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Trail Food Review: Trail Butter
Trail Butter
Trail Food
Trail Butter
$7, 8-oz. plastic jar; $5 4.5-oz. resealable tube
Flavors: Ozark Original, Expedition Espresso, Mountain Maple
trailbutter.com
Given the inherent limitations on what you can eat in the backcountry, finding foods that are portable, non-perishable, don’t crumble or get crushed after a couple days in a backpack, and that everyone loves—adults and kids—is challenging, to say the least. Backpacking for three days in Utah’s Coyote Gulch with my family and another family—including four kids age nine to 12 with very different tastes—the tube of Trail Butter I brought became an instant hit with everyone and it disappeared quickly. Continue reading →
Gear Giveaway: Win a Deuter ACT Zero 50+15 Backpack
Deuter ACT Zero 50+15
Need a new backpack? I’m giving away one of the best mid-size packs I’ve tested, a Deuter ACT Zero 50+15, a $185 value. It’s easy to enter below: subscribe to this blog, like The Big Outside and/or DeuterUSA on Facebook, follow me @MichaelALanza and/or @DeuterUSA on Twitter, and tweet about this giveaway or my blog. If you already like The Big Outside or DeuterUSA on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, be sure to check the boxes for those below.
Read my review of the Deuter ACT Zero 50+15 backpack.
Gear Giveaway: Win an Arc’teryx Tecto FL Rain Jacket
Arc’Teryx Tecto FL
Want to score one of the best lightweight rain jackets on the market? I’m giving away a new, 10-oz. Arc’teryx Tecto FL Jacket, a $369 value. It’s easy to enter below: post a comment at this blog, like The Big Outside on Facebook, follow me @MichaelALanza on Twitter, and/or tweet about this giveaway or my blog. If you already like The Big Outside on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, be sure to check the boxes for those below. Read my review of the Tecto FL Jacket.
Win a Signed Copy of “Before They’re Gone”
My book, Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks, is now available in paperback, and I’m celebrating the release with a contest to give away a signed copy of my book.
The contest runs today, April 11, 2013, through April 17 at midnight, and all you have to do to enter is follow one or more of the options in the graphic below, which include tweeting about the giveaway, liking The Big Outside on Facebook (you’re automatically entered if you’ve already liked the page); following me on Twitter @MichaelALanza (if you haven’t already); or posting a comment on a story at The Big Outside. Continue reading →
When a Good Adventure Goes Bad
Book Review
Anything Worth Doing: A True Story of Adventure, Friendship and Tragedy on the Last of the West’s Great Rivers
By Jo Deurbrouck
197 pgs., Sundog Book Publishing, $15
Those of us who pursue adventure and challenge in nature sometimes cross a line into a place where life becomes fragile. But as the unfortunate who have stumbled inadvertently into that dark space learn, the threshold is never actually a distinct line; it’s a gray zone where we make a series of fateful decisions and are never granted the foresight to know what awaits at the end of them. In Anything Worth Doing, former whitewater rafting guide Jo Deurbrouck takes the reader on a riveting journey into the lives of two semi-legendary Idaho river guides, showing how a life lived well can sometimes end too soon. Continue reading →