Yucca and corn farms whipped by as our motorcycle wove around giant jungle trees and rocky earth. I adjusted my grip on the thin plastic handle of my guide’s motorcycle, looking over his shoulder as we followed in suit of the other guide. His motorcycle was laden down with my camera gear and an enormous tripod. Beneath the shade of the tree lined road, the occasional parrot took off startled, its grating squawk contrasting against its beautiful green plumage. Above the checkerboard pattens of farmland, Colombian jungle that had never seen a saw blade rose in the distance. “Stop!” I cried out in Spanish. I could see that my camera bag was shaking loose, the guide’s rope failing to hold the expensive camera gear that was lashed to his bike. I was here to film one of the most endangered monkeys in the world, the cotton topped tamarin, something that would be impossible if my camera gear was left in a smashed heap on the side of the road.
If you’re planning your dream European summer vacay, let me first say: I am totally jealous. And let me secondly say: prepare for pickpocketing. It’s an unfortunate, yet all-too-common reality in popular tourist spots, not to mention lost baggage with international travel. Here are the anti-theft and anti-loss tips I learned from my travels so you can ensure your dream trip doesn’t become a nightmare.
As many of us prepare to travel home for the holidays, the dreaded task of packing looms near. These days with airfare and lost baggage on the rise, and overhead space limited, flying with a carry-on seems to be the preferred option. But how to efficiently pack what you need for a week’s time in a small carry-on suitcase?
After years of holiday travel, I think I’ve solved the packing puzzle. Follow my tips below.
Each summer, our family and one other do a long weekend packrafting and fishing down the Green River. It’s quickly become our favorite annual trip, but planning the needs for four adults, four kids, two dogs, and two boats camping out for four days and three nights in the middle of nowhere with no cell reception is no small undertaking. When it’s time to pack up, we lay everything out, pull out our big bag of Gear Ties and CamJam Tie Down Straps, and then the raft-packing-Jenga begins. After a few years of dialing in this process, here are my tips for making packing, and your trip run as smoothly as possible.
If you’ve been to the Overland Expo or been around 4X4 enthusiasts, you’ll learn quickly there is no limit to the amount of money one can spend to enhance the backcountry experience. Regardless of the amount of money you spend on your rig or equipment, you want to protect and keep it safe. The most important part about going backcountry, is the ability to make it back out. The road, or lack of a road, combined with mother nature are going to do their best to challenge your gear and you don’t need to break the bank to protect what you have. Keep these tips in mind when heading out.
There is something uniquely freeing about backpacking and the way it can make you feel completely disconnected from your everyday life, yet entirely grounded in nature. Literally shouldering the weight of everything you need to survive and stepping away from your life’s comforts is humbling.
Here are our 10 tips for getting into the backcountry for the weekend.
As a 25-year resident of Colorado (and someone whose passion for getting outside started in the mid-Atlantic region in the 70’s and 80’s), there are few activities that have not been woven into my life. Be it rock and ice climbing, mountain biking, backpacking, backcountry skiing, fly fishing, camping, etc…there is not enough time in the day (or in the year for that matter) to tackle all that our hearts desire. And speaking of hearts, I had a rather gigantic health scare last year when some routine exams following a yearly physical revealed potentially deadly blockages building up in my arteries that left untreated, likely would have killed me. In April of 2022, at the age of 48, I had a quadruple bypass surgery and set my sights on bouncing back into a life of adventure ASAP. A good buddy of mine proposed the idea of a surgery-versary trip…looking out one year from the surgery and marking the occasion and comeback with a trip.
So, you’re planning a tropical escape for the last lingering weeks of winter or spring break getaway. Good idea! As much as we love hitting the slopes, creating cozy nooks at home, and watching fresh snowfall, we equally appreciate recharging in the warm sun and hot sand. Naturally, we have a list of items that we bring with us to protect and organize our gear. Let’s take a look:
With travel ramping up again after two years of laying low, it can be easy to forget essentials or pack way too much. With adventure racing as our main profession, where packing the right gear plays a big part, we have developed some good tips that we think translate well to packing for a family adventure.
Nite Ize is such an innovative company making an amazingly wide and diverse set of products, most of which go totally and completely unnoticed as they are utility tools that discreetly make my life and adventures far more comfortable and organized! Below is a list of 5 of the most mission critical tools that my team and I always have on hand, and some uses that may been seen as unorthodox!
