General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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I keep seeing trail runners who instead of a small light backpack, have a running vest with small front pockets and then one on the back. What is the advantage of a running vest over a small backpa...
I thought about trying unconventional breeds for hunting. I stumbled across the "Akita", which was initially cultured to hunt. However, it seems that it's pretty much a common house/pet dog nowaday...
The last time I went fishing, there were numerous times where I could tell that the fish were nibbling on the fly because it would move the strike indicator ever so slightly, but they wouldn't actu...
At what temperature does rain gear become a liability? If it is a couple of degrees above freezing and you are wearing rain gear to stay dry. It helps keep hypothermia (too cold) away. If the temp...
The last time I was in looking for fishing gear, they also had a bunch of "tactical" pants. They seemed like they would be decent pants for outdoor activities. What exactly makes a pair of pants "t...
If you have tracking set on your GPS device and you forget to turn it off overnight, for instance, the track distance will continue to increase even though the device is not moving. What is happeni...
I have an Ursack to keep my food safe from bears, but above treeline the problem isn't so much bears as it is marmots (who are unfortunately accustomed to people). Would an Ursack keep the marmots ...
Once in Yosemite Vally, I saw a sign that one fork of a paved trail was marked as handicap accessible because it was less steep than the other fork that led to the same destination. How steep/what ...
I need to adjust the derailleur on my bike, I don't have a bike stand because I am on the bike trail. I have three options for pedaling while adjusting the the derailleur. Turn the bike upside dow...
When shoveling snow in the winter, if my gloves are warm enough to keep my hands warm, they tend to sweat and get the gloves wet from the inside out. How can I prevent this?
For short trips, lithium-ion batteries to recharge your camera/phone/GPS make more sense. For something like the Appalachian Trail where batteries aren't going to last the whole trip, a solar charg...
There is a video on reddit where a skunk is chasing a woman around. It's not spraying or even threatening to spray, but it's sure trying to keep up with her. Why would a skunk be doing that?
Rather than take a can of chicken while backpacking, it's possible to open the can, drain the juice and stick the meat into a ziplock which makes it much lighter and a ziplock is much more compact ...
When I have time I like to get my bike and canoe out and do a day trip. Doing a mile or two is not hard but a good day trip is between 8 and 14 miles. When I started at the beginning of the year 6...
Last year one of my CSA boxes contained a basil seedling in a 4" starter pot. I'd never grown herbs before, but I transplanted it to a pot, took care of it, and had a tasty bounty all summer. Thi...
The baskets on trekking poles are very useful while hiking through snow, however, they have a tendency to break. How would one improvise a fix in the outdoors for this?
Sleeping bags have temperature ratings that tell you the aproximate temperature that will be comfortable at. Reflective tarps do not have such ratings, probably because most people don't use them ...
I am planning a long bike and canoe trip (bike tows canoe, canoe carries bike and cart), There are a couple of purpose built products for towing a canoe with a bike dumb stick & woody hitch but...
There are a couple of pretty good answers in How to make a cargo trailer?. After looking at those, at the answer to What are the safety concerns of a high vs a low mount trailer hitch? and doing s...
I found these plants while hiking in Colorado, they are pretty small and have red berries slightly larger than peas. The area was old growth that had been burned in a fire at least a few years ago.
I have 20+ year old space heater that is nearing end of life. 120 volt, 1500 watts We use it in the camper when have electric hookup, and need a little extra heat. I started looking online for a...
Here is a whole bunch of ants gathered on a sidewalk around dusk, I have seen this before so its not totally uncommon. What would lead to ants doing this?
Sometimes a horse/pony will bite humans. They bite each other to establish dominance and sometimes they will bite humans too. How do you train a horse to stop biting humans?
I am very familiar with dumping septic holding tanks in a camper on land. I do it regularly and safely, either at the camp ground or at home. I am considering a boat trip on the Ohio and Mississi...
In all of my Wilderness First Responder classes and books, they have said that people who have been struck by lightning and need CPR have the best chance of it working (in general save rates with C...
On trails that go up steep hills, there are usually switchbacks where the trail goes first one way and then other, resulting in an overall less steep path. In the complete absence of a trail, how ...
I have done lots of hiking on trails with switchbacks and one thing I have noticed is that the length of the legs (how long you walk in one direction before switching back to the other) can vary w...
My backpack has straps that are way too long and I would like to shorten them, both to save weight and to make it more organized. How can I cut the straps and then seal them so the ends don't come...
Yesterday for the first time I turned my canoe over, then I tried to get back in it. I have been thinking about adding a sail to my canoe and now that I know a bit about sailing, I know I need to ...
My team at work has occasional outings and one of the activities we've talked about for the future is kayaking or whitewater rafting. I've never done either and am also dependent on expensive pres...
I live in a downtown urban center. Normally I exercise by going to the gym or by taking long walks around the different neighborhoods or some local hiking trails in parks. Current social distancin...
Once in Nevada, I saw a sign on an old abandoned mine that said two things, Stay out, mines have noxious fumes. Stay out, bats live here. Both of those are good reasons to stay out, but it seem...
I have a pretty strong magnet for magnet fishing. The problem that I am running into when taking it places is that I need a way to isolate it from my wallet/phone/compass inside my backpack as othe...
I have started looking at sit on top kayaks. Several have looked promising. Though I just realized, in most of them the lowest point in the boat is where your butt goes. I normally travel in a cano...
I got a Fjällräven Barents Trousers for Christmas! Hell yeah! It's made of the "G-1000" material. 65% polyester, 35% cotton. G-1000 Original is the original fabric in Fjällräven’s comfortabl...
After watching this video of a man punching a kangaroo to rescue his dog, I am wondering how dangerous a kangaroo is to a human on foot? I am sure that there are a lot of other things in Australia ...
So my friend convinced me to buy a Son Of Hibachi :) I've set it up and want to give it a try in the evening. Of course there are several sources for a "how to" and even videos but I wanted instruc...
Strike indicators are basically the fly fishing version of bobbers and they come in different colors white, yellow, orange, etc. When fishing streams that have a big of disturbance and the sun is ...
Sometimes when fly fishing in canyons the wind will start coming down the canyon and it makes it that much harder to cast. It doesn't take a whole lot of wind to completely stop one from further fi...
A fish stringer goes through the gill and mouth of a live fish, providing a way to keep them captive and alive in the lake or river they are caught from. I would imagine the key to survival is how...
I just found that I can get free geological map overlays for Google Earth for all of the individual states in the United States from here. For instance, this is what a good deal of Yosemite Nation...
I just found this toad on a sidewalk near a lake the elevation was probably somewhere around 4800 ft (1500m). Does anybody know what kind it is?
Penny stoves are usually built from two soda cans and they look like this, Image source with some variations between the builder and so on. The basic idea is you have the bottoms of two soda ca...
The author of a question on our site referred to a certain type of goose as a Canadian goose. Some people thought that the correct name is Canada goose, rather than Canadian. Wikipedia refers to t...
Sometimes mountains won't have trails or recorded routes simply because they don't get enough traffic that a trail will be created. Not every mountain has recorded routes simply because people have...
550 Parachute cord is a very small kermantle rope (has a core and an external sheath) as you can see in this image. The minimum breaking strength of the cord is 550 pounds, hence the name. It i...
While backpacking with an inflatable or self-inflating sleeping pad one runs the risk of getting holes in it. This does happen fairly frequently, and while they do make kits, I would like to know ...
Wild strawberries are very tasty, but I have only ever found them by accident. What locations would be good starting points to look for them?
Given that temperature decreases with altitude, and yet inversions happen where cold air is below warmer air, as a general rule of thumb, where would the warmest place to sleep be? Here is one pl...
