General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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I'm pretty comfortable with my technique to stay hydrated, but I am curious about estimating how much liquid is actually involved. I generally am just concerned with getting rid of it, but occasion...
A naive estimate of one gallon bucket a second is 60 gal/min for a well staffed and equipped line, but is there any data on how much water can be moved by bucket in less than ideal conditions? Spe...
We are heading out on our first family camping. We tested out our sleeping bags in the living room. The two kids ( ~2 & ~5 yo) wanted to share one adult sleeping bag. I'm expecting that it wil...
Given: - A single pitch climb - Top roping only, belayed from below - Limited number of helmets (assume only 1 for a climber/belayer pair) Is it more important for the belayer to be protected fro...
Excluding parking the car in the shade or carrying the kit in person, what are some solutions to handle emergency car kits in the heat? I am aware medications, ointments, creams, adhesives are the...
Is there hope for a repair on this bow? Samick Outlander American flat bow.
I noticed a few archers who have a different kind of quiver (different from a back-, bow- or side-quiver). It's kind of a pocket where the arrows are literally "plugged in". Just like in a bow-quiv...
Is there a special way to avoid the layer of ice that forms inside a water bottle during winter activities?
In the morning on day 1 of my multi-day hike I opened up a one liter plastic bottle of water and drank half the contents. I stored the bottle in a loop on the outside of my pack and promptly forgot...
What kind of mittens is Les Stroud wearing? Is there a name for them? I'm interested to find out about them and what it costs for a pair.
I have a backpack that is about fifteen years old. The interior surface becomes a little sticky from the deterioration of the coating or material. How to repair this?
How many hours a day do Canada Geese typically sleep in a 24 hour period?
When hiking in early summer I often come across patches of old snow. Till now I have managed to cross those by cutting my steps in the snow or walking around. And whenever I had my hiking sticks wi...
I live in Miami, Florida. I have been attempting to catch fish in a canal near where I live with a light rod, 8lb test mono line, and size 6 and 8 hooks. I have primarily been using night crawlers ...
I find abandoned sunglasses fairly frequently, right now the snow shoe and cross country trails are melting, and all of the sunglasses that were lost during the winter are now visible. I don't fin...
In addition to rock climbing, I also go to the gym for strength training with free weights and machines. I know some muscle groups are crucial to rock climbing, such as arms, back and core. I also ...
A buzzard seen nearby has been continuously attacking people for over a year now. As far as I know this isn't normal behaviour, especially not outside breeding season. Please correct me if I'm wron...
I'm planning to travel along the Alaskan highway this summer (end of June until mid July). I'm not an extremely experienced camper and have only once spent a night outside of a camping ground so fa...
I am trying to buy this kind of fish hook (picture below), but I have no idea what is called. Does anyone know what to search for? The main characteristic of this hook is that the hook eye is soli...
Last night, I had to climb a tower at work. When I reached the top platform (about 40 feet up), and turned my back to close the swinging gate behind me, I was whacked on the back of the head. Fort...
I feel like I would find a hydration bladder extremely useful. Especially so when going on via ferratas or multipitch climbs. But even when doing simple hikes it would allow me to have a sip of wat...
This question got my thinking: Did I see a wolf's paw print?. I did a bit of Googling and it appeared that wolf paw prints and dog paw prints are very very similar. Is there any good way (given ...
When setting up a rowing frame on a raft or boat, there are three main ways to attach the oars to the frame: oar locks, oar rights, and pins & clips. Which is the best system? Oar Locks (Im...
This weekend we went "pole camping". A pole camp site (dutch link only) is a camp site offered by the departments of forestry in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is very basic. What is offered is a ...
As most survival kits come with fish hooks, I am wondering how do I catch fish without any bait?
My wife and I and our adult children have inherited a few acres in the middle of a forest in the mountains of North Carolina and would like to set up a semi-permanent campsite. Ideally, this wou...
Reading through are other packrafting questions it looks like it would be a neat activity, especially since there are quite a few beautiful alpine lakes that would be neat to float across and they ...
I am planning on doing a around 2 week hike and bring all food with me. I would walk around 25-30 km a day. To major constraints here are the weight and cost of the food. I have made the following ...
In my opinion, the priorities when selecting trekking food are: maximizing calories per kilogram not easily spoilable, especially in hot weather reasonably priced variety throughout the trip I...
Could someone use a steam juicer to desalinate water? The juicer is used on a stovetop and the steam rises to the fruit in the top basket and the juice collects in the middle pot. I think it might...
Inflatable life vests and PFDs that I have seen so far are meant to be inflated in emergency (either by mouth or CO2 cartridge). I didn't use them myself but they don't look like they could be defl...
I would like to use the wind to propel my packraft on passages over lakes. Are there any lightweight and/or improvised sail systems? Especially: how do I erect a mast on the packraft without it be...
I love hiking and I'm starting to love longer cycling trips too. I've done combined cycling/hiking trips (cycling to the trailhead of a hike). Last summer I met someone who carried an inflatable ra...
What are common climbing techniques for strongly overhanging walls and roofs? In order to avoid a strength oriented climbing style and focus on technique.
My family is going to Innsbruck in August, and we want to do a 3-4 day mountain hut trek. This will be our first trek with our son, who will be 16 months old. I can see many, many huts and trails i...
Let's say you want to establish a 3D archery tournament. You want to create a small 3D course. You are at the stage where you want to make a concept for the trail. How do you create a map to ensu...
I watched a documentary "Man vs Wild" which showed the TV presenter Bear Grylls collecting wood and starting a fire. He somehow always manages to keep his campfire burning until dawn. How does one ...
My inlaws have about 40 wooded acres in the Mid Atlantic region. They are nice woods but the amount of dead wood on the ground is astounding. For the most part it makes walking through similar to a...
What does it mean to cross load a carabiner? I know it's bad, and not to do it, but I don't really know what exactly it is.
Which dog breeds are best for backpacking? I know malamutes do well in the cold and on mountains, but what if I'm backpacking in the summer? Which dog breeds are good for daily trail runs? I wo...
Are there any specifics about how to differentiate a Pass and a Col in terms of mountaineering? For non-mountaineering and non-geographical interests it's all the same.
I was camping at around 1500m in the Italian Alps, and around midnight I heard howling that sounded very much like a wolf. I know there are wolves in the area (a friend of mine was lucky enough to...
I have noticed a slow but steady rise in the number of campers using roof-top tents like these and those, among many others. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these over conventional...
I always read that if a self inflatable mat feels too hard we should blow extra air in it (with the mouth) to make it softer, more comfortable. My 7.5cm thick Vango Adventure feels way too hard af...
For my holiday planning, I've been trying to perform what I thought was a simple task, but which turned out to be more complicated than I'd thought. For a given geographical location, defined eith...
When canvas gets wet and then dries, it shrinks. Sails get wet from rain and from spray, and it was even done on purpose to increase the speed of sailing ships. For canvas tents, this has to be ta...
Me and my wife have never done camping before and always wanted to do it. This time we are planning to go for a small camping trip but have no idea how to prepare for it. We like to hike and are be...
Sometimes people will keep notes or things they see in the outdoors or keep a journal and paper getting wet and then wrecked is a big problem. The other obvious use is printing maps off from the...
I was reading about off-roading just now, in particular best practices for conservation and safety, and I ended up on the Wikipedia page for fording. But that page deals mostly with either natural ...
A 4-season tent is a tent suitable for winter use; for example, see this post. According to sectionhiker, the phrase is actually a misnomer: Moreover the phrase “4 season tent” is a misnomer s...
