backpacking
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West Coast Trail Section-By-Section Overview
The West Coast Trail is a 75km multi-day backpacking trip along the West Coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Along the way, you’ll hike through the rainforest on rough trail, boardwalks and mud bogs, walk along sandy beaches, boulders, and slippery coastal shelf, cross rivers on high bridges and…
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How to Hike and Camp at Toleak Point in Olympic National Park
If you’re looking to explore some of Olympic National Park’s rugged coastline, I recommend hiking to Toleak Point from Third Beach. It’s a moderately challenging trail that travels along beaches and across steep headlands. The area around Toleak Point is dotted with dozens of offshore islands and sea stacks, making…
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How to Leave No Trace With Dogs
As a Leave No Trace trainer, I’m pretty passionate about teaching people the importance of keeping the wilderness wild and minimizing our impact. While I’m pretty well-versed in the theory behind leaving no trace while hiking with a dog, I don’t own a dog. So I didn’t feel qualified to…
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What to Pack for the Berg Lake Trail
I’ve done a fair amount of backpacking, but I had some trouble deciding what to pack for my trip on the Berg Lake Trail in early September. The trail is at a high elevation in the Canadian Rockies, so I knew the weather would potentially be colder and wilder than…
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How to Choose the Best Backpacking Meals
There are so many moving parts to planning a backpacking trip: permits, weather forecasts, gear packing… And of course the meal plan. It can be tough to figure out what to eat in the backcountry. You’ll be exhausted at the end of the day and you want something delicious and…
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Wild Side Trail: Hiking and Camping Guide
When most people think of Tofino, BC, they think of surfing or walking on one of the many sandy beaches. But did you know that by taking a short water taxi ride you can escape the crowds in town and hike and camp on a remote wilderness beach? Head over…
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8 Things I Wish I Knew Before Going Trekking in Nepal
Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal was one of the highlights of my life. It was an amazing adventure filled with beautiful views, waterfalls, picturesque villages, incredibly tall mountains… And surprises like the gorgeous jungle and delicious momo dumplings. There were also some misadventures like getting heat stroke AND then…
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Shi Shi Beach Hiking and Camping Guide
There’s something special about hiking and camping on an isolated west coast with nothing between you and Japan but the wild Pacific Ocean. Shi Shi Beach in Washington’s Olympic National Park gives you that experience, and it’s a short and easy hike to get there. I’ve made several trips to…
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Nomad Nutrition Backpacking Meals Review
I have eaten a LOT of pre-packaged backpacking meals in my days (and nights) on the trail. Unfortunately most of them are full of ingredients I can’t pronounce and don’t recognize. I have also tried my hand at dehydrating my own backpacking food at home, but that can be time…
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Which Women’s Specific Hiking Gear is Actually Worth Buying?
If you’ve been shopping for hiking or backpacking gear recently, you may have noticed some women’s specific gear. I’m not talking about clothing or shoes (obviously we need those)… I’m talking about backpacks, sleeping bags and more. Often this stuff seems to follow the same tired formula: “Shrink it and…
