I spent the last four months testing the best ultralight headlamps for backpacking across 280 miles of PCT and Sierra sections, weighing each lamp on a calibrated scale and timing runtime claims against actual field output. Our team has been running sub-2-ounce headlamps since the original Petzl e+LITE, and I'll be honest: the category has […]

I spent the last three months testing eight of the best propane camping lanterns on weekend trips with my family in the Cascade Range, and I want to save you the trial-and-error I went through. After 14 nights under canvas and three cold-weather shoulder-season outings, I burned through about 22 propane cylinders to compare brightness, […]

I started taking motion-activated camp lights seriously after a raccoon crossed a dark path while I was setting up a tent alone. A good light did more than reveal the animal: it lit the ground before my foot landed, warned me that something was approaching, and left both hands free. For this guide to the […]

I have spent enough weekends on the water to know that a reliable handheld marine VHF radio is not optional safety gear. When my fixed-mount radio died mid-channel crossing last summer, my Cobra BlueBound 350 was the only thing between me and the Coast Guard. After testing 10 current models side-by-side on brackish bays, open […]

I've spent the last three months wearing eight different GPS watches on trails across the Cascades, the Adirondacks, and the deserts of Utah to find the best GPS watches for hiking you can buy right now. My team logged more than 280 trail miles, ran each watch through dense tree cover, granite canyons, and rainy […]

I spent 60 days testing portable water pumps across real camping trips: weekend car camping in the Sierras, a 10-day dry camping run in Death Valley, and a full month of van life in Big Sur. By the end, I had moved more than 400 gallons of water through 10 different units, and I learned […]

Last summer our team spent 23 days across three separate trips testing the best gravity water filters for camping in the Rocky Mountains, the Boundary Waters, and the Sierra Nevada. We filtered more than 480 liters of creek, lake, and snowmelt water through eight different gravity-fed systems to find out which ones actually deliver on […]

I still remember my first night camping after buying a magnetic work light. I was fumbling in the dark trying to pitch a rain fly while holding a headlamp between my teeth. Then I stuck the magnetic work light to my truck's tailgate, angled it at 180 degrees toward the tent, and suddenly I had […]

I learned the value of a good generator cover the hard way. After leaving my Westinghouse out through a coastal storm season without one, I watched rust bloom across the frame and the carburetor start to gum up. That generator cost me $180 in repairs I would not have needed if I had spent $25 […]

I burned through two Katadyn Hiker Pro cartridges on a six-week Sierra section hike last summer, and that experience taught me more about camping water filtration than any spec sheet ever could. By the time I hit Tuolumne Meadows, my flow rate had dropped to a miserable trickle, and I was forced to field-clean the […]