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Latest
Unpacked: When Gear Owns You
A recent multi-sport adventure got BPL columnist Mark Wetherington thinking about gear and our relationship to it.
The Overlook: Understanding Livestock Grazing in Wilderness Areas
BPL columnist Ben Kilbourne uses a close encounter to examine the practice of livestock grazing on public land.
A Gear Confession
Chances are, you've got something in your pack that could be lighter, but it works for you. Maggie Slepian shares her heaviest items.
Learning Curve: A Shoulder Season Reminder
BPL columnist Maggie Slepian reminds new and old hands alike to prepare for shoulder-season backpacking accordingly.
Learning Curve: Breaking Loose
I fell into a rut, like many of us when an activity is familiar and comfortable. It took connecting with a more experienced backpacker to show me I had the knowledge and skills to push myself into new territory.
The Overlook: Othering in the Outdoors
BPL columnist Ben Kilbourne was on a trail run when he suddenly found himself in a mask-related confrontation. What happened next got him thinking.
Adapting to Changing Wildfires: Part Three
In part three of his series on modern wildfires, Rex Sanders uses video and animation to help you visualize just how crazy this wildfire season has been.
Adapting to Changing Wildfires: Part Two
In part two of his essay series on modern wildfires, Rex Sanders explores how backpackers must adapt to the new normal.
Adapting to Changing Wildfires: Part One
In the first part of his series on modern wildfires, Rex Sanders runs through the most common dangers associated with wildfires - and what you can do about them.
Learning Curve: In Over Your Head
The Learning Curve is a new column by outdoor journalist Maggie Slepian. In this installment, she talks about how easy it is to find yourself in over your head in the outdoors.
Improving R-values For Consumers
Sleeping pad R-values are not useful for many consumers, and the guidance from pad makers, retailers, and gear reviewers is inconsistent and prone to misinterpretation. This is a proposal for improved labeling and marketing of R-values.
Why I Walk
It’s four-thirty in the afternoon and I’m feeling a sleepiness only caffeine, napping, or walking can fix. English tea time. Spanish siesta. Utah amble.
Can Wilderness Include Humans?
Am I willing to temper my desire for the pristine with an awareness that the pristine is a cultural construct?
Getting Lost in an Urban Wilderness
We don’t explore urban landscapes like we explore the wild. But maybe we can apply ultralight backpacking techniques to urban exploration.
Backpackers Should be Amateur Naturalists
Ben Kilbourne explores the need for backpackers to be amateur naturalists in our effort to steward our natural environment.
On Racial Justice and Protecting Intimacy Between Humanity and Nature
If some of humanity is threatened, then our humanity's collective intimacy with nature is also broken.
First, Buy A Smaller Pack
Internet pundits often insist that new lightweight backpackers should buy a pack last, so that it will hold all their new gear and a week’s worth of food. Sometimes the advice is to buy the pack first, a little larger in volume than the backpacker thinks they’ll need. But both approaches can misfire, and I think there’s a better way.
More Reasons to Modify Gear
There are many good motives for altering equipment. Mostly we focus on reducing weight, fixing problems, or adding features. Here are a few more reasons.
Backpacking and Long-Distance Hiking in the Time of Covid-19
We need to take a hard look at what it means to be a long-distance backpacker in 2020 - what types of trips should be off the table, what types of trips are still okay, and how to keep yourself sane if you can’t make a backpacking trip work this year.
Beginner’s Mind: A Lifelong Ground Sleeper Takes to the Trees
After a lifetime of pole-supported shelters and sleeping pads, I’d decided to give hammock camping a try.
