One wrong step on black ice ended my January hike two years ago. I slipped on a flat rock shelf, twisted my knee, and spent the next six weeks off the trail. That was the winter I started testing hiking boot crampons seriously, and I have not hiked a frozen trail without them since. Crampons […]

After a fishing trip last summer, I watched a buddy's tarp lift off his truck bed because the cheap bungee cords he'd grabbed at the gas station snapped in the August heat. The hooks whipped back and nearly took out his taillight. That is the moment I started taking bungee cord quality seriously, and over […]

I learned the hard way why a good dog water bottle matters. On a July hike with my 60-pound Lab, I packed a "cute" bowl that leaked all over my pack and left him panting for an hour before we hit a stream. That trip sent our team down a rabbit hole. We tested 15 […]

I learned about the best electrolyte powders for hiking the hard way. On a 14-mile summer trek through the San Gabriels, my calves seized up at mile nine. I had been drinking plenty of water but nothing else. My hiking partner handed me one of her LMNT packets, and within 20 minutes the cramping faded. […]

I have spent the last several hiking seasons carrying different defensive sprays across trails in Montana, Wyoming, the Pacific Northwest, and the Appalachian corridor, and I have field-tested every option in this roundup. The question I get most often from fellow hikers is whether to carry hiking pepper spray or bear spray, and the honest […]

I've hiked over 2,400 trail miles in the past decade, and I still remember my first neck gaiter failure - a $7 tube that fell apart halfway up a 14er, leaving my neck sunburned at 13,000 feet. Since then, our team has tested more than 30 gaiters across the high alpine, humid coastal trails, and […]

Nothing ruins a good hike faster than blisters forming on mile three of a twelve-mile trek. I learned that the hard way on a backpacking trip in the Smokies, limping the last five miles because my socks turned my heels into raw hamburger. That experience sent me down a rabbit hole researching the best liner […]

I took my first real winter hike in the Presidential Range three winters ago. I packed microspikes because a friend insisted, then ended up wearing them on every cold-weather trail for the next two seasons. Since then, our team has tested 10 different traction devices across packed snow, glare ice, rocky descents, and frozen mud. […]

I have been hiking with my two kids since the oldest was three, and I have burned through more boots than I care to admit. Finding the best kids hiking boots turned into a personal mission after watching my son wipe out on a wet log wearing sneakers that had zero grip. After testing eight […]

I tested these alarms across 90 days of trail use, including solo day hikes in the Cascades, a 5-day group backpacking trip in the Sierras, and early-morning runs near grizzly country in Montana. After pulling the pin on each one at least 50 feet from my tent, I can tell you exactly which ones scare […]