America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
Michael:
I just got turned to your site today and have enjoyed reading your gear reviews. I plan to return for more reading soon and learn of your adventures. I noticed that we like a lot of the same brands of gear and particularly thought you might help me with my dilemma.
Fleece Jacket
The North Face Radium Hi-Loft Jacket
$170, 15 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
thenorthface.com
Given all the modern choices in outdoor apparel for the backcountry, is the classic fleece jacket obsolete? Not hardly. An insulating layer that’s highly breathable remains indispensable when you’re active in cold temperatures; I always have some kind of fleece layer when out backcountry skiing, cross-country ski touring, hiking, or snowshoeing in winter or any time of year in temps in the 30s or colder. The good news is that advancements in fabrics have transformed your father’s fleece into a more versatile outer or middle layer—like The North Face Radium Hi-Loft Jacket. Wearing it quite a lot while cross-country skiing on a four-day, December yurt trip in Idaho’s Boise Mountains, and as a middle layer while resort skiing as well as around town, I found it impressively warm, comfortable, and functional.
Weight Vest
Perfect 20-lb. Weight Vest
$80, 10 oz. (vest without weights)
One size (adjustable)
perfectonline.com
You want to become a stronger hiker? A number of years ago, after I’d gotten into hiking 20, 30, even over 40 miles in a day, I learned that becoming a stronger hiker isn’t just about having strong legs. I realized that overall fitness—including good core strength—holds the key to being able to knock off bigger miles on the trail. Plus, I don’t have the free time to train by hiking multiple days a week. So I get in shape for dayhiking, backpacking, climbing, and Nordic and backcountry skiing through high-intensity, resistance workouts indoors. That’s why I’ve become a big fan of training with the Perfect 20-Pound Weight Vest.
On dayhikes in southern Utah, the Oboz Traverse Low hiking shoe won me over as one of the best new low-cut shoes of the year for its outstanding support and traction and light weight. Now I’m giving away a pair of the men’s Traverse Low or the equivalent women’s from Oboz, the Luna, at The Big Outside. And today is …
By Michael Lanza
A few weeks ago, as I hiked with my daughter up the steep Grandview Trail in the Grand Canyon, knocking off the last few miles of a three-day backpacking trip that had been wonderful on many levels, I was feeling awfully satisfied. For starters, through most of this fall, I’d had a bad itch to get out somewhere—and the Big Ditch, it turns out, is a pretty good place to scratch that itch. Plus, we’d just enjoyed three absolutely gorgeous, summer-like days of father-daughter time, and the company of two other families who joined us.
But seen from a longer view, returning to the Grand Canyon again felt like the perfect way to cap off another good year outdoors. In 2013, I got to seven national parks; five federal wilderness areas; an Idaho mountain range (the White Cloud Mountains) that might… no, should… become either federal wilderness or a national monument in the near future; and had the unforgettable pleasure of standing with my 12- and 10-year-old kids, my 15-year-old nephew, and my 76-year-old mom on the crater rim of Mount St. Helens.