Any avid 国产吃瓜黑料 reader should have The Ten听Essentials etched into their memory. The venerable list of items that every hiker should take with them into the backcountry pays equal weight to insulation, fire-starters, and, of course tools. There are very few problems you’ll encounter in the wilderness where your tool of choice isn’t a knife. But what鈥檚 the best knife for the outdoors?

While I own dozens of options, the one I reach for most often is simple, small, and relatively affordable. My knife of choice is the Esee-3HM.听Let鈥檚 talk about how you can find the knife that works for you.

What Kinds of Knives Work Best Outdoors?

Perhaps we should phrase the question like this: What tasks do you need a knife for on your next camping trip or hike? You might need to cut cordage so you can lash a shelter down in high wind. You might need to break down dead wood, to access its dry interior and start a fire. You might need to whittle a stick, to use as an extra tent peg or to roast a hot dog. If you鈥檙e fishing or hunting, you might need to remove听guts or skin.

For general outdoors use, a knife is a tool for mights and maybes. If you鈥檙e planning to focus on a specific activity鈥攕ay catching a fish鈥攜ou might pack a specific tool like a filet knife. But if you鈥檙e just spending time outside, you鈥檒l want to carry a knife capable of any task you might encounter.

So that鈥檚 what an outdoors knife is鈥攐ne you can use for any task you might encounter outdoors.

What About Survival Knives?

In my opinion, the term “survival” has been co-opted by people trying to sell you a fantasy, rather than a useful tool matched to realistic needs. A good knife should be strong, sharp, and reliable. What you probably don’t need is the added weight and bulk a compass, fishing line storage, or saw teeth.

If you do find yourself in a survival scenario鈥攕ay you鈥檝e gotten lost and night is falling鈥攖he general-purpose nature of an outdoors blade is going to work better at getting a fire going or cutting pine boughs to sleep on than something purpose built for slicing open Those other features just get in the way.

Why Not Carry a Multitool?

I get the appeal of toting a Leatherman or other all-in-one tool. With multiple tools and functions, it鈥檚 easy to think a multitool or Swiss Army knife might be more versatile tool. Here’s why it鈥檚 not.

Away from a Phillips-head screwdriver and can opener, the tool you鈥檙e going to find yourself using most often outdoors is a knife blade. And while yes, multitools and Swiss Army Knives听do tend to include one of those, they鈥檙e usually small and of poor quality. Even if you do find a multitool with a good blade鈥攍ike the new Leatherman Arc鈥攖hat鈥檚 still going to fall short of most real knives for two reasons: 1) the handle will be uncomfortable and 2) it鈥檒l be subject to failure.

It鈥檚 for those reasons that I carry a small multitool in addition to a real knife.

Can You Carry a Folding Pocket Knife?

Folding knives are far more prone to failure than fixed blades because of the mechanism that allows them to collapse.

That failure can be non-mission critical鈥攖he pivot can fill up with dirt and stop working. Or, should a locking mechanism break or come loose, that failure could cause the blade to slam shut on your hand, leading to significant injury. More commonly, folding knives just break in half if you try to use one to split firewood, leaving you without the tool you need to finish the job.

A fixed-blade, with no moving parts, is the better option as a result.

How Long of a Blade Do You Need?

Longer blades span larger pieces of wood, enabling you to more efficiently split those apart. The additional weight that comes with longer blades may also make them easier to chop with, although a knife is not the best tool for that job. Get a hatchet.

The shorter a knife鈥檚 blade is, the easier it is to carry and control.

My compromise on blade length: while holding the handle, I try to reach the tip of the blade with my index finger. I like that length because I hunt, and being able to cover the blade鈥檚 tip with my finger means I can reach inside a chest cavity, feel for the windpipe, and sever that without poking holes in other organs while I鈥檓 in there. But you’ll find this to be a good rule of thumb鈥攐r index鈥攆or judging a knife to be easy to carry and convenient to employ.

Consider the Handle

As I mentioned at the top, my knife of choice is an . That combines a 3.63-inch blade with a thin handle which terminates at the base of the blade without any obstructions. You can really choke your hand all the way up into the choil (the finger shaped cutout behind the edge) for jobs where you need fine control.

That handle is made from linen micarta, a resin-impregnated fabric layup that leaves the end of the threads exposed. It鈥檚 virtually indestructible, but feels soft to the touch, and provides good grip while wearing gloves or barehanded, wet or dry.

The slim, elongated handle also facilitates comfort and security across all types of grip. The knife feels natural and comfortable any way you hold it.

The Importance of Blade Shape, Thickness, and Grind

Wonky blades that are shaped to cut only in certain directions, to protect their point while penetrating, or to work best while slicing, prioritize performance in those tasks over general utility. Try to split a log with some zanily-shaped knife and you鈥檒l quickly become frustrated. Instead, look for a blade where the edge falls away from the tip in a generous sweep, then continues back toward the handle in a straight line. That shape will be the most versatile.

Recently, I’ve noticed a trend in the market toward very chunky blades, measuring a quarter inch or more in thickness. This is done for looks, not utility. A knife is not a pry bar; it is a cutting tool. The thicker a blade is the harder time it鈥檒l have slicing through whatever it is you want to cut. The Esee-3HM鈥檚 one-eighth-inch thickness is ideal, lending the tool strength without getting in the way of the job at hand.

A blade is thinnest at its edge and thickest at its spine. Getting there in a straight line鈥攆orming a simple wedge shape鈥攊s the strongest arrangement and is very practical for splitting wood. Blades that feature a wide wedge terminating at a point below the spine won鈥檛 slice as well. Ones that use a concave shape from the edge to spine prioritize slicing performance over splitting.

What Makes a Knife Strong?

Look for a knife where the handle material is bolted to the outside of the blade鈥檚 steel, forming a place for your hands only. Knives where the handle continues rearwards beyond the steel can see the handle and blade separate under hard use, or after exposure to weather and chemicals.

What鈥檚 the Best Steel for Knives?

The variety of steel used to construct a knife, and the way in which it is forged, quenched, and treated, determine qualities like edge retention, ease of sharpening, chip and rust resistance, and even how fine of an edge is achievable at a microscopic level.

Because a sharp knife is also the safest and most useful knife, I try to prioritize ease of sharpening in blades I intend to carry outdoors. High carbon steels are generally good at that, even if they do tend to get rusty and tarnished. Esee鈥檚 1095 steel is a proven performer, and also can be found at reasonable prices. The knife I’m using throughout this article retails for about $130.

Spend a little more on fancier blade steels like Magnacut for blades you plan to carry more than use. You鈥檒l appreciate rust-resistance in a folding knife riding in a sweaty pocket.

Don鈥檛 Overlook this Crucial Factor

A knife needs to be sharp. A sharp knife will require less force to use, reducing the odds of an accident. A sharp knife will also cause less damage to the medium being cut, and be easier to use.

I do not carry a field sharpener, instead preferring the ease of use offered by . Keeping knives touched up on that sharpener only takes a few seconds, and bringing a knife back from dull just requires a few minutes. Making sure my Esee has a razor鈥檚 edge before heading into the field has proven vital, as the blade stays useable even on trips lasting two weeks or more.

Wes Siler got his first knife in Cub Scouts, and has carried one nearly every day ever since. , where he explores the intersection of outdoor skills and the politics of the great outdoors.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Choosing an Outdoors Knife appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When I start planning a camping or backpacking trip, I think a lot about risk. What kind of equipment do I need to stay dry? To stay warm or cool? I think about having fun, but I also attempt to mitigate听disaster. As a bit of an obsessive, I spend a lot of time contemplating听what could go wrong in the hopes of having my time outdoors go without incident.

So, I took a deep dive into data around accidents in national parks and other public lands nationwide, to figure out where the real risks lie. This data can be hard to track, as many injured people treat themselves, or receive first aid from a friend or family member, or transport themselves for treatment at a hospital. Unlike fatality reports, much data is lost in the process.

What Does the Data Say?

A study conducted in 2003 , who鈥檇 been hiking for at least seven days. They were asked to complete a questionnaire around factors like injuries, and illnesses, along with practical measures they鈥檇 taken to avoid those things. That sounds like the kind of data that should be relevant to any of us going backpacking this summer.

The results? The most common cause of injury was blisters to the feet, followed by sore joints. The most frequent medical complaint was diarrhea. Filtering water, practicing good hygiene, and cleaning cooking implements correlated with avoiding that complaint. 24 percent of respondents reported tick bites.

Here are the myths and facts of water filtration. And tick bites are just as easy to avoid as E. Coli. Wearing appropriate clothing and taking advantage of modern chemical treatments can seriously reduce the odds of picking one up.

Where鈥檚 the juicy stuff, I wondered? I wanted听to read about grizzly bear maulings and hiking poles being surgically removed from groins. A study from 2007 looked at . Surely Yellowstone, with its large predators and geothermal activity will deliver something gruesome.

In a two-year period, Yellowstone鈥檚 EMS responded to 306 injuries that generated records reviewed by the study. In 59.2 percent of those cases, victims were able to be treated at the scene, and did not require transportation to a medical facility. 77.4 percent of incidents involved soft tissue lacerations鈥攃uts鈥攐nly 8.8 percent involved a broken bone.

But what if you do encounter a grizzly while visiting Yellowstone? It turns out the bear spray that’s become the accepted answer is more of a placebo used to prevent tourists from carrying guns than it is a realistically capable tool. Fortunately there’s some very easy advice that’s statistically proven to deliver better results.

A larger study . It found that EMS responded to 45.9 injuries per million park visits. This is a substantially lower rate than that of, say, annual emergency department visits per-million people in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But that鈥檚 an imperfect comparison. People exist in the world 365 days out of the year. The average visit duration across the national park system is 7.44 hours.

That study found that 43 percent of EMS activations park service-wide involved simple first aid.听 29 percent were in response to medical emergencies like heart attacks. Only 28 percent of activations involved traumas.

It seems it鈥檚 hard to find juicy data around gruesome injuries in national parks simply because, relative to the outside world, there just aren鈥檛 that many.

A study published in 2009 by Wilderness and Environmental Medicine studies . It found there were an average of 4,090 each year. The purpose of that study was to compare cost to efficacy, not to tabulate causations. Of all 65,439 SAR operations studied, the rescued victims were neither ill nor injured in 51,541 cases. In those cases, victims were likely lost, unable to return to a trailhead, or feared exposure. Activities requiring rescue correspond to those most likely to result in death in the main park service data set鈥攈iking and boating. The study found that 13,211 people would have died without SAR intervention; these operations are saving more people than the total number of deaths across parks every year.

What About Deaths in National Parks?

If you’re curious about deaths, the most complete set of data comes from the National Park Service. A a single, nationwide agency responsible for the safety of hundreds of millions of annual visitors, NPS collects more data around human behavior in the outdoors than any other entity I know. Its most complete set of data comes from human fatalities, since those are the subject of significant reporting and investigation.

Looking at for causations, we can see data like this:

Out of all deaths in national parks, intentional causes (suicides and homicides), medical causes, and undetermined (which are likely a mix of the first two categories) make up 50 percent of all fatalities. Unintentional causes鈥攁ccidents鈥攎ake up the other half.

This data set runs from 2014 to 2019. Of those accidental deaths, the most common cause was motor vehicle crashes, followed by drowning, next come falls. These causes likely sound a lot less dramatic than you鈥檇 expect for places with mountains and bears. And they get even less dramatic when you dig into them. The largest group likely to drown in national parks are men aged 45-54, and the most common cause of those is boating accidents. The U.S. Coast Guard says alcohol is a factor in . Falls, too, involve fairly mundane circumstances. Many more of those occur while hiking rather than climbing, and most of the locations where people get into trouble are established hiking trails.

Deaths in national parks are also rare. Between 2014 and 2019, a total of 1,080 unintentional deaths occurred across the entire national park system. That鈥檚 out of 1.9 billion visits. You鈥檙e several times less likely to die while visiting a national park than you are to win the Powerball jackpot.

The odds of any particular type of accidental death skew heavily between individual parks, too. Most of those boating deaths occur in National Recreation Areas (which are managed by the park service and involve big bodies of water like Lake Mead). 39 people drowned there between 2014 and 2019. The park with the highest incidents of motor vehicle deaths was Great Smokey Mountains National Park, where people visit to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. Distractions鈥攍ooking at the views鈥攁re a major factor.

Visiting a national park, or recreating outdoors, remains very safe, despite the fact that these activities differ from our normal, daily behavior. Humans tend to experience a normalcy bias, where we perceive rare stuff to be much more dangerous than things much more statistically likely to kill us, so long as we do that more dangerous stuff more regularly. All that鈥檚 to say: If you want to avoid death and injury outdoors this summer, drive safely.

Wes Siler splits time between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. You can read his travel guidance and insights to both places on .

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It鈥檚 fun to imagine an apocalyptic scenario, and purchase the kind of neon green tomahawk you think will help you defeat zombie hoards. (Spoiler alert: it won鈥檛.) But when it comes to preparing for more likely situations鈥攕ay, an emergency while traveling鈥攎any of us are guilty of being caught flat-footed.

I get it. With severely limited space in carry-on luggage, plus the very real possibility of never seeing anything you check ever again, it鈥檚 easy to focus on the destinations on the other side. But travel often involves as much frustration as it does excitement. Based on over three decades of regular air travel both here in the United States and abroad, here are some simple changes I鈥檝e made to what I pack that help eliminate or address common problems.

Make the Most of Multiple-Use Clothing

Clothing is absolutely ket. For example, when packing for a backpacking trip, the key to saving weight is to only bring items that serve multiple purposes. A puffy jacket can keep you warm and be your pillow. Duct tape can fix torn clothing and prevent blisters. With space so limited inside a carry-on, adopting that same approach works just as well while traveling. Clothing will take up the most space in your luggage by far, so getting the most out of your clothes is key to travel preparedness.

Wool is a super-fabric that helps keep you cool when it鈥檚 hot, and warm when it鈥檚 cold. Versus cotton, it dries much faster and compared to synthetics, it can last through many more unwashed wears before getting stinky. Merino is softer next to the skin than other varieties.

Switching cotton socks and t-shirts to merino items is an obvious trick. Less so is the button down dress shirt. By packing one of those made from lightweight wool, not only do you get a single item that will better resist wrinkles and smells versus your standard cotton items, but also something that when paired with that merino t-shirt, quickly becomes a performance mid-layer, adding insulation and moisture wicking to your layering system. Last summer, I wore a ($168) to walk around Paris sightseeing all day, then headed to Frenchie for the five-course tasting menu. I was comfortable and looked good throughout.

Another versatile item is the shacket. Heavier than a button down and lighter than most jackets, a good shaket (or jac-shirt) can be left unbuttoned to dress up a tee, or snapped closed with the collar听turned up to serve as a warm mid-layer. Depending on the time of year and destination, I choose from items made from polyester fleece, wool, or down, and am rewarded with a layer that transitions easily from mountain to city, or outdoor activity to indoor environment. For more casual environments, I practically live in a black ($129).

The final piece in any layering system is the shell. These seal out wind and precipitation, and trap warm air in your other layers, keeping you toasty and dry. And while really hard, persistent rain demands the reliability of a waterproof-breathable membrane, high levels of activity, and changing conditions work better without one. Because waxed-cotton canvas can be adapted to increasing needs for waterproofness with the application of more wax, because it breathes better than any membrane, and because it can be dressed up or down to suit scenarios ranging from airport terminals to fancy restaurants, I鈥檝e transitioned to wax cotton shells for travel. ($250) features a classic style that looks good in pretty much any environment while providing ample weather protection.

On the upper half of your body, there are very few conditions that layering a merino t-shirt, a wool button down, a jac-shirt, and a waxed cotton shell will not be able to handle.

Carry Cords Compatible with Common Outlets, Plus Extra Power

Traveling between countries with different plug designs can be a nightmare. Because of that, many planes, hotel rooms, and offices have added USB-A compatibility to their power outlets. But few devices still use that design. Before you fly, purchasing cables that start with USB-A, and end in whatever style of port your devices require will simplify your packing and guarantee you鈥檒l be able to plug in no matter where you find yourself.

Pro Tip: Even if you find yourself in a hotel or office without USB-A wall outlets, televisions, monitors, and many other devices will include one. Look behind those before declaring defeat.

But as devices have moved away from USB-A, so have power bricks. To solve that problem, I recently upgraded to . That packs a wall charger, two USB-C outlets, one USB-A outlet, and a 10,000mAh battery all into one $70, cigarette pack-sized, multiple use device.

Dose Your Liquids and Don’t Forget the First-Aid Kit

Grab this assortment of travel-sized, color-coded, , and take the time to measure out the amount of potions and medications you need for the duration of your trip. Write out the contents on the bottle using a Sharpie.

In addition to everyday necessities ( and toothpaste), I like to bring some ibuprofen, Pepto Bismol, peppermint Dr. Bronners, a prescription antibiotic (ask your doctor), and a travel-size pack of skin-friendly wet wipes. For a first-aid kit, I carry a small role of duct tape, a tube of 0.5-ounce tube of Neosporin, and a pack of 0.17-ounce .

Properly Light Your Way at Night

Phone flashlights are all well and good鈥攗ntil it鈥檚 dark out and you need to see something further away than right in front of you. Plus, phone flashlights aren’t hands-free by nature and they suck battery when you鈥檙e trying to conserve the last few bars of precious juice. This is going to be a radical suggestion, I know, but carry a dedicated flashlight.

In my carry-on, I keep an 听($32). That gives me the easy ability to switch from a 130-yard spot beam to a very bright 500-lumen flood, to a night vision-preserving red light that鈥檚 capable of flashing for visibility, all with an intuitive, rotating, physical knob. The tiny 2.25-inch package can then be clipped to a backpack strap, shirt pocket, or hat should you need to go hands free, or inside a tent or to a curtain should you need area illumination.

I鈥檝e used mine to add extra evening visibility to a crappy rental bike and to hike nighttime trails. With a battery life that lasts 144 hours on its lowest brightness and an hour and 21 minutes on full blast, I just charge it before I fly somewhere.

Save Your Documents

My wife had her passport stolen out of her purse during our last visit to London, while her purse was hanging on the back of my chair at a pub so I could guard it. Because we snapped a picture of that way back when it was renewed, then emailed a copy of that image to both of our email accounts (complete with an easily searchable subject line), it didn鈥檛 cause us more than an hour of inconvenience, since we had proof of ID ready to go when we swung by the embassy for a replacement. Do the same with your driver鈥檚 license, and any visas or other travel documents. Should the worst happen, and your phone be lost, stolen, or disabled, you can log into your email from another person鈥檚 phone, or at an Internet cafe, and print out what you need to cross a border, rent a car, check into a hotel, or deal with the police. Though, it’s also important to know that many officials will not accept a digital I.D., this is a good starting point to have your details handy.

Bring Gear to Fix Problems

Tim Leatherman came up with the idea for the original multitool while on vacation in Italy way back in 1975. But the perfect solution for a toolkit you can fit in your pocket isn鈥檛 much use if you can鈥檛 bring it through security. Enter the : a keychain-sized tool designed for TSA compliance, but which the company 鈥渞etired鈥� in 2023. You can still find them and brick and mortar retailers.

I鈥檝e had one on my keychain for over a decade now, and have used it to fix everything from cars and motorcycles, to opening up a foreign power outlet to rig a connection with a plug from another country. It sails through security here in the U.S., but I have had them confiscated in European airports.

There are a variety of other TSA-compliant multitools out there, but I鈥檝e yet to find anything else that combines Leatherman鈥檚 quality with the practicality of having both pliers and scissors onboard. The is one such option, and at just $20, it’s cheap enough you won’t miss it if you do have to leave it behind at security.

In addition to the multitool, I like to bring along a few feet of paracord, one or two safety pins, and a Bic lighter. None of that takes up any noticeable space, and all three can be used to repair luggage, hang a clothesline (the Dr. Bronner鈥檚 in your toiletries means you can do laundry in a sink), drain a blister, or light a fire.

What About Your Feet?

Everyone has a different style, different needs, and different feet. Finding a boot that鈥檚 all-day comfortable, looks nice with a pair of jeans, and that provides the traction and weather resistance necessary for your destination and plans is both the solution, and the challenge.

For more casual travel to more outdoorsy destinations, I like to find a high quality leather hiking boot, then wear those for pretty much everything. Since I鈥檓 of German descent, it鈥檚 no surprise that brands like 听and 听fit me best. Your results will differ.

For dressier cities and countries, I鈥檝e found that , an Italian brand imported by Huckberry, is just the ticket for walking all over during the day, then looking nice at night.

Whatever you buy, replacing the the insoles with higher-quality items made by a brand like 听will offer dramatically improved comfort and support.

Putting in the effort to find the right footwear will give you the ability to move through airports and cities in comfort, hike trails safely, and run away from anything that threatens you.

The Bottom Line

Travel already costs a ton of money, flight delays and cancellations already cause enough headaches. There’s not a lot you can do about either, but some basic preparedness can prevent other variables like weather or walking distances from becoming major problems.

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Who makes the most advanced outdoor clothing? Ask a skier or a hiker, and they’re likely to name some familiar brands. Ask a hunter, and they will probably tell you Sitka Gear. I tend to side with the hunters.

Sitka Gear has been at the forefront of technical innovation in apparel that keeps you warm and dry when you’re in the field hunting game. And its latest jacket, therepresents a massive leap forward in a wide range of performance metrics, from weight, to warmth, to its price tag, and even its impact on the environment.

Perhaps most surprising about the jacket is the origin story. It is the brainchild of Sikta’s creative director, Brad Christian, who also happens to be a friend of mine. For the last few years it’s been Brad鈥檚 job to design logos, not clothes. Even more surprising, the Studio Hyperdown Park is designed for wear through travel and in cities, not for hunting.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to wear my camo hunting jacket to a bar anymore than I want to wear my ski goggles to ride my horse on a sunny day,鈥� Christian recently told me. 鈥淛ust like there鈥檚 a right tool for a job, as a creative director, I believe there鈥檚 a right aesthetic too.鈥�

Sitka, where Christian has worked for the last nine years, is owned by W.L. Gore and Associates, the multi-billion dollar parent of Gore-Tex, the biggest of those technology suppliers. And that gives him a few more resources than most other creative side projects. Sitka already serves as sort of an off-site creative lab for Gore. Running a side project within a creative lab means Christian has total freedom to use Sitka Studio to create exactly the kind of products he wants.

Making a Groundbreaking Jacket that Won鈥檛 Break the Budget

Two things make special: its down and its shell. But what really defines the jacket is the way those materials work together.

Fill power is a measure of down insulation鈥檚 compressibility. Because it鈥檚 common practice for traditional parkas to use heavyweight canvas shell fabrics, which don鈥檛 facilitate packability on their own, there鈥檚 no need to use high fill power downs.

Christian turns that practice on its head with a lightweight 60-denier nylon ripstop shell he sourced from Japan, that’s about 10 percent the weight of most parka shells, and to which he applies Gore鈥檚 new ePE (expanded polyethylene) Windstopper membrane. That material is PFAS-free (a forever chemical with a long list of negative impacts on human health), and stronger than older ePTFE (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene) membranes, which means it can be made thinner and lighter. All that adds up to less pollution, a shell fabric that鈥檚 just as strong as those used in existing parkas, and which has the added benefit of minimizing convective heat loss.

But a lighter, more packable shell wouldn鈥檛 do much on its own if it wasn鈥檛 used to house a very compressible down. For that, Christian used his parent company鈥檚 gravitas to knock on the door of Allied Feather + Down, another industry-leading innovator and supplier. One new technology they鈥檝e been working on is a less polluting, more effective alternative to the Durable Water Repellent coatings that enable down clusters to resist moisture, and quickly dry should they get soaked, retaining the material鈥檚 ability to provide insulation. And believe it or not, that new treatment is gold.

Allied has found a way to bond microscopic gold particles directly to down clusters. Versus existing DWR treatments, that results in dry times , according to that company.

Christian sourced 900+ fill gold-bonded down from Allied, the most compressible insulation commonly available for outdoor clothing, then ordered 230 grams of it for each of his parkas (in a size medium). Given that he designed a butt-length parka that鈥檚 a little shorter than most designs in that space, and went without a hood to make it more travel-friendly, that results in several times the volume of insulation packed around your torso and arms versus the parkas you鈥檙e used to.

All that probably sounds pretty expensive. But by leveraging Gore鈥檚 supply chain, Christian was able to bring it all to market for just $499. That is less than half the price of a typical high-end parka.

鈥淕ore? I mean they鈥檙e , they鈥檙e , they鈥檙e the most technical company out there from a scientific perspective, which is why it鈥檚 so fun to be able to call these guys up,鈥� Christian says. 鈥淚鈥檓 a wannabe gear nerd compared to these guys, they鈥檙e actually in a state-of-the-art lab, developing technology at an insane level.鈥�

Can a Jacket Attract More People to Hunting?

Now Christian wants to use Sitka Studio, and the brand’s platform as an authority in hunting apparel, to sell the general public on hunting and animal conservation.

Christian has previously focused Sitka Studio on collaborations, working with Gibson to design , The James Brand to create a chef鈥檚 knife intended for hard use outdoors, and with Black Diamond to put . Neat creative endeavors that put the brand in front of new audiences, but it鈥檚 with his first ground-up clothing design that Sitka Studio has really become a creative force on its own.

鈥淎s hunters, our lives authentically depend on our gear to keep us where we have to be to do what we committed to doing,鈥� Christian explains. 鈥淲e鈥檙e so super focused on the technical need for the most extreme situations because, when we get dropped by a plane in the Yukon, and we’re going to stay there for three weeks on the side of a mountain whatever nature has for us, we don鈥檛 have anything else to fall back on.鈥�

It鈥檚 that authentic requirement for peerless functional gear that Christian thinks the world outside of hunting will be open to learning about.

鈥淗unting has long been on an island,鈥� he says. 鈥淗unting content talks to hunters. Hunting product talks to hunters. But this isn鈥檛 just another sport, it鈥檚 the OG lifestyle. Hunting鈥檚 story is the story of human connection to nature.鈥�

鈥�Steven Rinella is really good at articulating a case for hunting,鈥� Christian continues. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 his way of doing it. Well, my particular ability for doing that is as a creative director.鈥�

鈥淭his is about writing a love letter about hunting to the rest of the world,鈥� Christian explains.

Wes Siler is an adult onset hunter who’s always trying to learn more about animals. You can read more about the surprising ways in which animal conservation works in benefit of biodiversity by .听

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The mountains are muddy (or still socked in with snow), it鈥檚 raining in the woods, and rivers are about to overflow their banks with runoff. Winter has felt long this year, and you’re probably itching to spend some time in the sun, and maybe go on a camping trip. But where can you find comfort and solitude in this transitional time of year? The desert, of course. Here鈥檚 how to plan your first trip鈥攁nd make it a success.

Why The Desert?

Isn鈥檛 the desert just sand, rocks, and scrub? Only in movies and TV shows. Deserts support abundant, diverse plant and animal life that can’t be found anywhere else, provide speculator views, and offer a vast landscape free of other people. Deserts are also full of attractions like ghost towns, waterfalls, oases, rivers, hot springs and beaches. In short: all the ingredients necessary for an epic weekend outdoors.

And while deserts are incredibly fragile ecosystems, they鈥檙e also typically managed by the most lenient rules and agencies. So long as you鈥檙e able to be responsible and self-sufficient, you鈥檙e free to visit and enjoy them as you see fit.

But don’t forget: visiting the desert, and doing it well, is typically going to involve driving on unpaved surfaces, hiking or recreating in unforgiving temperatures, and doing all that a long way away from other people, which exponentially increases your consequences should something go wrong.

The solution to safely and responsibly visiting the desert lies in preparation. Let鈥檚 look at some different destinations, then I’ll walk you through how you can best prepare for them.

Somewhere in Idaho. Note the truck serving as a wind break for both the tent and fire. (Photo: Wes Siler)

For First Time Campers: Joshua Tree National Park

Home to many organized campgrounds (you must book ahead), accessible by paved roads, along with the (now somewhat reduced) presence of park rangers to fall back on should you need help, California’s Joshua Tree National Park听is easy to visit and enjoy.

Things To Do: The park offers incredibly accessible traditional climbing and bouldering. So if you鈥檙e looking to take your ascents out of the gym for the first time, Joshua Tree is a great place to learn the ropes. More experienced climbers will enjoy the slab and steep crack climbing challenges.

J-Tree is home to great hiking. 国产吃瓜黑料‘s听National Parks columnist, Graham Averill, assembled a list of 11 of the best just last December. The park also offers backcountry camping for backpackers prepared to venture into the desert on foot鈥攋ust make sure you book a permit in advance.

Joshua Tree’s ease of access will allow you to relax and enjoy time outdoors. You can birdwatch, listen to coyotes howl, spot rattlesnakes, and enjoy some of the best stargazing in Southern California.

What To Watch Out For: . Watch out for rattlesnakes, which tend to hide out during the heat of the day, but get more active at night. A lot of visitors get into trouble by venturing off-pavement in inappropriate vehicle or on inadequate tires. Bring at least one gallon of water per-person, per-day.

Make Sure You Bring: WAG bags. Should you encounter reduced bathroom services, prepare听to poop and pack it out on your own. This can be done simply using hand sanitizer, a roll of toilet paper, and doggie bags combined with a (black!) trash bag to toss them into.

For New Off-Roaders: The Old Mojave Road

Bought听your first 4×4 and want to test its mettle? Not far from Joshua Tree lies California’s听Mojave National Preserve, and following old wagon tracks through it will take you far away from other people, but within an easy drive from Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

Things To Do: Make sure your navigation devices work without听cell reception, then air down your tires and hit the sand. Look for lava tubes and explore the vast emptiness of the Mojave Desert.

What To Watch Out For: Following rain, the water crossing on the route鈥檚 north side can get deep enough to flood your vehicle. Know the height of your truck鈥檚 air intake, make sure all your traction aids are switched on, and proceed with extreme caution. Exercise the care you should any time you鈥檙e off-road, sticking to the trails, avoiding damage to plants, and packing out anything you bring in, including human waste.

Make Sure You Bring: An air compressor, an air down tool, a tire repair kit, and a matching spare should be considered essential. An extra five gallons of gas will be nice to have.

For Hot Springers: Guadalupe Canyon Oasis

A 50-mile drive south of the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Mexicali, is managed by a friendly family that provides private sites, each with its own natural-spring fed tub, plunge, or swimming pool. This is a perfect first destination for the Baja-curious. The drive into the oasis is easy and accessible to vehicles as basic as economy crossovers.

Things To Do: In addition to soaking, check out hikes to view indigenous cave art. See native wildlife like bighorn sheep. Show up prepared to cook your own meals and provide your own drinks, but a little market on-site sells some essentials should you forget anything.

What To Watch Out For: While the dirt road in is pretty simple, you鈥檒l want to make sure you have a full tank of gas when you leave Mexicali, and take care to avoid navigating across the dry lake bed. No matter how capable your truck, the soft mud there will absolutely get you stuck.

Make Sure You Bring: Download the , and plan your crossing back north accordingly. I’d way rather spend four to six hours enjoying tacos and shopping for cheap prescriptions in Mexicali than sitting in a traffic jam.

You鈥檙e going to ask this, so I might as well answer. Yes, it鈥檚 safe to visit. The oasis locks its entry gate after dark and the family is on-site to patiently assist with any problems you might have.

For Backpackers: The Topa Topa Mountains

Just north of Ventura and Ojai, California, the Topa Topas often get passed over for the more glamorous (and still very much snowed in) Sierra Nevada. They offer less crowded trails as a result, and are accessible year-round.

Things Do Do: Park at the Piedra Blanca trailhead, throw on your backpack, and start walking. You’ll find hidden waterfalls, secret swimming holes, backcountry hot springs, and an abundance of rare wildlife, including the California Condor.

What To Watch Out For: While water sources are abundant in the Topa Topas, water levels fall as summer approaches, pools become stagnant, and algae grows. Pollution from human waste is common. That鈥檚 to say: bring a water filter you can rely on. Both black bears and mountain lions are very active in the Topa Topas, and in my experience have lost their fear of us humans. Store food responsibly and keep an eye out around dawn and dusk. If you do see a bear or lion, group tightly, leash your dogs, and make noise.

Make Sure You Bring: A good map. While the main hiking trail from due east tends to lead to crowded destinations, there are many, many lesser-known attractions once you venture off the beaten path. Don’t be afraid to explore.

Gear You Need For Desert Camping Trips

Camping in the desert will ideally be a relaxed, low-effort experience. But as with any activity, there are ways you can improve it.

Shelter: As night begins to fall and temperatures begin to drop, winds will increase. These gusts can听destroy high-profile tents and shade structures, and even more commonly make those things noisy and nerve wracking to sleep in. I like to bring a low-profile backpacking tent instead. Once you鈥檝e divined the evening wind direction, pitch that behind a vehicle, boulder, or other windbreak.

To state the obvious, it will get hot during the day. Carrying a lightweight tarp for human-powered activities, or some sort of robust shade structure if you have your truck along, is essential. Make sure this a separate item from your tent so you can take it down as the sun begins to set and winds pick up.

Nights are always going to be cooler than you expect, and will feel even chillier with your new sunburn. Make sure you bring an insulated sleeping pad and a good sleeping bag with a comfort rating at least 10 degrees lower than the temperatures you expect to face.

For clothing, wear lightweight layers during the day, then plan to add insulation and wind protection at night. Real hiking boots are a good idea in this rocky and sandy terrain.

Water: If you鈥檙e traveling by vehicle, just bring water along with you. One gallon per-person, per-day is the rule of thumb. Don鈥檛 forget about your dogs. If you鈥檙e going human-powered, map out water sources using recent intel from other hikers who have traveled the area. A pump water filter complete with a lengthened intake hose (just take your filter to the local hardware store) can help you access hard-to-reach puddles and pools hidden in rocks and hillsides, or dip below surface algae for less murky water. An extra foot or two of length should be plenty.

Fire: Deserts are fragile ecosystems. If you鈥檙e not camping in an established campsite with a pre-existing fire-ring, don鈥檛 scar the landscape with a surface burn. Instead pack along a cheap home fire pit, or one powered by propane.

Food: Treating your camping trip like an outdoor dinner party is a sure recipe for good times. But out here, even organic substances can take a long time to degrade, while stuff like baby wipes and toilet paper may stick around for decades. Prepare to pack it all out with you.

Safety: While rare, snakes and scorpions do sometimes like to shelter in or under tents. For that reason, I like to bring along a proper tent to sleep in, rather than just a tarp or ultralight floorless shelter. Keep your zippers closed and tip your boots upside down overnight.

Coyotes should be a concern, especially if you own dogs. Coyotes are known to prey on very small and young dogs, so keep those leashed, especially at night. Coyotes are also prolific thieves of food, so keep anything edible in a cooler or car when it鈥檚 not in use.

And while desert weather may appear pretty stagnant to the uninitiated, it tends to be extreme when it does occur. Assume anything that can flood will flood, and avoid camping in dry washes or arroyos. Flash floods can wipe out seldom-traveled desert routes and render them totally impassible. Keep an eye out, and always have an alternate travel route planned should your way back to civilization suddenly disappear. Beware rock falls and mudslides any time there鈥檚 precipitation.

But the real problems come with exposure, and are most often caused or exacerbated by poor planning. Plan routes carefully and conservatively, don鈥檛 rely on worn out or inadequate equipment. And, when in doubt, travel in groups.

The post Plan a Desert Camping Trip to Beat the Winter Blues appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

I鈥檝e been roller bag carry-on curious for years. But until now, I just couldn鈥檛 find a piece robust or convenient enough to justify switching away from my tried-and-true backpack. Then I saw , and it鈥檚 already saved my bacon.

Going into this review, I was planning to try and demonstrate just how tough this new luggage is. I thought about dragging it behind a moving truck off-road, or throwing it off my roof, or driving over it in my wife鈥檚 6,000 pound Land Cruiser, or cutting it in half with a chainsaw.

But all of that just seemed superfluous. Anyone who鈥檚 ever traveled with camera gear, or shipped sensitive electronics, or flown to hunt knows and trusts Pelican cases already. What鈥檚 new here, versus existing Pelican cases, are four wheels rather than two, a multi-position trolley handle, soft-close grab handles, and interior organization features oriented more toward clothing and toiletries than lenses and camera bodies.

So my question is less about how tough this thing is, and more: Why would anyone need such an indestructible spinner bag?

I found out the first time I flew with it.

The Pelican ATX Carry-On in Action

Last weekend, my wife and I flew to Cincinnati for the annual . Despite the fact that we attend every year, we didn鈥檛 get around to booking the flights until the last minute and ended up traveling on separate planes as a result. After dropping her off for her flight, taking the dogs to the kennel, showering, jamming a bunch of clothes into the Pelican, then driving myself back to the airport, I was running pretty late. But I had to pee. So I rushed through the crowded airport here in Bozeman and ran straight to the wall of urinals. That鈥檚 when I noticed the smell, and looked at the floor.

One of the toilets was overflowing, spreading a pool of raw sewage across the bathroom floor. And I鈥檇 just dragged my brand new $499 roller bag right through it.

鈥淪hit,” I thought. Literally.

I grabbed a wad of paper towels from the dispenser, wiped the worst off it and my boots, and ran to catch my flight. I gate checked the Pelican to avoid dripping sewage all over the plane鈥檚 passenger compartment, and relaxed in the knowledge there was no way the airline would manage to damage my luggage.

My flight landed about 11 P.M., and it was an hour ride in an Uber to the Marriott Courtyard in Blue Ash. I needed to be in my running clothes and at the race by 10 A.M. the next morning. There was no time find a laundromat, nor to run out and buy new gear. Over a tiny bag of savory snack mix and a can of warm beer, I formulated a plan. If ever there was an argument for a fully-submersible carry-on, this is it.

The Specs and What’s Cool About the ATX 22

Like every other Pelican case, the features two injection molded polypropylene half shells that pivot around metal rods to seal onto each other via a rubber gasket. Strong metal clamps replicate the design of the polymer hinges on regular Pelican cases, squeezing the case shut on the gasket to create an impermeable seal. A little disc of Gore-Tex waterproof-breathable membrane material let鈥檚 a little air travel both ways, in and out of the case to equalize pressure at altitude or under the sea, helping to keep the case firmly sealed against all dust and water.

Because you can fully submerge a Pelican case to a minimum depth of one meter for at least 30 minutes, I figured you could also wash one off with the provided all-in-one body wash and shampoo in a hot hotel shower, all without exposing any of the contents to poop, or soapy water.

It must have worked, because I鈥檓 writing this on the laptop that was sealed inside the Pelican right now, and no one turned their nose up at any lingering stench throughout the rest of the weekend.

Would I have had to deal with raw sewage if I鈥檇 just stuck with one of the backpacks I鈥檝e carried since I started flying a bunch when I was a kid, three decades or more ago? (My dad was a diplomat.) I used some of those free sanitizing wipes the flight attendants hand out to clean off my boots, and I guess with a shouldered pack that would have been the end of the ordeal. But I wanted to switch to a roller bag partially out of convenience, and because I鈥檇 grown jealous of my wife鈥檚 .

Why the Pelican ATX 22 Is Carry-On Worthy, To Me

I should add that this is hardly the first time I鈥檝e flown with a Pelican case. Working in media for 23 years now, I鈥檝e dragged them all over the world for photo shoots, and have a pile of them stacked up in the back of my garage, sized for different rifles, handguns, car parts, and power tools. And having learned to rely on them across deserts, jungles, oceans, mountains, and the arctic tundra, it鈥檚 hard to look at other hard-sided suitcases and not find them lacking. That titanium Tumi, with its textured waves and leather handles sure looks nice, but it鈥檚 never going to protect its contents as well as a Pelican, even at six times the price. And while traveling, even articles as humble as a nicely-fitting pair of jeans can prove mission critical.

I鈥檇 actually thought about buying one of last year. But with interior options consisting of pick-and-pluck foam, or nothing at all, and with only two wheels dictating a single direction of pull, I wasn鈥檛 sold. To justify the upgrade from a backpack, I wanted the ability to organize and compress folded clothing, manage small items like cables, passports, toiletries and flashlights, and access all that without dumping my things all over the floor.

That鈥檚 what Pelican鈥檚 new ATX-range of luggage delivers: all the robust protection of a Pelican case, combined with all the convenience and organization features of high-end travel luggage.

The case boasts Hinimoto wheels鈥攁 Japanese maker of the highest quality luggage rollers鈥攃arry handles that fold themselves back to flush on dampers, a four-position trolley handle mounted to the exterior of the case to maintain waterproofness, TSA locks, and a ripstop-nylon interior organization system that includes zip-pockets on one side and a clothing compressor on the other.

This 22-inch version is sized to comply with international carry-on size restrictions. But if you鈥檙e one of those travelers who thinks every inch of the overhead bin belongs to you, you could probably get onboard with the ATX 25 without too much hassle. The 30-inch should wheel its way off the checked baggage carousel for decades.

Worth the upgrade? For this frequent flier? Absolutely. Even though I hope to avoid raw sewage on my next trip, I鈥檒l still feel safe in the knowledge that everything I bring along will be as protected as possible, no matter what, all in a carry-on it鈥檚 easy and comfortable to move through an airport.

The post Why Frequent Fliers Will Appreciate the Toughest Carry-On Suitcase, Ever appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Last September, I attended , a wild game butchering course hosted by , an all-in-one training and outfitter referral service for people who want to get started hunting. After conservation, the purpose of hunting is to put the healthiest, most sustainable, and ethically harvested meat on your dinner table. So when I got the chance to elevate my butchering and cooking skills to the next level, I jumped at the opportunity.

Whether you鈥檙e hunting, or just want to stretch cheap cuts of meat as far as possible, making your own sausage is an easy way to stock up on healthy, tasty protein. I鈥檝e been making my own at home for the last 15 years or so. Let me show you how.

Why Sausage?

Sausage is a way to make use of excess trim that’s left over when you butcher your own animals. As you separate muscle groups into their component parts, you鈥檒l invariably end up with chunks of good meat that don鈥檛 look good enough to use on their own. Turning those鈥攐r affordable commercial cuts like pork shoulders or beef chuck roast鈥攊nto a form that鈥檚 not just useable, but delicious, ensures that you鈥檙e getting the most out of every last bit of animal you harvested. Plus, you’ll end up with large quantities of great food, no matter your budget.

I wrote about听the lessons I learned about butchering in an article last October. The pronghorn antelope I harvested then produced the off cuts I鈥檓 using today, and I鈥檒l incorporate tips from Outdoor Solutions鈥� throughout this piece.

What Is Sausage, Anyway?

Sausage is simply ground, seasoned meat that鈥檚 ready to cook. You can absolutely stuff that into sheep intestines if you want to create nice links, but even with Chef Albert鈥檚 instruction, I find that process time consuming. I don鈥檛 typically end up eating the casings anyway, so I prefer to make sausage in bulk. Packing it into vacuum bags one pound at a time makes it easy to store in your freezer, quick to defrost, and simple to cook with.

Wild game is much leaner than industrially farmed meat. So while there鈥檚 no need to use extra fat if you鈥檙e turning a pork shoulder into sausage, you鈥檒l want to buy a source of fat for anything you鈥檝e hunted.听I鈥檇 always visited a butcher for frozen piles of pork fat, but not every butcher has those, especially during hunting season. Chef Albert recommends simply using bacon instead鈥攊t鈥檚 cheap, readily available, and works just as well. That鈥檚 what I plan to do from now on.

How to Prepare Your Kitchen to Make Sausage

First, you鈥檒l need to defrost the trim you plan to turn into sausage. Chef Albert cautions against forcing a defrost in warm water, and instead recommends thawing what you plan to use overnight in your fridge. Doing that helps preserve the meat鈥檚 texture, and won鈥檛 turn it gray.

Thirty minutes before you plan to get started, it鈥檚 also a good idea to put all the pieces of your meat grinder (except the motor) into your freezer. Grinding produces heat, which you don鈥檛 want entering your meat until you鈥檙e ready to cook.

For that same reason, you鈥檙e also going to want an ample stash of ice cubes on hand.

Supplies you鈥檒l need:

• A meat grinder
• At least two large mixing bowls
• Ice
• A scale
• A sharp knife
• A large cutting board
• Nitrile gloves
• Defrosted meat, trimmed of silver skin and connective tissue
• 20 percent of the weight of that meat in bacon

You should also decide how you want to season your sausage. Today, I made a simple hot Italian, which I find brings out the natural flavor of venison or antelope, and is versatile in use, working as well in a pasta as it does with eggs.

For each pound of the hot Italian spice blend you鈥檒l need:

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup red wine

If you鈥檙e making large quantities of sausage after, say, harvesting a bull elk or more than one deer, you may find it easier to use bulk quantities of a pre-made spice blend.

You’ve Seasoned Your Meat. What’s Next?

Fit your meat grinder with the plate with the large holes, and start dropping strips of meat through it, interspersing the occasional strip of bacon.

Once that鈥檚 done, you鈥檙e ready to add seasonings to your ground meat and thoroughly mix the sausage meat by hand.

Chef Albert strongly recommends wearing nitrile gloves while handling game meat, especially when grinding. Ground meat is sticky, and will pull in any dirt that may exist in your cuticles and under your nails. You don鈥檛 want that stuff polluting the taste of your meat. But also, you should be washing your hands, regardless!

After that first grind and the hand mix, fit your grinder with the plate with the small holes, and pass the mixture through it again.

If you feel your grinder start to heat up while processing large volumes of meat, Chef Albert recommends dropping a few ice cubes into it.听This cold water will also add moisture to your sausage.

At this point, you can pack the sausage mix into a press and extrude it into casings, or simply vacuum seal the bulk meat one pound at a time.

You’ve Just Made a Mess. Here’s the Easiest Way to Clean Your Kitchen.

You鈥檝e just thrown raw meat all over your kitchen, and into a high-powered mixer. Make sure you leave plenty of time for the mopup. Even after careful trimming, game meat is still going to contain some tendon and fascia, and that tough connective tissue loves to wind itself around the auger inside your grinder. I鈥檝e always carefully picked it apart by hand, but Chef Albert showed me an easier way: simply run ice cubes through the grinder until they come out clean.

Then disassemble all the grinder鈥檚 parts, rinse them off, and run them through the dishwasher or wash them by hand. Take care to thoroughly clean cutting boards, countertops, knives, and of course, your hands.

How Should I Cook My Sausage?

What do you do with your new sausage? I like to taste my game meat, so I听try to incorporate it into as simple a dish as possible.

Here鈥檚 a recipe for a very basic hot Italian sausage pasta. I invited my now-wife to come over and enjoy this for our second date, and the rest is history.

Ingredients:

• One box of good quality pasta. My wife has celiac disease, and we鈥檝e found to make gluten-free noodles with the best texture and flavor. Cook that for one minute shy of what’s recommended on the box.
• Kosher salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• One 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes鈥擨 like
• Yellow onion, diced
• Fresh garlic to taste, crushed
• One pound hot Italian game sausage
• Fresh basil
• Parmesan
• A good quality olive oil. I only use , which is produced in Umbria by our friends the Tega family and imported by our buddy David Dellanave.

Directions:

1. In a large dutch oven, heat a good amount of olive oil over medium high heat
2. When oil is shimmering, add sausage and saut茅 until brown and crisp
3. Bring a salted pot of water to boil and cook pasta
4. Add the onion and saut茅 until clear
5. Add the garlic and saut茅 until fragrant
6. Season with salt and pepper
7. Add tomatoes, breaking up with your hands or wooden spoon
8. Bring tomatoes to simmer then reduce heat
9. After 15 minutes, stir and add a pinch of salt
10. After another 15 minutes, add pasta, sausage, parmesan to sauce and serve
11. Top plates with ample amounts of torn basil leaves

Delicious food really is that easy, especially when you鈥檙e working with the best meat possible.

Wes Siler grew up on a horse farm in England. That’s where he learned how the sausage gets made. Wes now writes about important topics like politics and vehicles on , where you can also talk to him about those topics and more.

The post The Beginner鈥檚 Guide to Making Sausage at Home appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

New cars and trucks are more expensive than ever鈥攖he average price of a used car was just shy of $50,000 in January, according to Kelly Blue Book. Interest rates to finance a vehicle are as well. To this car enthusiast, out of control costs sounds like a good argument for hanging on to your current vehicle, and taking care of it so you can keep driving safely and comfortably. And while maintenance often sounds intimidating, it really doesn鈥檛 need to be.

With 35,000 miles of off-road driving, plus big trips like last year鈥檚 three-month epic through Baja under its belt, is starting to feel a little beat. Like anyone whose truck is squeaking, driving poorly, and becoming a pain to use, I started to plan on buying a replacement. I pondered my options鈥攎aybe a little bigger truck, probably with a more comfortable camper, definitely brand new. But with interest rates still exceeding seven percent, vehicle prices at an all-time high, and creeping in, the thought of adding an expensive payment to my monthly budget just no longer seems prudent. So I鈥檓 doing something else: I鈥檓 keeping my truck.

But choosing to keep my truck does nothing to eliminate its squeaky bearings. So I decided to give the Ranger a makeover. And even if you鈥檙e not a truck enthusiast, here鈥檚 how you can do the same.

1. Make a List

You don鈥檛 need to be an expert to do this. Just write down everything you don鈥檛 like about how your vehicle is performing right now. Every creak or problem or task you can come up with.

Mine looks like this:

• Sticky ginger-ale explosion residue all over windshield, headliner, seats, dashboard, buttons
• Goose Gear Seat Delete plate system squeaking. Smoothie residue in nooks and crannies
• Dog hair everywhere
• Headlamps bulbs older than one year
• Intermittent check engine light
• Worn/squeaky suspension bushings on all four corners
• Oil/filter change overdue
• Differential fluid front/rear probably needs changing
• Fog lights have rattled out of alignment
• Camper interior lights broken
• Solar panel(s) broken
• Broken bumper swingout retention pin
• Bent bumper swingout latch
• Apply yellow film to rear work lights so people can see me during blizzards
• Intermittent clunking over bumps
• Decked drawer system loose and clunking, filled to brim with mess

2. Diagnose Problems

Even if you鈥檙e not an amateur mechanic, you can likely tackle more of these jobs than you think. But, you have to figure out what鈥檚 wrong in order to fix it. Don鈥檛 be intimidated;听diagnosing your car’s issues is easier than you think.

Any car or truck听made since 1996 includes a standardized electronic Onboard Diagnostic port called an OBD-II. Diagnostic ports were mandated as part of a drive for more stringent vehicle emissions standards鈥攃heck engine lights are typically related to a vehicle鈥檚 intake or exhaust systems鈥攚ith the intention of keeping these complicated parts owner-serviceable. OBD-II readers can be purchased for as little as $20. But odds are good one of your friends or neighbors already has one.

To use an OBD-II scanner, just plug it into the port below the steering wheel while the vehicle is fully off, then turn the key or push the ignition button to turn the car on in accessory mode, without starting the motor. Then follow the instructions on the screen.

Some modern vehicles may also push fault codes out to a smartphone app, along with a brief explanation.

Once you have that code or smartphone alert, all you need to do is perform a simple search. Put your car or truck鈥檚 year, make, model and trim (i.e. 2021 Ford Ranger XLT) into Google, along with the fault code or name, and you鈥檒l find help immediately.

My OBD-II scanner pointed me toward an exhaust gas pressure sensor, and a search sent me to a thread on the vehicle鈥檚 owner forum detailing the problem: the sensor can fill up with moisture created during fuel combustion. A new sensor costs $19, and following instructions on the forum meant replacing it was as simple as removing and re-tightening two bolts. The entire job took about half an hour, and the only speciality tool needed was a step stool, so I could comfortably reach all the way into my lifted truck鈥檚 engine bay.

Mechanical problems are even easier, but they typically require help from another person.

For noises, start by parking the car safely, with the engine off and parking brake engaged. Then crawl underneath your vehicle while a helper bounces whichever front, rear, or corner you think might be home to the problem. Once you can track down the noise to a specific area, like the suspension controlling a single wheel, then you鈥檙e ready to diagnose the specific component. Grab a can of penetrating oil鈥擶D40 will do in a pinch鈥攁nd carefully squirt it into and onto any part that moves, until the noise stops. When it does, you know the last component you hit with that oil is the culprit. Anything made from rubber or plastic鈥攍ike bushings, rubber isolators that reduce noise and vibrations鈥攚ill need to be replaced. Anything metal can likely be loosened, lubricated, and adjusted.

That鈥檚 what my mechanic (who鈥檚 also a friend) and I did to diagnose issues with my bushings. I鈥檓 running a complete Old Man Emu BP-51 suspension system, and it turns out the lower bushing up front, and all four bushings for the rear leafs,听were totally shot. We also found the source of that occasional clunk off-road: relocating my spare tire to the bumper swingout left the under-bed pulley with too much length in its chain, and that was whacking the underside of the body. Lefty loosey on four bolts and that鈥檚 now riding in my giant box of spare parts.

3. Decide What to Handle Yourself

Working on your own vehicle is often much easier than you think it might be. Consult owners forums and YouTube for help, invest in new tools as you need them, and the only significant cost should be to your own time.

Of course, some matters are better left to professionals. Even if you technically know how to fix something, doing so is not always convenient. Since it鈥檚 cold and snowy here in Montana, and my truck won鈥檛 fit in my garage, I let my mechanic handle those suspension bushings himself. And, try as I might, I couldn鈥檛 free the seized collar holding in the broken swingout retention pin (I have an aftermarket rear bumper that carries tools and the spare tire on a pivot), so I handed him that task, too.

I have a great relationship with an independent mechanic, and you can too. Read reviews, ask around for referrals, and chat with a few in your town until you find one that makes you feel confident.

4. Create a Maintenance Schedule

It doesn鈥檛 matter what you drive, components on your car or truck will wear out over time. Manufacturers provide maintenance schedules for their vehicles that must be followed to retain warranty coverage. Keeping yours up-to-date is probably a lot more affordable than you think it鈥檚 going to be.

Car owners tend to neglect two important maintenance principles. The first is failing understand and manage your vehicle鈥檚 maintenance schedule yourself. By relying on your dealer to tell you what work is needed, you end up paying for a ton of stuff that鈥檚 either completely frivolous or which you could do yourself for free. A real maintenance schedule includes year and mileage intervals suggesting when it鈥檚 time to change out fluids and filters, or replace items like belts. But if you just trust a dealer, they鈥檙e going to bill you for the time it takes to check your tire pressure, top up your washer fluid, or change your wiper blades鈥攁ll easy tasks you can do yourself.

For my truck, I try to change the oil and filter every 6,000 miles. I clean my aftermarket air filter with compressed air after any off-road trip, check my fluid levels whenever I think to do so, and swap my summer and winter tires once every fall and spring. Once my truck reaches 60,000 miles it鈥檒l be time to change the spark plugs, and at 100,000 miles I鈥檒l do a coolant flush. Aside from stuff like my bushings that I beat to hell off-road, that鈥檚 it.

The second principle鈥攁nd this is doubly important for us outdoor enthusiasts鈥攊s understanding that maintenance schedules are based on normal driving cycles, and not heavy use activities like towing, hauling a heavy camper around, or driving off-road. So we need to use our judgement, and bring forward certain maintenance to suit the additional wear added to some parts.

Those of us who drive off road tend to abuse our axle differentials. Any time you ask your truck to move a lot of weight, climb steep inclines, or manage traction off-road you鈥檙e asking your differentials to work hard. Drive through deep water, and your diffs may also suck in a little bit of moisture, slowly polluting the oil that lubricates them. Replacing that lubricating oil more often than the normal maintenance schedule suggests may help your differentials last longer and work more efficiently. I鈥檒l spend an hour swapping mine out once I have a dry driveway to work in.

Hard driving will have similar effects on brake pads, tires, transmission fluid, your battery, and more. Start with the manufacturer鈥檚 suggested service intervals, then modify the timing to suit how hard you use your vehicle.

My Ranger had been feeling pretty worn out. It was squeaking loudly everywhere I went, and had become a real challenge to use daily between all that ginger ale, the broken bumper, and the combination of all the other small issues. But now, after completing my to-do list? I took it out during a blizzard the other night just to play around in the snow, and my truck is back to being the smooth, controllable, extremely capable vehicle I built it to be. Heck, I can even see out of the windows. I think I鈥檓 in love with my truck again.

Wes Siler has been writing about topics like cars, trucks, and the outdoors since the early 2000s. You can find more of his work and get his help on .听

The post Can鈥檛 Afford a New 国产吃瓜黑料mobile? This Is the Ultimate Guide to Rig Maintenance. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Mud season. Dealing with spring snowmelt, rain, mud, and muck is what brings the American Northeast, Southeast, and Northwest鈥攁nd most places in between鈥攖ogether. If you live outside of an urban center and spend your time outdoors, odds are you own a pair of boots for mud season. Rubber boots are ubiquitous where I live in Bozeman, Montana. Knee-high rubber boots like the popular Xtratufs go on easy, provide sure protection from mud, snow, and water. Paired with good insulation, rubber boots can keep your feet warm through sub-zero temperatures. But knee-high rubber boots are also heavy, don鈥檛 breathe at all, and are often so clunky they鈥檙e a pain to walk in.

I wear rubber boots daily.听I’m about to pull on a pair of my ($230)听and traipse through gross ankle-deep snow melt while running afternoon errands around town. The Alphaburly Pros are the absolute warmest boot in my collection, but also the heaviest and clunkiest.

When my backyard isn’t socked in with feet of snow, I keep a pair of ($225) by the back door, and reach for them to chase a dog around or grab something from my truck. They’re a lot lighter听than the Lacrosse boots and track a lot less mud into my kitchen, but the Xtratufs are prone to holes and tears.

I keep a set of ($150) at the cabin. Bogs are super easy to put on鈥攑erfect for when one of my dogs needs to go outside to pee at a moment’s notice. But their generous dimension also mean they don’t hold your foot securely through more active wear.

I keep a pair of fancy leather-lined Le Chameu Chasseurs around as sort of my going out rubber boots. But at $650, those aren’t exactly a practical choice, and even at that spend, forego any insulation, so are again relegated to spring and summer wear only.

No matter the weather or activity, my feet get a little damp in every one of these boots. Rubber boots are utilitarian and stout, but I have yet to find the perfect pair. Montana-based Sitka Gear is trying to change that.

Sitka, a high-tech apparel brand that’s making the leap from its hunting roots into more general outdoorswear,听has never made a shoe or boot before, but for their first foray into footwear they’re aiming to make a better muck boot. Rather than rubber construction, these new VentLite boots ($399, on-sale now) are made from a waterproof-breathable Gore-Tex membrane housed in a layered textile shell that works a lot like a modern rain jacket.

鈥淪itka really hangs its hat on providing a systems-based approach to technical apparel,鈥� says Mike Ekstrom, the company鈥檚 new footwear product line manager. 鈥淎nd how can you have a full body system if you don鈥檛 have footwear?鈥�

From the inside out, Ekstrom says the boot is constructed using a four-millimeter thick neoprene liner, then a layer of Primaloft Gold insulation, followed by the Gore-Tex membrane and a high-denier textile shell fabric with a DWR coating. Ekstrom says that outer fabric is similar to the one used in some of Sitka鈥檚 pants. Mapped polyurethane overlays add abrasion and penetration resistance to key areas, while low-wear areas go without the protection in order to maintain breathability.

The result? 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 become a bucket of sweat,鈥� Ekstrom says.

Before joining Sitka, Ekstrom pitched for Major League Baseball teams including the Padres, Rays,听and Rockies, then spent nine years managing athletic shoe lines for Nike. So it鈥檚 no surprise that his new boots 鈥渇it more like a sneaker,鈥� says Ekstrom.

Cold water conducts heat away from your body Companies judge technical apparel by its ability to wick sweat away from the skin. Staying dry is crucial to staying warm through cold weather. As a result, Ekstrom explains that Sitka achieves听equivalent warmth to very heavily insulated all-rubber competitors in a lighter, slimmer boot.

Ekstrom says Sitka benchmarked the Lacrosse Alphaburly Pro 1,600G during development, which combines heavy-duty rubber construction with 1,600 grams of Thinsulate insulation. Where a single Lacrosse boot weighs 45 ounces, Sitka says the Ventilate measures just 35 ounces.

Sitka is the first company to employ Primaloft鈥檚 new 1006f insulation material in North America. Ekstrom is hesitant to quote a grams-per-square-meter figure out of concern that customers may simply compare that number to heavier alternatives, and come away with the mistaken impression that other boots will be warmer.

鈥淲hat we鈥檝e found through lab testing is [breathability] creates a more efficient way to provide warmth,鈥� Ekstrom says.

Also unlike existing designs鈥攚hich pack insulation around the foot only, leaving only your socks, long underwear, and pants to provide insulation from your ankles up鈥擲itka has carried its layered construction throughout the entire 18-inch height of the boot. Not only does packing more insulation add to the boot鈥檚 warmth, but Ekstrom says it also delivers a 鈥渦niform fit and feel throughout the boot.鈥�

For traction, Sitka tapped Vibram for its latest Litebase Megagrip outsole, adding its own proprietary A-shaped lugs to the central portion of the tread. Ekstrom explains that this will be a hallmark across a growing range of footwear Sitka plans to build out in the near future.

What鈥檚 next? 鈥淲e want to complete the head-to-toe systems wherever Sitka shows up,鈥� Ekstrom says. 鈥淸VentLite] is just the starting point.鈥�

Wes Siler grew up on a horse farm in England where it was his job to collect the manure. Rubber boots helped a lot, until the manure got inside them. Wes now writes about important topics like politics and vehicles on , where you can also talk to him about those topics and more.听

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Three years ago, I was pursuing a herd of elk down a steep gully into a remote mountain valley in southwest Montana when it began to snow. The storm was unexpected and hyper-local; it often is in the mountains. It was only the middle of September, so I wore thin base layers under soft-shell pants, a thin fleece jacket, and low-top hiking boots. I opted to leave my rain gear and insulation in my truck, six miles away, to travel as fast and light as possible.

As the snow turned heavier and wetter, it soaked through my layers and into my boots, leaving me totally drenched. I really began to worry when I stopped shivering.

Hypothermia is the cause of around 1,500 deaths a year in the United States, according to a published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Hypothermia begins to occur when your body鈥檚 core temperature falls below 95 degrees, according to Chris Adams, a flight nurse for the , a nonprofit transport network that takes high-risk patients to hospitals by helicopter, working out of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Adams says he treats hypothermia virtually every time he rescues a trauma victim.

The majority of hypothermia cases happen听in where emergency services may be unavailable or slow to respond. And in many colder places, hypothermia is the cause of unintentional death, after vehicle accidents.

Hypothermia is particularly dangerous because its occurrence often involves the unexpected. Just like during my elk hunt.

My ATV was waiting on a trail 1,000 feet above me, at least a 30-minute hike away. My efforts to reach the vehicle partially dried my torso and legs, but my hands and feet were still totally numb by the time I climbed the gully. Riding the ATV back to my truck was a challenge. The numbness in my fingers made it hard to operate the controls, and the urgency to reach safety had to be balanced with the additional windchill created by speed.

By the time I got to my truck and clumsily climbed into the driver鈥檚 seat, a glance in the rearview mirror revealed blue lips surrounded by my ghastly pale face. I cranked the heat, turned on my seat warmer, and sat in silence for half an hour while the shivers returned and stabbing pain crept into my extremities.

According to Adams, I was probably in a stage of mild severity while hiking up the mountain, then into moderate hypothermia by the time I鈥檇 reached the truck. Preparing to survive hypothermia is an essential skill for those of us who recreate outdoors in cold weather.

How Can You Tell If You Have Hypothermia?

Luckily, hypothermia has clear indicators. “Watch for the ‘umbles鈥攕tumbles, mumbles, fumbles, and grumbles which show changes in motor coordination and levels of consciousness,鈥� reads a white paper on hypothermia published by .

Medical professionals parse the stages of hypothermia by internal body temperature. But since you can’t get an accurate read of your body’s internal temperature with oral thermometers, according to a , you and I are better off looking at symptoms.

According to Adams, symptoms of hypothermia include:

• Feeling cold
• Loss of motor control, including both fine (operating zippers) and gross (the ability to walk)
• Impaired mental abilities impacting speech and consciousness
• The slowing of respiratory and heart rates

A mildly hypothermic person will still be shivering, but begin to lose fine motor control. A telltale sign of moderate hypothermia is when the victim stops shivering, and when walking and standing become difficult. In a severe stage of hypothermia a person may听be unable to stand or walk, and will likely lose consciousness altogether. Beyond that, the body approaches death as its heart rate slows to just a few beats per minute, breathing stops, and eventually the heart fails.

“Uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, confusion, and reduced coordination can quickly spiral into unconsciousness,” John Barklow tells 国产吃瓜黑料. After serving as a Navy diver, Barklow trained Navy SEALs in cold weather survival techniques (including self treatment of mild to moderate hypothermia), designed clothing systems intended to reduce the odds of Special Operations Forces experiencing hypothermia, and now works as the lead designer for Bozeman, Montana-based technical clothing brand , while still teaching survival classes and seminars.

How to Prevent Hypothermia

Beyond wearing enough insulation to remain warm in a given temperature, it’s important to consider the materials you’re wearing.

The worst of those is cotton. Because cotton fibers are hollow and carry a negative electrical charge,听. Cotton fabrics can hold up to 27 time their own weight in water, then refuse to dry out.

Wool is a lot better. It absorbs only 30 percent of its own weight in water, and the microscopic structure of its fibers can work to break the bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms, producing a tiny amount of heat.

Down, even varieties treated with hydrophobic coatings designed to repel water, loses its ability to loft (and keep you warm) when wet.

Best are synthetic fabrics and insulations like polyester and nylon, which only absorb around 0.4 to four percent of their weight in water, respectively. Because synthetic materials dry so much faster as a result, they鈥檙e a much safer option in cold, wet conditions, or when you run a risk of submersion. I鈥檝e recently transitioned to an all-synthetic clothing system for backcountry adventures, for that reason.

In what Barklow calls the “,” he submerges participants in freezing-cold water, then instructs those students to add layers of synthetic insulation, drink water, and consume easily-digested calories. Patients huddle inside breathable rain shells designed to keep out the weather and prevent convective heat loss. The warmth generated by their bodies, held in by warm-when-wet synthetic insulation, is able to force water first away from their skin. Moisture gets drawn out through the layers of clothing, enabling their bodies to return to safe temperatures.

鈥淲ith a great clothing system there鈥檚 no need to carry extra [equipment],鈥� Barklow says.

Adams backs this up. “This is a really good idea, if you have the right clothes,” he states. “Preparation is everything.”

The nurse also says that if you begin to experience hypothermia symptoms, and you’re alone in the backcountry, you should focus on creating body heat. “You can hike up a hill really fast,” he says.

How to Treat Hypothermia

Barklow鈥檚 method also tracks with survival advice given by the , which prescribes protecting yourself or a patient from the environment, drying them out, and then warming them up using a heat source. With Barklow鈥檚 method, which requires synthetic clothing layers, you don鈥檛 need to remove any clothing, or 鈥斕齛nd you don鈥檛 need a fire.

Should you lack such a clothing system, the approach becomes a little more complicated. You鈥檒l need shelter, dry insulation, and a heat source. In mild stages of hypothermia, you can use something as simple as a tent, a dry sleeping bag, and another person鈥檚 body heat, warm water bottle, or chemical heat packs. (Place the latter two items on the neck, arm pits, and groin where large arteries pass close to the skin). As you progress into moderate and severe cases, hypothermia will require more significant sources of heat,听like a heated structure or vehicle or a wood stove, and ultimately treatment by medical professionals.

Adams recommends paying close attention to preventing convective heat loss through contact with the cold ground, and suggests chemical heat blankets (like those sold by ) as a heat source. “I lay down a wool blanket, put a heated blanket on top of that, lay the patient down, then layer heated blankets and another wool blanket on top of that,” describes Adams. “Then we just crank the heat in the helicopter until the patient warms back up.”

Adams is careful to caution against shocking a hypothermia victim with too much heat,听though, saying you shouldn’t submerge them in a hot bath or shower. “It’s gotta be slow,” he says. “Just focus on getting the ambient temperature nice and high, and rewarming slowly.”

What about CPR? In severe stages of hypothermia, a person鈥檚 pulse may not be detectable at the wrist due to severely constricted blood vessels, and when checked at the carotid artery may be as slow as just a few beats-per-minute. Adams warns against chest compressions as a result, but says blowing warm air into an unconscious victim’s lungs may help increase their core temperature.

Barklow recommends that you don’t just leave survival skills up to chance. “You need to train in realistic conditions to ensure you and your gear perform as expected,” he says.

Ensuring your layers are a match for the conditions is something you should first try in a safe environment. “You don鈥檛 want to realize that you and your kit aren鈥檛 up to the task of saving your life after you swim a glacier-fed rapid while on a remote packraft trip in Alaska,” he says.

Adams offers one final piece of advice: don鈥檛 give up. Due to the protective effects of cold temperatures, complete recovery can be possible even in severe, prolonged hypothermia cases.

Wes Siler recently returned from a trip to Yellowknife, in northern Canada, where temperatures were as low as -38 degrees Fahrenheit. He was warm, comfortable, and safe throughout. You can ask him more detailed questions about outdoors gear and other topics on .听

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