Looking for the best kids snowshoes for a young explorer who keeps sinking past their boots in fresh powder? I have been testing winter gear with my family for the last six winters, and I have personally strapped six different kids snowshoe models onto my nephew, my daughter, and several neighbor kids to find out […]

I've spent the last decade hiking trails across the Appalachians, Sierras, and Rockies, and I learned the hard way that a sub-par first aid kit can ruin a trip. On a rainy Pacific Crest Trail section, my cheap nylon pouch soaked through and ruined half my gauze, leaving me with wet, useless bandages for a […]

I learned the hard way that a regular first aid kit is not the same thing as a trauma kit. During a backcountry deer hunt in the Rockies in , my hunting partner took a misstep on loose scree and opened a gash on his shin that would not stop bleeding with a typical adhesive […]

When a chainsaw slips on a hunting trip or a kayak flip sends you into a rock garden, you have about three minutes before blood loss becomes fatal. I learned this the hard way on a backcountry elk hunt in Montana when my partner took a broadhead arrow to the thigh. We were 47 minutes […]

I still remember the day a timber rattlesnake coiled up next to my boot on a humid Appalachian ridge trail. My heart hammered so hard I could feel it in my fingertips, and the only thing between me and a venomous bite was a cheap suction pump I had bought online a year earlier. That […]

I've spent the last three months testing the best emergency bivvy sacks on the market, dragging them through sub-freezing alpine nights, stuffing them into bug out bags, and even dragging a few through scratchy underbrush to see how they'd hold up. After cracking open ten different models, weighing them on a precision scale, and measuring […]

I've been grilling fresh fish for over a decade, and I can tell you from experience that the best grill grates for fish are the difference between a flaky, restaurant-quality fillet and a torn-up mess stuck to the bars. After pulling hundreds of trout, redfish, and salmon off the hook and onto the grate, I've […]

I have steamed crabs in everything from a borrowed aluminum pot that scorched half the batch to a 64-quart stainless steel rig that handled two dozen blue crabs without breaking a sweat. Finding the best steamer pots for crabs is not about buying the biggest or most expensive option, it is about matching the pot […]

Carbon monoxide is the silent killer that every RVer should lose sleep over, and finding the best carbon monoxide detectors for RV use is not something to put off. Your motorhome, travel trailer, or camper van packs a furnace, a propane stove, and sometimes a generator into a space smaller than most bedrooms. Any one […]

RV fires move fast, and the right smoke detector can mean the difference between a close call and a total loss. After spending months testing smoke alarms in my own travel trailer and comparing notes with other full-time RVers, I narrowed down the best smoke detectors for RV use based on real vibration tolerance, false-alarm […]