stg-sectionhikercom-buttons.kinsta.cloud Backpacking Gear Reviews and FAQs

The navigation term Height of Land is a phrase you’ll often encounter when reading hiking trip reports, trail descriptions, or guidebooks. But it’s very difficult to get a clear definition of what it means unless you ask someone who knows. Height of land is used to mean a local high point on a trail, road, or along a ridge where you …

I have been reading a lot of books about compass navigation this year to improve my skills as an off-trail navigator and to figure out if there is a better way to teach compass navigation to hikers who want to learn it. The fact is, many people have a really hard time learning how to use a compass, a problem …

I had a reader ask, “what’s in your gear repair kit?” after I went through all of the gear repair supplies I use to maintain and repair backpacking gear at home. Here’s what I carry in my gear repair kit on every trip in the autumn and winter when the days are shorter. It’s really very little. 4 Spare lithium AAA batteries …

I’ve been testing a pair of Salomon XA Comp 7 Trail Runners for the past month as a potential replacement for the Inov-8 Terroc 330’s that I’ve hiked with since 2010. Inov-8 totally redesigned those old trail runners (see Has Inov-8 Wrecked the Terroc 330?)  recently and completely eliminated the mesh which I rely on to drain my shoes in …