3 season shelters had come a long way – they were sturdier, more weather...

Eastern Mountain Sports launched their new website today. While not a drastic change in terms of branding or overall aesthetics, they did streamline the site and improve upon its navigation and usability. My guess is that most visitors will notice something has changed, but will probably have a hard...

I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into purchasing the Big Agnes Air Core Pad. At the time, I was mostly looking to buy a new sleeping bag, the Horse Thief SL. When the Air Core was recommended as a good fit for the Horse Thief’s integrated bag/pad system, I decided to pick one up as well....

I won’t lie.  It was pure envy that drove me to buy the Big Agnes Horse Thief SL Sleeping Bag. I had a perfectly functional REI brand bag with a perfectly functional Thermarest self-inflating sleeping pad. But as the days wore on during our first Northville-Placid thru-hike, I grew increasingly...

When my bike was stolen a few months ago, the bandits also made off with the lock. So, along with picking up a new ride, I had to look into a new locking system. As with most of my gear decisions, I wanted something light and easy to pack and carry. The lightest and most compact locks out there are...

2002 was the last time I wore a boot while hiking.  That was the year I completed my first thru-hike of the Northville-Placid trail, and the experience motivated me to re-examine the equipment I used.  Inspired in part by a US Army study that showed that wearing 1 pound on your feet was roughly equivalent...

Summary: A subtle, but solid, redesign of what was one of the better outdoor retail sites to begin with. On May 28th REI launched a redesigned website. You can check out their overview of the redesign here: http://www.rei.com/features/redesignOverview.html Although not a drastic change, the first thing...

The much anticipated film The Adirondacks premiered May 14th on local PBS stations. This 2 hour documentary was produced, directed, and written by Emmy award winning filmmaker Tom Simon. In The Adirondacks, the story of the Adirondacks is told through a series of passionate characters, each with a distinct...