Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody

Review: Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody

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Synthetic Insulated Jacket
Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody
$289, 13 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XXS-XL
backcountry.com

A lot of people wore this jacket before I did—or, more accurately, a lot of people wore most of this jacket—before I zipped it up at my campsite on a rocky ledge high above Baron Lake in Idaho’s magnificent Sawtooth Mountains. But I wouldn’t know that by simply looking at or wearing my Nano Puff Hoody. I’m speaking only partly metaphorically: Besides having excellent performance qualities, this jacket now contains cutting-edge, synthetic insulation that comes mostly from recycled polyester—which means that it’s not only good for me in the backcountry, but it’s good for the planet my kids are inheriting.

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Deuter Speed Lite 20 daypack.

Review: Deuter Speed Lite 20 Daypack

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Daypack
Deuter Speed Lite 20
$80, 20L/1,220 c.i. 1 lb. 3 oz.
One size
backcountry.com

At first glance, Deuter’s Speed Lite 20 struck me as a daypack with the right capacity and features for virtually any adventure—and super lightweight, which I like. So I decided to put it to a serious test, on an 8.5-hour, 20-mile, 4,500-foot, mid-September trail run-hike of the Alice Lake-Toxaway Lake Loop in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, including a 1,400-foot, third-class scramble up 10,651-foot Snowyside Peak. And there’s much to like about the Speed Lite 20.

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Along the Bayview Trail, Desolation Wilderness, California.

Photo Gallery: A Desolation Wilderness Dayhike

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By Michael Lanza

Although California’s Desolation Wilderness had long been on my list of places I wanted to explore, my first dayhike there happened serendipitously. We had just finished a 65-mile backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park and were planning on launching straight into an 86-miler in northern Yosemite, but wildfire smoke sent us packing. So we wound up in the Lake Tahoe area, which wasn’t getting smoke from the fires, looking for a dayhike. And we found a great one.

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A hiker watching sunrise at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

Photo Gallery: Yellowstone in Autumn

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By Michael Lanza

My goal that first day in our first national park: hike the North Rim Trail in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. I walked along the brink of the canyon rim, looking down a thousand feet at the river’s whitewater, and stood at the lip of 308-foot-tall Lower Yellowstone Falls. Before that autumn visit was over, I dayhiked to a grand, 360-degree view of Yellowstone from the top of 10,243-foot Mount Washburn and saw a herd of elk and four black bears (the latter from the safety of my car). I hiked at dawn around Mammoth Hot Springs, serenaded by the bugling of a bull elk, and solo into the magnificent silence of the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River. And I capped it off with an entirely unplanned event: getting stuck in a classic Yellowstone “bison jam.”

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Gear Review: Leki Micro Vario Carbon DSS Folding Trekking Poles

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Leki Micro Vario Carbon Antishock Trekking Poles
Leki Micro Vario Carbon Antishock Trekking Poles

Trekking Poles
Leki Micro Vario Carbon DSS Folding Trekking Poles
$220, 1 lb. 1 oz. (110-130 cm).
Sizes: regular/unisex 110-130 cm, Lady 100-120cm
moosejaw.com

How much does a good pair of trekking poles matter? I used these three-section, folding poles on a dayhike in August that I wasn’t certain I could finish: the 32-mile, 10,000-vertical-foot, nine-summit Pemi Loop in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. For the last few miles, the poles may have been the only thing holding me up. Whether or not you intend to take absurdly long hikes, this one did help me identify the many strengths of Leki’s Micro Vario Carbon DSS Folding Trekking Poles, and evaluate the usefulness of the antishock mechanism.

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