Best Outdoor Blogs By the Bushel
It's been a busy few months on Section Hiker and I have fallen behind on my Best Outdoor Blogs series. I have still be reading a lot of great sites and thought I'd mention a few for you to check out. Hendrik Morkel has been doing a bang-up job the past few months on his blog Hiking in Finland, writing gear reviews, trip reports, and producing some excellent interviews with ultralight gear manufacturers like Mountain Laurel Designs

AT Section Hike: Guilder Pond to Sheffield
After spending the past few months section hiking the AT in New Hampshire and Maine, I did a big section down in southwestern  Massachusetts on Wednesday, finally finishing the state. As usual, I got off to an early start, sneaking out of the house at 5am (we're visiting relatives for Thanksgiving in Western MA), and drove down to the Great Barrington area for a dawn start. I got lost a few times trying to find the trail head I wanted, straying into NY at one point, but eventually found

Bivy Sack Buyer’s Guide
I am planning on experimenting with Bivy sacks this winter as a lightweight shelter for mountaineering and next spring under a tarp as protection against rainsplatter. I pulled together this list of the bivy sacks so I could compare them by weight, fabric, and price. I think I have most of the sacks available on the market today, excluding bug bivies, sleeping bag covers, and micro solo tents like those from NEMO. I've also left out the bivy sacks from Bozeman Mountain Works which are no longer available through Backpackinglight.com, their sole distributor. If you see any other omissions, please let me know and I'll add them. It doesn't matter if they're not

A Beginner’s Guide to Bivy Sacks
Bivy sacks were first developed as solo shelters for mountaineering, climbing, ultralight backpacking and adventure racing where participants were interested in light weight and highly compressible gear. The original bivies were little more than waterproof sleeping bag covers that protected extreme athletes from rain or provided them with a temporary emergency shelter. However, in recent years, a new class of bivy sacks has evolved that incorporates high tech breathable fabrics l

Hilton’s Tent City in Boston, MA
When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, we used to drive to a place in the suburbs called Ralph's Army Navy Surplus to buy camping and backpacking equipment. There wasn't anything like REI or EMS back then. Ralph's was one of those special stores, packed to the gills with interesting stuff, and I used to love going there to look at everything from tube tents and fishing rods to gas masks and wool army blankets.