America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
NOTE: See my updated review of these pants here.
Trekking Pants
Westcomb Recon Cargo Pants
$200, 13 oz. (men’s small)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XL
westcomb.com
One of the best pieces of advice I got this year was when a friend recommended these soft-shell pants to me for a weeklong, hut-to-hut trek in Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park in July.
Ultralight Wind Shell
The North Face Apex Lite Jacket
$130, 6 oz. (men’s medium).
Sizes: men’s and women’s XS-XL.
thenorthface.com
An ultralight wind shell can save you from a serious chill and is all but mandatory gear for a long trail run or ride, especially in damp, windy, and cool spring and fall weather.
Ultralight Rain Shell
MontBell Torrent Flier Jacket
$249, 8 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: Unisex S-XL
montbell.us
When a violent thunderstorm caught me on the 9,595-foot summit of Eagle Cap Peak in Oregon, and the skies opened up with booming thunder, lightning, and pounding rain and hail, I was certainly glad to have this shell handy. It fended off strong winds and kept me dry through that tempest, as it did in extended, wind-driven rains in Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park, and when I got caught in a sudden June snow squall a pitch off the ground while rock climbing at Idaho’s City of Rocks.
Daypack
GoLite Rush 20
$120, 1 lb. 3 oz. (S-M)
20L/1,220 c.i.
Unisex sizes S-M and M-L
golite.com
For a long dayhike, mountain bike ride, or adventure race, I like a daypack that’s light, well-organized so that I can quickly get what I want from it, doesn’t make my back all clammy, and is almost unnoticeable when I’m carrying it. The Rush 20 is all of those things. On back-to-back dayhikes of 27 miles and 22 miles in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, and a shorter dayhike with my family in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, I hauled as much as 15 pounds for up to 12 hours, and never once thought about my load.
Trail Running Shorts
CW-X Pro Shorts
$72, 6 oz. (men’s small)
Sizes: men’s S-XL
cw-x.com
After numerous hilly trail runs in my local Boise Foothills—ranging from six miles to a 25.5-mile, 4,600-foot, seven-hour July morning trail run-hike—I’m completely sold on the physiological benefits of these compression running shorts. Even on that 25-miler (running about three-quarters of the distance, walking the rest), a distance that would typically leave my quads feeling very worked and bloated with lactic acid, I felt strong right to the finish. My recovery from that run was faster, too, with much less stiffness and residual fatigue than I’m accustomed to after that long an outing.