One freeze-dried dinner pouch at REI now costs what a whole crockpot meal costs at home. Twelve dollars for a bag of pasta and powdered sauce that feeds one person — that is the “pouch tax” backpackers pay for convenience. Run the math on a season of two-day trips and you are spending $150 to … Read more
Three Nights on a Wadded-Up Fleece Taught Me the Cheapest Sleep Upgrade Every camper has done it: dinner jacket balled up under the head, stuff sack of clothes for backup, neck at an angle no spine would choose. I did it for years, and I always blamed the ground. The ground was fine. The lump … Read more
The Number That Decides Your Resupply Box Every freeze-dried meal roundup argues about taste. Taste matters, but the number that decides whether a resupply box is worth the money is calories per dollar — and almost nobody runs it before checkout. I ran it across the two brands that dominate the freeze-dried aisle this October, … Read more
October is when the sleeping bag question stops being hypothetical. The nights you used to sleep through in a 30-degree bag are dropping into the low twenties, and the sleeping bag you bought last spring suddenly feels thin. You could spend $300 on a new cold-weather bag, or you could add a liner for the … Read more
Three years ago I blew $85 on a bear canister I couldn’t close properly, then spent 40 minutes at a trailhead repacking it in front of a ranger who watched the whole thing. If you’re shopping for a bear canister for beginners, the good news is you don’t need to repeat my mistake — most … Read more