Food tastes better in the outdoors… we’re pretty sure it’s science. But no matter how delicious your favorite freeze-dried meal is, or how much you swear by tortillas and peanut butter, trying something new never hurts. It’s easy to enhance backcountry meals without much extra effort. Whether you’re car camping, out for a backcountry weekend, or in it for the long haul, here are a few ways to elevate your...

Building the perfect campfire is an indispensable skill for any outdoors enthusiast, given the life-saving properties of an emergency blaze, not to mention the fundamental bragging rights. While there’s really no one formula that translates to the “best” campfire, there are various good options for fuel arrangement and materials, as long as you understand the basic principles of combustion. For some lucky souls, efficient fire-kindling is intuitive, their method honed through...

Whether you’re hiking in the mountains, the desert, or anywhere in between, preparation for the natural elements is a big part of planning any outdoor trip. Exposure on a hike can mean many different things, none of them good: lack of shade or shelter, prolonged time spent at altitude or in extreme temperatures, natural obstacles, and biting or stinging insects. They can vary from mild annoyances to possibly life-threatening injuries—and...