General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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I wear US 14 / Euro 48 size shoes, and Alpine Touring / Randonee boots don't appear to be available at online retailers (e.g. REI and Backcountry.com) despite some manufacturers making them in this...
What is the term for that phenomenon when someone in wilderness start experiencing a strange situation? When, They aren't certain that they have lost the route They may or may not be walking on a...
Well, here's the situation. You're on an outdoor trip in winter. It's cold outside and after a long day all you want to do is crawl into your warm sleeping bag and not get out of it until the next ...
I'm looking at buying some B2 rated alpine/winter boots for use with Crampons, etc. I'm trying to avoid paying full price for them (searching ebay, looking for special offers, etc.) as they are pro...
I guess I might be asking for too much but I'm trying to find a very breathable, light, packable waterproof jacket. I'd like to be able to hike in ~75F rain while remaining relatively comfortable f...
When getting an early alpine start (3-5 am or earlier) it will probably be before the sun comes up. Hopefully, the weather will be better in the morning (that is often the point of an alpine start)...
Is there any sort of mini heater that can be powered from a powerbank to be used in a tent (or anything similar)?
I parked my camper at a full hookup campsite, I plugged in my 30 Amp cord to the 30 amp plug but did not get power. The campground owner checked the plug with a simple polarity checker and everyt...
How safe is sleeping in bear country? I, too, like to sleep in a bivy sack under the stars. And while during the summer I am not too concerned about wolves (in spite of locals reporting attack...
A baby black bird fell in my baby's pool and I think he was there about 30 min. I took him from the pool and put him under the sun for 3-4 min to dry and then left him under the tree where there is...
Last year we visited some friends at their summer home in Lamoine, Maine, in Northeast United States. They took us to a place called Somes Sound, on Mount Desert Island. It's either in or near Acad...
On a thru-hike or section hike, people frequently hike 15-30 miles per day. New hikers are typically encouraged to start at around 8 miles per day, though, and work their way up, to give their bodi...
I have a backpack that I often wear on my (outdoor) walks to and from work each day. The walk is 30 minutes one-way and mostly in an open field/park area, so in the afternoon it's usually warm enou...
There's a huge list of things to start duck hunting. Dogs, decoys, blinds, etc, and it's a chicken/egg problem. How could I possibly know how to buy and train a dog, which decoys to buy, etc., wi...
I'm going to Colorado to visit a friend and we will be going on a week long trek across a couple of 14'ners. I'm looking for some ways to help prepare my body for trip.
I've noticed a lot of bats around my house recently. I'd love to know what type of bat they are but all I see is a silhouetted glimpse as they dart past. Is there anyway to identify what types of b...
Could you please help me decide whether a "team" of two people needs a guide on their attempt to climb Mount Kazbek from the Georgian side? My doubts come from a passage from this site (in Polish),...
I've read that in the United States, national forests, ranger offices, etc. often have some safety-related equipment for rent, such as bear canisters. Do they rent out Personal Locator Beacons, sa...
Can any tell me the name of this fishing lure or where I might find a distributor?
I worry about carrying a fixed-blade knife on my hip, because if I fall or wrestle my kids or whatever, I worry I could get stabbed. I've had pointy blades push through a cheap sheath before. I st...
Usually when I'm at the beach, especially at low tide, there are many pieces of open or broken shells of mollusks, including clams. They can't survive without their shells, so those broken pieces a...
Prusik knots are useful in emergency situations as they can be used for both climbing up a rope (out of a canyon) or down a rope (rappelling) without someone else providing a fireman's belay. How ...
Do you know where I can get a 20-shot magazine for a 1917 303 MKIII Lee-Enfield rifle? I currently have a 10-shot magazine. I have searched the internet and I've seen a picture of one but have n...
We are in a Robinson Crusoe situation where we're stranded on a tropical island (lonely or not). We've to setup our camp. How to determine the right piece of land? For example you might wanna hav...
As indicated in Have there been any studies done on how fluorescent pink compares to fluorescent orange?, fluorescent pink is becoming accepted as a new safety color for hunting. Given that we have...
Someone was telling me that elk were solely plains animals before they were driven to the Rocky Mountains. They mentioned the account of Lewis and Clark and that they said there were no elk in the ...
More and more I see discarded freeze dried packages abandoned in the woods. The ones I have seen are made out of plastic and are foil lined and so don't decompose the way that oatmeal packets would...
If you are caught out in the rain without any rainwear, raingear and nowhere to hide out, how can you minimalize the damage? I've seen things like: holding a bag over the head wearing a plastic ...
It's pretty common to use 1 oz Nalgene bottles to hold the spices in a spice kit for backpacking as they are waterproof and the right size. Image Source The problem comes when trying to label t...
This is one of those instances where I need answers that are written as if you were speaking to a 5 year old. I don't know a whole lot about fishing. My uncle likes to go fishing on the long islan...
Balling up is when the snow starts sticking to the bottom of your crampons to the point that the crampon points are no longer touching the surface. As one can imagine this is a rather dangerous sit...
Although most knives I have seen have their edge symmetrical, others (often serrated ones) have the edge ground out only from one side (the side of the serrations). There are also some straight edg...
What kind of mementos am I allowed to collect from State and National parks in small quantities, if any? I am especially wondering about: pebbles, shells, sea-urchin-skeletons, sand-dollar-skelet...
I have a work trip to Portugal later this month and I intend to attach a short trekking/backpacking trip in the Serra da Estrela. I have around 62 hours. Will I need snowshoes for my hike? The S...
My wife and I have been very fortunate in our long distance hikes - we've never been rained on except for our last day on the way out. So, while we have rain jackets that we pack, we've never packe...
What are the optimal wind speed, direction, and surf conditions for windsurfing?
We have several places on local trails maintained by volunteers where the trail crosses a small stream or ditch. In these places the stream is a bit too wide and deep to expect people to jump accr...
While bears are located all along the Appalachian trail, in most sections they are rarely seen. During prime season there is enough use of the trail that hikers are often aware of problematic areas...
In addition to sunglasses, you can get clear safety glasses that claim "Blocks 99.9% of harmful UV rays". The advantage of clear safety glasses is that they can be worn both during dusk and after d...
We're currently planning a tour in the alps. Nothing too big. Just going uphill with the cable-way and then doing 15 km on top. This is because we've a 2 year and a 5 year old girl with us. We can ...
Besides a few exceptions (Finland, France, Hungary etc.), it's generally prohibited to hunt with a bow in Europe. At least I'm sure for Germany, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland :). What were the ...
In lots of places around the world, locking folding knives are illegal for everyday carry while non-locking folding knives are much less restricted. Almost everyone I know who carries a knife dail...
I'm going on a 2-day backpacking trip. I have a CamelBak that I haven't used in 4 years. I saw zero mold in it, it smelled fine. I flushed it a few times, including the lines and mouthpiece, with n...
Climbing extremely high mountains requires a long time (weeks together) to acclimatisation to the altitude. Is it possible to reduce this time by adding sleeping in Altitude tent to the preparation...
I have made camp for one or more nights in a pristine wilderness. It may be desert, tundra, or a forested environment. At a suitable distance from camp, I have dug a nice cathole (toilet-hole) an...
Right now the irrigation ditches and ponds have lots and lots of mallard ducklings, sometimes multiple families to a single pond. The way to tell is that there will be too many ducklings for one fa...
Nevada State Parks have the most numerically precise characterisation of hiking trails I have yet seen. For example, see this map and list for Valley of Fire State Park or this one for Beaver Dam ...
I found this guy right under my window, huddled in a corner and bleeding a lot (for a crow) from his leg. You can see that the leg is sort of twisted backwards on these two pics, and you can see wh...
As it is the time of year when carp spawn and are in close to shore, I have been seeing people along the lakeshore with archery equipment, bow fishing for carp. If one were to already have a bow ...
According to leave-no-trace principles, one should bury human waste (poo). But burying damages plants and roots. Is this really always better than not burying it and pooing on the surface? (Of c...
