Michael Lanza

Ancient Puebloan ruins in Woodenshoe Canyon, in Utah's Dark Canyon Wilderness.

Ancient and Modern Folly: Backpacking Utah’s Dark Canyon

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By Michael Lanza About five miles down Woodenshoe Canyon, under a blazing sun in southeast Utah’s Dark Canyon Wilderness, David stops on the sandy trail ahead of me and points to a barely distinguishable feature in the cliffs above us. We set our backpacks on the ground and follow a faint path up onto slabs below the cliffs. Scrambling and …

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Patagonia Nine Trails 20 daypack.

Review: Patagonia Nine Trails 20L Daypack

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Daypack
Patagonia Nine Trails 20L
$129, 20L/1,220 c.i., 1 lb. 11 oz. (S/M)
Sizes: S/M and L/XL
backcountry.com

What’s an ideal daypack for three-season hikes? When you’re only carrying food, water, extra clothing, and perhaps some incidentals like camera gear (as I do), a daypack of 15 to 20 liters is ideal for most dayhikers in three-season conditions: They’re light on your back but offer all the space and features you need. Sometimes the story behind a piece of gear will appear sparse, precisely because it dispenses with the superfluous in service to functionality. On various dayhikes from Zion National Park to a 27-mile, 16-hour traverse of western Maine’s Mahoosuc Range, I found the Nine Trails 20L hits a sweet spot for supremely easy access, low weight, capacity, and comfort.

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The Gregory Optic 58 ultralight backpack in the Grand Canyon.

Review: Gregory Optic 58 and Octal 55 Ultralight Backpacks

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Ultralight Backpack
Gregory Optic 58 (men’s) and Octal 55 (women’s)
$210, 58L/3,539 c.i. (men’s medium), 2 lbs. 7 oz. (men’s small, without the included rain cover, 3 oz.)
Sizes: men’s S-L, women’s XS-M
moosejaw.com

No one loves loading extra water into their pack—especially upwards of 13 pounds of it, as I did as we left our last water source on our final evening backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop. We needed to haul enough liquid sustenance to get us through the 2,600-foot climb we were embarking on at 5:30 p.m., plus another 2,000 feet uphill early the next morning. That pushed my total pack weight up toward the limit of the ultralight Optic 58—as good a test as any. And Gregory’s first foray into ultralight packs not only handled that assignment well, it shines for many other reasons, too.

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Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL 2 ultralight backpacking tent.

Review: Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 Ultralight Backpacking Tent

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Ultralight Backpacking Tent
Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2
$400, 2 lbs. 4 oz.
backcountry.com

I got a little worried when the wind in the Grand Canyon started gusting to about 30 mph one evening—which I assumed would test the limits of the ultralight Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 tent’s structural strength. When the gusts continued to increase—at times exceeding 40 mph—I seriously thought we might lose one or more of our shelters roughly halfway through our May backpacking trip on the 25-mile Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop off the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. But the Tiger Wall stood up to those gusts, giving me yet another reason to like this supremely featherweight backpacking tent.

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Wildcat Mountain, White Mountains, N.H.

Ask Me: Protecting Your Family From Ticks While Hiking

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Hello Michael,

I just stumbled on your amazing blog and ordered your book—I can’t wait to read it! I am completely inspired by your blog. I have one question: I am from the Northeast originally and a cousin of mine had very serious, chronic Lyme disease, which has instilled a huge fear in me of that and other tick-borne diseases. How do you protect your children from these things? Do you spray them down with insect repellent? (I try to avoid chemicals as much as possible.) Thank you so much for your help and your wonderful blog!

Sincerely,
Sarah
Encinitas, CA

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