Dehydrating food for the trail opens up many possibilities for the picky hiker. Cook it, dehydrate it, pack it, add water on the trail and…voila. It’s hard to beat a quickly-prepared, hot, tasty meal at the end of a long hiking day.

The problem: Food dehydrators can be expensive.

The solution: You can make your own!

Grab some duct tape, mosquito netting and a concrete form cylinder (5 bucks at your local hardware store) and head over to instructables.com for easy-to-follow instructions.

Stink much? Head over to Agion Active to get a FREE “odor-eliminating” shirt. One half is treated with their special sauce (which includes “dual action” antimicrobial properties among other innovations), the other without, so you can smell the difference.

Sign up to test the stink-less tee here.

(via The Daily Dirt)

BackpackingLight

As its name suggests, BackpackingLight takes lightweight backpacking seriously.  Much of the site requires a paid subscription to view, but their gear list and tools section is free and awesomely thorough.  This winter backpacking checklist is specific, easy-to-read and print.

Section-Hiker

The blog’s author used this list when preparing for a winter trek up Mount Washington in NH. Many of the recommended gear links lead to his own reviews of said gear, making this list doubly useful.

Backpacker

The Backpacker editors put their hiker-heads together for this comprehensive list. Be sure to read the comments section for even more great winter gear advice.

What items would you add or subtract? Suggestions welcome!

Dave over at Compass Points wrote a eloquent account of a recent backpacking trip we took through Northeastern parts of Shenandoah National Park in VA.  I’d like to expand upon one passage in particular, as I think my readers might find it interesting:

We discovered a sandbar on the opposite shore, and when our shoes sunk there, we knew we had made it. On dry trail, we returned our boots to our feet – except Chris, who would continue this strenuous hike in, of all things, Crocs.

Yes, you read that right — I walked the next 10 miles in Crocs.  Eagles Crocs (go Birds!).  Here’s my review after trudging up the side of the ancient, stony Appalachian mountains, then steeply descending — headlamp-assisted — to our perch at Bird’s Nest Shelter: The Crocs…well…they ROCKED.

As any hiking buddy of mine within complaining distance knows, I have temperamental feet.  When they’re not cramping, they’re cracking, when they’re not cracking, they’re rubbing.  Seriously, my feet are jerks, often forcing me to give up hikes or cancel them before they’ve even begun.

We all know Crocs are great camp shoes because of their soft sole, relative durability, light weight, and carbon nanotube supermolecular (or something) rubber material that keeps microbes and their associated smells at bay.  Crocs aren’t thought of as a hiking shoe for several good reasons, not the least of which is the total lack of ankle support, or the fact they they’re only held to the foot by a tenuous rubber strap above the heel, which will probably give you a blister if you give it enough time.

HOWEVER, I needed footwear immediately.  My gorgeous Patagonia Drifters, which normally fit like warm apple pie, were now frozen blocks, and I was not going to hike 10 more miles to the shelter in frozen blocks, dry moisture-wicking wool socks be damned.  So I slipped on some socks, then the Crocs, got laughed at and chided the rest of the day, but I made it.  The Crocs made it.  My feet felt better at the end of the day than at any other time in my backpacking life.

Perhaps it was because the Crocs are so flexible that they allowed my foot to stretch fully while walking over boulders and roots, like if I were barefoot, and thusly prevented any sort of cramping issues.  Or perhaps what I should have done at that first river crossing was to take my boots and socks off, worn the Crocs through the river, then put my warm-apple-pie Patagonias back on and saved the Crocs for camp.

So, to recap, we’ve learned two lessons:

1. I’m an idiot whose river-crossing footwear decision-making abilities are lacking

2. Crocs excel as a hiking shoe in a pinch

Ted over at the Daily Dirt reports on the CarboPouch, which boast such features as, well, BEING ABLE TO TRANSPORT BEER INTO THE WOODS!  Yah, I know…sweet.  A company appropriately named Beverage Pouch Group manufactures this wonderful product at, among other places, Germany.  Vince the ShamWow guy isn’t kidding when he says, “the Germans always make good stuff.”  Cheers, hikers!

The latest offering from CamelBak (due out Fall ’09) looks and feels exactly like what you’d think a 72 ounce reservoir packed inside a tight mesh vest would look and feel like.  At least according to Stephen over at GearJunkie:

There are thousands of gear lists out there detailing what to bring when hiking or backpacking, but you have to really dig to find the stuff that may not seem obvious but nonetheless make a HUGE difference between a fun trip and an absolute drag.  Here are a few items I pack on every trip that fit that catergory.