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Trail Designs Caldera Cone Alcohol Stove System

Trail Designs Caldera Cone

The Caldera Cone is a very cleverly designed alcohol stove system. The base configuration includes an alcohol stove, a fuel bottle, a measuring cup, a combination pot holder/windscreen (The Cone), and two plastic tumblers that can be used as cups or bowls and screw together to store the system in your pack. This helps keep the metal edges of the …

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Campsite Regulations: The 200 Foot Rule

Fire Ring Containing Burnt Wood

I recently met a pair of new backpackers, Bill and Elena, and they asked me my opinion about the 200 foot rule. This is a  a backcountry camping rule in many federally regulated forests. Check your local regulations for specifics because they vary accross different federal and state jurisdictions. If you hike within the White Mountain National Forest, here is a link …

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Zpacks.com Ultralight DCF Stuff Sacks

Stuff sacks with draw strings compress much smaller than stuff sacks with roll top closures, especially for items like quilts.

Upgrading your stuff sacks to ultralight cuben fiber stuff sacks is often overlooked as a way to reduce your pack weight, but it can have a huge impact if you use heavier waterproof stuff sacks or compression sacks today. I switched to cuben fiber stuff sacks this spring because a lot of my older silnylon stuff sacks had bitten the dust. …

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What’s the Worst Weather You’ve Ever Hiked In?

Stacked pancaked clouds like this, called Lenticular Clouds, are often the harbinger of heavy rain

Most of us have had to hike in bad weather at one time or another, on day hikes or backpacking trips. While there have been plenty of times when I’ve cancelled a day hike or postponed it do to bad weather, I’ve also be forced to deal with pop-up thunderstorms and violent rain that we not forecasted and unavoidable. Backpacking …

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