The outdoors wasn’t always that welcoming.

“You don’t see a lot of people (on trail) that look like you,” says Jo-Ann, a Black woman. “But you have to push through the negativity to get to the good stuff. And I’m at the good stuff now.”

Jo-Ann’s story is familiar for many people whose skin color, ethnic background, gender identity, or sexual orientation put them in a minority in the outdoors. They may feel relief and joy in the outdoors, but getting to that happy place isn’t always easy.

Part of it is feeling alone in the outdoors, that others don’t look like you, or that because you stand out you may not feel safe.

The lack of diversity in the outdoors is well-documented, but what isn’t so widely cataloged are the challenges faced by people who are underrepresented in the outdoors, or the feelings they have on trail, in retail stores, or when viewing ads that have few or no people who look like them.

Those feelings and perceptions have been documented by Merrell, the outdoor shoe and apparel company, in its recently released “Inclusivity in the Outdoors” report, which surveyed people in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in 2020 and 2022. The survey defined the outdoors as anywhere a person can experience the weather and the natural world—animals, plants, or landscapes.

Overall, the 2022 survey reinforced that people view their time in the outdoors positively. 64% said they feel relaxed when outside, 59% said they feel happy, 55% said they feel calm, and 41% said they feel thankful.

But the survey also found that 19% of respondents reported experiencing discrimination in the outdoors. The survey found that percentages in almost all categories increased from 2020 to 2022.

In addition, 53% of survey respondents noted they have felt afraid when outdoors and 15% noted feeling alert.

The Black Experience

44% of Black survey respondents said they felt thankful when outside; 21% said they experienced discrimination when outdoors; and 23% said they experienced discrimination while shopping.

11% said they feel cautious, 4 percentage points higher than white survey respondents.

The story of Black Americans and the outdoors is one of segregation and painful reminders. Many national parks and outdoor spaces were segregated until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Confederate statues, a reminder of the South’s slave years, still greet visitors to some public spaces.

And the National Health Foundation reports that among Blacks in the United States there is still a perceived threat of violence from generational trauma due to decades of lynching that usually took place in forests, giving people of color negative feelings about outdoor spaces.

Jo-Ann grew up in a family that didn’t camp, and discovered the outdoors through her husband. Her first experience was a backpacking, canoeing, and camping trip in Maine, and she was hooked.

There were disappointments along the way. People assumed Jo-Ann couldn’t reach summits because they weren’t used to seeing people of color on the trail. Hikers would talk to her husband, a white man, but bypass her.

But she also found in the mountains a camaraderie of hikers. “The harder the trail, the better the people,” Jo-Ann says.

And Jo-Ann has a message for other hikers: “Everyone take a hard look when they see people of color on trail. Help out, not discourage.”

The LGBTQ+ Community

25% of respondents said they want to spend time outdoors.

40% said they felt comfortable in the outdoors; 56% percent said they felt relaxed; and 52% said they were happy.

50% of LGBTQ+ respondents in 2022 indicated a higher likelihood to be afraid of men than the overall total (50% vs. 33%).

LGBTQ+ respondents also reported experiencing discrimination when shopping for clothing, footwear, or gear in a retail store.

The survey results show that the LGBTQ+ community feels 9 percentage points more unwelcome in the outdoors than the overall total.

Perry Cohen grew up in New Hampshire hiking, biking, and skiing, and found comfort in the outdoors when he was uncertain about his gender identity. He transitioned to male in his late 30s, and shortly afterward founded The Venture Out Project, which helps members of the LGBTQ+ community feel emotionally and physically safe in the outdoors.

At first Perry focused on teaching outdoors skills, then he realized he was creating an outdoors community for people, and began focusing more on that.

“So when we first started out, there had to be a peak or there had to be something. And I think we still very much try to do that, but we’ve realized that the real goal is creating this community and this bond and people feeling like part of something,” Perry told huckberry.com.

Women’s Safety Concerns Rise

56% of women said they were afraid when outdoors.

16% said they were alert.

41% said in 2022 that they were afraid of men in the outdoors, an increase of 16 percentage points from the 2020 study.

Katie Kommer, an outdoors adventurer and freelance writer, says that when she started running and hiking she hardly worried about personal safety, figuring that people she met on trail would generally have the same good intentions that she does.

“However, over the past couple of years I’ve gotten a lot more cautious,” she says. “When backpacking alone, I never tell anyone on the trail where I’m planning to camp no matter how good their intentions seem. I also always carry a personal safety alarm whenever I am outside.”

And after Eliza Fletcher was abducted during her morning run in Memphis, Tennessee, in September 2022, and later found dead, Katie says her trail running group talked about personal safety measures to ensure they could run without fear.

“I do my best to always tell someone my plans, have my location sharing on with my best friend, and carry an alarm,” Katie says. “I also have a personal rule that if it’s dark enough to have my headlamp on, my headphones are out. Finally, I don’t stick to a normal running ‘routine’ and am constantly mixing up my routes so I’m not in the same place week after week.”

The result is that she feels “pretty safe” outdoors.

Still, she experiences harassment she doesn’t consider dangerous, but that is frustrating.

“During the summer if I’m running on the road in shorts and a sports bra, catcalls are quite frequent,” Katie says. “It’s also very common to receive a patronizing ‘why are you out here all by yourself’ from older gentlemen while I’m trail running, hiking, or backpacking. While none of this directly attacks my personal safety, it does make me feel less welcome in the outdoors.”

Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples spent the most time outdoors among respondent: 36% compared with 27% for all other respondents. Indigenous Peoples’ responses about how they felt in the outdoors was also higher than other respondents’ answers: 46% indicated they felt alive, 54% said they felt thankful when outside, and 65% noted the outdoors “just makes me feel better.” The survey noted that Indigenous Peoples’ long connection to nature probably accounted for those feelings.

But the survey found a downside in Indigenous Peoples’ outdoor participation: 21% of Indigenous respondents vs. 15% of white respondents said they experienced discriminatory treatment when outside.

22% of Indigenous respondents also said they experienced discrimination when shopping for outdoor gear in a retail store.

Jaylyn Gough, an avid climber, hiker, mountain biker, and landscape photographer, founded Native Women’s Wilderness out of frustration fueled by the lack women of color, especially Indigenous women, represented in outdoor industries. She wants Native Women’s Wilderness to be a platform for Native voices, a place to express the love and passion for the wild, and to provide education about ancestral lands.

The Hispanic/Latin American Community

46% of Hispanic/Latin American people said they felt alive when outside.

13% felt cautious.

28% of Hispanic/Latin American respondents said they were discriminated against in the outdoors.

Pedro Altagracia, an advisory board member with Latino Outdoors, went to great lengths to find nature after moving from New York City to New Hampshire, and experienced exclusion in the management of outdoor recreation spaces.

Now he advocates for inclusive and equitable access to the outdoors, the value and impact of nature on marginalized communities, and why diversity, equity, and inclusion are important in nature.

He is the director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Easterseals NH, VT, and ME, and is on the board of trustees for The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire.

The Asian Community

21% of Asian respondents said they were discriminated against in the outdoors.

Don Nguyen, whose parents were Vietnam War refugees, co-founded Climbers of Color after disappointing experiences guiding for large outfitters.

“I got burned by the leadership and culture,” he says on the Climbers of Color website. “It’s hard to be the token POC in an all white company in 2016, in a white dominated sport. … I looked for clubs, groups, any resources to help myself and help others through hard steps like that.”

He didn’t find any, and thought there was nothing he could do to change the narrative in the sport he loves.

Then, he decided, “If not me, who, if not now, when. Believing the fact that small groups of motivated, skilled people, changed the course of history, Climbers of Color was founded.”

What Merrell Is Doing

“We know our responsibility is to do more than build great shoes and boots that enable our consumers to revel in the power of the outside,” Christopher Hufnagel, Global Brand president for Merrell, says in the survey’s introduction. “We also believe we have to be a catalyst for change in the outdoors and help make the outside more welcoming, safer, and more inclusive for all—a place where everyone feels they belong.

“This first-of-its-kind study measuring perceptions and experiences in the outdoors is a critical component of our work and will help guide our efforts moving forward. For us, the outdoors is everything, and we hope we can be a small part in making it a better place for everyone.”

Recognizing that advertising does not fairly represent people who venture outdoors, Merrell says it will go beyond gender and skin tone to include all sizes, abilities, cultures, gender identities, and ages. The company says it will create diversity and inclusion benchmarks by auditing current marketing materials and setting goals for improvement.

Merrell says that rather than relying on traditional portrayals of nature like camping and hiking in its marketing, it will show other outdoor experiences that marginalized communities relate to. Those images will include backyards and front yards, playgrounds, city parks, and children walking to school.

It also will build accountability to create a culture that fosters innovative ideas and cultural relevance while ensuring representation across marketing, products, and sales. Anti-racist and inclusive education will also continue within Merrell’s workforce.

The company began the Merrell Hiking Club in the United States and Canada with the goal of ensuring women were able to safely and confidently experience the power of being outdoors.

In 2020 Merrell partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters to increase opportunities for youth who may not have adequate access to nature, natural parks, or public trails.

Merrell also expects its partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association to bring park-improvement projects to life in communities hit hardest by park-funding inequities.

How the Survey Was Done

Two quantitative 20-minute surveys in 2020 and 2022 gathered responses from 2,000 people in the United States (800), Canada (600) and the United Kingdom (600). Respondents represented diverse backgrounds, including differences in age, gender, childhood income, current socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Participants who identified as Black, African American, Caribbean, Black-North American, Black mixed heritage, or biracial are referred to as Black. Participants who identified as Asian, Pacific Islander, East Asian (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Korean), Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Filipino, Vietnamese, or Asian mixed heritage or biracial are referred to as Asian.

Some Resources

This list is by no means complete. If you know of a group you would like included email [email protected].

Refugee Women’s Network Hiking Group

Women’s Hiking Crew & Adventures

Latinxhikers

Black Girls Trekkin’

Hiking For Her

Queer Nature

Brown Folks Fishing

Outdoor Asian

Diversify Outdoors

Outdoors Empowered Network

Outdoor Afro

Justice Outside

Big City Mountaineers

Black Outside

This story was reported using data from Merrell’s “Inclusivity in the Outdoors” survey, and by talking with people from the backgrounds noted in the report. I emailed many outdoor groups and people in those groups, but after receiving only two responses drew on additional information from groups’ websites. If you would like share your personal experiences for this story email [email protected].

Feature photo by Katie Kommer

The post The Outdoors Brings Us Joy. But Does Everyone Feel Welcome? appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

So why do I carry one?

I do it for the bears.

For the bears on the bad end of encounters with humans, the ones trapped and relocated, or in the worst cases, killed.

For the bears that have learned how to get into hikers’ food stashes, even when the food is hung at a seemingly unreachable level.

Does that last one sound far-fetched? Consider this:

This summer the Appalachian Trail Conservancy recommended that AT hikers carry bear cans because bear hangs just aren’t cutting it.

“Black bears along multiple sections of the Appalachian Trail have become increasingly adept at defeating traditional food hangs, where a hiker stores their food over a tree branch using a rope and storage bag,” says Hawk Metheny, ATC Vice President of Regional and Trail Operations. “By using a bear-resistant container, hikers are minimizing their chances of a negative bear encounter on the trail and helping prevent more bears from becoming habituated to humans as a source of food.”

It’s not just on the Appalachian Trail.

Backpackers in California’s Desolation Wilderness are now required to store food in bear-resistant canisters because the US Forest Service, which oversees the wilderness in Northern California, says bear hangs are no longer effective.

“Backpackers at Lake Aloha, Gilmore Lake, and other popular camping areas in Desolation Wilderness have lost as many as ten ‘bear hangs’ a night to bears in recent years,” the Forest Service says.

I’ve never had a bear go after my food in nearly 50 years of backpacking, although I have done a lot of poor bear hangs. Call it luck, but luck doesn’t last forever.

On one trip I heard a bear rumble like a freight train through a backcountry campground at night while, lacking any good trees to hang my food, my food bag was locked in the privy. Admittedly not my best move.

Another time I set up in a shelter where a sleeping bag and gear were laid out, but no hiker. He showed up close to midnight after a night in town, and thanked me for being in the shelter so a bear wouldn’t get his food.

I’ve read endless debates about food storage, and shuddered at boasts by people who say they sleep with food in their tent. Why would a tent protect them when bears in Connecticut, where I live, have broken into houses—some of them with people inside—looking for food?

Jim Fetig, a trail maintainer for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and a Leave No Trace Master Educator, told me several years ago about a bear that ripped apart a tent to get at food inside. Later, the same bear tore up an empty tent looking for food, although the hiker had properly stored their food away from their tent.

“The bear was doing what people taught it to do,” Fetig says. “As I always tell campers, you never know what happened before you got there.”

In New England, where I hike, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Green Mountain Club have placed bear boxes in most of the backcountry camping sites they maintain. The AMC reports that the boxes are effective at reducing bear-human encounters.

Still, the boxes aren’t foolproof. A bear broke into a bear box at the AMC’s 13 Falls Tentsite in the White Mountains recently after the box’s latch failed. (See the havoc wreaked in the above photo.) The AMC is checking all its backcountry food storage containers to ensure there won’t be a repeat.

And the AMC encourages backcountry hikers to carry bear cans if they won’t be camping at club-maintained sites.

The GMC, which maintains the AT and Long Trail in Vermont, stepped up placing bear boxes at backcountry sites in 2019 after game wardens shot and killed a bear that ransacked tents, followed hikers, and charged a hiker on the LT/AT in Southern Vermont.

Along the Pacific Crest Trail bear canisters are required in parts of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Inyo, Sierra and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests, and in all of Yosemite, Desolation Wilderness, and Lassen Volcanic National Parks. The Pacific Crest Trail Association strongly recommends that thru-hikers carry a bear can for their entire hike.

Unfortunately, even carrying a bear can is no guarantee that your food will be safe.

Clear plastic canisters such as the BearVault—the one I carry—have been banned in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondacks in New York because bears have learned to open them. A bear named Yellow-Yellow was the first to be seen opening the BearVault, but other bears seemed to be catching on.

Similar bear behavior hasn’t been seen outside the Adirondacks, and the BearVault is approved for use in black bear country by SierraWild.gov and in grizzly country by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. Both groups list approved bear-resistant products on their websites.

Many hikers carry an Ursack, which is lighter and easier to fit in a backpack than a bear can. The downside? An Ursack can keep your food safe, but it won’t stop a bear from stomping on it and crushing everything inside.

And it’s important to check with the regulations where you’ll be hiking. Some areas such as the Adirondacks and the Desolation Wilderness require hard-sided bear cans and do not accept Ursacks.

So what’s my takeaway on storing food in the backcountry? It’s this: No bear hang or food storage is perfect, and keeping food in your tent is definitely courting trouble. But using a canister is the best way to ensure that the next bear you see isn’t the one tearing into your food stash.

I’d like to wrap this up with a final anecdote.

Several years ago I was camping on the AT at Speck Pond in Southern Maine. The caretaker stopped by the shelter for a brief riff on campsite rules, which included: prepare and eat food at the cook site away from the shelter and tent platforms, and store food in the bear box, because bears are frequent visitors.

I fell asleep that night to the sounds of my shelter mate munching away on a bedtime snack. I wonder if his luck ever ran out.

Thanks to Matthew Paille for the photo of the bear damage at 13 Falls Tentsite.

The post Why I Carry a Bear Can. And You Should Too appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

Tifosi Again Launches Awareness Collection in Support of Breast Cancer Research

For the third consecutive year Tifosi’s active-lifestyle sunglasses are available in limited-edition pink colorways, with 100% of net profits from each pair of sunglasses sold on TifosiOptics.com from the Awareness Collection donated to support educational outreach and research efforts of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation.

Since launching its inaugural Awareness collection in 2022, Tifosi has donated more than $8,600 to the foundation. Tifosi hopes to surpass the $10,000 mark in 2024.

“Each year we’ve launched our Awareness Collection we’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from both current and new customers,” said Elizabeth Earley, Tifosi co-founder and owner. “We’re grateful for our partnership with Lynn Sage, and we’re honored to contribute to a cause that touches so many lives.”

Since 1985, the Chicago-based Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation has raised more than $40 million, investing the money in scholarship programs, research grants, symposiums, and fellowships locally and globally.

“We at the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation are proud to once again partner with Tifosi in our mission to prevent, treat and ultimately eradicate breast cancer,” said Laura Sage, daughter of Lynn Sage and founder of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation. “Seeing participants at our events wearing pink Tifosi sunglasses is a reminder of the unity within our community as we work towards a world without breast cancer.”

Oru’s Pink Edition Kayak Supports Breast Cancer Research

Oru Kayak is donating 5% of its sales from a special pink edition kayak to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

By launching the Pink Edition Inlet Foldable Kayak for October–the month designated to promote breast cancer awareness and raise money for a cure–Oru Kayak offers paddling enthusiasts an opportunity to support the foundation’s work.

“The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is an integral resource to finding a cure for the world’s most prevalent cancer,” Oru Kayak President Ardy Sobhani says. “With our campaign, we want to support the organization and their impact on advancing research and saving lives.”

The Pink Edition Inlet Foldable Kayak is a version of Oru’s Inlet kayak, and has pink accents and pink buckles. The Inlet kayak is 9 feet, 8 inches long, weighs 20 pounds, and folds down to the size of a suitcase.

More information on the Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Edition Inlet Kayak is available here.

Goldwin Launches New Collection of Sustainable Clothing

Outdoor clothing brand Goldwin has launched a new global collection of sustainable lifestyle apparel that uses plant-derived textiles.

The collection was created in collaboration with Spiber Inc., a biotechnology venture that develops new textiles using plant-derived products and microbial fermentation technology in an effort to reduce reliance on environmentally harmful products and practices.

Goldwin has been collaborating with Spiber since 2015, and together they have released a variety of limited knitwear and fleece collections. This is their first full collection together, and the first time winter outerwear has been included in a collection.

The partnership with Spiber is a major step in Goldwin’s goal to have 10% of new apparel by 2030 use Brewed Protein material produced through a fermentation process using sugars and microbes, rather than petrochemical or animal-derived raw materials.

Solo Stove, Brant & Cochran Partner to Produce Limited Edition Axe

Solo Stove has partnered with Brant & Cochran to create a limited edition camp axe.

The Solo Stove x Brant & Cochran Collaboration is an Allagash Cruiser axe forged in South Portland, Maine, from American-made 1050 carbon steel.

Although few backpackers carry an axe into the woods, the Allagash Cruiser would meet the needs of trail maintainers who travel deep into the backcountry. Or maybe it would be handy for a backyard campfire while taking a break from mountain trails.

Solo, a maker of wood stoves from backpacking to tailgating, is a good fit to partner with Brant & Cochran, which makes its axes in Maine.

The limited edition Allagash Cruiser sells for $349.99 and is available here.

Only 250 of the limited edition cruisers have been made, and they come with a Maine-made leather sheath, a leather-bound log to record fireside memories, three matchbooks with artwork from Solo Stove, Brant & Cochran, and Solo Stove x Brant & Cochran, and wax and hickory fire starters embedded with hickory handle shavings from the floor of Brant & Cochran’s workshop.

Tifosi Brings Back Pink Sunglasses Collection for Breast Cancer Month

Think pink, see pink in October with Tifosi Optics’ pink sunglasses collection, and help promote breast cancer research and education.

Tifosi is bringing back its Breast Cancer Awareness Collection of pink sunglasses for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and will donate part of the proceeds from each sale to the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation, founded in 1985 in Lynn’s memory. Last year Tifosi raised more than $3,000 for the foundation selling Sizzle, Swank, Swank XL, and Svago sunglasses, and this year is adding pink Smirth and Shwae sunglasses.

The Sept. 15 kickoff for Tifosi’s Breast Cancer Awareness Collection gives people time to purchase pink sunglasses to wear at events such as breast cancer runs, rides, and fundraisers during Breast Cancer Awareness Month from Oct. 1 to 31. Last year the pink sunglasses sold out by mid-October.

Natural Atlas Goes Beyond the Trail with Custom Field Guide

Don’t just plot the miles and trails on your next hike. Observe the world around you with Natural Atlas, a GPS mapping and trails app that doubles as a field guide.

Natural Atlas uses GPS to adjust the app’s field guide to your location, giving you custom weather forecasts and information on the landscape, trees, animals and plants around you.

With Natural Atlas you can snap a photo of a bird, categorize it, tag where you saw it on the trail map, and share it with friends.

Natural Atlas Plus is free for a seven-day trial, and after that $5 a month or $39.99 for an annual subscription. Natural Atlas can be downloaded at the App Store or Google Play.

Smartwool Giving Old Socks a New Purpose

Smartwool is making old socks new again with its Second Cut hiking sock, a blend of old sock yarn and new merino wool.

Smartwool, based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, began accepting old socks in 2021, and with North Carolina-based Material Return began developing a way to blend yarn from old socks with new, responsibly sourced merino wool.

The result is Smartwool’s Second Cut sock.

“Smartwool’s partnership with Material Return has ultimately led to a closed-loop model that goes beyond recycling,” says John Ramsey, Director of Product Development at Smartwool. “We were able to accomplish this through new and innovative technology, team collaboration, and consumer participation. Investing in this process has enabled Smartwool to take leaps forward toward our goal of shifting towards a more circular business model.”

Only 14% of textiles are recycled, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and socks are one of the most discarded pieces of apparel.

Through the Second Cut program, consumers can recycle any sock brand, color, size, and material, but only material from donated Smartwool socks was used to create the Second Cut sock.

The first product featuring consumer donations was Smartwool’s Second Cut K9 Camp Cushion dog bed, which uses donated socks for bed filling.

Since the Second Cut program launched, Smartwool has collected more than 725,000 socks and diverted more than 54,200 pounds of socks from landfills. To participate in the take-back program, consumers can add a pre-paid, mail-in bag to their cart at checkout to send in used socks for recycling.

The Smartwool Second Cut sock is available for purchase at smartwool.com.

To learn more about Smartwool’s Second Cut program, the brand’s sustainability
journey, and its use of regenerative materials, visit smartwool.com/second-cut.

Oboz Will Plant Trees in Hiker Challenge

Take a hike, plant a tree.

From May 1 to 10 Montana boot company Oboz will plant a tree for every hike of at least 1 mile that participants take in the Oboz Fast Trail Challenge.

“To date, we have planted over 5 million trees and we are on a mission to plant 5 million more,” said Amy Beck, president of Oboz, based in Bozeman, Montana. “May is a great time to get outside, and we hope that the Fast Trail Challenge will inspire people to get out and get moving while helping kickstart our goal of planting 5 million more trees.”

Registration for the challenge is free and open now at hikeanywhere.obozfasttrail.com. The challenge is open to walker, hikers, runners, and people using mobility devices.

Challenge participants will track their hikes on a GPS-enabled device such as a Garmin or Suunto watch, or through a mobile phone app such as Strava, MapMyFitness, or Sports Tracker. Entrants will be eligible for prizes from Oboz as well as Fast Trail Challenge partners Osprey, All-Trails, DripDrop, and Dometic.

Participants can complete as many hikes as they wish on any day from May 1 to May 10 as long as each hike exceeds 1 mile. Oboz will plant up to 4 bonus trees on behalf of any participant who completes more than 10 hikes. Additionally, participants will receive a virtual badge in their Fast Trail Challenge trophy case for each trail they complete, signifying how many trees they helped to plant.

Oboz will host parties at the end of the Fast Trail Challenge that will include food, beverages, films, and giveaways at locations across the country. Participants will be informed of the after-party location nearest them midway through the challenge.

More information on the Oboz Fast Trail Challenge can be found at hikeanywhere.obozfasttrail.com.

Sea-to-Summit Releases New Ikos Tent

Adventure gear maker Sea-to-Summit has expanded its tent offerings with the Ikos, the company’s most sustainable tent to date.

The Ikos, available in 2- and 3-person sizes, uses DAC MX poles made with a greener anodization process to lessen environmental impact; a chemical-free, flame-resistant fabric; and a non-PFC water-repellent finish.

The Ikos also has a “Hangout Mode” for turning the tent into an open-air shelter to protect against bad weather or blazing heat. Additionally, the tent’s interior livable space has a wider floor volume to accommodate rectangular sleeping mats. The Ikos targets car campers, leisure adventurers, and mid-mountain backpackers seeking greater comfort in tents.

Sea to Summit also launched the Big River Dry Pack and eVac Compression Dry Bag HD, and enhanced its legacy lightweight dry bags and stuff sacks by incorporating decades of market-leading design solutions and consumer feedback to offer intuitive features.

The dry bags and stuff sacks have easy-repair field buckles, optional Sling carry solutions for cumbersome loads, ultralight dry storage solutions for weight-conscious adventurers, and robust 420-Denier ripstop nylon bags for the most rugged pursuits.

“For more than 30 years, Sea to Summit has focused on creating some of the most innovative equipment solutions on the market, offering unparalleled durability,” Sea to Summit North America General Manager Josh Simpson says. “The recent product launches highlight the future of our design, the meticulous and thoughtful features we work to incorporate, and the potential in which we can integrate sustainable materials and solutions into our core offering.”

Sawyer Marks 15 Years of Bringing Clean Water Worldwide

Since Sawyer started its Clean Water for All initiative with one partner 15 years ago the nonprofit has provided clean water for more than 27 million people in over 100 countries.

Clean Water for All now has 140 partners working to bring Sawyer’s filters and clean water to people and countries worldwide where waterborne diseases are the number one killer. An estimated 4,100 children under the age of 5 die from waterborne illnesses each day globally.

Sawyer’s water filters have long been popular with hikers and backpackers, and through Clean Water for All they are being used in more than 90 developing countries.

Clean Water for All began in 2008 when Florida-based Sawyer partnered with the nonprofit Water with Blessings to put Sawyer water filters into the hands of mothers in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They were trained to provide clean water, not just for their own families, but also for others in the community.

“In developing countries, collecting water is a task that falls largely to women and girls as part of keeping house,” says Darrel Larson, Sawyer’s International Director. “The time spent on this chore often means girls miss school and women miss out on the chance to earn a decent living. The trickle-down effect of Sister Larraine (Lauter) and the entire Water with Blessings work of bringing clean water is so much more and is breaking the cycle of women in poverty globally.”

In 2021, with the help of Sawyer filters, Liberia became the first developing country with clean water, border to border. Sawyer is on track to do the same in the Marshall Islands in July 2023, in Fiji in 2024, and in Vanuatu, a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands, in 2025.

All of Sawyer’s Clean Water for All projects use the company’s 0.1-micron absolute hollow fiber membrane filter that removes 99.99999% of all bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera, and E. coli; 99.9999% of all protozoa, such as Giardia and cryptosporidium; and 100% of microplastics.

8/20: Six Moon Designs Celebrates 20 Years of Lightweight, Innovative Gear

Ron Moak had a vision when he started Six Moon Designs in 2002: Create revolutionary hiking and backpacking gear that’s light, durable, and affordable.

And as the company celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year, the focus is still on customers and lightweight, affordable gear.

“At Six Moon Designs we make gear, but our primary focus is on our customers’ backcountry experience,” says Ron, President of Six Moon Designs, based in Beaverton, Oregon. “We make our gear lighter so the walking becomes more pleasurable. We make our gear durable so you don’t need to be concerned about failure far from home. We make our gear affordable so you can devote more of your hard-earned money on making memories, not buying gear.”

Ron’s path to founding Six Moon Designs followed a familiar refrain among outdoor gear makers: crafting their own lightweight equipment because the major brands didn’t offer it. He and his wife, Linda, hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1977, carrying packs weighing about 35 pounds while fellow hikers lugged packs topping out at 50 to 60 pounds. In 2000 he made most of his gear to reduce his pack weight for a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike.

In 2002, while considering a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, he started Six Moon Designs with its first product: The Europa Tent, a 33-ounce, single wall sil-nylon shelter that set a standard for lightweight shelters. He followed up with the Starlite Pack, a frameless pack with a large carrying capacity that again broke ground for lightweight packs.

Over the years Six Moon Designs has received numerous awards for its ultralight gear, including the 2019 Outstanding Outdoor Award from OutDoor by ISPO for the Gatewood Cape and Lunar Solo and the 2019 Backpacker Editors’ Choice Award for the Lunar Solo.

Now, at 20 years old, Six Moon Designs continually strives to stay ahead of the curve for gear design and innovative materials.

“Six Moon Designs has been able to grow our multiple channels of sales in the past few years thanks to our strong marketing efforts and by providing a high-value proposition to retailers and consumers,” says Whitney LaRuffa, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We strive to provide high quality, lightweight products at affordable prices, helping everyone access the outdoors.”

8/16: Talon Earth is Osprey’s First Sustainably Produced Pack

The new, sustainably produced Talon Earth daypack kicks off Osprey’s goal of having 90% bluesign-approved material in all its packs by 2023.

The entire main body and liner fabrics of the Talon Earth 22 are made from 100% recycled materials. EVA foam in the pack contains 50% recycled materials.

The injection molded Airscape framesheet is made from 100% recycled material, and the pack’s zippers are made from recycled plastic.

The materials may have changed, but it’s the same Talon for fit, durability and function.

Osprey has been a bluesign partner since 2021, working with Bluesign Technologies to ensure safe and sustainable workplace practices.

8/12: Endurance Athlete Nik Toocheck Begins New Fundraising Quest

Nik Toocheck ran a marathon on seven continents by age 11. At 14 he finished running marathons in 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Now at age 19 Nik’s climbing the world’s Volcanic Seven Summits, the highest volcanoes on each continent.

It’s Nik’s third fundraising campaign to help children, and his goal is to raise $50,000 for Operation Warm, a nonprofit group that his grandfather founded in 1998. The organization has provided new winter coats and shoes for more 4.5 million children.

Through Nik’s own charitable group, Running the World For Children, his seven continents marathon raised $42,000 for Operation Warm. His 50 states marathon raised money for the Seva Foundation and its work preserving children’s eyesight.

Nik began his summit quest the week of August 8^th, when he summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. He expects to summit Pico de Orizaba in Mexico in March.

“I realized at a young age that you don’t have to be big to make a positive difference in the world. I carry that with me today,” Nik says. “I’m grateful to have the opportunities I do to help children in underserved communities – and it’s such a great feeling to help others while doing something I love.”

Read more about Nik here.

8/10: Astral Celebrates Women’s Paddlesports with Sales of Layla LE Life Vest

Born in the headwaters of North Carolina’s Rocky Broad River in 2002, Astral led the whitewater industry by eliminating PVC from its life jackets and designing the first PFD for female kayakers.

Now the company based outside Asheville is celebrating the accomplishments, craftsmanship, and dedication of its athletes and employees with the Layla LE, a women’s life vest decorated with a vibrant representation of whitewater rivers.

Ten percent of proceeds from each sale of the $185 Layla LE, a limited edition of the company’s Layla PDF, go to Lulu Love Tour and Columbia Gorge Junior Kayak Club to give back to women in paddlesports.

Nicole Mansfield, a kayaker and mountain athlete; Kate Shea, a whitewater enthusiast and artist; and Ollie Smithers, a kayaker and Astral’s Sourcing Manager, joined to create the Layla LE and choose the two charities that will benefit from sales.

“The Layla PFD is an optimal choice for all levels of watersports enthusiasts,” Ollie says. “The craftsmanship, fit, and versatility of this PFD is phenomenal, making it the ideal canvas to work from.”

Kate, an illustrative, graffiti-style artist commissioned to bring to life how water connects Astral to its community, took inspiration from her own journey to create the design.

“The artwork represents the peace and inspiration I get from being amongst the Ottawa River and everything and everyone that comes with it,” she says. “Nature, the community, love, and the loss. I think this project is important and will be well-received by the river community because it is something for the everyday paddler and not just aimed toward the class V boater.”

Astral’s Lola was the first PFD designed for female kayakers. The company updated the Lola with hinged seams, sculpted chest support, and a side entry zipper, and renamed it Layla.

Since its founding Astral has leveraged years of experience to reduce toxic PVC foam in the PFD industry, develop breathable life jackets, and design paradigm-changing footwear.

7/28: Appalachian Trail Visitor Center Opening August 27th in Damascus, Virginia

The new Damascus Trail Center, built through a joint effort of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the town of Damascus, Virginia, will open on Saturday, August 27^th.

Damascus, also known as Trail Town USA, already is a hub for Appalachian Trail activity, attracting AT hikers and others for the annual Trail Days celebration in May. The 2,194.3-mile trail passes feet from the new center at 209 West Laurel Ave. in Damascus.

“Damascus has always been an iconic part of the Appalachian Trail experience, so it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate place for the new trail center to call home,” said Sandra Marra, president and CEO of the ATC. “We are excited to work with the town to ensure the Damascus Trail Center provides opportunities for hikers, bikers, and adventurers of all ages and experience levels to better enjoy and care for our irreplaceable great outdoors.”

The trail center will provide information to visitors, along with exhibits and programming that highlight the surrounding landscape. It will also serve as a center for environmental conservation and trail stewardship throughout the region, providing a location for volunteers and outdoor enthusiasts to take part in workshops and trail maintenance training.

The following events are planned for the weekend of the center’s opening:

Friday, August 26^th, at 6 p.m.: Run Damascus Fun Run 5K.

Friday, August 26^th, at 7 p.m.: Beaverdam Friday Jams featuring the Beth Snapp Band.

Saturday, August 27^th, 9 a.m. to noon: Farmers market.

Saturday, August 27^th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Partner expo, nature walks, and giveaways from Allyn “Fix It Man” Morton at the trail center.

Starting Saturday, August 27^th, the trail center will be open Thursday to Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The ATC also has visitor centers in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Monson, Maine.

7/27: Women’s Clothing Brand Wild Rye Launches Resale Program

Wild Rye, a women-focused and women-founded outdoor lifestyle brand, has started an online resale site for used clothing.

Wild Rye, Redux provides a space to sell used Wild Rye gear, while people can search for clothing to buy. Transactions are handled through Treet, an e-commerce site that promotes sustainability through used gear sales.

Wild Rye will give sellers on Treet up to 110% of sold value when redeemed as a brand credit, or up to 80% when redeemed as cash.

“Our customers are almost entirely women-identifying, which comes with many body changes throughout our lives—pregnancy, weight gain, weight loss, and so much more–meanwhile, our product is built to last a lifetime,” says Cassie Abel, who founded Wild Rye, based in Sun Valley, Idaho. “Discovering Treet, a platform that makes it possible for smaller brands to offer a peer-to-peer resale platform while still giving people the Wild Rye customer experience, was the answer to many of our challenges.”

More information on how to sell and buy on Wild Rye, Redux is available here.

6/15: Swiftwick BUGS Socks Connect Kids, Nature

Buy some socks, help a child explore and discover nature.

Swiftwick’s new Vision Impression BUGS socks feature hand-drawn bug designs by students in the Friends of Warner Park Nature Program in Nashville, Tennessee, and proceeds from sales will go to the nature program.

“We knew almost immediately that having the kids get involved with a sock design was a goal of ours for 2022,” said Racheal Hubarth, Brand Marketing Manager at Swiftwick. “The goal of the Urban Nature Program is to connect urban Middle Tennessee youth with the outdoors, and together we worked with that team to come up with the best way to help achieve their goal while also allowing the kids to be part of a sock design that we could share with our customers.”

Forty students in the nature program drew one bug each, and Swiftwick digitized the drawings to imprint them on the BUGS socks.

“This sock project perfectly captures the thoughtful wildlife observation, insect discovery, and arts and crafts that this program is built on,” said Betty Krogman, Urban Naturalist at Warner Park Nature Center.

Swiftwick’s partnership with the Friends of Warner Parks began in April 2021 in an effort to encourage youth and underserved communities to explore outside.

The Friends of Warner Parks is a nonprofit organization that connects underserved youth with nature through activities like hiking, kayaking, and birding.

The BUGS socks launched June 13 and will be available for purchase with the other VISION socks on Swiftwick’s website: www.swiftwick.com/collections/vision

2/15: Gear Brands Will Boycott Outdoor Retailer if it Moves to Utah

The Conservation Alliance and 24 of its outdoor industry members will not support the annual Outdoor Retailer trade show if the sponsor moves it to Utah, where protection of public lands is threatened.

The move reprises a 2017 battle to move Outdoor Retailer from Salt Lake City to Denver, Colorado, because of Utah’s efforts to reduce the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The show had been in Salt Lake City for 20 years.

“In 2017, REI Co-op strongly supported the decision to move the outdoor industry trade show out of Utah when the state’s leadership refused to protect duly designated national monuments and natural treasures,” Ben Steele, Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Officer, REI Co-op, said in a statement released by the Conservation Alliance. “Although those protections have since been restored by President Biden, Utah’s leaders are again aiming to undermine those monuments and their protections. As a result, REI will not participate in any OR trade show in the state—nor will we send members of our merchandising or other co-op teams—so long as Utah persists in attacking our public lands and the laws that protect them.”

The summer 2022 Outdoor Retailer show is the last one under contract with Denver. It’s the coming decision by Outdoor Retailer owner Emerald Holding where to hold the summer and winter shows after this year that concerns the Conservation Alliance and the outdoor companies. Colorado and Utah are considered to be the main contenders for the show.

The Conservation Alliance and the Outdoor Alliance, which represent more than 270 businesses and 10 national outdoor advocacy organizations, sent a letter to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in January calling on him to end efforts that threaten public lands. “Launching an assault on our industry’s most closely held values while concurrently lobbying to bring our tradeshow back to Utah is illogical and counterproductive,” the letter said..

The Conservation Alliance, made up of outdoor industry companies that include Patagonia, REI, and The North Face, says it supports the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and its efforts to protect ancestral and cultural Bears Ears lands in southern Utah.

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were reduced in size by former President Donald Trump, and restored to their original designation by President Joe Biden shorty after he took office in 2021.

The annual Outdoor Retailer shows are a gathering of industry brands, retailers, brand reps, designers, suppliers, and outdoor writers.

Companies calling on Emerald to support tribes and public lands are REI Co-op, Patagonia, The North Face, Public Lands, KEEN Footwear, Oboz Footwear, Kelty, Sierra Designs, Peak Design, Toad&Co, SCARPA, MiiR, NEMO Equipment, Backpacker’s Pantry, Smartwool, Therm-a-Rest, MSR, Timberland, Helinox USA, GU Energy Labs, La Sportiva, Alpacka Raft, Icebreaker, Arc’teryx, Nomadix, LifeStraw, Backbone Media, GRAYL, TripOutside, and Bergreen Photography.

10/19: FarOut is the New Name for Guthook Guides

Guthook, the app that launched thousands of thru-hikes, is taking on a new name—FarOut.

“Now that we’re expanding our community to our other favorite activities like bikepacking and paddling, we decided it was time to change the app’s trail name,” says FarOut co-founder Ryan “Guthook” Linn, whose Pacific Crest Trail trail name became the company’s original name. “The app, though, that will stay the same. So don’t worry, new name, same team behind the app.”

Since 2012, when Guthook’s Guide to the PCT was launched, hikers have relied on the phone app for trail directions, mileage, camping and water along trails, and towns to find resupplies. The company has guides for more than 100 hiking, biking, and paddling routes worldwide, all of which will now be under the FarOut brand.

“We are excited about this transition, and I’m proud of our talented and hard-working team who made it happen,” says Paul Bodnar, CEO and co-founder of FarOut, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. “And stay tuned, because we are working on some new features that we think our customers will love.”

FarOut apps will be available for iOS and Android, and trail guides also can be accessed from computers and tablets at app.faroutguides.com.

For more information, visit faroutguides.com or email [email protected].

8/29: Jack Wolfskin Makes Push in North American Market

Jack Wolfskin, a global leader in sustainable outdoor gear, is doubling down on its efforts to become a player in North America.

The 40-year-old German-based company has made several efforts at establishing itself in the North American market over the past 10 years, but “It hasn’t been done with a thoughtfulness,” says Diana Seung, a former Backcountry.com executive who two years ago became Jack Wolfskin’s general manager for North America.

Now, with the backing of new owner Callaway Golf Company, Jack Wolfskin is making a strong run at the United States and Canada market with products in a price range comparable to The North Face and Patagonia.

Diana helped launch that effort just before the Covid pandemic hit, which she acknowledges “put a couple of hurdles in the way.”

Nevertheless, the company forged ahead with online sales and a partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods new Public Lands stores that will sell outdoor adventure gear. The company also partnered with Sporting Life in Canada and opened a showcase store in Park City, Utah, its corporate base for North America. Jack Wolfskin has connected with other retail outlets, and company stores across the US and Canada could follow in 2022.

Jack Wolfskin is already established in Europe and China, and under Callaway’s guidance is expanding in Asia.

All the company’s products are sustainably manufactured, and in 2019 Jack Wolfskin achieved its goal of becoming PFC-free.

Clothing such as the Go Hike jacket, part of Jack Wolfskin’s Texapore-Ecosphere collection, use a breathable, water-resistant fabric made of 100% recycled polyester. PET bottles are primarily used to make the clothing fabric, and the membrane is manufactured from reconditioned remnants that are left over from production. Jack Wolfskin calls this a zero-waste concept: turning waste into a raw material.

Nanuk Ecosphere 100% recycled fleece is used in clothing such as the Midnight Moon jacket.

The company’s next target is to produce small parts like buttons and zippers as well as polybags from recycled materials.

Jack Wolfskin also uses certified organic cotton, down sourced solely from ethical sources, leather that comes only as a natural byproduct of the food industry, and Merino wool only from humanely treated animals.

Diana and Jack Wolfskin are also involved in Camber Outdoors, a collection of more than 200 outdoor recreation businesses and nonprofits committed to creating inclusive cultures and equitable systems that attract and retain a diversity of talent in workplaces. Diane is a Camber board member, and served briefly as interim executive director.

Although Diana is pleased with the company’s North American growth, she’s wary of the struggle all outdoor brands are going through during Covid. Overseas factory shutdowns, shipping container shortages, and shipping issues all make it difficult to count on when gear will arrive.

“We’re all going through the same thing,” she says. “It’s very frustrating.”

8/3: Big Agnes Enters Backpack Market with New Line in Spring 2022

Big Agnes continues its exploration of innovative gear with a line of technical backpacks made from 100% recycled nylon.

The company’s first backpacks, expected to go on sale in spring 2022, also have an attachable bag for hauling trash out of the backcountry.

“Our new pack line leverages over two decades of product design and development experience,” says Bill Gamber, co-founder and president of Big Agnes, based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. “The market is full of some impressive products but we’re bringing fresh new ideas and a commitment to recycled fabrics to the category. As a brand we’re excited to finally have backpacks to complement and carry all our award-winning gear.”

The backpacks join a line of Big Agnes sustainable gear, from water- and energy-saving solution-dyed tents to sleeping pads made from sugarcane sourced from a supplier that grows and harvests in a net carbon-negative process.

The Big Agnes pack collection features:

The 45- to 63-liter backpacks have been created by Big Agnes’ women designers.

All packs are constructed with 100% recycled Mipan regen robic high-tenacity nylon containing a solution-dyed ripstop grid. Essential to the pack design is the proprietary Load Wrangler and Load Wrangler+ suspension systems that provide an easy to set, precise fit for a balanced load.

The packs use a hoist compression system and open range hip belt, and have hydration bladder sleeves, accessible pockets, and daisy chain webbing.

The 7-liter Big Agnes Trash Can will be included with the 45- to 63-liter packs, and sold separately as an accessory for smaller packs. The Trash Can uses the same material as the packs.

“Our Trash Can has one purpose—to clean up our public lands and give back to a global organization that’s working to help make it happen,” Gamber says. “We wanted to provide an easy way to collect the large and small garbage that’s littered along trails, rivers, and in campgrounds. … Our employees determined that the Trash Can holds at least 36 crushed aluminum cans.

For the backpack launch, Big Agnes will partner with Leave No Trace by donating a portion of sales from every pack and Trash Can to assist in global efforts to sustain healthy public lands. All Trash Cans will include an informational card to help drive awareness of Leave No Trace’s mission and to help educate consumers on backcountry best practices.

“Big Agnes has been a longtime partner of Leave No Trace and we’re excited to collaborate with them on their upcoming pack launch,” says Dana Watts, Leave No Trace executive director. “We love the energy and commitment they have put into reducing trail and campground litter and we’re excited to be a partner in their education campaign.”

7/2: Hikerkind Launches Hiking Clothing for Women

Hikerkind, a New York-based women’s hiking gear company, has launched a new collection of clothing that challenges the “hiker” archetype.

“We were tired of the outdated ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach to women’s hiking gear, and we wanted to enter into the outdoor industry with a new perspective,” Hikerkind co-founder Chelsea Rizzo says. “We all perform better when we feel like the most authentic versions of ourselves.”

Hikerkind’s new products are a midlayer pullover fleece, a 100% Pakucho organic cotton bandana, and a 32-ounce Nalgene water bottle printed with the “You Are Here” graphic and Hikerkind logo.

Hikerkind is also hosting a women-led hike club every other weekend in New York on Munsee Lenape, Wappinger, Mohican, and Haudenosaunee lands.

Chelsea and co-founder Allison Levy became friends while working in the fashion industry. Allison has hiked all over the world. Chelsea, who was new to hiking until she thru-hiked the Colorado Trail in 2018, was set to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in 2020 before the pandemic hit.

During quarantine, Allison approached Chelsea to take an idea they had been kicking around since they met to the next level, and in October 2020 they started Hikerkind.

6/9: Big Agnes Celebrates 20 Years of Outdoor Gear

Big Agnes is celebrating 20 years of making innovative, sustainable outdoor gear.

From tents with a solid reputation to sleep systems that integrate pads and bags, the company continually breaks new ground.

This year Big Agnes introduced sleeping pads made of sugarcane extract and began using solution-dyed fabrics for their most popular tents.

The tent fabric resists UV fade and during manufacturing reduces energy consumption by 80 percent and water use by 50 percent compared to traditional fabric dyeing methods.

The TwisterCane Pad BioFoam pad and hiking seat use sugarcane sourced from a supplier that grows and harvests in a net carbon-negative process.

Beyond gear, Big Agnes is donating a portion of their new Nature Print Chair Collection sales to the Yampa River Fund—which runs through the company’s hometown of Steamboat Spring, Colorado—and the Continental Divide Trail Coalition. And in 2018 BA adopted 75 miles of the nearby Continental Divide Trail.

Big Agnes also partners with groups such as SheJumps, Outdoor Afro, and the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.

6/1: Get a Deal on onX Backcountry, Help LNT

Looking for a digital navigation device to guide you on some epic hikes this summer?

During June onX is offering a $10 ($29.99 value), one-year membership for its newest navigation app, onX Backcountry, as part of its “All In For Outdoors” program. The discounted price for new memberships is available only on the onX website, and all proceeds during June will go to the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching people how to enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

The new onX Backcountry has tens of thousands of guidebook and expert-curated adventures, as well as 650,000 miles of trails for hikers, backpackers, trail runners, and backcountry skiers

“At onX, our mission is to awaken the adventurer in everyone. We believe that the more people who experience the outdoors, the more likely they are to join us in protecting these special places for the future,” onX VP of Marketing Chris Bate said. “As a company that encourages public land exploration, we recognize our obligation to advocate for and protect these shared resources, especially as our trails and parks see unprecedented attention. By partnering with Leave No Trace, we aim to educate our growing audience–millions of returning and new recreationists–on how they can reduce the impact they have while exploring our outdoor playgrounds.”

Founded in 2009, onX also offers onX Hunt and onX Offroad navigation apps.

6/1: Ibex Certified as Climate Neutral

Ibex has long been known for its merino wool clothing, and now the company is drawing attention for its efforts to become climate neutral.

The company is Climate Neutral Certified, and works with manufacturing partners to reduce and offset their carbon footprint. Ibex continuously works to reduce electricity, gas, and water usage.

And Ibex is also trying to reduce manufacturing waste through direct-to-consumer small-batch production, ensuring that “every garment is built to the highest standards and finds a home.”

And when your 100% merino shirt wears out after years of use, it’s good to know that it’s backyard compostable.

After 20-some years based in Vermont, Ibex closed in 2018 and its assets were sold to Flour Fund, a New York-based investment group.

Ibex relaunched in 2019 with new designs and some old favorites, like the Shak jacket, and expanded its product line in 2021.

4/22: More Than 230 Brands Certified Climate Neutral

More than 230 retail brands—20% of them from the outdoor industry—have measured, offset, and reduced their 2020 “cradle-to-customer” greenhouse gas emissions in a rigorous certification process overseen by Climate Neutral.

“Two years into building our community, we’re thrilled to be welcoming a huge new collection of certified brands from a dozen product categories,” Austin Whitman, CEO of Climate Neutral, announced on Earth Day. “We are eager to continue helping these companies and hundreds of others as they invest in eliminating their carbon emissions, and engaging consumers in this critical drive toward a net-zero world.”

The Climate Neutral Certified label gives consumers a recognizable way to support and shop brands that are working to reduce their carbon footprint.

Since Climate Neutral was launched in 2019, the organization has certified more than 235 brands representing 12 business categories, with an offset of more than 700,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

More than 125 additional brands have committed to becoming certified later in 2021.

A list of the companies that have been certified is here.

4/20: Help Protect America’s Wild Places

Fourteen outdoor brands are supporting The Conservation Alliance by donating 5% of their online sales April 21-27 as part of the alliance’s WeKeepItWild campaign.

Backpacker’s Pantry, Dometic, Grayl, Gregory Packs, GU Energy Labs, Helly Hansen, MiiR, Mountain Safety Research (MSR), Nomadix, Royal Robbins, Ruffwear, Therm-a-Rest, Toad&Co, and Topo Athletic are participating in the weeklong campaign.

Money raised online will help the alliance protect wild lands and waters across North America, supporting a vision of a planet where wild places, wildlife, and people thrive together.

Find out more about The Conservation Alliance here.

4/20: Stylish and Sustainable

Royal Robbins has made sustainability part of its clothing line since the company’s inception in 1968, and this year it takes a big leap forward.

Ten shirts in the men’s and women’s Expedition lines will be made from 100% recycled materials. Each shirt upcycles about 9 plastic bottles, and manufacturing energy use is reduced by 51% and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 56%.

Sixty-six clothing styles made primarily of natural fabrics—preferred cotton, recycled content, or responsibly sourced forest materials—account for 46% of the spring clothing line.

4/20: Bottles with a View

Buy a Hydro Flask steel bottle with an image of your favorite Triple Crown trail and the company will donate $1 per bottle up to $65,000 to the Pacific Crest Trail Association, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the Continental Divide Trail Coalition.

Use the 20-ounce bottle with a sip lid for hot coffee, or grab the 32-ounce wide mouth for cold drinks. Both sizes have a bottle boot for a sure grip. The double wall vacuum insulation keeps liquids cold for 24 hours or hot for up to 12.

Since 2017 Hydro Flash has contributed $1.9 million to its Parks for All initiative, which supports nonprofit organizations focused on building, maintaining, restoring, and providing better access to parks.

4/20: Hilleberg Celebrates 50th

Hilleberg is marking its 50th year of making tents for outdoor adventures on every continent, in all types of weather and terrain.

Since its founding in 1971 by Bo and Renate Hilleberg, the company has focused exclusively on tents and shelters.

“Even when many outdoor companies began diversifying their product lines, we felt that specializing in one product category, and really doing that to the best of our abilities, was the best way for us,” says Bo.

Hilleberg continues to be family-run, with daughter Petra serving as CEO of the Hilleberg Group and president of European and US operations. Son Rolf was managing director of the European operation and continues to serve on the board.

The post What’s New for Outdoor Brands, Trail Organizations, and Sustainability Efforts appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

Her journey starts August 4th when she flies to Anchorage and drives to Palmer, where she and nine other women will get a gear shakedown and orientation from the two NOLS instructors leading the trip. Then they’ll board a bush plane for a flight into the backcountry.

She won’t know where the trek will lead her until reaching Alaska, mainly because NOLS—the National Outdoor Leadership School—wants the women to learn route-finding and team skills when they’re on the ground, not poring over maps in advance to study the terrain.

Missy will know one other person on the trip—a fellow Texan—and is looking forward to meeting her fellow adventurers.

And though it will be Missy’s first backpacking trip, she’s been preparing for this all her life.

As a girl growing up Atlanta she was introduced to the outdoors through a relative. But there weren’t other Black people like her on camping trips or at outdoor camps she went to as a young girl.

That has changed, Missy believes, as the outdoor community has become more diverse, and outdoor companies—including NOLS—are reaching out to that expanded community. And she has worked to instill a love of the outdoors in her four-year-old son, Patrick.

“This is a source of healing. This is a source of fun,” Missy says of the outdoors.

When Missy and her husband moved from Atlanta to suburban Houston in 2020, and she Googled Black women and kayak, she was happy to find Black Woman Who Kayak +, an Austin-based group started by Tanya Walker in 2018.

Missy met Tanya, liked what she saw, and joined Black Women Who Kayak+. She eventually became Houston chapter team leader for the nonprofit, which now has seven chapters nationwide and more than 1,000 members. The plus in the name, Missy says, means the group is about more than kayaking, and “brings in all kinds of activities.”

The Alaska trip came about when Missy and Kim Fields, a member of the Austin chapter of Black Women Who Kayak+, were selected for the NOLS trip of their choice. Kim received a NOLS scholarship covering expenses; Missy did not.

Enter Grape-Nuts cereal, celebrating its 125th anniversary this year and Women’s History month in March by sponsoring women adventurers. The company searched GoFundMe petitions from women adventurers, found an appeal by Black Women Who Kayak+ for the NOLS trip expenses, and awarded the group $12,500.

“We thought it was a joke,” Missy said, when GoFundMe sent an email saying the fundraising goal had been reached. Until then about $1,600 had been raised, far below the necessary funds for the Alaska adventure.

Now Missy and Kim are preparing for their trip.

Missy has been training since April, doing cardio, climbing stairs, working with a trainer, and hiking with a pack weighing 30-40 pounds, the weight range she expects to carry in Alaska.

“I personally feel I’m ready,” Missy says. “I’m so excited.”

While Missy and Kim are in the Alaskan wilderness, Missy will celebrate one more highlight in a life of achievement: her 35th birthday.

The post Missy Wilson’s Upcoming Alaska Trip Will Help Break Ground for Black Women Outdoors appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

They’re also known for water rushing down those steep trails after heavy rainstorms or during spring snowmelt, eroding the fragile soil and carving deep ruts.

Trail crews in the Whites now recognize that those straight-to-the-top trails built in the past 100-plus years can’t stand up to high use and more frequent and worsening rainstorms caused by climate change. Numerous river crossing on the Falling Waters Trail section of the loop have been heavily damaged by recent storms, making the crossings more difficult for hikers.

The Appalachian Mountain Club, the prime trail caretaker in the White Mountains, has been addressing that new reality in trail maintenance, and over the next five years will use $1.1 million in recently approved federal funds to repair and realign sections of the Franconia Ridge Loop Trail.

In peak hiking season an estimated 1,000 hikers a day traverse the 11.4-mile loop, made up of the Franconia Ridge Trail, Falling Waters Trail, Greenleaf Trail, and Old Bridle Path. The Franconia Ridge Trail, which travels through a fragile alpine environment above treeline across the summits of Lafayette, Lincoln, and Little Haystack, is also part of the popular Pemi Loop and the Appalachian Trail.

“The Franconia Ridge Trail Loop was built at a time when there was limited understanding of erosion or the realities of the volume of visitation that these trails see today,” Alex DeLucia, AMC Director of Trails, and Chris Thayer, AMC Director of External Affairs and Contracts, said in an email. “Many trails across the White Mountains, including those within the Franconia Ridge Loop, take the most direct route almost straight up to a summit or point of interest.

“These steep fall-line trails, combined with high amounts of recreational use, poor/thin soil makeup, and increasing amount of precipitation all contribute to high rates of erosion and negative resource impacts to alpine vegetation. Climate change is adding to this challenge by creating more frequent and severe storms that drop higher volumes of rain in shorter periods of time.”

Trails will be hardened by installing cut and split stones that will help stabilize the soil and provide a durable hiking surface. Trail sections will be realigned to follow mountain contours at lower angles, making for a more gradual elevation gain on steep slopes and channeling water across rather than down trails. Stone check dams will improve drainage to prevent erosion.

Significant planning will go into rehabilitating or realigning trail sections above treeline, where the stronger rainstorms and higher recreational use combine to harm alpine vegetation and contribute to soil loss and erosion.

AMC will work with the White Mountain National Forest, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the Franconia Ridge Working Group to identify where realignment is appropriate and prioritize projects. Work will begin in 2022, and is expected to last for five years.

The WMNF, as the land manager, will make the final decision on all work.

The groups have worked together over the years to rehabilitate the loop, but the federal money will support a more comprehensive effort.

The federal funds will be used only on 8.6 miles of the loop in the national forest. Trail work will not be done on lower-elevation sections of the Greenleaf Trail, Old Bridle Path, and Falling Waters Trail that are on New Hampshire state lands. The AMC says additional money could be sought to rehabilitate trails on state land.

Trail crews will work midweek to avoid peak hiking times, and no trail closures are planned. The AMC says unforeseen trail closures will be publicized widely.

The trail work is similar to a two-year project that rehabilitated the Crawford Path, a heavily-used trail built in 1819 that climbs to the summit of Mount Washington.

Trail work has evolved in the years since the Franconia Loop trails were built from 1826 to 1958.

“In the mid-20th century, AMC trail crews focused primarily on maintaining the trail corridor by cutting back overgrown brush and removing blowdowns,” DeLucia and Thayer said. “In the late 1960s and early 1970s, AMC trail crews began installing drainage structures on the trail and stabilizing sections of trail with rock staircases. These often involved using native stones nearby and building with materials at hand.”

But many of those rock steps are failing today.

“This is sometimes caused by soil erosion or a trail crew having used steps that are too large or narrow so hikers go around them and widen the trail,” DeLucia and Thayer said. “We learn over time as we continue to evaluate the success and failures of various trail structures across the White Mountains region.

“Today, we combine the lessons learned in the past with the collective experience of our local and national partner trail organizations to implement more modern techniques when constructing or rehabilitating trails.”

Beyond repairing damaged trails, the AMC stresses resource stewardship.

“While trail work aims to make the treadway more achievable for general hikers, the intention is always about sustaining the resource (soil, vegetation, etc.) for long-term viability,” DeLucia and Thayer said. “AMC has opportunities for others to get involved with maintaining trails through volunteering and gaining training and skills through our workshop offerings.”

Featured photo via Pixabay

The post Updates Coming for New Hampshire’s High-Traffic Franconia Ridge Loop Trail appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

“After much deliberation and input from all sides, we’ve decided the best move for Outdoor Retailer is to return to our basecamp,” Outdoor Retailer said March 23 on its website. “We’re heading back to Salt Lake City and County to the place we grew up and where our industry matured into the dynamic and powerful community it is today.”

But the Conservation Alliance and 24 of its outdoor industry members, which said in February they would boycott the show if it moved to Utah, repeated their objection after OR’s announcement.

“Our position remains firm—we stand with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and in support of our public lands,” the Conservation Alliance said in a statement. “We will not support or attend a trade show event in Utah so long as its elected officials continue attacks on national monuments and public lands protections, doing so would undermine our organizational mission and values.”

The standoff reprises a 2017 battle to move Outdoor Retailer from Salt Lake City to Denver, Colorado, because of Utah’s efforts to reduce the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The show had been in Salt Lake City for 20 years.

Outdoor Retailer said it is committed to addressing the concerns about Utah’s stance on environmental causes.

“Salt Lake City and County is our hometown, and we’re going back with a commitment to effecting meaningful change,” Outdoor Retailer said. “It would be wrong for us to leave the way we did and simply go back as if nothing happened. In reality, leaving after 2017 has not brought the change we had hoped for, so we will push back, not pull back. We firmly believe that staying engaged and collectively contributing to the ongoing discussion, no matter how difficult, is far more constructive.”

Outdoor Retailer said that over the next three years it would fund programs to support outdoor recreation and protect public lands in Utah, and partner with businesses, government leaders, public lands and recreation leaders, and industry stakeholders to protect natural and cultural spaces in Utah.

REI is one of the outdoor gear companies opposed to moving Outdoor Retailer to Utah.

“In 2017, REI Co-op strongly supported the decision to move the outdoor industry trade show out of Utah when the state’s leadership refused to protect duly designated national monuments and natural treasures,” Ben Steele, Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Officer, REI Co-op, said in a statement released by the Conservation Alliance in February. “Although those protections have since been restored by President Biden, Utah’s leaders are again aiming to undermine those monuments and their protections. As a result, REI will not participate in any OR trade show in the state—nor will we send members of our merchandising or other co-op teams—so long as Utah persists in attacking our public lands and the laws that protect them.”

The summer 2022 Outdoor Retailer show is the last one under contract with Denver. Salt Lake City will be the new home for the winter and summer shows from 2023 to 2025.

The Conservation Alliance and the Outdoor Alliance, which represent more than 270 businesses and 10 national outdoor advocacy organizations, sent a letter to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in January calling on him to end efforts that threaten public lands. “Launching an assault on our industry’s most closely held values while concurrently lobbying to bring our tradeshow back to Utah is illogical and counterproductive,” the letter said..

The Conservation Alliance, made up of outdoor industry companies that include Patagonia, REI, and The North Face, says it supports the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and its efforts to protect ancestral and cultural Bears Ears lands in southern Utah.

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were reduced in size by former President Donald Trump, and restored to their original designation by President Joe Biden shorty after he took office in 2021.

The annual Outdoor Retailer shows are a gathering of industry brands, retailers, brand reps, designers, suppliers, and outdoor writers.

Companies calling on Outdoor Retailer to support tribes and public lands are REI Co-op, Patagonia, The North Face, Public Lands, KEEN Footwear, Oboz Footwear, Kelty, Sierra Designs, Peak Design, Toad&Co, SCARPA, MiiR, NEMO Equipment, Backpacker’s Pantry, Smartwool, Therm-a-Rest, MSR, Timberland, Helinox USA, GU Energy Labs, La Sportiva, Alpacka Raft, Icebreaker, Arc’teryx, Nomadix, LifeStraw, Backbone Media, GRAYL, TripOutside, and Bergreen Photography.

The post Outdoor Retailer Moving Back to Utah Despite Boycott Threat appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

Eighty-six percent of the store’s more than 100 workers voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, according to a statement on the union’s website.

“I am proud to be here in this moment with my coworkers at REI SoHo as a part of this new wave of unionization efforts that is sweeping the nation,” Claire Chang, a member of the REI SoHo Organizing Committee, said after the vote was announced. “As members of the RWDSU, we know we will be able to harness our collective strength to advocate for a more equitable, safe, and enriching work environment.”

REI’s image as a socially progressive, worker-friendly company was put to the test in January when employees at the Manhattan store in New York City announced they were seeking to join a union.

The workers asked the National Labor Relations Board to allow a vote on whether to join the union, and the vote was scheduled for Wednesday. The vote to unionize was 88 to 14.

The union vote was held in the REI SoHo break room, and was overseen by the labor board. The RWDSU will represent workers at the store in contract negotiations, expected to begin this year. The workers in the bargaining unit include full- and part-time sales specialists, technical specialists, visual presentation specialists, shipping and receiving specialists, certified technicians, operations leads, sales leads, and shipping and receiving leads.

“As we have said throughout this process, REI firmly believes that the decision of whether or not to be represented by a union is an important one, and we respect each employee’s right to choose or refuse union representation,” REI said in a statement after the vote was announced.

Graham Gale, an employee at the SoHo store, told the New York Times in January that workers moved to unionize because of “a tangible shift in the culture at work that doesn’t seem to align with the values that brought most of us here.” Also a factor, Gale said, is “the new struggle of facing unsafe working conditions during a global pandemic.”

Workers also say they are paid low wages and have limited access to health care benefits.

REI responded in a statement that said: “We respect the rights of our employees to speak and act for what they believe — and that includes the rights of employees to choose or refuse union representation. However, we do not believe placing a union between the co-op and its employees is needed or beneficial.”

The company also created a website—our.rei.com—to address the union vote.

“Our goal has been and will continue to be to present the facts, so you can make an informed decision about union representation,” REI said. “This website has been designed as a resource for you leading up to the union vote.

REI, based in Seattle, Washington, has more than 15,000 workers in more than 160 stores in the United States.

Since the SoHo workers announced their intent to form a union, they say that management has engaged in “union-busting tactics.”

According to a post on actionnetwork.org, REI executives told workers attending required meetings that a union was not right for REI, management shared misinformation about unionizing, and workers had to meet individually with managers.

This isn’t the first time REI workers have raised concerns about the retailer’s handling of Covid.

In July 2020, workers at REI’s store in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told the Times they learned that a fellow worker tested positive for Covid, but that it was the worker, not store management, who told them.

Management said the store was closed for a day to investigate “potential” Covid exposure, the workers told the Times.

REI has long been seen as a leader in social investment. The company’s website says that “more than 70 percent of our annual profits are invested back into the outdoor community through dividends to REI members, employee profit-sharing and retirement, and investments in nonprofits dedicated to the outdoors.”

At the outset of the pandemic in spring 2020 REI closed its stores for two months and continued to pay workers.

CEO Eric Artz said he would forfeit 100% of his base salary for six months, and senior leadership would take a 20% pay cut and waive incentives for the year.

As time wore on and retail sales lagged, the company laid off 400 store workers.

During that time several online petitions asked REI to increase Covid safety precautions and provide health insurance for all workers, both issues that the New York workers raised.

Now that SoHo workers have formed a union, they’re hoping the union push will spread to other REI stores.

“We all deserve to be empowered in our labor,” Toby Finke said on the REI Union SoHo Facebook page. “We don’t want this to end at SoHo, we’re just part of a larger movement, and we hope our success encourages other REI workers—and workers everywhere—to have conversations about how [they] deserve to be treated.”

Featured photo by Maggie Slepian

The post REI New York Store Workers Vote to Join a Union appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

Imagine backpacking town-to-town, stopping every few days for resupplies, a bed for the night, or a restaurant meal. No hitchhiking or calling for a shuttle because you’ll walk right through the towns.

“Resupply will be easy,” says Trinity Stirling, former Connected Communities Project Coordinator for the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship. Most towns will have lodging, resupply opportunities, and a restaurant.

The idea for the trail began with the stewardship, a nonprofit group started in Downieville in 2003 by Greg Williams, now the group’s executive director. Since then the stewardship has built or is maintaining 255 miles of trails in Plumas and Sierra Counties, and in Plumas, Lassen, and Tahoe National Forests.

“Our mission is building sustainable recreation-based communities through stewardship, job creation and world-class events,” the stewardship says on its website. “Providing quality outdoor experiences through trail construction and maintenance in the Lost Sierra.”

In 2017 some of the towns asked how people from outside the Lost Sierra could be drawn to the region’s trails, increasing tourism in an effort to fill economic gaps left by mine closures and the dwindling forest industry

Downieville—home to the Downieville Classic–was already a mountain biking mecca, and there was hope of spreading that attraction throughout the Lost Sierra.

And so the Lost Sierra Route and the Connected Communities project were born, with the 15 towns brought on board. It will be what the stewardship calls a Trail for Everyone: 600 miles of single track for backpackers, day hikers, mountain and moto bikers, horse riders, hunters, and anglers spread across Plumas, Sierra, Butte, and Lassen Counties. Although that seems like a lot of uses for a single-track trail, the area the route covers is spread out enough so there should not be crowding on the trail, Trinity says.

It will be possible to hike the route in a loop, weaving through towns along the way and getting a regional passport stamped at each town visited.

A GIS route has been laid out and the Forest Service will be consulted to ensure the path does not go through environmentally sensitive areas.

The first section of the trail—30 miles from Quincy to Taylorsville—is expected to be completed by 2025, with completion of the entire trail expected by 2030. Most of the trail will be new construction, but some of the route will be along reclaimed mining and logging roads through the mountains known as the Sierra Buttes.

Professional trail crews, joined by volunteers, are constructing the route.

The route will connect Truckee, Loyalton, Sierraville, Sierra City, Downieville, Quincy, Graeagle, Portola, Taylorsville, Greenville, Jonesville, Chester, Westwood, and Susanville, as well as Reno, Nevada.

Camping will be available at Forest Service and county campgrounds, with dispersed camping throughout the national forests.

The stewardship will have an online trip planning guide, with information on town services and camping.

The Lost Sierra has historic ties to the Gold Rush in Northern California, and was the name of a mail route between mining towns. The designation has survived for what some consider a forgotten region of California.

The small towns that will be connected by the route have been through some tough times. The 2008 recession hit hard; businesses were boarded up, residents moved away. Wildfires are especially devastating, and in August 2021 downtown Greenville was destroyed by the Dixie Fire.

“We do see this project will help recovery after wildfires,” Trinity says.

The stewardship has become a major employer, with 58 workers in 2021. Local youth are employed during the summer.

A 2018 economic impact report counted 46 employees with a payroll of $856,000 and gross income of $2 million.

_{The Lost Sierra Route will pass through towns such as Quincy, with its historic buildings and vivid fall colors. Photo by Patrick Cavender}

The stewardship raises money through corporate sponsors, private donations, and fundraisers such as the Downieville Classic.

Trinity is living the rebirth of the Lost Sierra. She left for college during the recession and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, but on visits home she noticed that young people were moving into the area. So she and her husband decided it was time to return home for good.

She eventually landed at the stewardship and now is overseeing the effort to make the trail an economic boon for the 15 towns.

“It’s been a tough few years but we’re a hardy people,” she says.

Featured photo by Ken Etzel.

The post Discover California’s Lost Sierra on a New 600-Mile Trail appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

But that’s just what happened as one trail led to another and Teresa realized she could link them all the way to Canada.

The result is a roughly 500-mile route through three states, starting at the southern terminus of the New England Trail on Long Island Sound to the northern terminus of the Cohos Trail on the New Hampshire-Canada border, with shorter trails in between.

And as she progressed on her journey, Teresa realized she wasn’t alone in thinking about hiking from her home state of Connecticut to Canada.

“People have been thinking about this for decades,” she says. And like her, some have been doing it.

But it was her creation of an NET to Cohos Trail Facebook group in mid-2021 that started an enthusiastic online discussion of the route.

Kim Nilsen, who spent decades building the Cohos Trail in far northern New Hampshire, says Teresa’s Facebook page has given new life to an idea he had years ago, when he invited trail representatives from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to his New Hampshire house, hoping to link together a Long Island Sound to Canada route. His idea went nowhere.

Now, years later, he’s a major contributor to the discussion on Teresa’s page.

Andreas Frese section hiked most of the route in summer and fall 2021 and posted his trip reports on the NET to Cohos Trail page.

The route follows established trails for most of the northward journey:

New England Trail: 215 miles from Long Island Sound in Guilford, Connecticut, to Royalston, Massachusetts, at the New Hampshire border. Traverses Connecticut and Massachusetts. Read about backpacking the trail here.

New Hampshire Metacomet-Monadnock Trail: 18 miles from the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border to the summit of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire.

Monadnock Sunapee Greenway: 48 miles from Mount Monadnock to Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire. Read about backpacking the trail here.

Sunapee Ragged Kearsage Greenway: A 75-mile loop trail leading from Mount Sunapee to three patchwork routes to the Cohos Trail in New Hampshire.

Cohos Trail: 170 miles from the trail’s southern terminus in Crawford Notch to the northern terminus in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, on the Canadian border. Read about backpacking the trail here.

It’s the roughly 100-mile gap between the Sunapee Ragged Kearsage Greenway and the Cohos Trail southern terminus that gets dicey.

Three routes have been mapped, but two of them seem the most probable.

One swings west and connects with the Appalachian Trail at Moose Mountain east of Dartmouth, and follows the AT to the Cohos Trail near Mount Eisenhower in the White Mountains, skipping a southern section of the Cohos Trail.

Eli Burakian followed this route on a 9.5-day hike this year from the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border to Canada, averaging 37 miles a day.

“If this route is really to be a highlight of hiking in New Hampshire, I felt it needed to hit the Appalachian Trail and climb some of the most iconic peaks in the Whites,” Eli says. “So, I chose to get on the Sunapee Ragged Kearsarge Greenway for about 18 miles and some additional trail and road connections up to Enfield.”

From Enfield he took the Moose Mountain Ridge Trail to the Moose Mountain shelter on the AT.

“As far as overnight camping spots,” he says, “there are some on the MSGT, a fair number on the AT, and some on the Cohos Trail. I had to cowboy camp at a few spots along the way but always respected private property signs.”

Teresa and Kim don’t like that route because the AT is so busy. “The whole point (of the route) is get them off the AT,” Kim says.

Their choice is a route that swings east, combining roadwalks and trails on public lands that connect to trails in the White Mountain National Forest that lead to the Cohos Trail in Crawford Notch.

Kim began calling it the Ghost Trail years ago, and the name has stuck.

The Facebook discussion about the Sunapee to White Mountains gap is robust. Kim, Teresa, and Andreas have pitched in with suggestions, along with hikers who live in the gap.

Kim, who knows a little something about creating hiking trails, says it will take someone who lives in the Ghost Trail region to lead the way.

“I can really see somebody doing that,” Kim says.

It would take talking with private landowners for permission to put a trail across their property, reclaiming old trails, and identifying existing trails. No one has emerged to take the lead with those efforts.

So for now, says Teresa, “It’s just a choose your own journey.”

Featured photo courtesy of Teresa Gallagher

The post How the Connecticut-to-Canada Hiking Route Came Together appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

What is the North Country Trail and why did you choose to hike it?

The North Country Trail is the nation’s longest National Scenic Trail spanning ~4,833 miles. It traverses the country from Vermont, at the junction of the Appalachian Trail and Long Trail, all the way out to the middle of North Dakota. Continuity growing, changing, adapting, and evolving, sooner or later we have very little doubt that it will surpass 5,000 miles as the trail association and chapters try to move more and more miles off the road. I would say right now where it currently stands, it is about 70-75% single track and two-track trail with the remainder 25% connecting road walks, which honestly for a trail this long and how many land managements they have to get permission from, public, private, government, it is already an impressive ratio. 

Whew, why did I choose to hike it? That is a complicated question, in all honesty, it did not necessarily feel like I “chose” to hike it but more so it was chosen for me. Don’t get me wrong, it is always a personal choice, but with the way I have been hiking and for the past few years wanting to explore and experience every National Scenic Trail, this was the last big behemoth to tackle and I was ready to give it a shot. Also, I love these “lesser-known” trails. Even though the NCT is an NST (say that 10 times fast) it is heavily underrepresented in the hiking community, specifically the thru-hiking community, due to its sheer size. Being one of the few who chose to tackle it lets you interact and educate in a way that popular trails do not. Sending positive ripples for the next hiker, thru-hiker, or whoever follows always feels like a privilege and responsibility to me, and it is beautiful to see. 

How long did the NCT take?

The NCT took ~187 days. To be exact 186 days, 9 hours, 38 minutes, and 21 seconds. My partner and I were actually registered for an FKT, solely because it was wonderfully ironic to us that we could set a “speed record” that would take close to half a year. We originally wanted to complete this hike in 130-150 days, but the trail was longer than advertised, clocking in at 4,833.4 miles instead of the pre-planned 4,600, as well as the sheer size took more mental exhaustion out of us than could be foreseen. 

Did you have any crazy weather or wildlife encounters?

Surprisingly enough, we only saw one bear the entirety of the hike. As far as crazy wildlife, again not so much. An injured vulture almost fell on Magpie’s head once, we rescued a cat from a flooded cornfield, we called the sheriff in North Dakota at night to pick up two friendly dogs that had followed us for 10+ miles as the temperature began to drop into the 20s. We had the usual nocturnal visitors in camp, mostly rodents but occasionally some bold raccoons. Magpie also got too close to an aggressive llama and nearly got kicked, although this was her own fault (llamas are cute!). Believe it or not our most crazy or “scary” wildlife encounters were with loose dogs through some of the communities we walked through. This trail was the first time I have ever had someone premeditatively release their aggressive dog on me. Many, many times on this trail and others, we have walked by aggressive dogs that were just loose by coincidence, but this “gentleman” was the first premeditated siccing of the dogs.

As far as crazy weather, we could not have been luckier. Yes, we had some heavy thunderstorms in the plains, and some deep bone-chilling cold out in North Dakota in late October/early November, but for the most part we got extremely lucky. If you call heat waves of 100+ degrees with extreme humidity in southern Ohio lucky, and if you call a freak snowstorm on May 1 (our first day of our hike in the Green Mountains) lucky, and if you call wind that can drive you mad lucky, and honestly we do call this all lucky. It was the “standard” mixture of weather that you will get on most any long-distance hike, and when I say standard I mean far from it, just a grab bag of all the “fun” you experience when walking through multiple seasons and multiple states. 

Big three for the NCT hike?

Backpack: Constantine: Hyperlite Windrider 3400, Magpie: ULA Ohm 2.0 

Tent: Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2

Sleeping Bag: Zpacks TwinQuilt 20 degree

Magpie has an exhaustive gear list on her blog, shinyobjects.substack.com, if people are curious to learn more. 

What are your trail names and where did they come from?

My trail name is Constantine, and it came from my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2016, my first hike. I was walking with a friend one day and I already had a trail name but he said it didn’t fit and was too much of a mouthful, then he had an AH-HA moment and asked if I had seen the movie “Constantine.” Which I had not. He then proceeded to describe the character, who was half good and half bad, and at this point in my hiking career I was all upper body and no lower body, so every climb in Georgia I cussed everything I could find, and every downhill I praised everything holy. So, half good and half bad. (Funny enough it’s now the opposite; I love climbs, and my knees scream on descents.)

As for me, Magpie, I got my trail name a few weeks into my first thru-hike on the Continental Divide Trail (I know! Why did I start with that one? Because I didn’t know if I would be able to thru-hike again and I wanted to do the hardest one first, just to prove I could). Going southbound on the CDT, the first two resupply stops are in national park campgrounds, and at least when I was there, they were in a state of moderate disrepair. While doing sink laundry in Two Medicine, first the cold-water tap came off in my hand, and then a soap holder fell off the wall when I draped a sock over it, and finally, the towel bar came down when I removed my clothes, causing me to almost stuff it in my pack. I made a joke about collecting “shiny objects” and was thus christened Magpie. It didn’t hurt that I have a habit of picking up shiny micro-trash, wear a lot of jewelry, and that my hair at the time was dyed turquoise, like a magpie’s wing. 

What does ElevenSkys mean?

ElevenSkys name was inspired by the trails that I have walked and was planning to walk. There are 11 National Scenic Trails in the United States, and as I was brainstorming a business name, of course, I began to take inspiration from the very trails that I found happiness and joy in the first place. Hence the name, ElevenSkys, for the nation’s 11 National Scenic Trails. Each sky that you walk under on each trail is the same, but completely different. We can avoid going into the deep philosophical here, but it’s meant to represent that each journey is different. Mentally, physically, emotionally, it all depends on how you chose to experience it, and each sky we have experienced has been the “same” while representing a world of difference. 

“ElevenSkys, for the nation’s 11 National Scenic Trails. Each sky you walk under on each trail is the same, but completely different.”

Constantine, Founder of ElevenSkys Gear Company

Why did you decide to start Eleven Skys?

I started ElevenSkys for multiple reasons. The first being that as 2018 was drawing to a close, and I was finishing my Triple Crown on the Continental Divide Trail, I knew that was never the extent of what I sought. I was not out there to just hike those three trails, I wanted to continue to hike, experience, and live this life to the fullest. I had a phrase that there was “on trail Constantine” and “off-trail work Ryan” and while I loved both, it felt too disconnected. I wanted to merge these two halves of my life and an opportunity kind of fell into my lap. Subsequently, in 2019, I began using a pair of shorts that did not break, tear, rip for over 3,500+ miles. Compared to my prior years of replacing shorts constantly on my thru-hikes, this was a game-changer, and a niche in the hiking world I did not see being filled. I wanted to provide others with the simplicity and practicality of a pair of shorts or pants that would last them their entire adventure without any worries, and I had found them, so I began building the company to distribute them more widely. 

“In 2019, I began using a pair of shorts that did not break, tear, rip for over 3,500+ miles. Compared to my prior years of replacing shorts constantly on my thru-hikes, this was a game changer, and a niche in the hiking world I did not see being filled.”

Constantine on why he started ElevenSkys

How do you run a company and hike 30 miles a day?

Hahaha, honest answer? Extremely stressfully. I built this company so I could spend more time on trail, but the context of the time spent on trail has now changed. When we are on a road walk, or easy two-track, instead of just relaxing and sitting back into a pace, if there is cell signal I have to be on the phone constantly. Calls, emails, creation, running a small business is constant work. You never get your entire list complete, because it only ever continues to grow. All you can do is manage time, manage importance, and stressfully try to multitask constantly. When we would get into town for resupply and “rest” after a long and hard section, I had to constantly be on. As soon as we would arrive, even before I took a shower, I would have to make sure I could combine that time with uploading content, sending out scheduled emails, and coordinating shipping. I could take a shower only after I knew I was multitasking. Then after I was clean, when other hikers could rest or recharge, I was glued to my phone. There was never enough time in the day to complete all the tasks I wished, and hence the vicious cycle would begin. Feeling behind, stressing, and multitasking with any available time I had hiking or in town, and then still feeling behind, the circle continued. So, to answer that question is to say I guess, as best as you can. 

Tell me about registering a hike or announcement to complete the 11 National Scenic Trails.

We are really excited about this! So, registering your announcement or completion of the 11 National Scenic Trails is official on ElevenSkys, the only official place to register. Again, we felt there was an underrepresentation of these stats or people who have completed or are currently going after this goal. As Triple Crowners become more “regular” and the hiking world continues to grow, we are starting to see this goal become more common, simply out of the fact it is kind of the natural progression to hike. We want to spotlight and connect all these like-minded individuals because even though we say it’s becoming “regular” it is still somewhat rare. By connecting these people together we hope to make it a little easier and more exciting than it was for us. When we had to plan some of these lesser-known National Scenic Trails, we knew for a fact we would see no other hikers, but hopefully, if people can see there are others, and choose to connect on some of these trails, it could make a community where it once was lacking. It really is special in so many ways to experience all these trails and we hope to shine the spotlight on others that continue to go out there and live their life to the fullest. 

What is next?

Whew, another tough question. For the immediate future we are in the “off-season” working … again stressfully, to try and put everything in motion and enough structure to be able to hike again next year. We just released a new podcast called “Off Trail” where we hope to spotlight how and why hikers do what they do, with some amazing guests already we are really excited about that. Then for ElevenSkys, this year will be a big change as we begin to partner with other companies to bring our products to a wider audience. So the immediate future, as it always is in the offseason, is work, work, work and more work. 

If you are asking specifically what is next for us, the hikers. Well, that is also something we are extremely excited for. Starting around March or April, we have been fantasizing about interaction again with the broader hiking community. This year was very solitary and we did not get to interact much with other thru-hikers physically, so we hope to begin a road trip in those first few months of spring and summer, following the hiker bubbles on the PCT, CDT, and AZT to give back and give trail magic. We want to give back to a community that has given us so much. Then, along the way, we plan to string together those beautiful smaller trails out West that are anywhere from 100-500 miles long, while we travel from place to place to provide trail magic. We’ve been calling it our “grab-bag year,” putting together all the interesting side-hikes and peakbagging that you don’t have time to explore while you’re thru-hiking a larger trail. Hopefully, the year will culminate in November 2022 with a Te Arora hike in New Zealand. Fingers crossed as their borders are still not open, but we can hope can’t we?

The post Interview with Two North Country Trail Thru-Hikers appeared first on Backpacking Routes.