General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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A guy I'm talking to about buying some rock climbing gear is getting rid of his stuff cause he hasn't used it in five to eight years. He said it wasn't used a lot, maybe 5 to 6 times, and he said n...
Sometimes children find long hikes boring and tiring, but if you can turn it around to play some games along the way they can find things a lot more interesting. What are some good games to play i...
I am thinking about getting a Kayak, I am very comfortable paddling my canoe with a single paddle. My motivation is that I can canoe silently with a single canoe paddle that does not need to bre...
It is possible to use a dry fly as a strike indicator for your wet fly while also catching the fish that would go for a surface bug at the same time. Is the casting technique any different as it s...
Consider we are trying to pre-acclimate for an expedition in Himalaya to shorten the actual timespan on site. As an example, I am expecting a benefit if I go in the Alps for several days above 400...
I read about the murders of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland. What safety mistakes these girls did during their camping trip? What could have been done to avoid this situation? How ca...
If I am going on a 10 mile hike and the book says the hike is 10 miles out and back, how many miles will it be total?
I have a stand up paddle board (14'0") and I am looking for an easier way to pump it up. I found some cordless handheld inflators for tyres, which are rated at 120W and maximum pressure is 150psi. ...
United States (and more, specifically, NY state -- though that shouldn't matter at all) here. I am brand new to hunting, and in a few weeks I will be going out into the woods and hunting public ...
I bought a pair of Hanwag boots late in 2013 at Naturkompaniet in Norrköping, Sweden, and I've never loved a pair of boots more. But now at least one of the shoes is in a bad state and a repair sh...
I have always been inspired by the sketches and watercolors of explorers, cartographers and scientists who lived before the invention of photography. I have tried bringing watercolors myself, but d...
I'm planning a whitewater rafting trip, and I'm worried what I should do if the raft flips over. Is there a standard set of procedures I should go through to get back on the raft?
TL;DR: How can I pack my food so that it isn't an odor nuisance in my backpack, in a lightweight manner if animals are no issue. In a month I will be going on a 14-day trekking trip, completely ...
I plan to visit a summit which involves a few hours of easy scrambling, with a slightly more technical part at the end, which is very short (2-3 m) but exposed. I expect no problems on the way up b...
Let me know how many species (birds and others) are permited to hunt in england and wales for the year 2019.
All- I'm looking for a good 25-30 mile backpacking trail in southern NY or PA. I've looked into Allegany State Park and National Forest, but couldn't find a loop that would keep us out of campgrou...
Due to some peculiar health issues, for the time being I cannot study around people. I've found a secluded place in my college, it's outdoors, no one goes there and still catches wi-fi. However, ...
We recently (July, 2019) went to Bar Harbor, Maine, United States, to visit friends who live on the ocean. My husband took a walk on an established path (he's very serious about Leave No Trace) at ...
I have never found a good answer to this one: How do you clean rock-climbing shoes, without ruining them? Let me be more specific. I have a pair of modern leather-and-fancy-rubber climbing sho...
We all know these scary stories where people had to eat their fellow sufferers after a plane crash or something. I don't know if there is even one of them true. I feel like it might result into mor...
My personal favorite for tying two ends of a rope together is the Flemish Bend. It's simple, strong, does not slide, does not require stopper knots (unless used for life-critical applications), all...
U.S. here (and specifically New York state but that's probably irrelevant). Is anyone aware of any websites, apps or DEC resources that allow you to look up what fish species live in any given lake...
Most fly fishing with wet flies is done with just single wet fly and a strike indicator but it's also possible to do it with a dry fly instead of a strike indicator (this lets you do both at the sa...
I forage for food as a hobby, and noticed that the attaching parts of sumac stays with the berries sometimes, so it got me to wondering if the wood of edible sumac is poisonous for human consumptio...
Sometimes on a hot, humid day, we see lightning off in the distance. If we're out on a trail or camping in the evening, it's even brighter. It seems to be traveling in almost a sideways motion. We ...
Does anybody know a good type of suitable glue to repair a delaminated sole on (modern) cross country ski boots with plastic soles (Rottefella NNN in particular). The delaminated part is in the fro...
I want to buy myself a Shakespeare Oracle 11' #7/8 EXP switch rod to get started in two-handed casting for large-sized local rainbow trout at a wide water body where back room for casting is scarce...
Smaller streams are easy to tell where to cast when fly fishing given fish's tendency to hang out in pools or hole or undercut banks. It easy to decide where you need to cast and approximately wher...
It has become a bit of a fad in the last few days at my current workplace to open a browser tab to either http://www.lbwl.com/falcon.htm or http://www.lbwl.com/falcon2.htm , take a quick look now a...
Many, many companies offer 3 liter bladders. Only the dromedary units go above that and the reviews say they're hard to clean and in general are negative about using them as hydration bladders rat...
I am planning to spend about a week in Italian/Swiss border Alps in late October. The base plan is to hire a 4WD and drive along the border slowly, stopping a lot for less-than-a-day hikes (staying...
I live in the Northeastern region of the United States, and am an avid bird-lover. I love robins for their looks, and because they're harbingers of spring in my area. I thought robins were the same...
We're planning a 4 day hike in a few months. I would like to take my bow with me to do a little roving. How can I attach my bow to my backpack (back)? We are talking about an unstrung one-piece...
I am relatively new to climbing, and so far I have only done bouldering climbing. The hardest route I have climbed is a V5, and I am a solid V4 climber. My question was, to anyone who has climbed E...
In addition to choosing a correctly sized paddle board, one also needs a correctly sized paddle. How does one determine the correct size of paddle for stand up paddle boarding?
I've just recently moved to Europe (southern Germany), so this might be a common sight to someone who has been living here for longer. Yesterday I noticed dozens of these insects walking on the si...
Reading around forums and in products, I see descriptions and weights for a "fast pack" setup for tents. What does this mean and what is it used for?
There are a number of "survival" products on the market that integrate "extra" strands into the standard paracord (US MIL spec, ~4mm accessory cord, usually 7 strand nylon or cotton) Most of them...
This question is prompted by reading The Dive by Pipin Ferreras. It is a story of a world-class competitive free diver, in the subclass of free diving called No Limits. According to the second li...
I'm in the process of setting up my overland vehicle so that it has "essentials" in it at all times. I've got a kettle and ways to boil the kettle etc. I am interested in having the basics in my v...
This National Geographic article describes how feeding ducks bread is actually harmful. Among the items listed as safe to feed to ducks it lists corn. Does this mean that cornbread is an acceptab...
I just realised you can't sleep in hostels if you're under 18 years old. Is this the same for staying at a campsite in Italy? I really need help because I already planned a whole vacation around ca...
For Austria but not Italy there is awesome http://bergfex.com, for Italian summer hiking but not winter ski-touring, https://opentopomap.org would do the job, but what about ski-touring in Italy? ...
I know that I can significantly improve my hiking efficiency by reducing the weight of my footwear. However, I have historically had trouble with blisters while hiking. I also often do long distanc...
I'm planning on tying some stimulators and I have a ton of deer hair in the colours that I want my flies to be. The recipes that I have read so far ask for yearling elk hair. I wonder if I can re...
I live in Charleston, SC, and found this very large spider chilling in a very large intricate web in our gazebo this evening. Below are all the pictures (apologize for the quality...it's the best I...
Does anyone know of passive, enduring ways to deter Black Bears from entering an area? Hopefully an ecologically friendly way. The area is a homestead in forest with livestock and an extensive gar...
When learning to sport climb, I was taught not to pass any of my fingers through the gate of the carabiner when clipping into a quickdraw. Lest any of my fingers get stuck and degloved in the case ...
It has been suggested to me in a comment, about an answer of mine that suggests using a hip belay, that: There's a reason ATCs, plates, GriGris, etc got popular: they're safer. I know I stopp...
Assume a team of 2-3 people intend to traverse a very exposed ridge at altitude. What are the main hazards and how can they be mitigated? The type of ridge in question is covered in snow (various ...
