Me too, coming for August, have been beaten back twice by smoke. Unfortunately as one, uh, “matures” smoke becomes a very real breathing problem. ... View more

If they’re less than a year old, you could take it back, maybe get it analyzed for possible defects. ... View more

I spend most of the winter’s ‘down time’ planning future trips. Really enjoy the process. Yikes! Did I just say winter downtime? Some say it’s the best time to get out into the wilderness. ... View more

I heard on the news tonight that lowes is giving away tree saplings. ... View more

I no longer run, but do try to walk 5 miles everyday, and agree with all of the above! ... View more

Shake it off, IMO, it’s safe to travel. It’s safe to fly, it’s safer to hike and be outside. and btw, the public lands belong to all of us. ... View more

unknown.  maybe he didn't have the rain fly stretched out properly to cover the tops of the floor sides, that'd be my guess. ... View more

for me, for backpacking, the zpacks duplex wins 'hands down'. 19oz, 2 person tent, hard to beat. that said, expensive and not free standing, and supposedly doesn't last more that 3yrs or 1 thru hikes, which is not great. Still using my 'old reliable' quarter dome T2 when the going gets rough. Last year Iceland, this year the everglades, and it didn't let me down. Also have a durston xmid 2, which is fantastic, but not free standing, and has a HUGE footprint, weighs in at around 2.5lbs, if I remember correctly.  I'm going to use that to extend the life of the duplex. ... View more

@m_andreas10 drop what your doing and run to the exped website and see their complete line of fantastic and ultra lightweight (with great r values) super comfortable 3" pads! I just swapped out my old reliable neo air for a ultra lightweight exped and it's changed my life (hyperbole much?) I bought my first exped downmat from REI years ago, for zero degrees winter backpacking, it's just the best ever, so comfortable, but heavey...anyway...my buddy alerted me to the exped website variety, and he wasn't kidding! https://www.exped.com/international/en/product-category/mats/synmat-ul-winter-m-ruby-red ... View more

Excellent! Now I'm thinking about getting into kayaking... ... View more