America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
By Michael Lanza Hiking up a forested section of Trail 101 in the Redfish Creek Valley of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, as I’m following a short distance behind a trio of loudly jabbering, 15-year-old boys—my son, Nate, and his buddies Kade and Iggy, whom Nate has invited on their first backpacking trip—we weave through an area where boulders the size of …
Ultralight Sleeping Bags Feathered Friends Hummingbird UL and Egret UL 30/20 $609, 1 lb. 5 oz. (men’s regular 30-degree) Sizes: men’s regular and long, women’s small and medium featheredfriends.com Sleeping bags often look very much alike—until you spend a night inside one and carry it in a backpack. That’s when the differences emerge, and besides price, those differences generally fall …
By Michael Lanza Minutes after we walk past the sign warning that this section of the Timberline Trail is closed due to “a deep chasm,” with 100-foot drop-offs, created by flooding from a storm—rendering the creek crossing ahead of us “very unstable and unsafe”—Jeff and I reach the top of the ridge high above the east bank of Eliot Creek. …
Rain JacketOutdoor Research Interstellar Jacket$299, 11 oz. (men’s medium)Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XLbackcountry.com Anyone who’s spent enough hours in waterproof-breathable jackets while on the move in rain knows that the second half of that hyphenated adjective looms as critical to performance as the “waterproof” part. When OR introduced the Interstellar as an overhaul of a personal favorite, their Realm Jacket, …
By Michael Lanza Do you have a backpacking trip or other outdoor adventure on your calendar for this year and questions about how to pull it off? Or do you want to take a big trip this summer or fall but have no plans yet? Whether it’s Sequoia, Glacier, Grand Canyon (the photo above shows me on the canyon’s Tonto …