Finding the perfect Father’s Day gift is pretty freakin’ hard. What do you get the dude who has absolutely everything? Just stopping to pick up some last-minute, slightly wilted gas station flowers might cut it for Mom, but we promise Dad isn’t ...
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New Yeti LoadOut GoBoxes: Rock-Solid Gear Haulers
Yeti, a company famous for turning coolers into status symbols, is expanding its GoBox lineup with two new heavy-duty storage containers to keep your gear as organized and protected as your food and drinks. The new LoadOut series of hard cases now ...
Campfire Cooking Kit: Make Your Own or Buy the Best
Camping meals don’t have to consist of hotdogs, canned beans, and the occasional campfire s’more. With the proper campfire cooking kit, you can grill, sauté, boil, steam, and bake like a badass backcountry chef. While backcountry adventure ...
The Free Range American 2022 Holiday Gear Guide
Below, you will find our staff picks from some of the hot new BRCC gear that just dropped for the holiday season. Below those you’ll find outdoor gear selections from our motley crew of staff members and contributors — all hunters, anglers, ...
New Matador Backpack, Beast28 Helium, Targets Ultralight Hikers
Matador is no stranger to the ultralight backpack market; the gear company boasts a catalog full of packable backpacks, pocket-sized dry bags, and other gear that’s optimized for people who travel a lot. At the same time, hikers who are cutting their ...
VSSL First Aid Stash and Stash Mini: Survival in a Can
Here’s the situation: You’re in the wilderness, and you’ve got a normal survival kit in a nylon pouch. You take a tumble — your flashlight gets crushed, your compass is cracked, and on your way down, all your matches, sensitive electronics, and ...
Essential Gear for Perfect Backcountry Coffee
It’s National Coffee Day, and with a “Buy One Get One 50% Sale” going on at BRCC, there’s never been a better time to stock up on the gear you need to make a perfect cup of backcountry coffee. There are 1,001 ways to make coffee on the mountain, but ...
BioLite Drops 2 High-Capacity Power Stations, Folding Solar Panel
This summer, BioLite, a true trailblazer in off-grid energy solutions, announced it was dropping two new high-capacity lithium-ion power stations — the BaseCharge 600 and BaseCharge 1500 — as well as the 100-watt SolarPanel 100. If you’re the kind of ...
Illuminating Survival: Learn From Light Sources Used by Medieval Troops
Artificial light sources used by humans didn't change much at all from pre-history right up to and into the 19th century. Until the invention of the lightbuld, people relied, in one way or another, on the light of a flame burning some kind of fuel to ...
Is the New TRXSTLE Bike Packing System Any Good?
Bicycles, since their advent, have been an economical and efficient way to traverse moderate distances while hauling a decent amount of gear or supplies in various ways. And the truth is, bikes can go some places that no other vehicles can. Today, ...
Don’t Screw Up Father’s Day: Get Dad Cool Stuff He’ll Actually Use
Shopping for Father’s Day is hard. It’s tempting to just get dad a gimmicky barbecue tool that will be used once before getting hung in the garage for the next decade. Or maybe a new pair of Crocs. But, this year, you don’t have to be that lame. ...
How to Avoid Getting Lost in The Woods
Keeping yourself from getting lost, or sometimes called, “Lost Proofing” is the art of knowing where you are (generally) at any given moment. Here are some actions you can take to make sure you know how to avoid getting lost in the woods. Know ...
Cold Steel Hudson Bay Camp Axe Updates Centuries-Old Design
The axe continues its unlikely comeback as a staple of modern life. From axe throwing to hipster backyards, the axe suddenly finds itself cool again. But hey, we know it never lost its appeal. ‘Cause sometimes, you just gotta swing a good axe to get ...
Planning a Big, Badass Outdoor Trip – Adventure 101
My husband Caleb and I recently completed our first real big, badass outdoor trip. We were gone for a month, backpacked 75 miles, and drove 3,500 miles. Through it all, we saw and experienced things unlike anything we could have imagined, but it ...
Making a Hiking Road Trip Food Plan – Adventure 101
After you have written a trip itinerary, but before you pack up your gear and take care of last-minute things, you need to think about food. Planning a long outdoor adventure requires a lot of food, which means you need a hiking trip food plan. ...
How to Pack for a Big Outdoor Trip – Adventure 101
There is a necessary list of gear that you need to pack for every outdoor trip, and the specifics of that list change depending on what you plan to do. Since you have already written your itinerary and planned your food, you might be getting ...
The Importance of Mental and Physical Fitness Prep – Adventure 101
Tending to mental and physical fitness before leaving for an adventure is equally as important as planning, preparing food, and packing the gear, but it's something many people often overlook. One of the things I did this summer on the 30-day ...
War, Van Life, and Journalism: The Many Adventures of Marty Skovlund Jr.
As a member of the Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment, Marty Skovlund Jr. completed five combat deployments. But the only time he ever got shot was in basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. It was a hot July afternoon on the range, and as he ...
5 Ways To Avoid a Grizzly Bear Attack and How To Survive One
The sun warms your shoulders as you adjust your pack and make your way down a path strewn with pine needles. It’s only a bit wider than a well-used game trail, perfect for a solitary hike through the backcountry. As you crest the ridge, ready to rest ...
Grizzly Bear Lured by Improper Food Storage, Camper Fined $6,000
Close encounters between campers and grizzly bears rarely end well, especially when food and garbage are involved. On July 20, an Idaho woman, Belinda J. Arvidson, was fined almost $6,000 after it was determined she “failed to properly store food and ...
Montana Grizzly That Pulled Woman From Tent and Killed Her is Dead
A 65-year-old California woman was pulled from her tent in the middle of the night and mauled to death by a grizzly in Ovando, Montana. Officials reported Friday morning that they have located and killed the bear. According to The Associated ...
The Coolest Retro RV You’ll Ever See
If there’s an ’80s child hiding inside you somewhere, this photo probably made them squeal a little bit — I know mine did when this killer retro RV popped up on my Reddit feed. There are vibes of the A-Team van on steroids, with hints of the van the ...
10 Outdoor Survival Skills That Everyone Should Master
The finest outdoor equipment in the world is of no value if you don’t know how to use it properly. Knowledge of key outdoor survival skills and when to pull them out of the bag trumps the best gear every time. Here are 10 indispensable outdoor ...
Sporting Art: Zippo Lighters Designed with the Outdoors in Mind
Early man in Africa and Eurasia first harnessed the power of fire 2 million years ago, discovering its usefulness for not only warmth and light but also protection from predators — and the ability to cook food. The earliest cave paintings, ...
Camp Stoves 101: Understanding and Choosing the Right Cooker
There is nothing better than cooking over an open fire, but it’s not without its challenges. Regulating heat is difficult, and getting the right amount of flame and ember can be tough for even the most experienced fire-builder. The best choice for ...
Buying the Right Sleeping Bag Made Simple
Perhaps no single piece of gear is more critical to comfort, and even survival, in the backcountry than a good sleeping bag. At first blush, you might think that choosing a sleeping bag would be a pretty simple endeavor. But fill material, ...
How to Pick the Perfect Backcountry Campsite
The sun set to the north that day, at least as framed by the steep walls of the Chugach Mountains, casting a golden light over the valley. Up in the alpine, 4,000 feet above sea level, we watched the day end. It was a good campsite and one of the ...
Review: Stay Warm with Eberlestock’s -22 Degree Euro Down Sleeping Bag
Looking up through the spruce trees, I could see the stars, bright and sharp overhead. A cold breeze blew all night, and the day had been cold enough to half-freeze my water bottle while I hiked. But tucked into my sleeping bag in a bivouac camp, I ...
Kifaru Slick Bag: A Zero-Degree Sleeping Bag Made for the Wilderness
The chief debate among people searching for a cold-weather sleeping bag is the choice between down and synthetic fill. As a rule, down fill is lighter and more compressible than synthetic fill. However, down clumps when it gets wet and loses much of ...
What I Learned After Living in Kifaru’s Supertarp for Two Weeks
When preparing to go elk hunting in Colorado this year, I knew I wanted a floorless shelter, and Kifaru International’s SuperTarp was on the top of my list. For two weeks, it would be my home. The SuperTarp is a three-season, floorless, lightweight ...