Staying at the Little Mt. Hoffman Lookout

Wild Rye Emmett Overalls Review

Bike Touring the Shimanami Kaido

Frontcountry Vietnamese Spring Rolls

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Frontcountry Vietnamese Spring Roll Camp Recipe

Camp food is, unfortunately, not high on my list of things to do well. It’s a little weird because I love eating and I love good food. My go-to dishes are usually pasta, stir fries, or if it’s been a long day, salami and cream cheese. Lately, I’ve been exploring different ideas for camping food, because why should I eat the same ol’ things when I’m out in the wilderness? I started racking my brain for some of my favorite home-cooked dishes that I could modify for camping. Spring rolls were the first thing to come mind.

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Friday Nights are for Backpacking

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Backpacking Point Reyes Glen Camp

If you’ve got a car, good company, and some time to kill, camping in the Bay Area is just a stone’s throw away. Saturday night campsites are generally booked months in advance. Weeknights? You’ll have a better chance. I was stuck in the Bay Area one Saturday for a Chainsmokers concert. A quick browse on recreation.gov showed a Friday night Glen Camp site at Point Reyes National Seashore. I whipped out my credit card with lightning speeds, and within seconds, a campsite nestled in the woods was mine.

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Taste Test: Alpine Start Coffee

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Alpine Start Coffee Review

Instant coffee gets a bad rap for tasting like dirt. But coffee doesn’t have to be terrible when you’re miles away from civilization. Founder and professional climber Matt Segal dreamed up the idea of good instant coffee while he was out in the Bugaboos. Alpine Start Coffee is here to change your mind.

I personally do not drink coffee—I think it all tastes like dirt, with the exception of affogatos. I enlisted the help of several friends to do some coffee taste testing for me on some recent backpacking trips. Like all instant coffees, Alpine Start is easy to prep. Open a packet. Dump it into your cup. Boil 8 oz. of water. Dump into cup with powder. Stir. Voila, coffee! Each package comes with eight single serve packets.

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Review: Babytime by Episencial Mighty Shield Bug Repellent

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Babytime by Episencial Mighty Shield Bug Repellent Review

Tioga Pass is open. Snow is melting, and creeks are raging. Summer is in full swing in the Sierra. The ridiculously wet winter we had means one thing, and one thing only: mosquitoes are out and those suckers are damn thirsty. As a ripe and juicy human target, I’m always on the lookout for natural remedies to fight off the pesky bugs. Babytime has been my go to solution this season.

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Backpacking Coast Camp, Point Reyes

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Backpacking Point Reyes Coast Camp

Point Reyes National Seashore is one of California’s hidden gems. Outshone by more famous national parks in the state, it’s a bit of a local secret. That’s not to say it isn’t as equally busy, or as hard to score a campsite, as the state’s other national parks. The backcountry campsites at Point Reyes are always booked months in advance. I’ve day hiked there numerous times, but sleeping out there under the fog is something that I’ve never done until this past spring. After months of torrential downpour earlier this year, a site opened up at Coast Camp in for a Saturday in March. With no plans on the horizon, I grabbed it immediately.

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