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By Michael Lanza
You need a new backpack, backpacking tent, rain jacket, boots, or a sleeping bag. You’ve read reviews. You’ve winnowed your short list to a handful of possible choices—with a significant difference in prices. That’s when you struggle with the question that pushes the frugality...
By Michael Lanza
My first tent cost about 75 bucks. It was a bit heavy and bulky for backpacking. I called it the Wind Sock because it snapped loudly in the slightest breeze, and its poles bowed disturbingly in moderate gusts. (I learned to choose protected campsites.) But at a time when I...
By Michael Lanza
It’s hard to frame the experience of walking for days through Wyoming’s Wind River Range in words. The usual superlatives seem inadequate for describing a constant parade of sharp-edged, granite peaks soaring to over 12,000 and 13,000 feet, all reflected in thousands of...
By Michael Lanza
So you’re planning to thru-hike the John Muir Trail and making all of the necessary preparations, and now you’re wondering: What’s the best gear for a JMT hike? Having thru-hiked the JMT as well as taken numerous other backpacking trips all over the High Sierra—mostly between...
By Michael Lanza
In late afternoon, near the end of a day of backpacking some 14 miles—mostly above 10,000 feet—two friends and I walked into Titcomb Basin, deep in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, mouths gaping open. Forming a horseshoe embracing this alpine valley at over 10,500 feet, mountains...
By Michael Lanza
So you didn’t plan months in advance to reserve a permit for backpacking this summer in Glacier, Yosemite, on the Teton Crest Trail, Wonderland Trail, or John Muir Trail or in another popular national park? Or you tried to reserve a permit but failed? Now what? Where can you...
If you’re looking to make your garden comfier, cooler, and just a little more you, let me introduce you to the benefit of outdoor bean…
The post 10 Benefits of Outdoor Bean Bags (the growing garden furniture trend!) appeared first on Family Budgeting.
By Michael Lanza
Chances are that, by now, you’ve heard of Idaho’s Sawtooths—having typed that name into a search box may be the reason you’ve landed on this story. Maybe you’ve been intrigued at what you’ve heard or images you’ve seen from Idaho’s best-known mountain range. Perhaps you’ve even...
By Michael Lanza
We follow the Routeburn Track’s winding path through the dense, vibrant greenery of ferns, mosses, and ubiquitous beech trees of the forest in Mount Aspiring National Park, in the southwest corner of New Zealand’s South Island. The track parallels the raging whitewater of the...
By Michael Lanza
Are you in the market for a new backpack, boots, tent, sleeping bag or other backpacking gear or apparel? How do you find something that’s just right for you? What should you be looking for? How much should you spend? These are questions I’ve heard from many friends and readers...
Cleaning your gutters might seem like a simple weekend task — grab a ladder, climb up, scoop out some leaves, job done. But what many…
The post 7 Insurance Pitfalls of DIY Gutter Cleaning appeared first on Family Budgeting.
The post Best Ultralight Trekking Poles 2025 appeared first on BikeHikeSafari.
The post Best Ultralight Trekking Poles 2025 appeared first on BikeHikeSafari.
By Michael Lanza
I returned to the Grand Canyon yet again in April, my eighth backpacking trip there in the past 16 years. Any psychologist, behavioral scientist, or criminologist would describe that as an established pattern of behavior. I confess: I can’t get enough of that place. This time...
By Michael Lanza
Imagine this: You’re heading out on a long, beautiful hike deep in the backcountry, but instead of a full backpack, you carry a light daypack. You’ve avoided hassles with getting a backcountry permit and there’s no camp to set up and pack up. I love backpacking—and I do it a...
By Michael Lanza
The fact that you opened this story means you already recognize a simple backpacking truth: Reducing the weight in your backpack will make this activity feel like an entirely different and far more enjoyable experience. But how do you navigate the transition from heavier to...
The post Best Lightweight Hiking Shoes 2025 appeared first on BikeHikeSafari.
The post Best Lightweight Hiking Shoes 2025 appeared first on BikeHikeSafari.
By Michael Lanza
Among hikers and backpackers, Mount Rainier National Park may be best known for the Wonderland Trail, which makes a 93-mile loop around Mount Rainier—the 14,411-foot volcano that Washingtonians refer to simply as “The Mountain.” The Wonderland constantly ascends to sub-alpine...
The post Best Ultralight Down Jacket 2025 appeared first on BikeHikeSafari.
The post Best Ultralight Down Jacket 2025 appeared first on BikeHikeSafari.
By Michael Lanza
While sleeping bags have temperature ratings, with down jackets and other insulated jackets, there exists no easy way to determine how warm any specific garment will be without wearing it outside. But despite the absence of a precise metric for gauging the warmth of down and...
In professional clothing, it is all in the details. The right accessories have the power to take a look from mundane to striking; they can lend an…
The post How to Match Your Watch to Your Professional Attire appeared first on Family Budgeting.