HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT BACKPACK.

Everyone, it seems, is carrying a backpack these days.  College students; high school and grade school kids; office workers; moms out with their kids; and, of course, campers and hikers.  The days of one-size-fits-all backpacks are long gone.  Today you can choose from a variety of different types of backpacks, at a variety of prices to fit your budget.  Hikingware.com offers you some tips and information to make your choice easier, and more practical:

·         First and foremost, make sure you know what you want your backpack for.  Casual urban hiking or rough mountain hiking?  For school?  To take to the office?  For extended camping or just a jog around the park? 

·         Many people purchase just one backpack, thinking that it can meet all their needs no matter what they are doing or where they are going.  This is usually a mistake.  For casual use it will probably be too big and bulky, and for serious camping it will not be big and sturdy enough. 

·         If your budget just doesn’t let you buy several new backpacks at once, we suggest you purchase used backpacks for all casual backpacking needs, such as school or casual walking.  If they tear or come apart it is not critical.  But for your heavy-duty hiking and camping we strongly urge you to buy only new and guaranteed equipment, including backpacks, from a recognized and reputable dealer.  You do not want to be on a mountainside, with night coming on, and suddenly realize that your fuel or food have fallen out of a slit in your backpack!

·         Make sure your backpack is adjustable, with shoulder straps, hip belt, adjuster straps, and a firm but not rigid backboard. 

·         Make sure the material is both water resistant and flame retardant. 

·         Check to make sure it has lockable zippers, especially if at any time it will be away from you on a luggage rack.

·         Make sure your backpack has an internal frame, not an external one.  They may look more romantic and robust, but external frames are awkward to handle and many airlines will not accept them as your in-flight baggage.

·         Unless you like pain, check that all your straps are padded where they will be in contact with your body.  A moving strap can irritate and even cause a rash through several layers of clothing if it is kept on long enough.

·         If you are purchasing a backpack for some serious camping/hiking, be sure that your choice has the capacity to store the ten essential systems.  These are 1. Map. 2. Sunglasses/sunscreen. 3. Extra lightweight clothing. 4. Flashlight. 5. First aid kit. 6. Waterproof matches. 7. Duct tape. 8. Nutrition. 9. Water. 10. Shelter/tent.

·         What kind of outer pockets does your backpack have?  Mesh pockets let you see what you need, but also let in moisture, so they are not a good idea for maps or any other paper or fragile item.  On the other hand, a bunch of zippered pouches may leave you puzzling about where you put your compass or granola bars.  

Visit us at www.hikingware.com

Email: sales@hikingware.com
Telephone: (703) 496-5500

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written by Tim Torkildson

Are You Prepared for an Emergency in Your Neighborhood?

Are You Prepared For An Emergency or Disaster in Your Neighborhood?

You’re sitting down to dinner with your family when the floor begins to shake.  A dull roar fills the room as glasses fall over, dishes crash to the floor, cracks appear in the walls, and the ceiling light sways crazily and finally falls onto the table.  Your family is experiencing an earthquake!

The children cry out in fear as you and your spouse frantically try to remember the safety procedures for such a catastrophe.  You can either hide under the table, or you can coax everyone to stand in a doorway – the structurally strongest part of most buildings – or, if there’s time, you can lead everyone outside and away from the house, which is now swaying like a drunken man.

You opt for getting completely out of the house.  On the street you cannot stay on your feet; the ground acts more like a liquid than a solid.  You lie down and watch in horror as trees come crashing down, electric wires snap, and your beautiful home starts to collapse.  After the main shock there are aftershocks; a water main breaks in the street, sending a geyser twenty feet into the air. Several buildings in your neighborhood catch fire; the smoke is thick and choking.

Can’t happen here, you say?  Haven’t had an earthquake in this part of the country in a hundred years?  Just remember, my friend, that the Washington Monument was closed for nearly 2 years after an earthquake shattered northern Virginia back in the summer of 2011!  There had been nothing like it for over 100 years.

The U.S. Geological Survey has come out with a map of the contiguous United States that clearly shows the chances of an earthquake in every state. (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/products/conterminous/2014/2014_pga2pct50yrs.pdf)

Large sections of Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Arkansas, and Maine are labeled as highly likely to have a major tectonic episode in the next ten years.  And the whole West Coast is constantly at the mercy of temblors. 

There is NOTHING we can do to prevent an earthquake.  But there is PLENTY we can do to prepare for the aftermath.

·         As suggested by Hikingware.com, a good water filtration system is a must.  Your tap water will undoubtedly be unsafe for weeks, perhaps months, after the earthquake.  Make sure you have one that is quality-inspected.  Also keep on hand as many gallons of pure water as you can.  Plastic containers are the best, since they are least likely to be damaged during a seismic event.

·         Power will be out for an undetermined amount of time.  Make sure you have a back up generator.  And fuel for it!

·         What are you going to eat?  Do you think the Red Cross or your local Food Shelf is going to have meals hot and ready for you?  Think again!  You should have a stock of MREs on hand.  (MRE stands for “Meals Ready to Eat).  They are an invention of the military.  They have a shelf life of 5 years, and come with a flameless heater. Wise Foods are also an excellent choice and have a shelf life of up to 25 years!

·         Make sure you have a standard first aid kit handy and ready to go out the door with you if you have to leave your home quickly.  You can pick one up at any drug store, but be aware that often the items in them are on the brink of going out of date.  It would be better to go online and get a fresh first aid kit.

Remember the Scout Motto:  Be Prepared! 

Visit us at www.hikingware.com

Email: sales@hikingware.com
Telephone: (703) 496-5500

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Written by Tim Torkildson

Camping in Extreme Weather

Camping in weather extremes happens more often than we’d like.  The wise camper always checks the weather forecast prior to leaving on a camping trip.  But the weather can change in a twinkling of an eye from very pleasant to very dangerous.  Hikingware.com suggests that if we want to avoid problems such as heat stroke, dehydration or frostbite, we take heed of the following suggestions.

For cold weather:

·         Wear layers.  You’ll stay warmer with several thinner layers of clothing than with one thick layer.

·         Dark colors will attract the sun’s warmth.

·         Keep clothing loose; if it’s too tight it will restrict the flow of blood.

·         Avoid cotton clothing; when it gets wet it’s very hard to dry in the outdoors.

·         Stay away from alcohol; it wicks away your body’s heat by opening up your skin pores.

·         A good time to quit smoking is when you’re in a sub-zero camping situation; smoking constricts the blood vessels, making it much harder to stay warm.

·         Eat well in the cold.  You need plenty of carbs for your body to burn for heat.

·         Remember that things like canned food, toothpaste, eggs and water will freeze in below-freezing weather.  Make sure you have dry pack food available.

·         Have plenty of matches in a strong, sealable plastic bag.

·         Never bring a kerosene heater inside a tent, no matter how well-ventilated you think it is.

·         Go to bed warm by doing some exercises first; a sleeping bag can keep you warm but it can’t make you warm if you’re cold getting into it.

·         Urinate out of the wind; you can lose as much as one-sixth of your total body heat if you urinate or defecate out in the open with a wind blowing on you.  But don’t refrain from going to the bathroom; that will just make you colder.

·         Keep your flashlight batteries in bed with you to keep them warm; it will make them last longer.

·         Sunglasses are essential to avoid snow blindness.  You can suffer from snow blindness even on an overcast day.

For hot weather/desert conditions:

·         Carry your own adequate supply of water; you cannot trust any pool or stream in any park in the United States.  Never go far from guaranteed sources of clean water, even if you are carrying a full canteen.  Accidents happen, and you could be trapped somewhere for days before being found.

·         Wet a handkerchief and tie it around your neck; this will cool your circulation immediately.  Be careful about dipping your feet in mountain streams; they can be so cold that the water injures your feet before you can feel it.

·         Do as much as you can at night or early in the morning, so you can stay immobile in the shade during the hottest part of the day.

·         Have a supply of salt and or mineral tablets.  In an emergency you can use any type of hard candy, especially jaw breakers. 

Heat stroke can occur at night as well as in the day; it is triggered by dehydration more than by temperature.  For more information on heat stroke, please click here. 

Visit us at www.hikingware.com

Email: sales@hikingware.com
Telephone: (703) 496-5500

www.facebook.com/pages/Hikingware/183290271848107

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Written by Tim Torkildson

TEN WAYS A CAMPING TRIP CAN REALLY BRING YOUR FAMILY TOGETHER

The more connected our families become on the internet, the more disconnected they become as individuals, even when living in the same house and being in the same room!  If you notice at the dinner table that your kids are tweeting while your spouse is texting, and then your Blackberry goes off, you know it is time to get everyone into the van and head for the nearest national park for a week of camping.  Forget about work, forget about the lawn, and forget about the World Wide Web.  Hike, fish, swim and laze in a hammock, listening to the glorious sounds and viewing the amazing sights of nature.  If you think you just cannot get away for a camping trip with your family this summer, here are ten good reasons to convince you otherwise, with a little help from Hikingware.com:

1.The time together.  It’s all golden, whether you’re having a blast or holed up inside your tent during a cloudburst.  Think back to your own childhood and what you remember most fondly; was it some fancy catered dinner in a posh restaurant, or was it time spent with family over a smoky campfire making s’mores?

2.Children need these kinds of intense memories of happiness and closeness, or they may grow up suppressing their entire childhood, putting up instead a blank and sterile wall.

3.Variety is an important component in our lives.  We can choose to go to the mountains or the beach or the desert or forest, and that freedom of choice, along with the exhilarating experience of a new environment, refreshes every part of our mental process.  This goes double for children, who are so much more alive to impressions and feelings than adults are.

4.No strict itineraries.  Don’t we get enough of micromanaging when we’re at work or in school?  On a camping trip you can spend a whole afternoon collecting butternuts if you want.  There are no timesheets for either you or your kids.
 
5.It’s about as healthy as you can get.  Fresh air.  Fresh food (well, okay, maybe a lot of freeze-dried, but you’ll find some mushrooms or berries or catch some fish, too.)  Sunshine.  Organic tp.  Everybody sleeps better on a camping trip, if for no other reason than that they’re exhausted!

6.You can relax on a camping trip in a way that you cannot at a hotel or spa.  There is a stillness and majesty in the great outdoors that makes man’s artificial attempts at comfort and leisure seem puny.

7.You cannot stay strangers on a camping trip together.  Even if you’ve had a big blow up at home just before leaving, when you get to the sea shore or start climbing the foothills into the mountains, you instinctively feel how petty are your own concerns and grudges; they melt away like frost in the sunshine and you begin sharing again.  It’s like a second honeymoon and second childhood all wrapped up in one!

8.When you live with nature you have to respect her laws and understand her ways.  Your family is not going to get an understanding of nature from hours of reading on Wikipedia that can compare with ten minutes on the banks of a mountain stream.

9.What daily grind?  You are absolutely free to be who really are, with no constricting necktie or business suit or teacher peering over your shoulder.

10.   And last, but not least; the cost.  A week at a campsite is going to run you a lot less than a week at some fancy hotel with an all-you-can-eat shrimp bar. You may burn the bacon and start to smell like wild onions, but your bank balance is going to stay sweet and plump!

Visit us at www.hikingware.com

Email: sales@hikingware.com
Telephone: (703) 496-5500

www.facebook.com/pages/Hikingware/183290271848107

https://twitter.com/Hikingware

Written by Tim Torkildson