I have spent the last decade eating my way through hundreds of trail meals, from soggy ramen at 11,000 feet to lukewarm dehydrated pad thai in a kayak cockpit. After three months of testing the best titanium sporks on the market across backpacking trips, kayak expeditions, and weekend campouts, I can tell you this: not […]

I learned the hard way on my first thru-hike that planning thru hiking resupply boxes is what separates a smooth five-month journey from a week-long scramble. After 2,650 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail and a section of the Appalachian Trail, I've shipped dozens of boxes, lost a few to postal delays, and learned exactly […]

After a close call with a deer tick bite during a 14-mile hike in upstate New York last spring, I started treating every piece of outdoor kit I own with permethrin. That experience pushed our team to spend the past four months testing the best tick repellent clothing options on the market, wearing them through […]

As paddlers who spend summers chasing the tide along the New England and Pacific Northwest coasts, our team knows the frustration of launching into a channel that drains to nothing two hours later. After 90 days testing 8 different tide clocks mounted in our kayaks, on our garage walls, and clipped to our dry bags, […]

After three months of side-by-side testing across the Rocky Mountains, Arizona desert, and Pacific Northwest forests, our team narrowed down the best titanium tent stakes worth your money in . I personally drove each of these into caliche soil, granite scree, soft loam, and even frozen ground at 11,000 feet. The stakes that made this […]

I've been carrying waterproof topographic maps into the backcountry for over a decade, and I can tell you the difference between a great map and a soggy piece of useless paper is the difference between a great trip and a dangerous one. Over the past 90 days, our team tested eight of the best waterproof […]

I'll never forget my first 8-mile tour on an inflatable touring SUP. The wind picked up around mile three, and my board turned roughly 50 degrees off course without constant correction. By mile five, my shoulders burned from switching paddle sides every 15 strokes, and I had to pull off the water early. That day […]

After spending eight months mounting cameras on everything from 6-inch saplings to old barn posts across three hunting properties, I've learned that the mount matters as much as the camera itself. I tested 12 of the most popular trail camera mounts on the market to find which ones actually hold position, aim accurately, and survive […]

I have lost count of how many trail cameras I have pulled out of the woods over the years, but I remember exactly how it felt walking up to a tree and seeing nothing but a stripped mounting strap. That sickening feeling is exactly why I started testing the best trail camera security boxes on […]

After running 14 different trail cameras across our test properties in two states, I learned the hard way that a good trail camera viewer matters more than the camera itself. You can capture thousands of images of trophy bucks, but if your viewer crawls through them at a snail's pace or chokes on a 64GB […]