Outside Magazine's 2008 Summer Buyer's Guide
If you're looking to buy new outdoor gear this summer, Outside Magazine's already done some preliminary footwork for you. Their 2008 Summer Buyer's Guide lists 392 pieces of top gear across the following categories:
- Run
- Ride
- Travel
- Hike
- Float
- Women
One other nice touch, Outside offers several videos within each category to show you some of the gear up close.
We just purchased an REI Half-Dome 4 HC tent (pictured/www.rei.com) for our family of four as we felt it combined generous space with a low weight. Also, its unique pole design allows for easy set-up in wind, and the fly ventilation flaps deliver awesome airflow. We were right on the money with this tent -- the 2008 Summer Buyer's Guide listed REI's Quarter-Dome (a smaller version of our tent) the winner for Best Space-to-Weight Ratio. Employees at our local REI were raving about the tent, and we saw two other Half-Domes in a field of 15 tents or so during a recent rock climbing weekend with the Chicago Mountaineering Club.
If you're starting to think about winter gear, consult Outside's 2008 Winter Buyer's Guide to get a jump on cold weather gear shopping!
Does fishing burn any more calories than sitting at a bar sipping a margarita? Tomorrow my family departs on a five-day canoe trip to the Boundary Waters and plan to fish for sustenance. If we don't want to eat another noodle dish for dinner, we'll have to cast a few lines to reel in shore meals.
Is your favorite sunscreen safe? The
My food dehydrator has been running 24 hours a day the past week -- we're drying a bunch of food in anticipation of a 5-day remote canoe trip into the Boundary Waters. Pre-kids, I used to dehydrate a ton of food for backpacking trips. Not only is the food incredibly lightweight, it's easy to rehydrate on the trail and the taste is fantastic. No chemicals either. A handful of dried blueberries rehydrate perfectly overnight in a water bottle, ready to be folded into pancake batter!
Do kids play less and eat more junk food during the summer? If so, it's likely they'd pack on more pounds, too. I'm a big supporter of solid school nutrition programs, but what happens to kids when the bell rings and they're back home for the summer?
The new slogan for the South Plainfield, NJ police department is "to protect and con-serve." I totally understand this slogan. I just swiped $71.49 to fill up our mini-van, and that was after their kind $.03 per gallon discount for being a frequent customer. Gas was $1.90 a gallon when we acquired the guzzler in 2004 -- uh oh -- reminiscing is a sign of old age.
Mosquito season has arrived -- I spent much of last weekend swatting them off my exposed neck, ankles and arms on a rock climbing trip. I try to avoid insect repellent, if at all possible. I don't like rubbing chemicals into my skin or the chemical aftertaste when spray drifts onto my tongue.
Focus groups held by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) reveal cancer and heart disease are considered much more severe than diabetes. This is no surprise to me. As a daughter and sister of two brothers and both parents with type 1 diabetes, I've heard this attitude spouted from many friends and acquaintances. Their logic goes something like this, "Since insulin has been discovered to treat type 1, there's not a problem, right? I mean, people used to die from diabetes before insulin."
PureSport, a new performance drink,
With all the
To many Americans, summertime in the great outdoors is associated with food. Giant grill-fests where everyone brings a dish to pass. People tend to focus more on the spread than the outdoor activities.
Climbers tend to stick together. If you like to rock climb, mountaineer or hike, a great way to find like-minded trail friends is through your local mountaineering club. The United Kingdom's CHAmois Mountaineering Club offers a
How come saying "no" can be so difficult for most people? I used to really stink at it, hence I played on five softball teams one summer, further unable to say "no" when each team headed out for post-game drinks. It may have been fun in college, but five barfly nights a week are not healthy when you're actually working for a living.
Chinese red yeast rice, a common ingredient in Chinese food,
I'm an outdoor girl with granola in her pockets. I get excited over a good pair of Merrell hiking boots, not a pair of Enzo flats. A camping vacation is truly a vacation to me. My husband and I spent nearly a month camping and backpacking on our honeymoon. Yes, we're a tad odd.












