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I’m fed up with traditional water filters.
Are any of the too-good-to-be-true innovations worth trying?
If so, leave a comment below this post.

MSR Miox Water Purifier with Batteries - Amazon

iStraw - official website

SteriPEN products - official website
(via Darren Barefoot)

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If I won a million dollars I’d take a tour of the great wilderness lodges of the World.
If I won only a hundred thousand dollars I’d start with a tour of the American lodges.
Here’s the top 10 in the States as selected by Sherman’s Travel:

The Ahwahnee
Big Meadows Lodge
Camp Denali & North Face Lodge
Crater […]

Warren Long saw I was thinking of buying an $800 Alpacka for paddle hiking.
He offered to loan me his $20 raft.

Will a Cheap-O get me across the lake to the trailhead? Sure. In most cases.
I’m not on a 4000mi Pacific coast mega-adventure.
Well played, Warren. I’ll try a cheap raft first before buying […]

Janet Wilson, as part of her 50th birthday fitness program, decided to walk our #1 hike in the World.
She did the research, bought the gear, finished a series of training hikes (adding 5lbs each time), grabbed her husband … and headed for the wild Shipwreck Coast.

… I suggested to my husband that […]

UPDATED October 12, 2007
I finally heard back from The Parks Listens Panel Team (Ipsos-Reid) regarding their confusing Parks Canada survey and $1000 contest. The entire email is reprinted in the comments below.
A quick summary for those like me mightily confused:
There are two separate links:
www.join.parkslistens.ca is the official website for individuals who have […]

UPDATE: Check the comment by Kevin Stoltz. He is very negative on this device:
… how TERRIBLE this device is as an emergency rescue device. The ONLY positive thing is it’s size. It is a low power radio beacon which means someone else has to initiate the search (whether or not you’re actually in need of […]

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Top bull, originally uploaded by busybeingborn.

Hiking photos traipsing right through the middle of an Elk rut. (By the look of the photos.)
“A big bull elk, with some of his progeny. Looks like one half of […]

For over 2yrs I’ve been researching inflatable and foldable kayaks I might carry for paddle hiking. Getting to good hiking routes by paddling across the lake rather than walking around.
It’s here. But it’s a raft. (Now to find the $800. Or a cheaper used one.)
Erin & Hig convinced me. They’re using Alpacka rafts on […]

Rick McCharles
After being drenched several days in series on the John Muir Trail by the remnants of Hurricane Dean, I finally got a chance to dry out my gear in the hot morning sun.
It gave me a chance to take photos of my current gear set. This is about as light as I […]

I tried. I tried.
On White Mountain I tried to persuade wheelchair hiker climber 4WheelBob to buy a kayak.
KayakBob … I like the sound of that.
Yet Bob’s persisting in his dream of ascending the highest mountain in Africa. Bob was quoted on Marion’s blog:

“I’m not a real publicity hound by nature, so my […]