Jill
Lately, most of my travels have required me to pack a lightweight daypack for everyday adventures, and it’s been hard to pick which one to bring along from the ones available in my gear shed. One of my favorites happens to be the simplest: the Lowe Alpine Fuse 20 pack. When you need the lightest…
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Finding the right rain jacket that can double to be equally useful on a hike and roaming through town can require a lot of trial and error. Sporty, performance jackets sometimes stand out like a sore thumb when you pair them with out-to-dinner wear, and the more stylish jackets often lack that necessary performance aspect.…
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If you’re the kind of person who reads the first description of a piece of clothing, and then moves on if it’s described as good for a particular sport in which you don’t spend much time pursuing, I’m here to tell you to adopt a new behavior. Keep reading. Just because a jacket is “for…
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When you’re traveling, it can be hard to keep up the same training routine you have at home. Whether it’s hard to wake up early on vacation, or you have to plan a new running route in a city with which you’re not very familiar, there are countless reasons to blow the whole thing off.…
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We often yearn for simple, stripped-down gear design, and then realize we can’t find anything. Sometimes, organization wins. The Eagle Creek Global Companion 40L has plenty of spaces to organize your gear, plus is carry-on size (13.75 inches x 21.5 inches x 8 inches) and fairly lightweight (3 pounds, 8 ounces). It’s not a top-open…
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Recently, I needed to pack for a trip to French Polynesia where I’d be island hopping between very different islands. Some were low atolls with long, sandy beaches. Others were mountainous and scattered with trails that lead from the beach up into the forest. But one, with characteristics of both, is largely uplifted coral. When…
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When you’re going to the Arctic or Antarctica (or a few other notoriously frigid parts of the world), you need a hardcore puffy jacket. But when you need to stay warm without all the bulk of those seriously insulated jackets, you can afford to seek out a lighter-weight barrier against the cold. The Big Agnes…
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Bringing along a daypack on your travels is usually a good call. You can leave the bulk of your gear in your hotel room each day when you venture out, and only bring the essentials. When camping, no need to pack everything up to take a day hike when you can just bring what you…
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The days are long gone when we used to call vacuum-insulated bottles “commuter bottles.” They make life easy for folks getting to work, whether by foot, bike, car, train, boat, and plane. But they also serve some other essential purposes that make it worthwhile to consider: They keep your beverages cold or hot (depending on…
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Puffy insulation jackets can be a blessing (for warmth) and a curse (for bulk). When you’re traveling in cooler climates, the added warmth is welcome, but what do you do when you need to pack the jacket into a daypack? Are you willing to carry a bulky jacket along just in case? Hybrid insulation jackets,…
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